SYLVANIA TOWNSHIP, OH (WTOL) - A popular restaurant chain has shutdown 13 stores in the Midwest, including one in Northwest Ohio.
The Max and Erma's restaurant in Sylvania Township on Central Avenue closed Monday - without a warning to employees and customers.
Employee Lonnie Doolittle says he and other employees felt "numb" after getting the news.
"We all came to work yesterday expecting to work, and the store was closed. Nothing was told to us about it," he said. "They came in and they said they were closing down the Sylvania store, and that was the end of it."
The chain restaurant's parent company says all team members affected were provided a severance, and that news of the closure was dealt with in person, which Doolittle says he appreciated.
"It was fair that they came down and talked to us in person; I thought that was great," said Doolittle. "But it was just harsh, with the holidays and etc., you know, it's only a couple weeks after the holiday, a lot of people weren't ready, and with kids and everything."
As a parent himself, Doolittle says he was lucky to find other work quickly after being told of the closure.
"It's business, I mean, it's corporate. You just have to go with the flow," he said.
Max and Erma's, which was founded in Columbus in 1972, says the closings are a way to deal with under-performing locations. But for employees like Doolittle, the job at the restaurant meant more than just a paycheck.
"We're all basically a family here," he said. "We've all taken care of each other and it was just out of the blue."
The company released the following statement:
As American Blue Ribbon Holdings continues to optimize the Max & Erma's brand, we are in the process of streamlining operations and underperforming locations. In the first stage of this process, we have identified 13 locations in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana that will be closed on January 18, 2016. A member of our Sr. Leadership team was at each restaurant this morning to personally deliver this news and to provide each and every team member with a severance agreement. We felt that the best way to handle this news was to deliver the news in person. This ensured that each employee was dealt with individually and in person. The team members are currently working to efficiently close down their restaurants and will be donating unopened food items to charitable organizations in their community. We enjoyed serving our loyal guests in these restaurants over the years and look forward to serving them in our other locations. We are committed to the Max & Erma's brand and our franchise community, and anticipate announcing the next phase of this brand revitalization during the week of January 25th.
The Max & Erma's restaurants in Perrysburg and Maumee are not affected by the closings.
