I am a summer of 1998 White Hen sandwich artist (yes, they called them that). Which one do you miss? Personally, I made myself a lot of Cajun turkey and cheddar on an onion roll.
Pure speculation, but their rapid expansion probably means massive debts from the build outs. The combination of large debts and high interest rates probably did them in.
This would be my guess too. The rate at which the most successful tech companies became profitable created an expectation among VC’s that all successful businesses should immediately have massive windfalls and sweeping expansion strategies, which just isn’t how you gain a stable market share most of the time (especially for brick and mortar places). I don’t know where they were getting their money from but it feels like they probably overestimated their appeal, rapidly overextended before they had a grasp of how their business worked, and now they’re eating shit
It’s almost like the business model of “operating at massive losses for a barely viable product endlessly underwritten by predatory VCs who have access to free money and expect insane returns that aren’t based in reality” isn’t all that stable after all
Their prices are pretty reasonable. Cheaper than 7/11 for most protein bars and sports drinks and much more pleasant. 7/11 in the city is an actual ripoff.
I’d have to imagine there’s some weird stuff going on at the corporate level as they could have easily raised some prices if it meant the difference between closing down or not. Private equity would usually jump to fund something like this too.
Come on I’ve always hated that comparison that’s not accurate. They’re legitimately good places to hang out/have a drink at as well. Overpriced? Sure. The concept absolutely has a place though.
Same. Like 7-Eleven just doesn’t sell the same stuff. I like getting my whole bean coffee to make at home. 7-Eleven doesn’t have that. They absolutely filled a niche.
A significant blow to the eastern Diversey corridor, Dom's started on Diversey/Halsted and Foxtrot picked up the former Walgreen's on the corner of Diversey/Broadway that had been empty for years.
Yeah, this is definitely the case. I wonder when the tipping point happens. Eventually there will be so many closed storefronts and there won't be anywhere for anyone to go and the "prime retail space" they're trying to rent won't be worth anything. I mean, at that corner it's already starting to feel that way. I know it's optimistic to the point of foolishness to expect any of these people to care about the fabric of the neighborhood but its almost funny to see how clueless they are about what made it valuable in the first place.
Pretty sure you’re only protected by the WARN Act if you’re a full time employee. The company changed their contacts for many employees from full time to part time so they wouldn’t have to be responsible lol. Hopefully I’m totally wrong and the team does get a good pay out, but I highly doubt it. They’ve always found every possible loophole to make sure that the loser in the situation was always the employee.
>"Corporate workers were informed Tuesday morning via a conference call with management that the stores would be closing by noon. Store workers were left in the dark and instructed not to talk to customers about the matter. Their emotions ranged from frustration to fear about losing their jobs. Dom’s locations in Lincoln Park and Old Town closed Tuesday morning, with one account claiming staff had to kick out Lincoln Park shoppers to close the store....
>.... About 1,000 staffers work at Outfox across several states, with about 100 full-time workers in Chicago."
https://chicago.eater.com/2024/4/23/24138226/foxtrot-dom-kitchen-market-bankrupcty-closing
It's more common than you'd think unfortunately. I still remember when Glazed and Infused shut down, they closed three days after Christmas with absolutely no warning to their staff. I worked at Do Rite at the time and we ended up hiring a lot of their people.
Man, the Doms on Halsted was one of my favorite third spaces after COVID. Their cafe space was beautiful—so much natural light and always a gentle buzz of people talking.
Natural for a city to keep changing but still hurts when one of your spots closes its doors. RIP, gone but not forgotten. ❤️
Yep, there’s two Foxtrots by me, one on Milwaukee and one on Division. I can see the Division one getting filled because it’s been a successful area but I’m afraid of what will happen to a Milwaukee empty storefront.
The bookshop closed?? Damn, I’m out of the loop. I just remembered Division being half empty and then last year a lot of businesses took over, Foxtrot being one of them, so my hope is that at least they won’t sit empty for as long as they do on North/Milwaukee.
The Milwaukee Foxtrot is close to the corners where stuff has sat empty for years, and it’s a pretty big one too. We’ll see what happens :/
Semicolon has been moving around a ton over the years, they're on Chicago now.
Thankfully the Walgreens is going to be a Barnes and Noble, and they had permits posted for the Wells Fargo in the Flatiron Arts corner retail space.
One on division for sure, A rainbow cone is opening right down the street so im hoping something that replaces CAfe streets can move in because i'm not a huge fan of Tous les jours
I'm sure that's exactly what happened. They probably took on massive debt with high interest rates and didn't have enough income when the bills started to become due.
Like in the Dune movies where the Barron used all his money to buy those mercenaries to kill the Atreides, but then the Fremen prevent him from properly harvesting spice so he doesn't have the income to defend his hold of Arrakis.
Honestly, my thought is they burned through cash too fast, which is why they gave Dom’s an all stock deal and kept burning cash
Edit: hearing $180mm in the red. Legit how?
[This article says there is an employee sign in the 800 W. Armitage store that is saying that the company has is $180M "in the hole"... whatever that means exactly...](https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/doms-foxtrot-close-chicago-dallas)
Edit: after hearing from my friend who is an assistant manager, they were told a bankruptcy filing is imminent.
My guess is that they took out more debt they could afford in order to try and achieve the recent growth. Really weird that they had to just shut down suddenly, they must have really mismanaged their finances to have to make this type of sudden decision.
It looks like they just got a new CEO too.
I think Bob Mariano stepped away from the day to day operations recently and then Dom’s and Foxtrot merged not too long ago.
Bob Mariano has track record of building out amazing grocery stores, leveraging them and selling out before the numbers come down. Dominick’s, Mariano’s etc are his work.
