Whole Foods closing food production facilities

Whole Foods announced earlier this month that it plans to close three food production facilities along the East Coast. The closures are believed to be part of the company's efforts to streamline operations and reduce costs. The facilities closing are in Everett, MA; Landover, MD; and Roswell, GA.

The operations at the three locations will either be outsourced or moved in-store. The Boston Globe reported that Whole Foods had already ceased production in the Everett facility and had outsourced the work to suppliers using Whole Foods recipes.

A report in the Austin American Statesman noted that the three facilities were the last remaining Whole Foods prepared foods commissaries in the U.S. Prepared foods account for about 19% of company sales each year.

According to an industry analyst, it's much easier now for the company to outsource food production compared to when the facilities were first built.

Friendly's files for bankruptcy, closes 63 stores

Friendly Ice Cream Corp., which began in 1935 as a neighborhood ice cream shop and grew to more than 600 restaurants, filed for bankruptcy protection yesterday and immediately closed 63 stores. Thirty of the closed stores are in the company's home state of Massachusetts. Three stores closed in the Greater Philadelphia area (Trenton, Doylestown and Pottstown).

In a press release, Friendly's said it was a victim of a challenging economy, high supply costs and changing customer preferences. In a phone interview reported yesterday by The Boston Globe, Chief Executive Harsha V. Agadi said the company already has $70 million in financing secured and hopes for a speedy restructuring.

I'm enthusiastically hoping for such a turnaround. Despite applying for a job at the Clifton Park, NY Friendly's as a teenager (didn't get it; ended up at Price Chopper), it was my go-to place after a movie during my high school and college years. There was nothing like a Reese's Pieces Sundae (the five-scoop kind with Cookies'n Cream ice cream) and a side of fries at 11pm. And it seemed I knew half the people in the crowded restaurant, which I once heard was one of the top performing Friendly's in the country.