This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
To Celebrate The Bull Market Anniversary, Sbarro Files Second Bankruptcy In Three Years
People apparently don't eat pizza when it is snowing... Or during an economic recovery... And certainly not when celebrating the market's all time high 5 year bull "market" anniversary.
That is the conclusion one can derive from the just filed Sbarro Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, which just happens to be the company's second in three years after it did the same in April 2011. The filing itself, which lists assets and liabilities between $100 and $500 million, is not surprising following on the heels of the announcement last month, when Sbarro said it would close 155 of 400 North American restaurants to cut costs. The reason for the Chapter 22 as it is known in restructuring circles: too much debt (so... debt isn't wealth?) and declining customer traffic, which like in the McDonalds' case has nothing to do with a cash strapped US consumer, but the nagging fear, which came true in January, that it would snow during the winter. Oh, and there is also no inflation, even though as Moody's warned in January, Sbarros was striggling with "high food, labor and occupancy costs."
But fear not: your favorite neighborhood Sbarro outlet will likely not be shutting down - a typical misunderstanding when bankruptcy is involved - as a $20 million DIP loan has already been arranged according to Bloomberg which will fund ongoing operations, and after $140 million in debt is eliminated, along with the existing equity of course, the company will return to operating its stores, albeit under new equity ownership.
Finally, none of the 600 or so worldwide franchises will be affected.
Full filing below.
- 9153 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -


I always got the Dia-Rita there anyway!
Way too many crappy pizza joints in the country...
You call that shit they served pizza?
Add to the list of , Radio Shack, Staples in just the last week.
Recovery.. sure
Job Situation: http://www.dailyjobcuts.com
-
omg i HATE sbarro!
I had one of their pizza's at the airport. The meat was green. The supervisor was training a new hire at the next table so I handed her my pizza and said I want my money back.
When I got back from my trip and the usual rigamarole I was refunded.
Shit Pizza. Sombody send a link from this thread to their customer service.
Shit pizza
Shit pizza
shit pizza
Green meat? Heck you passed up some good eatin'! There was probably a bit of Penicilium or Aspergillus lurking on there. Free extra protein you gave to another lucky guest ( yeah probably recycled). If you just don't breath while it's going down you may have been ok. Those fungi do seem to like the lungs. Some day my microbiologist skills could translate into consulting those who dumpster dive.
Miffed;-)
sbarro's pizza sucks
and i have only seen their restaurants on the thruway where i stop to piss, not eat
possibly also in malls where i wont shop, thanks to the internet which is a non weather dependent shopping mall hat is cheaper, has no parking issues etc
Don't forget you probably won't get carjacked and/or shot while shopping on the Internet mall at home either
"Way too many crappy pizza joints"
Pappa Johns. Far better frozen pizzas than Pappa Johns. Sub-standard pizza.
But the owner is a right wing Koch follower.
and you are obviously a leftist cock sucker.....right?
Jesus was an economic leftist, so was Gandhi and so was Marx. Koch brothers are economic right-wingers who horde wealth for themselves by stealing from others, just like the right winger Communist John Schnatter who keeps down his employees and then donates money to promote right wing causes.
economic leftist?
I don't recall Jesus using the force of gov to redistribute any bodies wealth. He certainly suggested folks should help the poor but it was always on a voluntary basis. One always had the choice to accept or reject his advice.
And you think the left doesn't have their hands in everthing?
Who's the fool?
Go fuck your right wing boyfriend.
Shill alert. Go fuck your left/right paradigm. Kkthnx.
99% fastfood...
Just the same over here in Europe.
Everybody keeps saying "I don't have time to cook!".
It takes me 30 minutes to make a very good stew that serves best the next day.
It takes 25 minutes to prepare a normal meal.
No time but everybody watches the simpsons, two and a half men... and other series for hours in a row...
>> It takes 25 minutes to prepare a normal meal.
Damnit man, it takes me 3 1/2 months. Of course, I grow it and can it, then eat it.
I have on a bet done a complete baked chicken dinner in 3 1/2 minutes.
Broiler pan.
Rip open chicken remove out gizard/kneck de-paper throw into broiler.
Put unwashed potatoes, carrots, unpeeled onions and whole garlic in pan.