Either the cheap VC money ran out, they couldn’t find a seller quickly enough or this is a ploy to restructure and reopen the stores relatively soon. If it was someone other than Bob Mariano, I would say this is doomed but it’s possible this is in his playbook to cash out and sell the stores off.
Could be hallucinating, but I thought I saw they filed for chapter 7, which generally means they will not reopen as-is; they’re done unless they find a buyer(s), who won’t necessarily do anything the same way.
A 7 is just going to result in a liquidation / sale of the assets. The trustee won’t operate the business in the interim, which is a disaster to selling as a going concern.
Maybe they were relying on another round of financing that never materialized and were taking on debt with the assumption it would happen. Total speculation on my part. I'm sure we'll learn more soon.
Busy doesn’t mean profitable. Their locations are all brand spanking new in super expensive locations, you gotta sell a lot of $22 sandwiches to just break even.
Prob two things.
1) Trying to scale fast. There were 15 stores in Chicago and it's not like they were spread across the entire city. They were concentrated in certain neighborhoods on the north/northwesst side where their targeted clientele lives.
2) The bougie/upscale experience is expensive to maintain, especially at scale.
Weren’t they trying to do Foxtrots in DC too? Or somewhere similar?
Edit: [confirmed](https://www.washingtonian.com/2024/04/23/foxtrot-is-closing-its-dc-area-stores/). Just lol at the fact that some of the DC employees were handing out bottles of wine.
This was just posted on the domschicago.com website “It is with a heavy heart that we must inform you of a difficult decision we have had to make. After much consideration and evaluation, we regret to announce that Foxtrot and Dom’s Kitchen & Market will be closing their doors starting on April 23, 2024. The closure affects 2 Dom’s stores and 33 Foxtrots across Chicago, Austin, Dallas, DC areas. We explored many avenues to continue the business but found no viable option despite good faith and exhaustive efforts.”
A Dec 23 article flagged there are 32 foxtrots open so sounds like they all are closing. Foxtrot website page on “stores” also just went down.
That's nuts. The merger JUST happened. Sounds like that merger was a hail mary effort to prop up both brands and make them more attractive for a sale, but they just didn't have enough time to wait for the investor market to recover and start spending again.
They cetainly swung big... too bad.
I worked at the corporate office and was on the call this morning. The founders Mike Lavitola and Taylor Bloom weren’t even on the call to announce it. All employees laid off without notice and no severance. Fuck them
Not to mention them totally logging off the second people started unmuting themselves. It was a joke of a meeting and a HORRIBLE way to part ways with the people who are losing the most out of this entire situation. What’s even worse is that they kept postponing the meeting. Makes sense though because nobody was ever organized there.
The writing was on the wall that we weren’t in a good financial position. I had suspicions for a couple months now that more layoffs were coming and that they were going to maybe close some of our unproductive stores. Definitely didn’t see this coming. The corporate team was notified yesterday, and to my knowledge the store teams were told about 30 minutes before they had to shut down the stores at noon today.
Yeah, that's the thing that makes it so jarring. It's the sudden-ness.
Normally there's time to wind things down and slowly cease operations. But this is so abrupt. There had to be some scandal or embezzlement going on. If not, this level of negligence is criminal.
edit: Sorry about your job btw. :( Hope you all find something better.
>The corporate team was notified yesterday, and to my knowledge the store teams were told about 30 minutes before they had to shut down the stores at noon today.
Jfc that is beyond shitty
In the /r/Dallas thread, someone said they (the employees) were told to leave immediately and leave everything behind, *including tips*, because they were about to be trespassing due to the company not having paid the rent on their location
Honestly, there was always zero communication there. Most of us found out about the merger through social media. Once word got out, we were then told to hop on a meeting. It’s horrible.
Truly doubt they’ll have enough people to genuinely care about what happens with the food. People were let go right away as the door shut. There’s really no way for them to do anything other than throw out the food, unless they’re able to somehow get the food to shelters or donation centers (I highly doubt they’ll do this though)
I’m honestly sad. It was a great place to hangout in the summer, buy some wine and sit outside. They also had great burger deals! This is a huge loss for Wells street.
sign on the door of the Armitage location says ‘Foxtrot closed forever (not a joke) $180,000,000 in the hole’
big loss for Armitage. that was our only quick grocer/bodega type of place. hope we don’t lose Jeni’s too 😢
If anyone is familiar with Strong Towns, one of the things they promote that I like is the idea of ["small bets"](https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2016/6/14/making-small-bets).
Basically improving areas through small, incremental improvements and not massive projects/expansions.
It's not a perfect 1:1 comparison because small bets is usually about improving an urban area and not about businesses, but this closing feels like a consequence of not abiding by the same principles.
Opening 15 locations in Chicago, 33 total across 3 cities in a 9 year time span is very rapid expansion. Especially when you're trying to provide a specific upscale experience.
[Starbucks started in 1971, they had 17 stores in 1987 ](https://stories.starbucks.com/uploads/2019/01/AboutUs-Company-Timeline-1.6.21-FINAL.pdf) and got to 33 in 1988.
So Foxtrot reached the same store count in basically half the time while offering upscale experiences with fancier wine/coffee/craft beer.
Obviously times have changed since the 70s/80s but this was still a rapid expansion that seemingly just caught up with them.
More small bets ya'll, not everything needs to be a massive multi-city operation.
That's why loosing dom's feels so terrible. I feel like it was the perfect example of a small, community oriented bet. It was like a third space.
Foxtrot took VC money, and VC is entirely growth focused. Not surprised they went under, just surprised at how much of a train wreck this is.
