Woody's was started by the Meyer family in 1987 in Honolulu, Hawaii, as a special events concession company. The family of five would do various events ranging from "Family Sunday" at the Bishop Museum to Super Bowl Sunday at the home of known public figures, catering event at the famous Magnum, P.I. house and UH football games, including the Pro Bowl at Aloha Stadium.
Since their inception, Woody's has constantly worked on doing more with less. In the early 1990s, Woody's started a few regular locations around the island. These locations included the Bishop Museum, Dole Food Company, Dole Pineapple Cannery, Pay-N-Pak, Scofield, Hickam, Pearl Harbor, Camp Smith, Tripler Hospital, Hawaii Maritime Museum, Waikiki and Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center. Within a few years, the blossoming relationship with Pay n Pac's Home Improvement Warehouse allowed Woody's the opportunity to open a concession at the newest hardware concept, Eagle Hardware & Garden.
Within a year, Eagle offered Woody's the rights to open franchises in new stores in Colorado, California, Nevada and Arizona. Hawaii is still remembered as one of Woody's most recognized market.
In 1998, Eagle Hardware was purchased by the hardware mega-giant Lowe's. After the purchase, Lowe's approached Woody's about providing service to as many of their stores as possible. Locations opened from Hawaii to North Carolina.
Woody's transitioned their name upon their growth on the Mainland to Woody's Chicago Style and the corporate office was then moved in 2000 to Morrison Colorado and then finally to their own facility in 2009 to Lakewood, Colorado.
Woody's has had a drastic decline in franchised locations in the last five years due to the economic recession. Poor leadership can also be considered a contributing factor. In an email sent to a former franchisee following their declared bankruptcy in 2005 co-founder Coe D. Meyer stated "your foolish people to think you can just walk away from a franchisee commitment with no recourse" while later saying "I suggest you retain an attorney as you are going to need one" after earlier threatening wage garnishment. In a 2002 article Coe D. Meyer said average pre-tax revenue of their hot dog stands could reach "$150,000 a year" then continued to mention one that would be reaching "$300,000 that year" as well.
In 2018, nearly all of their locations are closed, peaking at 86 after stating on their website Lowe's "awarded 300 to developing stores in the west" in the early 2000s.
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.
Ace Hardware Corporation is an American hardware retailers' cooperative based in Oak Brook, Illinois, United States. It is the world's largest hardware retail cooperative, and the largest non-grocery American retail cooperative.
Lowe's Companies, Inc., often shortened to Lowe's, is an American retail company specializing in home improvement. Headquartered in Mooresville, North Carolina, the company operates a chain of retail stores in the United States and Canada. As of February 2021, Lowe's and its related businesses operates 2,197 home improvement and hardware stores in North America.
Wienerschnitzel is an American fast food chain founded in 1961 that specializes in hot dogs. Despite the name, the company does not sell Wiener schnitzel, only selling it once as a promotional item. Wienerschnitzel locations are found predominantly in California and Texas, though others are located in Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Louisiana, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, and Washington. Outside the 50 states, there is a store located in Guam and one in Panama.
Shakey's Pizza is a pizza restaurant chain based in the United States. Founded in 1954, it was the first franchise pizza chain in the United States. In 1968, the chain had 342 locations. The chain had about 500 stores globally, and 58 in the United States, as of July 2019. Currently, the stores can be found in the states of California and Washington as well as in the Philippines.
Culver Franchising System, LLC, doing business as Culver's, is a privately owned and operated American casual fast food restaurant chain that operates primarily in the Midwestern United States. The chain is mostly known for its "butter burgers" and frozen custard, but also offers cheese curds, chicken, fish, and salads. Culver's opened its first restaurant in 1984 in Sauk City, Wisconsin. It is headquartered in nearby Prairie du Sac. As of June 16, 2022, the chain had 867 restaurants in 26 states, mostly in the Midwest.
Graeter's is a regional ice cream chain based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1870 by Louis C. Graeter, the company has since expanded to 50 retail locations selling ice cream, candy and baked goods in the Midwestern United States. It further distributes its ice cream to 6,000 stores throughout the country. As of 2017, the company had 1,050 employees and $60 million in revenue.