Pour veg or olive oil on, hose salt, garlic powder and pepper everything.
Foil losely
put in oven
Put oven to 325
(3.5 or less minutes)
Wait 3 hours. Or More. Not time sensitive.
When visually done remove sll and use liqid in pan and scrapings as gravey base while bird cools
Or don't and serve from pan.
I was commenting on the "no time to cook" statement last night while cooking a veggie stew for the family. Since it takes a conciderable amount of effort and time to eat healthy, I assume most people don't want to "bother" with creating a meal since its so easy to buy a prepackaged dinner or order out or go to a restaurant.
The mise en place to mke my dinner last night took me over an hour, including going to the garden to get herbs. It took around 20 minutes to clean up since I used three pans in total for sautéing, blanching and caramelising the ingredients. The point I am making is that it takes a lot of time (shopping, cooking and cleaning) and concideration that most of the western world is not willing to invest in. The real problem is that we have been programmed to take the easy route and consume food that not only poisons the body, it makes us fat and lazy (mind, spirit and body) and in return watch endless hours of TV.
Perhaps the sheep are finally figuring out how to do simple arithmetic and realize it is cheaper and healthier to make your own meals.....naaa thier just broke
get a good pizza stone, a good dough recipe and some tomato paste
put exactly what you want on it in the quantities you want at half the price
I'm all for people eating healthy and cooking for themselves, but do we really want all resturaunts closing down??? These places employ people and buy from vendors. People talk about malls dying like that's not a bad thing. Malls allow many small businesses to benefit from anchor store traffic and offer a wider variety of products, Sure it's more exspensive than Walmart, but it's a little bit better stuff. Unless the deflation cycle kicks in soon (which I think it will) so people can start going to malls again we're gonna be left with Walmart/Target/Costco and nothing else.
This credit bubble we've been living in since around '84 (supercharged in 2001) has caused such a misallocation of capital and falsely decided so amny "market" winners, that a real economy would be almost unrecognizable.
The decline of our local malls has been largely offset by a resurgence in our downtown areas.
u left out Amazon
Americans obviously wanted the economy to go down the shitter.....why else would they elect a Communist who hates America, and hates capitalism?
Trusting the Socialist Semite Democat media has it's consequences.....
Yeah. Electing George W Bush and his support of Alan Greenspan's confiscatory policy of EXTREME taxation through asset inflation was as anti-capitalist as you can get.
Americans obviously wanted the economy to go down the shitter.....why else would they elect a Communist who hates America, and hates capitalism?
Trusting the Socialist Semite Democat media has it's consequences.....
All small potatoes.
Malls are a monumental waste of resources. How many more of these shitty service/food/iCrap stores can people handle?
Jobs yes. Productivity? Questionable.
Exactly! We've been making our pizz'a at home for 3 years. We have an excellent 3 year-old sourdough starter culture and make homemade pizza's, last night we made a mexican-style pizza with chili beans, ground beef, three different cheeze's, salsa, chili's, black olives, and lettuce. Viola! Excellent pizza- half the price- great company! And, best of all... I keep the tips!!!
great recipe, going to try something like it
Is the savings on the pizza offset by the increased toilet paper consumption?
"Honey I know it's your birthday but it's cheaper and healthier to make your own meals. I'll get the pots out for you."
Seeing as Sbarros are mostly in malls in my experience it's another sign that Mally World is collapsing.
Also.....with Little Caesar's serving $5 large crap pizzas through a drive-up window as quick a McDonalds.....why drive to the mall when one can spend $15 dollars and bring it home reasonably hot to feed the ADD rugrats. You can't even get a Tombstone or Red Baron frozen pizza for that cheap and you STILL have to cook it for around 25-30 minutes after you get home.
S-BYE-rro !
Malls, interstate travel plazas and airport terminals...the places I immediately think of when I think of places with great pizza...
<chuckle>
Yep.
Sbarro: The Radio Shack of mall food.
They should have taken a cue from Radio Shack and sold warranties. If you died from eating their food, your next meal was free.
The only time I have ever eaten that pizza is when I was at a mall.
No malls, no captive audience to buy your overpriced pizza.
pods
I didn't see a Sbarro's.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHJNr81kAVY
+1 Lol....