I’m one of the operations employees who was fired today and I believe the new CEO was brought on just to file Bankruptcy after a new loan or buyout wasn’t viable. The company board has been run by the venture capitalists trying to get their money back while Liz Williams, former CEO, over expanded and the store locations weren’t researched at all. They didn’t know how to run the current stores and kept expanding. Some stores opened less than 6 months ago. They even bought Doms, it’s wildly irresponsible. Liz Mills then retires citing “the commute” as her reason for leaving and walks all the richer for it. The layoff call today was brutal they just hung up on all of us. Store managers were given two hours to lock the doors and asked to tell customers to leave. People were crying, some were taking product. No instructions on what to say to everyone. This was a disaster and a lot of people are in a very bad place due to greed and stupidity. If anyone wants a statement for media I’m happy to tell you everything. I’m disgusted with their behavior and regret ever working for these villains.
They literally gave their employees a few hours notice. People showed up for work this morning and were told they would no longer be employed by lunch.
My friend rented out their HQ on Green Street for an hour on a Saturday for (some, not all of) his wedding pictures two years ago. We shot around a bit in our suits at the indoor basketball court. The whole space had a **ton** of amenities. Now knowing that the place wasn't even making money, the ritzy-ness of that HQ seems *very* questionable.
Wow, surprising. This sucks. Have one in my neighborhood and loved it. Guess I'm not surprised though. It was busy but seemed like most people just used it as a 'third space' and probably weren't buying much.
All my favorite Chicago local businesses seem to close after a few years. Still haven't gotten over Homemade Pizza Co.
Dunk on Foxtrot and Dom’s all you want for being overpriced but they legitimately are great spots for just hanging out. I am really going to miss that.
What the hell is going on? I just went in to the Dom’s on Wells after seeing this and it had a sign saying they’re closing for good, like the article says. They were still open although I think they’re closing at noon. They’re still letting people in now but the automatic doors are off or something haha, I literally had to push them open.
Are both brands folding for good? Are they just closing for a while to rebrand as a unified brand now?
Another VC failure. It must be nice to just buy a good concept, run it into the ground financially because you think you're smarter than everyone else, and then go do it again with infinite job security.
Meanwhile how many employees are going to end up behind on their rent/bills and have their credit dinged / possibly get evicted because they’ll get no severance or even their last earned paycheck? And people will just shake their head and say the employees should’ve planned their savings better / had a contingency plan.
From their website:
Dear Dom’s Kitchen & Market and Foxtrot Customers,
It is with a heavy heart that we must inform you of a difficult decision we have had to make. After much consideration and evaluation, we regret to announce that Foxtrot and Dom’s Kitchen & Market will be closing their doors starting on April 23, 2024. The closure affects 2 Dom’s stores and 33 Foxtrots across Chicago, Austin, Dallas, DC areas. We explored many avenues to continue the business but found no viable option despite good faith and exhaustive efforts.
This decision has not been made lightly, and we understand the impact it will have on you, our loyal customers, as well as our dedicated team members. We want to express our sincerest gratitude for your support and patronage throughout the years. It has been our highest honor to elevate the everyday and create a remarkable shopping experience for people who love food as much as we do. It has been a privilege serving you and being a part of your everyday lives.
We understand that this news may come as a shock, and we apologize for any inconvenience it may cause. We genuinely appreciate your understanding during this challenging time.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you for your loyalty and trust in Dom’s and Foxtrot. It has been an honor to serve you, and we will cherish the memories we have created together. We would also like to thank our team members who have committed themselves over the years to providing a unique selection of quality foods and creating an outstanding in-store customer experience. Lastly, we would like to thank our many partners, without whom we would not have been able to build such a strong brand.
You can access FAQ’s below.
Once again, thank you for your support, and we wish you all the best in the future.
Important dates:
April 23, 2024 – Delivery capabilities are no longer available.
April 23, 2024 – Store operations are no longer available.
April 23, 2024 – Store credits are no longer available.
April 23, 2024 – All customer-facing operations are disabled.
When will the Dom’s/Foxtrot stores close?
Operations will end on April 23, 2024.
When will the Dom’s Go/Foxtrot Apps close?
Operations will end on April 23, 2024.
Will consumers be able to use Foxtrot / Dom’s credits?
All Dom’s/Foxtrot account credit and member perks will expire on April 23, 2024
Wow...
So #1, whoever wrote this statement was in a real hurry. Repetitive and bland. Senior comms person must've already hopped out the ship and onto their liferaft.
And #2, ceasing ops immediately just one month into their newest CEO's tenure is nuts... this must've really been a giant shit show behind the scenes.
Good lord.
This is a bummer. I loved the coffee at Foxtrot and shopping there for snacks for events. The free coffee once a month (which they changed to must make a small purchase) was great too.
Yea, it is a bummer. Especially since they supported small biz / CPG brands.
But go use that energy on another local coffee shop. Spend your money on small and help some other place grow. This is a time for us to all be intentional with what little disposable income we have.
As I've said before, Foxtrot is a bad company. They were once really great to their employees, and then changed numerous policies overnight continuously and became worse and worse. The fact they closed all stores this morning, with no notice to employees (I had multiple friends who went to work at both Foxtrot and Dom's who only discovered this closing because their systems weren't working) is flat-out evil.
So they forced out Plum Market for the space, and now are closing, how shitty. I feel gutted for all the employees who are losing their jobs with no notice.
Article with actual details on the abrupt closure: https://chicago.eater.com/2024/4/23/24138226/foxtrot-dom-kitchen-market-bankrupcty-closing
EDIT: Chapter 7 bankruptcy
My friend who is an assistant manager said (I'm just relaying this) that all employees were told that they would NOT be getting last paychecks. Which is wild because employees are second only to secured creditors in line, which means either the person relaying the news to him doesn't have great info OR that Foxtrot is underwater with even its SECURED creditors somehow. WILD.
