Everyone is apparently so upset by this week’s closure of the Happy Joe’s restaurant in Galesburg, even “corporate” is weighing in.
A statement from Davenport-based Happy Joe’s Pizza and Ice Cream says they announced Tuesday “with heavy hearts” that the Galesburg location closed. This, after the franchisee, Leslie Boynton, already announced Sunday that after selling out of all their inventory, they were closing a day early.
In the first insight into what might have went wrong, the company says on social media that the closure had to do with “economic challenges beyond our control.”
The social media post did not elaborate on what they meant.
This, despite the fact that a private not-family-owned company called called “Dynamic Restaurant Holdings” took over in 2017, filed bankruptcy in 2022, recovered, and has plans to expand in other non-Midwestern states and even as far away as Egypt.
Two Happy Joe’s locations in the Quad Cities were closed in the bankruptcy, and stores in Kewanee and Galesburg were sold to franchisees. The Kewanee store closed earlier this year. Both the Kewanee and Galesburg locations were in operation for decades. The closure of the Galesburg store came roughly a month after someone attempted to burglarize the location, stealing cash registers, money, and merchandise. WGIL is attempting to find out what happened in that case.
An article last year on “FranchiseTimes.com” indicated that high property rents were weighing the company down to the point that company restaurants would lose more than $500,000 a year if some form of restructuring wasn’t done.
Boynton declined to comment to WGIL on Sunday, but said on social media for the last two years, she gave everything she had toward operating the store, resulting in two more years it wouldn’t have had otherwise.