That's brilliant.....extended warranties on shit pizza.
"If you experience any gastrointestinal issues after eating our pizza....just use the stool sample kit that came with your extended warranty. If, after examining your stool, we find evidence of our pizza along with botulism, we will rush ship you a month's supply of a toilet paper of your choice, a bottle of Kaopectate, Lysol brand air freshener and a coupon for a free pizza at a participating Sbarro restaurant."
Sbarro - for a time - was one of the few decent things at an airport for food. I no longer want to be groped by O's TSA goons or have my prostate irradiated so I stopped flying.
It's like we're all in a perpetual state of bankruptcy. How many times has Sears done it? Without sound money, we will not have sound businesses.
Sears is a zombie. Must destroy their brains.
Yep, I think this story and the McDonalds one are the canaries in the coal mine of a big shake-out in the casual dining space that will happen in the next few years. Too many restaurants will meet declining discretionary income. And the top 1% don't dine at Sbarros.
@ElvisDog
What is the term for fatal bankruptcy? Defunct? These "companies" are like the zombies we talk so much about. Perpetual bankruptcy, restructuring, but never death. Hell, look at Quiznos.
Quiznos was dead the day Subway realized they could also toast subs.
And Subway got that toaster for free from BofA...
(Quiznos was so pissed they changed over to Citi)
Turkey Ham, Turkey Beef, Turkey Turkey, Turkey Lettuce, Turkey Tomato, Turkey Meatball, Turkey Chicken, shit, even the mayonnaise is Turkey based.
they need to raise their prices. people with all their stock wealth arent interested in $6 subs. WE WANT TO PAY $25 for a sub.
Give it time...
Hey everybody. According to all the red freaking banner ads plastered all over my computer we only have SIX DAYS TO SAVE at Target. Everybody rush out and get your identity stolen before you run out of time.
Dr., take two Firefox and call me in the morning...
Free credit reporting via Expiran for 1 year b/c of Target hack:
https://creditmonitoring.target.com/
Pay cash and keep your identity private.
Hurry! Before they're all gone!
http://www.sbarro.com/franchising
Awful pizza. But i also went to mall for first time since before New Year and noticed a lot of food court joints have been closed down.... something bad is going on, for sure !!
Yeah, malls are dying. If it's tied to a mall, you can bet it's hurting.
Whaaaaat?
But the mall kiosks selling $0.99 cell phone cases for $20 are full of baby mommas and tweens needing a Juicy Coture fix for their iPhones
...and the city/town connected to the Mall? The decay flows out from the malls? I am thinking, yes.
Malls? LOL! Trayvon Malls? Who in their right mind would go to a mall?
People who get their spending money from the state..., I suppose.
I've only been in our local mall once since the Sears store closed about a year and a half ago. That was to go to the bike shop that closed six months later. 10 out of 12 food joints were closed. The arcade had been closed for years. Two of four anchor stores are gone, and fully half of the smaller spaces are available.
ON the bright side, the downtown area has picked up, but it's mostly junk shops and consignment stores.
I have noticed exactly the same thing. Food courts appear empty, staff waiting on the customers that never come lounge behind counters, and yet there is still trash all over the food court floor.
Mall food courts have been going downhill for many years. All they have in our town is cheap Asian, sandwiches, and Sbarro. Once Sbarro is going going gone, you can have Japanese stir fry/rice/noodles, or you can have Chinese stir fry/rice/noodles, or you can have Vietnamese stir fry/rice/noodles. Or you can have a Subway sandwich, or you can have a Quiznos sandwich, or if you want to get really different, you can have a Chick-Fil-A sandwich.
and then can I have wonton soup? And then can I have a fortune cookie? And then?
This is what happens when you don't "allow" bad businesses/people/corporations to die...
hedge accordingly.
Exactly.
I wish you file for bankruptcy every couple years, take on more debt, and then do it again. I'd promise everytime that it would be different.
Actually you can do that and the banks love you, since they sell off your debt as soon as the ink dries.
My aunt got divorced and declared bankruptcy. Three years later she bought a $250k house, and two years after that had to declare bankruptcy again. With a part time $9 an hour job she was able to buy a brand new car and last month almost couldn't make the payment until her tax "refund" check came.