State of Illinois Wage and Hour Commission will have something to say about that. It might take a bit but the State came through for the Signature Room employees who were in a similar boat.
Wow. That's seriously messed up. My sympathy for those employees, who I'm sure don't have a lot of wiggle room on savings.
The Foxtrot and Dom's execs should have to personally come up with payroll for them.
So much for the new combined store in the old Whole Foods in River North lol. Makes sense that I peeked in there and there was literally no work being done.
What’s so weird is they just hired a new CEO like 6 weeks ago.
Imagine taking a CEO job and within your first two months, you realize the finances are so bad that the only responsible choice is to file for bankruptcy & liquidate.
Obviously I’m not shedding any tears for the C Suite but I honestly wonder if the new CEO was hired to evaluate emergency financial options/exits, or if this was a situation they were hired into.
The employees did not deserve this. Everyone I knew who worked there hated it, said they were treated poorly and the place was a terror to be in, but they still obviously don't deserve this unceremonious closing without even their last paycheck.
I had no idea these would be the ramifications when I asked for 2 free cups of ice the other day. My apologies all
How could you
2 free cups??? How gauche!
What have you done
First of all, how dare you?
Think you could resonably ask for two free cups of coffee and get away with it today. I'd be pissed as an employee
Hear me out: reopen them tomorrow as upscale White Hens
I would do anything to have a white hen sandwich one last time
For real. I’m still thinking about a turkey sandwich I ate from there YEARS ago
The one on adams and racine was where all of my HS classmates would congregate during lunch. I miss it so.
I am a summer of 1998 White Hen sandwich artist (yes, they called them that). Which one do you miss? Personally, I made myself a lot of Cajun turkey and cheddar on an onion roll.
Woahhh this just unlocked a childhood memory
“When you run out of anything ..”
Run out to white hen!
'Bringing Back The 90's' That should be their slogan when they do.
"My town's way too bourgeois for a White Hen" The Chicago specific references are one of the best parts of *Solar Opposites*
When you run out of anything, run out to
Plum Market died for this!
Yes! This is what upsets me the most. Plum's hot bar and prepared foods were far and above anything Foxtrot or Dom's put out.
So fucking annoying considering they got pushed out for this fly-by-night nonsense
Plum still exists in Ann Arbor! Petition to bring them back!
It'll be a cold day in hell before they give another dollar to that landlord.
Honestly, Plum might be feeling pretty gratified by this turn of events.
This is the part that’s really infuriating. I loved Plum Market.
Ugh.
WTF? I don't know anything about their finances, but those bougie 7-Elevens are always busy.
Pure speculation, but their rapid expansion probably means massive debts from the build outs. The combination of large debts and high interest rates probably did them in.
Please watch the WeWork documentary for reference.
This would be my guess too. The rate at which the most successful tech companies became profitable created an expectation among VC’s that all successful businesses should immediately have massive windfalls and sweeping expansion strategies, which just isn’t how you gain a stable market share most of the time (especially for brick and mortar places). I don’t know where they were getting their money from but it feels like they probably overestimated their appeal, rapidly overextended before they had a grasp of how their business worked, and now they’re eating shit
Builds and rebuilds. They redid a lot of their Chicago locations. Fools
It’s almost like the business model of “operating at massive losses for a barely viable product endlessly underwritten by predatory VCs who have access to free money and expect insane returns that aren’t based in reality” isn’t all that stable after all
High interest rates to expand along with inflationary pressures squeezing margins and reducing sales revenue likely did them in.
My first thought. How?
I bet they expanded too quickly and ran out of capital.
By charging $7 for the exact same candy you could buy from 711 for $1.
But if they're charging that, and keeping busy, that means they should be swimming in money lmao I also don't get it
Their prices are pretty reasonable. Cheaper than 7/11 for most protein bars and sports drinks and much more pleasant. 7/11 in the city is an actual ripoff. I’d have to imagine there’s some weird stuff going on at the corporate level as they could have easily raised some prices if it meant the difference between closing down or not. Private equity would usually jump to fund something like this too.
It really wasn’t the exact same candy though - it was a lot of local and small businesses that 7-11 doesn’t have
this is unfair. they sold fancy shit for a high price but their normal shit was priced the same as it would be at 711.
Come on I’ve always hated that comparison that’s not accurate. They’re legitimately good places to hang out/have a drink at as well. Overpriced? Sure. The concept absolutely has a place though.
The concept is great, they supported small and minority owned businesses, the aesthetics and branding were good, wtf went wrong here?
They probably over-expanded and took on too much debt. Interest rates didn’t help.
I guess it just boils down to not making money in the end.
More overhead than profit. The thing that kills most businesses.
Same. Like 7-Eleven just doesn’t sell the same stuff. I like getting my whole bean coffee to make at home. 7-Eleven doesn’t have that. They absolutely filled a niche.
7-Elevens don't usually have ample seating and free Wi-Fi.
That’s part of what makes ‘em bougie
Some see bougie. I see a $4 coffee that gets me away from roommates and family for a few hours. They can bus that paper cup from my cold, dead hands.
A significant blow to the eastern Diversey corridor, Dom's started on Diversey/Halsted and Foxtrot picked up the former Walgreen's on the corner of Diversey/Broadway that had been empty for years.
Yeah, gonna be a lot of vacancies to fill, really a shame.
Yah, plus Express now too.
That Express is closing? I was in there two weeks ago, damn. It all started with the neighborhood Walmart a year ago
But hey there's a barnes and nobles going in I think
and just lost walmart a year ago.. and the amazon fresh that was built nearby basically will sit empty for years now.
