Off the top of my head, I can’t recall ever seeing one boarded up.
IME, they don’t get boarded up, but they do become the property of McDonald’s corporation. Those greedy bastards. Oops, did I say that out loud.
SSG Schwartz
Of course they do.
One Canadian franchise saw it better to close up shop than see its employees unionize.
One that got the ax that year was on one of my routes to work, at I-30 and 19th street in Grand Prairie. I used to stop there on occasion for a biscuit sandwich and a cup of coffee on my way in. Not often enough, I guess …
There was one just a couple minutes drive from where I live, on Route 202 (north) just past the King of Prussia mall in Montgomery* County, Pennsylvania. Used to drive past it on the way to my old job. Closed up about a year and a half ago.
Last I saw, they still haven’t sold the property. I never understood why they went out of business as it’s a pretty good location, and it’s easy to get in and out of since it’s at the corner of an intersection. I suspect whoever buys the property will bulldoze the building, because you can’t look at it without thinking “fast-food joint.”
*I think. I’m a little fuzzy on where the line between Montgomery and Chester (my county) is.
I can think of two that closed and were boarded up in the general Akron area over the last 20 years. They made, in my opinion, a poor choice of location. The fact that other fast food operations in the same multi-block area have also closed, would support that.
There was one around here that went out of business about 15 years ago. It’s was derelict for awhile, but finally was torn down for a Duncan Donuts.
One closed down in Kingston, Ontario, where I grew up. The growth of the city simply made the location less desirable than it had previously been; other locations were opened up elsewhere to reflect the shifting population and traffic.
The one down the road from me went out of business several years ago and was boarded up for a good six months before someone else took over the site.
The only boarded-up McDonalds I’ve ever seen was in a really seedy part of Detroit. I figure they probably got robbed too many times or something.
There used to be one in the Dobie Mall on the corner of 21st and Guadalupe in Austin, Texas. No idea why it closed, but it was one of the darker McDonald’s I’ve ever ventured into. There’s a Mickey D’s on MLK and San Antonio now.
…but a good question, you don’t see many…
We had a Taco Bell up the road that closed, and they put a new facade on, repainted it, and turned it into some local chain. You wouldn’t guess that it was a Taco Bell. Still fast food though… that’s tougher to change from, unless you gut the inside too.
Since the OP has been answered, a slight hijack:
How do you figure? They have cheap food. Aren’t they just successful?
There is the now abandoned McDonald’s Friendship 500 Floating Restaurant from Expo '86 in Vancouver, BC:
There was a McDonalds in the Valley which recently became a Wendy’s. Thank God for that, McDonalds sucks.
There’s also a nearby Taco Bell that was shut down, and the building was demolished…then it was rebuilt, exactly the same. Maybe it’s a little bit bigger, I don’t know. Reminds me of the final scene in The Jerk.
An interesting piece of trivia - the very first McDonald’s in Australia, in the Sydney suburb of Yagoona (opened in the early 70s, IIRC) has been long, long closed. I’ve been in the area since about 1991, and it wasn’t there then. There’s no trace of it, and I don’t even know where it was. Yagoona only has a KFC now.
There are some folks who maintain that the national heritage body, the National Trust - a group more commonly thought of as preserving colonial buildings - should have stepped in to save it as a piece of modern social history.
There have been others I’m aware of. The one in the arty/studenty/gay inner suburb of Newtown closed a few years ago. Going there was the first time I realised all Mcdonald’s burgers are NOT the same - these were stale and the cheese had that translucent reheated look. I wasn’t surprised to see it go.
I seem to recall there was a McDonald’s “restaurant” on the Orient Express, back in the 90s. Was that true? Is it still going?
The McDonald’s in Ashland, OR closed down a few years ago for lack of business. Anyone who knows that town will understand why- the confluence of the wine industry, Southern Oregon University, and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival has created one of the yuppiest places I’ve ever seen.
There was a McDonald’s for many years at the corner of Atwater and Ste Catherine in downtown Montreal, near the old Montreal Forum. It was extremely busy during the 1976 Olympics, for example. It closed a few years ago when another McDonald’s opened in the Alexis-Nihon mall across the street. The original McDonad’s is now a Japanese restaurant, I believe.
Ed