Shrewsbury Friendly’s closes after 31 years
linda denicola
The Hub
Jerry Wolkowitz The Friendly’s restaurant on Route 35 in Shrewsbury has closed its doors after more than 30 years of operation.
For 65 years, Friendly ice cream stores were a nice place to take your family for an inexpensive meal and ice cream. But like so many of the old chain stores, the simple fare and old-fashioned style is slowly fading into the past, at least in Shrewsbury.
The ice cream maker and restaurant chain, Friendly Ice Cream Corp., closed 80 non-performing restaurants during its first round of closings now taking place and plans to shed another 70 in the near future .
On July 16, Friendly on Route 35 in Shrewsbury closed its doors as part of the first round of closings. The restaurant and ice cream parlor had been at that location since Sept. 1, 1969.
According to a company spokesperson, the changes will save Friendly about $8 million a year before taxes and improve the viability of the company.
The closed restaurants averaged sales of about $520,000 last year, about half the chain average of $958,000, the company said.
Before the closings, Friendly had 59 restaurants in New Jersey, including seven in Monmouth county and five in Ocean.
The Shore area restaurants include four in Dover Township and two in Freehold Township. The others are in Aberdeen, Brick, Eatontown, Hazlet and Middletown. They will remain open, according to the company.
Five Morris County New Jersey restaurants also were in the first round of closings.
About 110 management and administrative jobs will be cut and servers will be moved to other restaurants. The Wilbraham, Mass., corporation has 25,000 employees.