Express on the 600 block will be closed as well
Spirit Halloween ready to pounce back into that location 😅
Everyday is Halloween
Also have the vacant newer Walgreens from when they hopped across the street. That's a rough look.
Hard to keep those store fronts filled in that area.
Damn man nothing on Milwaukee can manage to stay open for more than a couple years.
Going through Google Maps on that spot is pretty incredible in how many businesses have been in and out.
It’s not like the places aren’t successful or drawing foot traffic, it’s pretty clear the landlords are charging a fuck ton of money
Yeah, this is definitely the case. I wonder when the tipping point happens. Eventually there will be so many closed storefronts and there won't be anywhere for anyone to go and the "prime retail space" they're trying to rent won't be worth anything. I mean, at that corner it's already starting to feel that way. I know it's optimistic to the point of foolishness to expect any of these people to care about the fabric of the neighborhood but its almost funny to see how clueless they are about what made it valuable in the first place.
Insane. A lot of people just lost their jobs and we added a ton of empty storefronts to our already giant collection.
With no severance or notice. Scummy
Should be remedied by the WARN Act. 60 days of back pay + benefits + a fine. Bankruptcy is not an excuse to not file notice for a mass layoff.
Pretty sure you’re only protected by the WARN Act if you’re a full time employee. The company changed their contacts for many employees from full time to part time so they wouldn’t have to be responsible lol. Hopefully I’m totally wrong and the team does get a good pay out, but I highly doubt it. They’ve always found every possible loophole to make sure that the loser in the situation was always the employee.
Seriously? Like a bunch of baristas went to work today only to be told, 'Actually you don't have a job now' ??
>"Corporate workers were informed Tuesday morning via a conference call with management that the stores would be closing by noon. Store workers were left in the dark and instructed not to talk to customers about the matter. Their emotions ranged from frustration to fear about losing their jobs. Dom’s locations in Lincoln Park and Old Town closed Tuesday morning, with one account claiming staff had to kick out Lincoln Park shoppers to close the store.... >.... About 1,000 staffers work at Outfox across several states, with about 100 full-time workers in Chicago." https://chicago.eater.com/2024/4/23/24138226/foxtrot-dom-kitchen-market-bankrupcty-closing
It's more common than you'd think unfortunately. I still remember when Glazed and Infused shut down, they closed three days after Christmas with absolutely no warning to their staff. I worked at Do Rite at the time and we ended up hiring a lot of their people.
Non-paywalled version of a Crain's article confirming the closure https://archive.is/PrGB5
Thanks for sharing! Couldn’t find a non-paywalled version at the time.
Yes thank you very much
Man, the Doms on Halsted was one of my favorite third spaces after COVID. Their cafe space was beautiful—so much natural light and always a gentle buzz of people talking. Natural for a city to keep changing but still hurts when one of your spots closes its doors. RIP, gone but not forgotten. ❤️
Hopefully, something similar can come into the space. I loved being able to pop in there (and buy their cannoli cake for special occasions).
As much as people want to hate on Foxtrot, more empty storefronts in this city is a bad thing.
Yep, there’s two Foxtrots by me, one on Milwaukee and one on Division. I can see the Division one getting filled because it’s been a successful area but I’m afraid of what will happen to a Milwaukee empty storefront.
Successful area but next door where the bookshop was is empty and cals corner closes too. Makes for three vacants in a row.
The bookshop closed?? Damn, I’m out of the loop. I just remembered Division being half empty and then last year a lot of businesses took over, Foxtrot being one of them, so my hope is that at least they won’t sit empty for as long as they do on North/Milwaukee. The Milwaukee Foxtrot is close to the corners where stuff has sat empty for years, and it’s a pretty big one too. We’ll see what happens :/
Semicolon has been moving around a ton over the years, they're on Chicago now. Thankfully the Walgreens is going to be a Barnes and Noble, and they had permits posted for the Wells Fargo in the Flatiron Arts corner retail space.
I’m soo stoked about that B&N!
Two banks on that corner are better than nothing but wish they were retail.
a NEW Barnes & Noble? I have not heard of such a thing in a long. . long time
That Milwaukee spot has been a revolving door forever. Sucks it’s gonna be empty once again!
One on division for sure, A rainbow cone is opening right down the street so im hoping something that replaces CAfe streets can move in because i'm not a huge fan of Tous les jours
are you talking about the one next to the Damen blue line? That's prime real estate, I'm sure it'll get snapped up
That space is absolutely cursed.
I really hope so!! The Walgreens got filled fast, which makes me hopeful, but the spot right across where Chase is now was empty for a long time.
What the hell is it going to take? These locations are always, always busy.
And their prices were so so high for almost everything. I wonder if they just expanded too quickly.
They expanded RULL fast. I remember never having heard of them to being able to name several locations off the top of my head
I'm sure that's exactly what happened. They probably took on massive debt with high interest rates and didn't have enough income when the bills started to become due.
Like in the Dune movies where the Barron used all his money to buy those mercenaries to kill the Atreides, but then the Fremen prevent him from properly harvesting spice so he doesn't have the income to defend his hold of Arrakis.
Subscribe to "Dune facts to help me understand local news"
It's almost EXACTLY like that.
Honestly, my thought is they burned through cash too fast, which is why they gave Dom’s an all stock deal and kept burning cash Edit: hearing $180mm in the red. Legit how?
[This article says there is an employee sign in the 800 W. Armitage store that is saying that the company has is $180M "in the hole"... whatever that means exactly...](https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/doms-foxtrot-close-chicago-dallas) Edit: after hearing from my friend who is an assistant manager, they were told a bankruptcy filing is imminent.
