Ruby Tuesday is literally blowing up one of its locations on Tuesday, August 5 at 3 p.m. ET “to bid a final farewell to the past with one elegant, understated gesture: Demolishing the last old Ruby Tuesday,” as the company states on its website. The company has launched a massive reimage program, remodeling 650 restaurants in the last 12 months, as of 4Q08. So when it says the “last old Ruby Tuesday,” it is referring to a location that has not yet been upgraded.
- This live demolition, in of itself, is funny. It is made even more ridiculous when you consider that the reimages have not yet proven successful as the restaurant upgrades represent a change in strategy with RT attempting to enter the more upscale restaurant market. These restaurant reimages have alienated a big portion of RT’s prior customer base. Management stated on its last conference call, “we probably hurt ourselves by taking the eye off the ball when we remodeled approximately 650 company-owned restaurants in less than 12 months, as well as by losing some of our guests, we believe lower end guests who maybe felt less comfortable in our reimaged restaurants.” The company is making a big deal about saying goodbye to the “old Ruby Tuesday,” but it is also saying goodbye to a lot of its former loyal customers.
- Make sure to watch it live at RubyTuesday.com!
