The end of Little Chef

You may remember my popular piece on the decline of Little Chef written last year. Sadly it seems the optimism I expressed then was misplaced and things have changed completely in just a few short months: now Little Chef is not long for this world and is doomed to extinction just short of its 60th birthday. Stopping for my customary post-hospital lunch at Weston on the Green, I was disappointed to find notices on the counter saying they would be closing in just a few days' time to become a Starbucks, and talking to the staff revealed it wasn't just this branch but the entire chain that is closing down for good. Many of you might say good riddance to it, but I feel despite all its troubles Little Chef still had potential in the right hands to establish a place in today's world, and I for one will miss it. I guess I'll have to find somewhere else to eat after my hospital appointments in Oxford as its replacement doesn't serve what I call 'proper' food.

The Starbucks logo is an evil twin-tailed Siren. Seems apt somehow.

It turns out Little Chef has changed hands yet again as the Kout Food Group, for all their talk of plans for its long-term future, put the chain up for sale in January. There were two interested bidders and the successful buyer was Euro Garages, Britain's largest operator of roadside service stations. Despite their initial claims when the deal went ahead, the new owners appear never to have had any intention of keeping Little Chef alive and simply wanted to get their hands on the staff and premises to expand their Starbucks franchise, so all 70 restaurants will close by the end of the year and reopen as Starbucks coffee shops, and the Little Chef brand will soon be consigned to the history books.

While some would argue Little Chef is no great loss, what is replacing it is a disappointment. When I get hungry on the road, I don't want a cup of fancy coffee and an overpriced sandwich or a fast-food burger and fries but a proper hot meal, and there aren't a lot of places on the main roads that now serve that kind of food. With the dominance of both Starbucks and Costa everywhere you go, there are too many coffee shops already and the real world is starting to become like that episode of The Simpsons where an entire shopping centre was filled with nothing but a row of Starbucks. Apparently there are places in the US where customers can sit in one Starbucks and see another from the window, and the UK seems to be heading the same way.

A once-familiar sight that's now a thing of the past

Euro Garages have pledged to keep all of the former Little Chefs open and retain their staff, but in the long-term I suspect this is unsustainable as, much like Little Chef itself in the 1990s, there will be too many Starbucks in close proximity and they will start stealing trade from one another. Certainly in the case of Weston, this Little Chef's former counterpart on the other carriageway is already a Starbucks and has been for several years, so opening a new one directly opposite seems an odd decision. Then again, people nowadays really love coffee shops for some reason that is a mystery to me as I don't drink tea or coffee. I can see the appeal of a coffee shop in an urban location as a place to meet and socialise, but can't understand the attraction of putting them at roadside service stations that aren't a destination in themselves and rely on passing traffic.

There are a lot of people who honestly thought Little Chef had disappeared years ago and were surprised to find them still struggling on after all this time. The big problem is that none of the chain's many owners since Granada have ever shown any commitment to a long-term recovery: they all expected quick results and then offloaded it to someone else when that didn't happen so the cycle of neglect just kept continuing. Changes in motorists' habits have also played a part: most drivers now prefer motorways to A-roads for long-distance travel, and the improved comfort and reliability of modern cars makes it possible to complete such journeys without a regular need for refreshment breaks, so Little Chef's original reason for existing has largely disappeared.

Farewell, Fat Charlie

Little Chef is now a very pale shadow of what it used to be and many will say the best thing to do with this dying brand is to put it out of its misery. Maybe Euro Garages' decision is for the best but it is a real shame the closure will come so fast and the chain couldn't have hung on at least one more year to celebrate its 60th birthday. R.I.P. Fat Charlie, 1958 to 2017.