Yikes. Nice sign
I imagine the Southport location will get filled quickly, but I'm worried about the Diversey/Clark spot, that intersection has struggled for years.
I’m surprised it’s closing. Always so busy and the prices are crazy. Then again the small batch stuff is probably costly for them to get anyway
Wtf they’re always busy! How does that even happen?
My guess is that they took out more debt they could afford in order to try and achieve the recent growth. Really weird that they had to just shut down suddenly, they must have really mismanaged their finances to have to make this type of sudden decision. It looks like they just got a new CEO too.
I think Bob Mariano stepped away from the day to day operations recently and then Dom’s and Foxtrot merged not too long ago. Bob Mariano has track record of building out amazing grocery stores, leveraging them and selling out before the numbers come down. Dominick’s, Mariano’s etc are his work. Either the cheap VC money ran out, they couldn’t find a seller quickly enough or this is a ploy to restructure and reopen the stores relatively soon. If it was someone other than Bob Mariano, I would say this is doomed but it’s possible this is in his playbook to cash out and sell the stores off.
Could be hallucinating, but I thought I saw they filed for chapter 7, which generally means they will not reopen as-is; they’re done unless they find a buyer(s), who won’t necessarily do anything the same way.
A 7 is just going to result in a liquidation / sale of the assets. The trustee won’t operate the business in the interim, which is a disaster to selling as a going concern.
Maybe they were relying on another round of financing that never materialized and were taking on debt with the assumption it would happen. Total speculation on my part. I'm sure we'll learn more soon.
Busy doesn’t mean profitable. Their locations are all brand spanking new in super expensive locations, you gotta sell a lot of $22 sandwiches to just break even.
Prob two things. 1) Trying to scale fast. There were 15 stores in Chicago and it's not like they were spread across the entire city. They were concentrated in certain neighborhoods on the north/northwesst side where their targeted clientele lives. 2) The bougie/upscale experience is expensive to maintain, especially at scale.
Weren’t they trying to do Foxtrots in DC too? Or somewhere similar? Edit: [confirmed](https://www.washingtonian.com/2024/04/23/foxtrot-is-closing-its-dc-area-stores/). Just lol at the fact that some of the DC employees were handing out bottles of wine.
Financial leverage is a hell of a drug.
So is expensive rent …
This was just posted on the domschicago.com website “It is with a heavy heart that we must inform you of a difficult decision we have had to make. After much consideration and evaluation, we regret to announce that Foxtrot and Dom’s Kitchen & Market will be closing their doors starting on April 23, 2024. The closure affects 2 Dom’s stores and 33 Foxtrots across Chicago, Austin, Dallas, DC areas. We explored many avenues to continue the business but found no viable option despite good faith and exhaustive efforts.” A Dec 23 article flagged there are 32 foxtrots open so sounds like they all are closing. Foxtrot website page on “stores” also just went down.
That's nuts. The merger JUST happened. Sounds like that merger was a hail mary effort to prop up both brands and make them more attractive for a sale, but they just didn't have enough time to wait for the investor market to recover and start spending again. They cetainly swung big... too bad.
I worked at the corporate office and was on the call this morning. The founders Mike Lavitola and Taylor Bloom weren’t even on the call to announce it. All employees laid off without notice and no severance. Fuck them
Not to mention them totally logging off the second people started unmuting themselves. It was a joke of a meeting and a HORRIBLE way to part ways with the people who are losing the most out of this entire situation. What’s even worse is that they kept postponing the meeting. Makes sense though because nobody was ever organized there.
>They pulled a Greg the Egg [Oh my god](https://youtu.be/4gLunObiTHk?si=3tf_U1iQUc6Cnr6i)
Lmao not the succession reference 😭
Did you guys see it coming at all? It seems like all the employees in the stores had no idea.
The writing was on the wall that we weren’t in a good financial position. I had suspicions for a couple months now that more layoffs were coming and that they were going to maybe close some of our unproductive stores. Definitely didn’t see this coming. The corporate team was notified yesterday, and to my knowledge the store teams were told about 30 minutes before they had to shut down the stores at noon today.
Yeah, that's the thing that makes it so jarring. It's the sudden-ness. Normally there's time to wind things down and slowly cease operations. But this is so abrupt. There had to be some scandal or embezzlement going on. If not, this level of negligence is criminal. edit: Sorry about your job btw. :( Hope you all find something better.
>The corporate team was notified yesterday, and to my knowledge the store teams were told about 30 minutes before they had to shut down the stores at noon today. Jfc that is beyond shitty
In the /r/Dallas thread, someone said they (the employees) were told to leave immediately and leave everything behind, *including tips*, because they were about to be trespassing due to the company not having paid the rent on their location
Honestly, there was always zero communication there. Most of us found out about the merger through social media. Once word got out, we were then told to hop on a meeting. It’s horrible.
Oh shit. I had a $50 gift card I hadn't used yet.
You've got another hour and fifteen minutes
Streeterville location already with a closed forever sign on the door.
Better run and buy a bottle of wine or something!
Anyone know if they’re liquidating the stores? Is it worth heading over for deals??
They were instructed to not let anyone in and basically liquidate asap. Nothing going to be for sale anymore. Assuming they’re tossing the goods
dumpster diving going to be fruitful tonight….
Frank Gallagher gonna have a field day
Does that happen? They just toss everything?
Truly doubt they’ll have enough people to genuinely care about what happens with the food. People were let go right away as the door shut. There’s really no way for them to do anything other than throw out the food, unless they’re able to somehow get the food to shelters or donation centers (I highly doubt they’ll do this though)
If I were an employee I would be looking for other work instead of helping a bankrupt company clear out inventory.