She has been out looking at homes again because she finally landed another $25k a year full time job.
Like the mega corporations if you have no fear of default, you'll just keep on doing it.
It's sad, but the TBTF banks and Wall Street NEED people like your aunt. In fact, they would prefer every consumer acts like your aunt all the time. Their problems are that people like your aunt are getting harder and harder to come by (which is actually a good thing to get this zombie economy to crash for good so we can get on with a real economy)
No cash, No savings, No financial IQ - JUST SIGN AND DRIVE AND BUY YOUR NEXT HOUSE AND STOP AT OLIVE GARDEN TO CELEBRATE!!!!!!!
Never heard of them. Maybe because I stopped going to malls before it was trendy to not go to malls.
when I realized a few years back that it necessitated a full size pistol and at least 2 reloads I told the girls no more malls.
you should see the looks you get when you open carry an 1851 colt cap and ball at the mall
though legal, security asked me to leave
so i did...iwas only there for the chik filet anyhow on that protest day awhile back
Too bad Pappa Johns isn't bankrupt yet. When you have tasted decent pizza you know how bad Pappa John's is,
Far better frozen pizza's even.
That model is taken - it is called Argentina
You know it's bad when McD's and Walmart are reporting problems. If Dollar store starts to report problems, you know it's time to lock and load.
Shit I thought Sbarro was TBTF
Since when is bankruptcy failure?
One of these resets they'll get it right.
I always called it Sbarfo. No great loss.
Places like this only survive because people are too clueless and lazy to figure out you can make food cheaper and tastier at home. Add your own veggies and homegrown meat and your set. Also, you have a greater chance getting a microbiologist out of a job without ingesting drug resistant pathogens. Thank god that will never happen!
Miffed;-)
homegrown meat? not sure about your neighborhood, but it's tough to keep a cow downtown in New York or Chicago. Unless you're referring to the stray dogs running in the alleys, but I think the local Chinese restaurants have dibs.
Your point is still spot on, though
If you want to live, get out of the cities.
Never eaten there... guess I can take it off the Bucket List anyway.
Good. The thieves deserve to go bankupt for charging $5 for a slice of pizza.
I took my kids to two malls this weekend in the heart of Indianapolis. One thing I noticed is that both malls had loads of traffic, but there were very few people carrying bags.
So the present equity holders get nothing, the company is sold for next-to-nothing-on-the-dollar to some takeover vultures who will have 100% ownership?
Not that it's worth anything anyway...ZOMBIE
Damn weather.
Their anchor stores are on Thrway rest stops and airport terminals. More evidence.
It's a big club, and apparently Sbarro ain't in it, because in their case debt is NOT wealth...to club members, debt is wealth.
Could just be bad pizza. I wouldn't feed their crap to my dog
But what in a mall food court is NOT overpriced dysentery inducing crap?
Clearly the problem is they're not paying their employees enough. I'm sure most all of those grunts deserve to be making at least $15/hour. And just think of the uptick in business from all the altruistic, do-gooding leftists/statists once wages are doubled. Demand surge!
Many locations are at shopping malls which are dying a slow death in middle America. Retail in general is on the decline as increased prices in food, energy and now healthcare have eaten beyond discretionary spending budgets in many instances. With the end of forclosure amniesty rent has taken the last few crumbs left over so good luck with raising taxes on the middle class they are tapped out.
I drove by my areas largest mall Saturday afternoon...appeared to have been abandoned....giant parking lot was maybe 1% occupied.
People had to cut back on eating out at SBARRO and resort to making their own cardboard and woodglue base cheese pizzas in the comfort of their own home.
Once again weather controls our economy.
there is this new company- Space Available that is opening up stores like crazy... how do I invest?
i remember when there were only 2 Sbarros in Manhattan...
Did a Govt mandated minimum wage hike truly bury Sbarros?
I wonder how Sbarro's government business is doing - where they deliver pizza slices at highway stops? Did they overbid for the rights? Are consumers revolted by the parasitic slice costs imposed on captive customers?
Is the Govt, through the highway contracts, now a creditor in this bankruptcy? If so, do they protect the taxpayer's interest and go find another foolish food vendor who will feed the Treasury?