Jimmy John's is an American sandwich chain headquartered in Champaign, Illinois. The business was founded by Jimmy John Liautaud in 1983. After Liautaud graduated from high school, his father gave him a choice to either join the military or start a business. Liautaud, choosing the latter, initially decided to start a hot dog business, but changed to opening a sandwich business due to costs.
Hot 'n Now is an American fast-food restaurant based in Holt, Michigan. Founded in 1984, the chain once grew to more than 150 locations throughout the United States at its peak. Subsequently, under the ownership of PepsiCo, the chain filed for bankruptcy in 2004, and was then sold to STEN Corporation. As of September 9, 2016, only the Sturgis, Michigan location remains in operation. The majority of the chain's locations focused entirely on drive-thru service, featuring a small-footprint building with a tall, slanted roof style. Some previous locations were more traditional fast-food locations, complete with seating, and others were combined with gas stations.
A Maxwell Street Polish consists of a grilled or fried length of Polish sausage topped with grilled onions and yellow mustard and optional pickled whole, green sport peppers, served on a bun. The sandwich traces its origins to Chicago's Maxwell Street market, and has been called one of "the classic foods synonymous with Chicago".
Pollo Tropical is a South Florida-based restaurant chain and franchise specializing in food inspired by Latin-Caribbean cuisine. Founded in 1988, the chain has its headquarters in Doral, Miami-Dade County, Florida. It is best known for marinated and grilled chicken and various sides including black beans and rice, corn casserole and more.
Shipley Do-Nuts is an American doughnut company and coffeehouse chain with more than 300 franchised stores in the Southern United States, including Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, and as of 2018, Colorado. Its headquarters are located in Northside, Houston, Texas.
White Hen Pantry was a Lombard, Illinois-based chain of approximately 261 predominantly franchisee-owned convenience stores located in and around Detroit, Boston / southern New Hampshire, southern Wisconsin, northwest Indiana and central Illinois areas of the United States. Most of the stores were open 24 hours and offered an array of standard convenience store fare such as coffees, cappuccinos, frozen and dry goods and toiletries. Many also had full delis serving boxed sandwiches and salads, name-brand meats and cheeses and fresh fruits and vegetables. White Hen's array of services included catering options and sales of external holiday gift cards. Most stores also had ATMs and provide lottery ticket sales; White Hen was the largest lottery ticket vendor in the state of Illinois.
Tastee-Freez is an American franchised fast-food restaurant specializing in soft serve ice cream. Its corporate headquarters is in Newport Beach, California, and it has stores in seven states, with two stores located in Illinois. The first Tastee-Freez was established in Keithsburg, Illinois.
Food 4 Less is the name of several grocery store chains, the largest of which is currently owned by Kroger. It is a no-frills grocery store where the customers bag their own groceries at the checkout. Kroger operates Food 4 Less stores in the Chicago metropolitan area and Southern California. Kroger operates their stores as Foods Co in northern and central California, because they do not have the rights to the Food 4 Less name in those areas. Other states, such as Nevada, formerly contained Kroger-owned Food 4 Less stores.
Restaurant Brands New Zealand Limited, trading as Restaurant Brands, is a New Zealand fast food company. Restaurant Brands currently operates and owns the master franchising rights for the Carl's Jr., KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell brands in New Zealand. Restaurant Brands operates most of New Zealand's stores for the brands they own rights to and provides management and support services to New Zealand's independent franchisees of the remaining stores.
Orchard Supply Hardware (OSH) was an American retailer of home improvement and gardening products. Headquartered in San Jose, California, Orchard Supply Hardware had dozens of locations throughout California, with expansions into Oregon and Florida.
Hula Dog is a chain of restaurants based in the U.S. state of Hawaii, specializing in a unique type of hot dog, known as a Puka or Hula Dog, which comprises a tube-shaped bun, lacking the opening found on the top of regular buns, filled with a variety of different flavors of sauces and relishes of the customer's choice, and a hot dog that is inserted into the circular opening at the end of the bun.
El Pollo Loco, Inc., is a restaurant chain based in the United States, specializing in Mexican-style grilled chicken. Restaurant service consists of: dine-in, take-out, with some locations offering drive through options. The company is headquartered in Costa Mesa, California, and operates about 500 company-owned and franchised restaurants in the Southwestern United States.
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