Friendly's

It was early January when it was snowing that I arrived in the suburbs of New York for my university studies. Since it was a university in New York, I had imagined the skyscrapers of New York City, but the place I arrived at was a state university located in the middle of a dense forest. New York State is large, and only New York City is urban. If you drive for even 30 minutes from Manhattan, the area becomes like Karuizawa. Houses were scattered throughout the forest.

When I went to the university's international student office, I was instructed to stay at a motel until I could move into my housing a week later.
When I was dropped off at the motel, it was cheap and the room was small. There was a restaurant called Friendly's attached to the motel.

Having nothing to do in the small room, I went to Friendly's.
The inside of Friendly's was warm, and the staff were kind.
Looking at the menu, there were pictures of delicious-looking American country food.
It seems that pancakes and waffles are popular here. There were also other items like fried chicken and steak. I killed time while drinking coffee and had a steak at 5:00 PM. Even though I stayed for hours, the staff didn't look annoyed, always looked after me, and kept refilling my coffee.

While I was staying at the motel, I ended up eating all three meals—breakfast, lunch, and dinner—at Friendly's. Since there were many items on the menu, I never got bored.

That was Friendly's. Once I got used to university life, the number of times I visited the restaurant decreased. Even after I graduated from university and became a working professional, whenever I saw a Friendly's with the same design in various American cities during my business trips to the U.S., it reminded me of myself when I had just started studying abroad.

Recently, the number of stores has decreased significantly, which is quite sad.

About Friendly's

It is said to be a restaurant that opened in Massachusetts in 1935. It is positioned as an American diner famous for its ice cream.
It was listed on the NASDAQ in 1997, was popular on the East Coast, was family-oriented, and was increasing the number of its roadside locations.

In 1988, the vice president at the time adopted a strategy to significantly increase the number of franchise stores. And so, the money game began. In 2000, the company's stock was listed on the American Stock Exchange and it was sold to an investment firm called Sun Capital Partners. At this point, the original passion for customers and dedication to the menu from the time of its founding were said to have been lost. It then tilted toward profit-seeking and shareholder-first principles. The investment firm aggressively increased the number of stores and created small fast-food style locations, but the business began to decline. Then, the owners of the company changed one after another, and the brand image of Friendly's was destroyed.

This is a typical end result of America's excessive capitalism.
Management focused only on the company's stock price and strove to increase their own income. And so, it is said that they went bankrupt in 2011.

Friendly's continues to operate today, even while reducing the number of its stores.
The staff members work hard without worrying about the company's management status. Their kindness toward customers does not seem to have been lost. I think the company's manual no longer holds much meaning, and it is sustained by the individual character of the employees who are hired.
Checking online, the nostalgic shakes and pancakes are still alive and well.

If you are driving in America and see a Friendly's, please stop by. Even now, the staff will warmly welcome you as a customer.