I have 4 kids and we make our own pizza (with store bought items) but it is better and way cheaper than any place out there. It is getting bad. We are very middle class, live in an old home, drive 10+yr old vehicles. Run the heat at 60degrees and eat at home every day. Its a very special occation when all 6 of us go to a resturant to eat. My wife and I have both MBA's she in teaching and me in Finance. She stayed at home to raise our kids and recently went back to teaching. I have had to take pay cuts due to companies being sold out from under me and laid off. The only people that are spending are the ones heavily in the market or have the upper level jobs/incomes. I am a Manager of FP&A and have seen many get cut by private equity buyers of the companies I have worked for. Its feels like a slow creep down, down, down.
welcome to the new American dream
and it isn't as bad as we think - cut off cable (no more wasting time watching crap), download movies for free off torrents (don't have to pick and choose through an online service, buy used PCs for home (about 1/3 price of retail and and they last if you buy corporate versions), stop buying clothes (fk fashion, we're married)
when all these distractions are gone, we get be ourselves again - no more anxiety bullshit trying to keep up with the Jones'
and yes, making pizza at home - we used canned tomatoes to make our own "red gravy" - it's friggin' gourmet
Wait!
You're telling me there's still Sbarro's?!?
The 80's just called, they want their sh!tty pizza back!
Simple math: 2020 prices, 2010 wages. Keep lowering wages, then see what happens. If one wants to even out things, you set your prices at 1970s level vs 2010s wages.
I am reading a lot of very UN-American comments on ZH, our President and even Nancy Pelosi tells us everything is fine. All these comments seem to be suggesting that there is a problem with our economy.
If only President Obama could run for one more term... Gosh darn it!
It's getting harder to tell sarcasm from the general stupidity that the majority of Americans exhibit these days.......
I mean what kind of moron votes for a community organizer who never had a real job in his life? The majority of voters, that's who!
Agree for the most part but the "only" "legitimate" alternative to the nascent asshat-in-Chief that was presented to the unwashed masses by the MSM back in 2007-08 was a short-tempered, adulterous, war-mongering crony corporatist. Not sure what it would take for the brain-dead zombies to look just a few extra spaces down-ballot.
"what kind of moron votes TWICE for a community organizer who never had a real job in his life? The members of the OFSA (Obama Free Sh*t Army) that is who...coming to a town near you!
It's a problem when 51% of the voting machines report Obama won.
Everything about the man's life has been a fraud. But somehow we are to expect he wouldn't allow fraud in the election??
All those folks who said we shouldn't bother about the birth certificate and wanted us to wait until the 2012 election are responsible for Obama still living in the WH.
Expect more of the same in 2014. The leftists have figured out how to fix the elections and the Republicans are acting like it never happened.
Nothing new. The left has been fixing elections since before 1960 and the right has been doing nothing about it. It is no secret that Joe (made my fortune criminally from bootlegging) Kennedy paid off everyone he could find to get his son elected as POTUS and if you dug deep enough I am sure that you could find someone (a Soros type) with the deep pockets that paid Perot (either in contracts to EDS or cash or both) to run in 1992. That strategy would have been the most effective for the right to employ in 2012; run another liberal candidate against the Community Organizer and split the liberal vote…they should use that strategy in 2016 to keep Billary out.
Just one more term?! No, we need a Dictator-for-Life to keep telling us everything is okay, that we just need MOAR debt!
Shucks hh, you are too modest. President For Life......Vice Presidents could rotate, Pelosi, Cheney, Reid, Feinstein, Hillary, McCain, Rice (either one), Sunstein, Putin, Rumsfeld, Clapper, Gore......etc
Who wouldn't want to eat here?
http://www.sbarro.com/assets/frontend/img/franchise-process-location-img...
Overpriced crap to begin with.
I can make a large pizza at home for about 4 bucks, and that is using San Marzano tomatoes, not the crap most places use.
Good riddance!
Here's the thing about the welfare warfare entitlement state. As the cost of living and cost of doing business is ratcheted up more and more activities are going to become uneconomical. This is true for activities that can be done globally or strictly local activities. Global activities will migrate elsewhere and local will disappear or go underground.