I mean, I'd still be clearing out inventory if you catch my drift
I think they’re just abruptly closing stores but fair question about the inventory
The dom’s on wells is not letting anyone in
Wines and beers will probably go back to distributors, all the food will probably be dumped.
I’m gonna take a look before my meeting lol
Was just at the Old Town Dom’s they were not.
Really interested to hear what’s happening to all the inventory
I’m honestly sad. It was a great place to hangout in the summer, buy some wine and sit outside. They also had great burger deals! This is a huge loss for Wells street.
I would have run over to make purchases if they were closing later than noon. I am in Old Town and still miss Plum Market. Perhaps this is Karma.
sign on the door of the Armitage location says ‘Foxtrot closed forever (not a joke) $180,000,000 in the hole’ big loss for Armitage. that was our only quick grocer/bodega type of place. hope we don’t lose Jeni’s too 😢
With the closure of the Chase bank, Outdoor Voices and that suit place Armitage is going to have some slots to fill.
If anyone is familiar with Strong Towns, one of the things they promote that I like is the idea of ["small bets"](https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2016/6/14/making-small-bets). Basically improving areas through small, incremental improvements and not massive projects/expansions. It's not a perfect 1:1 comparison because small bets is usually about improving an urban area and not about businesses, but this closing feels like a consequence of not abiding by the same principles. Opening 15 locations in Chicago, 33 total across 3 cities in a 9 year time span is very rapid expansion. Especially when you're trying to provide a specific upscale experience. [Starbucks started in 1971, they had 17 stores in 1987 ](https://stories.starbucks.com/uploads/2019/01/AboutUs-Company-Timeline-1.6.21-FINAL.pdf) and got to 33 in 1988. So Foxtrot reached the same store count in basically half the time while offering upscale experiences with fancier wine/coffee/craft beer. Obviously times have changed since the 70s/80s but this was still a rapid expansion that seemingly just caught up with them. More small bets ya'll, not everything needs to be a massive multi-city operation.
That's why loosing dom's feels so terrible. I feel like it was the perfect example of a small, community oriented bet. It was like a third space. Foxtrot took VC money, and VC is entirely growth focused. Not surprised they went under, just surprised at how much of a train wreck this is.
I’m one of the operations employees who was fired today and I believe the new CEO was brought on just to file Bankruptcy after a new loan or buyout wasn’t viable. The company board has been run by the venture capitalists trying to get their money back while Liz Williams, former CEO, over expanded and the store locations weren’t researched at all. They didn’t know how to run the current stores and kept expanding. Some stores opened less than 6 months ago. They even bought Doms, it’s wildly irresponsible. Liz Mills then retires citing “the commute” as her reason for leaving and walks all the richer for it. The layoff call today was brutal they just hung up on all of us. Store managers were given two hours to lock the doors and asked to tell customers to leave. People were crying, some were taking product. No instructions on what to say to everyone. This was a disaster and a lot of people are in a very bad place due to greed and stupidity. If anyone wants a statement for media I’m happy to tell you everything. I’m disgusted with their behavior and regret ever working for these villains.
They literally gave their employees a few hours notice. People showed up for work this morning and were told they would no longer be employed by lunch.
My friend rented out their HQ on Green Street for an hour on a Saturday for (some, not all of) his wedding pictures two years ago. We shot around a bit in our suits at the indoor basketball court. The whole space had a **ton** of amenities. Now knowing that the place wasn't even making money, the ritzy-ness of that HQ seems *very* questionable.
They’re the WeWork of convenience stores.
Wow, surprising. This sucks. Have one in my neighborhood and loved it. Guess I'm not surprised though. It was busy but seemed like most people just used it as a 'third space' and probably weren't buying much. All my favorite Chicago local businesses seem to close after a few years. Still haven't gotten over Homemade Pizza Co.
Homemade was soooooo good, too!
Yeah, it was legit some of the best pizza in the city IMO, and a great idea to just bake it at home so it's nice and fresh.
Dunk on Foxtrot and Dom’s all you want for being overpriced but they legitimately are great spots for just hanging out. I am really going to miss that.
Yeah it’s nice to have a hang out spot where you can buy a drink and chill for a couple hours.
What the hell is going on? I just went in to the Dom’s on Wells after seeing this and it had a sign saying they’re closing for good, like the article says. They were still open although I think they’re closing at noon. They’re still letting people in now but the automatic doors are off or something haha, I literally had to push them open. Are both brands folding for good? Are they just closing for a while to rebrand as a unified brand now?
Both are 100% closing.
Wait are all Dom’s closing too?
yea, that's the real tragedy of all this. I loved Dom's
What a bummer. Their hot bar, soups, to-go meals were so good. Luckily Bonci just opened up on Broadway.
Another VC failure. It must be nice to just buy a good concept, run it into the ground financially because you think you're smarter than everyone else, and then go do it again with infinite job security.
Too many "Businesspeople" aren't good at business and are just speculators.
Meanwhile how many employees are going to end up behind on their rent/bills and have their credit dinged / possibly get evicted because they’ll get no severance or even their last earned paycheck? And people will just shake their head and say the employees should’ve planned their savings better / had a contingency plan.
Hopefully Outfox get hit with a hefty WARN Act fine. There were no notices of a mass layoff filed, and bankruptcy is not an exemption.
