Amidst all the doom and gloom regarding the global turmoil following the banking fiasco there is at least one good piece of news, Little Chef are to close 67 of its 161 outlets in this country. Whilst the potential loss of 500 employees is not a statistic that anyone should welcome (the spectre of unemployment is not something I would wish on anyone) the thought of this dinosaur of diners coming face to face with the grim reality of the 21st century has a certain appeal.
It is a shame that it has taken a financial crisis to bring the company to its senses. The Little Chef has been around since the late 1950s and has been the bane of most seasoned road warriors for the majority of that time. It is not by chance that it earned the moniker 'The Little Thief', with its reputation for poor quality food, slow service and over-pricing. I have never understood just why the amenities at motorway service stations should be so expensive but it seems to be an unwritten rule that if you shop at any of the concessions on any motorway you will undoubtedly be paying through the nose. Little Chef have known this all along and exploited the fact that the public have very little choice in what is available at these outlets.
My experience of their establishments has only confirmed my misgivings about their service. The facilities do not appear to have changed since the companies inception, the staff are slow and surly, the amenities dated, the food portions are small, unattractive, undercooked and the prices exorbitant. Originally modelled on the roadside cafes found in 50s America very little would appear to have changed despite the company undergoing several changes of ownership throughout its history.
Where competitors have moved with the time and taken chances Little Chef has sat back and taken the money. It is some years since I ate in one of their restaurants. I visited one on the M1 with 3 other work colleagues and we each ordered a 3 course meal together with drinks. It was mid-evening and the outlet was not particularly busy. Despite the inevitable mix up with the food orders and our attempts to wait for each other 3 of us had managed to eat our entire meal and finished our second cup of coffee before the 4th member of our group had even been served with his main course. He was only eating a mixed grill so I can't see why his meal should have taken so much longer to prepare than that of any of the rest of us. We did try to be polite and wait for his dish to arrive but as time ticked by our meals got colder and colder, to the point that we decided that we could wait no longer.
The company may have expanded their services through other ventures to challenge the competition from the fast food chains and other coffee outlets but the premise remains the same, they have yet to come to terms with what 'leaving the customer wanting more' means. Most of their rivals understand that this means providing a service and product that will entice the customer to return. Sadly, they have taken the alternative view as an excuse to short-change their customers which is why they now find themselves in the circumstances they are in.
Before the Little Chef is consigned to the growing list of big brand failures it should be pointed out that the company has had its ups and downs over recent years yet has somehow managed to pull through, so I would not write it off just yet.
There are many other big names who have already fallen victim to the recession, and there are plenty of others who are under sustained pressure from the same people who put them in the situation in the first place (namely the banks). Very few of us have not been affected by the fallout from the banking disaster but if there is any good to come from the difficulties that we are currently experiencing it is the prospect that a great deal of the chaff will fall by the wayside. We are all having to think and work smarter, cut back on some of our excesses and with luck we will emerge from this recession leaner, fitter and in a better position than we were before.
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