Rumors of restaurants and retailers closing for good have spread like wildfire on social media for the past several months. Such rumors have spread about Wendy’s, Olive Garden and Cracker Barrel, to name just a few.
Multiple viral posts with millions of views claim that Chili’s is the latest chain shutting down all of its restaurants in the coming months. One such post includes a screenshot of a news article from a radio station that says “Chili’s Is Shutting Doors Across America in 2024.”
THE QUESTION
Is Chili’s closing all of its locations?
THE SOURCES
Brinker International, Chili’s parent company
KIXS, radio station whose reporting was referenced in one of the viral tweets
THE ANSWER
No, Chili’s is not closing all of its locations.
WHAT WE FOUND
Chili’s remains in business and has not expressed any plans to close all of its locations. A few locations have closed in 2024, but the chain has more than 1,000 locations that remain open worldwide.
The restaurant has replied on X to several posts claiming it’s shutting down. The restaurant responded to one such post with “lol this is not true.” To another post, it replied, “we're NOT closing down.”
Brinker International, Chili’s parent company, has made no announcement regarding the closure of Chili’s. On the contrary, they have made a couple of announcements suggesting that Chili’s is doing well.
On April 30, 2024, Brinker International noted in its quarterly fiscal report that Chili’s sales have gone up year-to-year.
The radio station article screenshot in one of the viral posts doesn’t actually claim Chili’s is shutting down all of its locations, despite the exaggerated headline.
“According to MSN, Chili's has closed three locations in 2024: Their Fort Wayne, Ind., and St. Joseph, Mo., locations and a location in Charlotte, N.C., have all shut down so far this year,” Evan Paul wrote for KIXS, a radio station located in Victoria, Texas. KIXS reported that Brinker International closed 16 Chili’s locations in 2023.
There are 1,600 Chili’s restaurants in 27 countries and two territories, according to a Brinker International press release.
The 19 locations KIXS reports have closed since 2023 make up just over 1% of all Chili’s locations.
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