UPDATE: Front Street Joins Endicott Friendly’s Restaurant Suddenly Closed
The Greater Binghamton area apparently has only has one Friendly's Neighborhood Restaurant location left with a report of another store closing suddenly, a day after the Friendly's in Endicott closed without warning
According to a caller to WNBF News April 8, staff that had worked the previous day at the restaurant on Upper Front Street in the Town of Dickinson were informed that location is also now closed. Calls to the local restaurant number resulted in busy signals and calls to the corporate offices in Massachusetts were not answered.
Breakfast-goers April 7 found emotional staff on East Main Street in Endicott who said they were just informed on arriving to work that the location would be closed for good at the end of the day. By 12:30 p.m., the doors were locked, a sign was posted on the glass apologizing for the inconvenience, thanking customers for their patronage and directing diners to the nearest location on Harry L. Drive in Johnson City.
Sources now say the staff in the Town of Dickinson also had no advance notice before a similar sign was taped to the door Monday morning.
The chain has been struggling and locations have been closing across the country for several years, including restaurants in the Twin Tiers like the site on prime property on the Vestal Parkway that remains vacant.
At the Endicott location Sunday afternoon, at least one person was seen inside with the lights off and a moving van was positioned in the empty parking lot at the rear of the building.
The signs posted on the doors indicate efforts were being made to place staff in other locations.
An effort to contact the company using the information on the posted sign yielded no results and no news releases were readily available indicating how many outlets nationwide may be closed in this latest wave of downsizing but locations in Syracuse and Dewitt also reportedly closed without warning Sunday.