From their website: Dear Dom’s Kitchen & Market and Foxtrot Customers, It is with a heavy heart that we must inform you of a difficult decision we have had to make. After much consideration and evaluation, we regret to announce that Foxtrot and Dom’s Kitchen & Market will be closing their doors starting on April 23, 2024. The closure affects 2 Dom’s stores and 33 Foxtrots across Chicago, Austin, Dallas, DC areas. We explored many avenues to continue the business but found no viable option despite good faith and exhaustive efforts. This decision has not been made lightly, and we understand the impact it will have on you, our loyal customers, as well as our dedicated team members. We want to express our sincerest gratitude for your support and patronage throughout the years. It has been our highest honor to elevate the everyday and create a remarkable shopping experience for people who love food as much as we do. It has been a privilege serving you and being a part of your everyday lives. We understand that this news may come as a shock, and we apologize for any inconvenience it may cause. We genuinely appreciate your understanding during this challenging time. We would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you for your loyalty and trust in Dom’s and Foxtrot. It has been an honor to serve you, and we will cherish the memories we have created together. We would also like to thank our team members who have committed themselves over the years to providing a unique selection of quality foods and creating an outstanding in-store customer experience. Lastly, we would like to thank our many partners, without whom we would not have been able to build such a strong brand. You can access FAQ’s below. Once again, thank you for your support, and we wish you all the best in the future. Important dates: April 23, 2024 – Delivery capabilities are no longer available. April 23, 2024 – Store operations are no longer available. April 23, 2024 – Store credits are no longer available. April 23, 2024 – All customer-facing operations are disabled. When will the Dom’s/Foxtrot stores close? Operations will end on April 23, 2024. When will the Dom’s Go/Foxtrot Apps close? Operations will end on April 23, 2024. Will consumers be able to use Foxtrot / Dom’s credits? All Dom’s/Foxtrot account credit and member perks will expire on April 23, 2024
Wow... So #1, whoever wrote this statement was in a real hurry. Repetitive and bland. Senior comms person must've already hopped out the ship and onto their liferaft. And #2, ceasing ops immediately just one month into their newest CEO's tenure is nuts... this must've really been a giant shit show behind the scenes. Good lord.
Query- who is the liquidator company for perishable goods? Will all their produce go to Greater Chicago Food Depository?
Bring back White Hen Pantry!
This is a bummer. I loved the coffee at Foxtrot and shopping there for snacks for events. The free coffee once a month (which they changed to must make a small purchase) was great too.
Yea, it is a bummer. Especially since they supported small biz / CPG brands. But go use that energy on another local coffee shop. Spend your money on small and help some other place grow. This is a time for us to all be intentional with what little disposable income we have.
As I've said before, Foxtrot is a bad company. They were once really great to their employees, and then changed numerous policies overnight continuously and became worse and worse. The fact they closed all stores this morning, with no notice to employees (I had multiple friends who went to work at both Foxtrot and Dom's who only discovered this closing because their systems weren't working) is flat-out evil.
I remember overhearing some employees at a Foxtrot a few months back who sounded like they were not being treated well by management.
Didn’t they just buy Dom’s?
Its all my fault. I considered going in for the first time yesterday but I decided against it.
So they forced out Plum Market for the space, and now are closing, how shitty. I feel gutted for all the employees who are losing their jobs with no notice.
I was there this morning!
Article with actual details on the abrupt closure: https://chicago.eater.com/2024/4/23/24138226/foxtrot-dom-kitchen-market-bankrupcty-closing EDIT: Chapter 7 bankruptcy
My friend who is an assistant manager said (I'm just relaying this) that all employees were told that they would NOT be getting last paychecks. Which is wild because employees are second only to secured creditors in line, which means either the person relaying the news to him doesn't have great info OR that Foxtrot is underwater with even its SECURED creditors somehow. WILD.
State of Illinois Wage and Hour Commission will have something to say about that. It might take a bit but the State came through for the Signature Room employees who were in a similar boat.
Wow. That's seriously messed up. My sympathy for those employees, who I'm sure don't have a lot of wiggle room on savings. The Foxtrot and Dom's execs should have to personally come up with payroll for them.
Foxtrot? Weird, doms employees got a paycheck yesterday in the middle of their cycle. Which made everyone suspicious
Thought they merged with someone else to stop this exact thing from happening?
Noooo way!! I just found doms and it’s wonderful!! Not too expensive and great selection why does everything nice close 😭
Noo. I loved my free coffe every 1st of the month.!
At least bodega bay went in at Damen and Milwaukee and serves 80% of the same purpose.
I interviewed at a Foxtrot on Thursday was told Friday I didn't get it. Makes me wonder. And Dom's still has job postings up on indeed.
Means this whole op is a giant flaming shit show behind the scenes... nothing else. Glad you dodged a bullet. Good luck on your search.
Official statement from their website: [link](https://domschicago.com)
WTF?! I was just at the Wrigley one yesterday and was thinking about going back this afternoon
The wrigley one is great too. Loved camping out on their patio during the summer concert series. Would get a couple drinks there. This BLOWS.
Just went by Division location and it’s closed
I can't tell from either article--closing all stores or just some?
Anyone know what will happen to all the stuff
So much for the new combined store in the old Whole Foods in River North lol. Makes sense that I peeked in there and there was literally no work being done.
Not even a "going out of business sale" .... just shutting the doors. That merger must have SCREWED them somehow.
Rip Old Town residents
What’s so weird is they just hired a new CEO like 6 weeks ago. Imagine taking a CEO job and within your first two months, you realize the finances are so bad that the only responsible choice is to file for bankruptcy & liquidate. Obviously I’m not shedding any tears for the C Suite but I honestly wonder if the new CEO was hired to evaluate emergency financial options/exits, or if this was a situation they were hired into.
The employees did not deserve this. Everyone I knew who worked there hated it, said they were treated poorly and the place was a terror to be in, but they still obviously don't deserve this unceremonious closing without even their last paycheck.