As for labor arbitrage and capital flight lite, if corps don't adapt to the playing field, what are corps for? But corporations aren't the only excuse. We have the running out of resources and technology is eliminating work for humans memes. Well technology is the thing that allows you to accomplish more with less resources. This planet and solar system actually have a staggering amount of untapped resources. There is still no known limit on the ability of technology to extract more. There is a ton of work that needs to be done that isn't being done. God knows how much work could be done in a sane system.
The world is drowning in corruption but somehow ZeroHeroes can't quite seem to see it. They can't quite seem to understand cause and effect. Cue the old lefty tripe and antisemitism.
Wonderful, awesome, meme-changing, pair-o-dime shifting things are going to happen in the future. That's almost a given. When and where, how and why we don't know and will not until they occur but they are coming.
re: Antisemitism--
1)-'splain if you will how three Jews have controlled the FED going on 30 years, and if Yellen has the same tenure as previous chairsatans, it will be 40 years??
2)- tell us what would happen if three sicilian-americans were substituted for Greenspan, Bernanke, and Yellen. Say their names were Rocco, Battaglia, and Fusco.
3) how did jews manage to hijack the word, "Antisemitism", and make it apply only to themselves, when Palestinians are also Semites, as are all sons of Shem??
And does my noting these not so obvious or totally ignored facts, once spoken, make me an Anti-jewish person?
8 bucks and change for a slice and a drink - GFY Sbarro
I've never heard of Sbarro....
I'll freak when John Deere files Chap. 11
Hey, no horror stories here!
Harbinger...
"And like fellow mall chain Hot Dog on a Stick, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February, Sbarro indicated that customer visits to shopping centers have dwindled."
Oh yeah the endurance contest minimalism and living poor meme. Sounds good to some in theory, but is so very very hard to do in practice. Prosperity which can accommodate the differences among millions of people, and yes the imperfections and foibles too, is actually much easier.
If only they sold caviar and truffles they would be minting it.
QUIZNOS is next!
And retail giants Macys and Belks are cutting hours and hiring less sales people. All part of the 'recovery' we are supposedly in. Oh wait, the way GDP is calculated was just fudged again recently for the Nth time, right? Welcome to Bogus City where bad is good and down is up.
If you like your PIZZA, you can keep your PIZZA. I promise....
I love Sbarro's pizza. But they told me over the phone they won't be offering those pizzas since there had been a change in plans. Apparently, their wonderful pizza was inferior because it didn't protect me from getting pregnant.
I told them since I'm a man, I couldn't get pregnant. They said you can never be too careful.
I can still get pizza from Little Ceaser's because if you eat one of their pies, there is no chance of getting pregnant, since their food doesn't support life or reproduction.
The fix IS minimum wage increase to $15 dollars.
Oh wait! Most dingbat people HATE an minimum wage increase. Dingbats believe a Economic Recovery can/will happen with American workers earning BELOW living wage income. The current cycle will continue to deplete disposable income for consumers followed by more job loss [cycle keeps going and going] but don't you dare raise minimum wage Socalist Bastards! That would fix everything; and we can't have that!
Dingbats tend to jump in and not look at all of the consequences of their "great" ideas or, more likely, don't know enough to be able to figure out those consequences. According to the government there would be a loss of 500,000 jobs with a minimum wage increase to $10.10.
http://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/attachments/44995-Minimu...
Oh that's clever. Sbarro could simply raise their minimum wage to $15 an hour along with every other business - that should help them.
None of those businesses would need to raise their prices to pay the higher wages because socialism is good. We know that to be true because you've declared it so.
Here is my wish for you. I wish you would finish high school.
If you have somehow slipped through high school and been granted a diploma I wish you success in filing a lawsuit against the school because you got ripped off.
In actuality, your comments sound like the kind of gibberish taught in college these days. Sue them, too.
Because unless you can answer the scenario I've described up above regarding higher wages and can explain how $15 wages wouldn't empty Sbarro's bank ounts in short order, your entire education has been a fraud.
If the minimum wage hike came directly from the execs' benefits package, it would work just fine imo. Back in 93 500 CEOs signed a petition to block a minimum wage hike. That same year their own salaries were hiked by an average $1000 per hour. One of the largest issues the economy faces is the wealth gap.