Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc., often known simply as Chipotle, is an American chain of fast casual restaurants in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, and France, specializing in bowls, tacos and Mission burritos that are made to order in front of the customer. Its name derives from chipotle, the Nahuatl name for a smoked and dried jalapeño chili pepper.
Quiz Holdings, LLC, doing business as Quiznos, is an American franchised fast-food restaurant based in Denver, Colorado, that specializes in offering toasted submarine sandwiches. It was founded in 1981 by Jimmy Lambatos and sold to Rick and Richard Schaden ten years later, before growing to nearly 5,000 restaurants afterwards. As of 2013, Quiznos was the second-largest submarine sandwich shop chain in North America, behind Subway. A 2016 survey indicated that Quiznos was the ninth-largest submarine sandwich shop chain based on sales. The publications Restaurant Business and Mashed.com reported in mid-2018 that Quiznos had only 400 locations remaining by 2017 after a high of 4,700 locations in 2007 just a decade earlier, while Money reported in May 2018 that Quiznos had 1,500 locations across the U.S.
Goldman Sachs is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered in New York City.
Panera Bread Company is an American chain store of bakery-café fast casual restaurants with over 2,000 locations, all of which are in the United States and Canada. Its headquarters are in Sunset Hills, Missouri.
Red Lobster Hospitality LLC is an American casual dining restaurant chain headquartered in Orlando, Florida. The company has operations across most of the United States and Canada, as well as in China, Ecuador, Guam, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates; as of June 23, 2020, the company had 719 locations worldwide. Golden Gate Capital became Red Lobster's parent company when it was acquired from Darden Restaurants on July 28, 2014. Seafood supplier Thai Union acquired a 25 percent stake in the company in 2016 for a reported $575 million, and in 2020 purchased the remaining portion from GGC.
Darden Restaurants, Inc. is an American multi-brand restaurant operator headquartered in Orlando. As of January 2022, the firm owns two fine dining restaurant chains: Eddie V's and The Capital Grille; and six casual dining restaurant chains: Olive Garden Italian Restaurant, LongHorn Steakhouse, Bahama Breeze, Seasons 52, Yard House and Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen. Until July 28, 2014, Darden also owned Red Lobster. Darden has more than 1,800 restaurant locations and more than 175,000 employees, making it the world's largest full-service restaurant company.
Baja Fresh is an American chain of fast-casual Tex Mex restaurants founded in Newbury Park, California in 1990 and headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona and is owned by Canadian franchisor MTY Food Group. The chain emphasizes fresh ingredients, each restaurant featuring a self-serve salsa bar.
Captain D's is an American fast casual restaurant chain that specializes in seafood and is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee. The chain was founded as Mr. D's Seafood and Hamburgers by Raymond L. Danner Sr. on August 15, 1969, in Donelson, Tennessee. The chain is currently owned by private-equity firm Sentinel Capital Partners. Captain D's has more than 500 locations in the United States.
California Pizza Kitchen (CPK) is an American casual dining restaurant chain that specializes in California-style pizza. The restaurant was started in 1985 by attorneys Rick Rosenfield and Larry Flax in Beverly Hills, California, United States.
Lloyd Craig Blankfein is an American investment banker who has served as senior chairman of Goldman Sachs since 2019, and chairman and chief executive from 2006 until the end of 2018. Previous to leading Goldman Sachs, he was the company's president and chief operating officer (COO) from 2004 to 2006, serving under then-CEO Henry Paulson.
Sick leave is paid time off from work that workers can use to stay home to address their health needs without losing pay. It differs from paid vacation time or time off work to deal with personal matters, because sick leave is intended for health-related purposes. Sick leave can include a mental health day and taking time away from work to go to a scheduled doctor's appointment. Some policies also allow paid sick time to be used to care for sick family members, or to address health and safety needs related to domestic violence or sexual assault. Menstrual leave is another type of time off work for a health-related reason, but it is not always paid.
Travelodge Hotels Limited is a private company operating in the hotels and hospitality industry throughout the United Kingdom, Ireland and Spain. Known simply as Travelodge, it is the UK's largest independent hotel brand with over 570 limited-service hotels across the UK.
Pie Five Pizza is an American fast casual restaurant chain specializing in personal pizza. The brand is owned by Rave Restaurant Group, which also owns Pizza Inn. As of July 2021, Pie Five operates 33 restaurants with locations in the following states: Arkansas, California, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Texas.
The Habit Burger Grill is an American fast casual restaurant chain that specializes in charbroiled hamburgers. The company also sells other typical fast-casual fare. Its headquarters are in Irvine, California.
MOD Pizza is a Seattle, Washington-based fast casual pizza restaurant chain based in the United States. Founded in 2008, MOD has more than 500 locations as of May 2021 in the United States and Canada. MOD is a company that is claimed by its owners to be "more about the people than the pizza" and to focus on paying living wages and providing employees with opportunities to give back to the community.
Blaze Pizza is a Pasadena, California-based fast-casual dining restaurant chain that serves pizza. Founded in 2011 by Elise and Rick Wetzel of Wetzel's Pretzels, Blaze Pizza was modeled after Chipotle's made-to-order approach to serving customers. Basketball player LeBron James is one of the original investors in the chain.
Laughing Planet is a restaurant chain based in Portland, Oregon, United States. The chain began in the U.S. state of Indiana, where founder Richard Satnick opened the first restaurant. By 2015, Laughing Planet had received numerous awards including "Best of Portland" and "Best Kid-Friendly Restaurant".
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, also known as the CARES Act, is a $2.2 trillion economic stimulus bill passed by the 116th U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Donald Trump on March 27, 2020, in response to the economic fallout of the COVID disease. The spending primarily includes $300 billion in one-time cash payments to individual people who submit a tax return in America, $260 billion in increased unemployment benefits, the creation of the Paycheck Protection Program that provides forgivable loans to small businesses with an initial $350 billion in funding, $500 billion in loans for corporations, and $339.8 billion to state and local governments.
The COVID-19 pandemic impacted the United States restaurant industry via government closures, resulting in layoffs of workers and loss of income for restaurants and owners and threatening the survival of independent restaurants as a category. Within a week after the first closures, industry groups representing independent restaurateurs were asking for immediate relief measures from local, state, and federal governments, saying that as many as 75 percent of independent restaurants could not survive closures of more than a few weeks. By late July, nearly 16,000 restaurants had permanently closed.
The economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States has been widely disruptive, adversely affecting travel, financial markets, employment, shipping, and other industries. The impacts can be attributed not just to government intervention to contain the virus, but also to consumer and business behavior to reduce exposure to and spread of the virus.
