Staffers left wondering about payment after KC-area Applebee’s locations close
OLATHE, Kan. — Diners in the Kansas City metro now have one less option to choose from.
Six Applebee’s locations closed late Tuesday night. Now, employees are searching for new jobs. One store manager told FOX4 each store has at least 20 employees who are now out of work, and wondering if they’ll get paid.
The six Applebee’s locations that have locked up for good were owned by local franchisee Apple Central Kansas City. FOX4 has received a bankruptcy filing that spells the end for a half-dozen restaurants.
“I immediately called my general manager and said, tell me this isn’t true,” Erica Woolery, a former shift leader and bartender at the Applebee’s at 135th and Brougham in Olathe, said.
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Woolery said she’s worked for Applebee’s for five years, and she’s spent time on staff at five different locations.
“It’s heartbreaking. It really is. I’m on the hunt for a new job and I didn’t expect to be. I recently got engaged, and now, I have to push my wedding plans back,” Woolery said.
Former restaurant staffers like Laney Mahoney, who was also a bartender at the Applebee’s store where Woolery worked, said some employees haven’t been paid.
A spokesperson for Apple Central Kansas City said instructions have been sent to former staffers through a company email portal. However, Woolery and Mahoney both said they’re already locked out of their messages and they believe others are too.
“We loved working here, so we felt extremely blindsided and disrespected that there was no warning or anything. A lot of us were just left with no job,” Mahoney said on Thursday.
Applebee’s website said it boasted more than 1,600 locations at one point. Only two remain in the Kansas City metro — in Blue Springs and Gladstone.
Dan Janssen, who used to work in the company headquarters, which made its national home in the Kansas City metro, left that job more than a decade ago to start The Rub BBQ, an Olathe-based restaurant.
Janssen said the consumer’s demands have changed, and now, preference steer away from the casual dining options that were popularized three decades ago.
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“You can’t change the concept drastically and maintain your customer base with the evolution of the life cycle of a restaurant, it’s difficult,” Janssen said.
Both Woolery and Mahoney say they already have interviews for new jobs lined up.
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