After blitzing the southeast with dozens of restaurants, Whataburger's rapid growth is showing signs of growing pains. The San Antonio-based burger chain confirmed Monday that it plans to close four of its 24 Middle Tennessee area restaurants later this month.
Interestingly, all four restaurants opened in 2024, with the newest two having just opened in July 2024.
"Whataburger continues to serve up bold flavors to more people as we expand into new communities and open restaurants across our 17-state footprint. As part of that journey, we regularly conduct a business review of our locations to maximize opportunities for growth and keep Whataburger strong in the communities we serve. In a few cases, that means closing restaurants," a Whataburger spokesperson said in a prepared statement.
The following restaurants are due to close at 11:59PM on December 15:
1924 Memorial Boulevard in Murfreesboro, opened July 22, 2024
11190 Lebanon Road in Mt. Juliet opened July 8, 2024
791 North 2nd Street in Clarksville opened April 15, 2024
1602 Haynes Street in Clarksville opened March 4, 2024
Although one cannot with certainty correlate the quality and quantity of Google reviews with the closure of the restaurants, none of the units slated for closure have especially good metrics from that standpoint.
Murfreesboro has an overall 3.5 stars with 196 reviews.
Mt. Juliet has an overall 3.7 stars with 190 reviews.
Clarksville (North 2nd Street) has an overall 3.0 stars with 517 reviews
Clarksville (Haynes Street) has an overall 4.0 stars with 167 reviews
"While we continue to grow in the Nashville area, we’ve made the decision to close four of our 24 restaurants in the area. This decision helps focus our efforts where we can make the biggest impact, ensuring our guests continue to enjoy the high-quality, delicious food and genuine hospitality they’ve come to expect from Whataburger. In 2026 and beyond, guests will find new Whataburger locations opening through Nashville area including our newest location off Gallatin Ave in a couple of months," the spokesperson added.
The Middle Tennessee closures come on the heels of news that In-N-Out Burger will make its Nashville area debut this week - with locations in Lebanon and Antioch - opening on Wednesday, Dec. 10, followed by a Murfreesboro location on Friday, Dec. 12.
Whataburger is also closing its dynamic location at 101 N. College Street in Auburn. The restaurant, on which ToNeTo Atlanta was first to report on April 7, 2021, is located at Toomer's Corner across the street from the campus of Auburn University. The Toomer's Corner restaurant opened January 3, 2022 and like the Tennessee units, is due to close on December 15. Unlike the other units slated for closure however, the Auburn location made use of an existing, endcap building and did not have a drive-thru.
As for Georgia, the company has made no formal announcements that we are aware of, but we have confirmed that one of the three units in Athens is closing. The Whataburger at 700 US-29 is due to close as of Sunday, December 14, according to an employee at the restaurant. The US-29 location opened June 17, 2024. Two other Athens Whataburger restaurants will remain open at 3201 Atlanta Highway and 3321 Lexington Road.
Real estate sources suggest several units around the metro are underperforming, including those on Woodstock Road in Roswell and on Jodeco Road in Stockbridge.
Two of the newest locations to have opened in Georgia are those on Pleasant Hill Road in Duluth, which debuted September 22, and another on Sandy Plains Road in East Cobb, which opened December 1.
The company has another location under construction in Johns Creek, but was not approved for a planned location along Roswell Road in Sandy Springs. Elsewhere around the state, Whataburger is said to be "reevaluating" some previously announced sites.
Since entering the metro Atlanta market in November 2022 with a restaurant in Kennesaw, the chain has added more than three dozen more restaurants to the state. Following the closure of the Athens unit, the company and its franchise partners will operate a total of 38 restaurants around the state. The chain has previously stated it plans to have 50 Whataburger restaurants open in Georgia by 2030.
Much like Pollo Tropical (Florida) before it, Whataburger has had difficulty living up to the hype and reputation in new markets that it has in its home market of Texas. Pollo Tropical previously opened and closed more than a dozen restaurants across Georgia and Tennessee and today operates only in Florida and Puerto Rico.
Are you surprised to see Whataburger already closing restaurants? What is your favorite fast-food burger? What regional chain would you most like to see open in metro Atlanta?
Please share your thoughts below.
12 comments:
The Woodstock Rd location in Roswell has not done well since opening day. The service is extremely slow. The employees seem more concerned with doing things on their cell phones than servicing the needs of customers. I even had one worker refuse to take my order at the cash register and demanded I order using the Kiosk, all while they were texting on their phone. Maybe when that location eventually closes, Steak and Shake can move back to take over the building.......
That location is a waste of time and money. Gets consistently poor reviews on any nor of social media types. And the reviews all basically say the same things
The Roswell location is painfully slow, even when it is not busy. The quality is fine, but people expect fast food, especially in the drive thru, to take less than 10 minutes.
The Barrett Parkway Kennesaw location should be closing soon. The last time I went (only bc the cfa app was down) they acted shocked they had a customer. Once again private equity kills another one!
The Dahlonega location is always dead.
maybe it's a Texas thing but I was not impressed with the food when I went to the location in Cumming. seemed like nothing special. also, is it just me or do these places not advertise at all? I always suspected that was El Pollo Loco's issue many years ago.
Their service is terrible. Both locations near me have a lot of staff, but they seem not well trained.
The new one on Marietta on Sandy Plains Rd is way over staffed considering the 10 minutes it took to receive my chicken biscuit. Employees were sitting at tables chatting (maybe they were on break) while several in the kitchen were cutting up. The only employee I saw really taking was a young man mopping the floors.
I drive by one of the new locations on Lanier Islands Parkway in Buford and it’s always empty lunchtime and dinner time. I tried it once when they first opened and I wasn’t impressed never went back
I'll second the comment re: Woodstock Road. That location is absolutely horrible. Actually, I have visited several Whataburger locations in the area, and the only one that still has good service is the OG in Kennesaw. The Woodstock location is bad. Barrett Parkway as well. But Roswell is the worst. I have dined at the new Sandy Plains location twice - once dine-in and once drive-thru. The dine-in location took 15 minutes to deliver 3 burger meals - while tables who sat down after us got their food before us. In the drive thru (last night around 6), we were able to drive right up (there were only 6 or 8 cars in the two lanes), but once we ordered (3 meals) it took over 20 minutes for the food to be brought out. I will chalk this up to it being a new location, and since it is the location closest to my home I will try there again. We'll see if their service improves.
A burger "joint" from Texas. What would make me go?
The one on Hwy 20 in Grayson has great service, its very clean and the food is good. Unfortunately it’s just very slow there. I hope things pick up for them. There is a ton of traffic driving by all day, every day.
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