The Decline of Steak 'n Shake...What Happened?
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- Опубликовано: 8 сен 2020
- Over the past few years, Steak 'n Shake has been on the decline. This video talks about potential reasons behind it while highlighting some of the rises and falls they've experienced throughout their almost 90 year history.
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The longer wait times claim made me laugh! The last time I went to a Steak 'n Shake, it was around midnight when we had no choice but to eat out. We were the only group in the restaurant and waited over 40 minutes for our food, all the employees were on their cell phones, and I think they got every single order wrong despite having no other orders to juggle with. 30 minutes after finishing our food and waiting for a check, one worker even rolled their eyes at me when I asked if we could get the check, then huffed at me that there is no check and you pay it at the front of the store. The place she pointed at was a podium with no employee anywhere near it and no cash register. Sure, it's the customer's responsibility to read your mind and to not take away from your precious 1 AM Angry Birds time. How could I ever miss something so obvious. Worst thing was, a manager was walking around the whole visit and didn't seem to care about everyone loafing on the clock.
Wow what a surprise to see you here.
Jabbel
That’s what I said in my comment. Don’t go there at 1 AM because I’ve seen Stephen’s vlog of that night.
the man himself
Didnt think id see a chugga comment on company man wasup man lol
As soon as a family owned business starts getting passed around between corporations, that's when Quality says, "Aight, I'mma head out."
The "pump and dump" school of thought.
Thanks to the Federal Reserve and the powers at be, we don’t need family businesses anymore. Yay!
@@ericzerkle5214 like what must college whores are?
Chicago portillos is going downhill on quality
@Jaded Joker It's not about good or evil, corporations acquire businesses to squeeze them of value, that is inherently not a positive process for the customers and the employees.
This video needs to be updated: the Steak ‘n Shakes near me have completely changed- they’ve fired most of the staff with the exception of the cooks and automated everything. You place your order on a main screen and pick up your food when it’s ready and sit back down, afterwards you bus your own table- all this and prices are as much if not slightly more. The human element is completely gone and the food quality is worse than ever. On this course, I can’t see them lasting much longer.
Especially not when Culver's exists and does their "burger plus frozen treats" gimmick significantly better than they do.
They tried this in Pennsylvania a few years ago and it bombed. All of the locations closed. There is a significant difference between this style and the 'original' stores and customers do not seem to like it.
AND the menu is EVEN SMALLER than it has ever been! Don’t even have chicken fingers anymore. Steak ‘n Shake was one of my absolute favorite restaurants and now I won’t even go. It’s so disappointing
Damn that's really sad to hear :(
Same thing in my area. It's really sad, because I actually quite enjoyed the blend of sit down and burgers. Me and my friends would go there and be able to enjoy burgers and shakes while catching up.
Last time we went, the tables were dirty, no waiters, just a bunch of machines to order on, and you had to get up and go grab your food. At that point, you might as well go to McDonalds.
My dad had been a Steak N Shake loyalist ever since he worked as a carhop there in the late 1960's. Growing up, Steak N Shake was the one fast food meal my family ate regularly. We probably went at least 1 or 2 times every month.
However, between about 2008 and 2016, the restaurants near us got dirtier and dirtier, and service got slower and slower. It got to the point where you could expect a 45 min wait every time, even if the restaurant was otherwise totally empty.
In 2018, I sent my dad a Steak N Shake gift card for his birthday, and he told me that he had stopped going all together, because he had given up on the chain. Steak N Shake lost a customer who had been loyal to their brand for FIFTY YEARS due to mismanagement.
Now that's sad
I 100% agree. It's sad when owners stop caring about their brand and customers.
I loved their food when I was a kid and teenager; lots of good memories making milkshake runs with friends at 3am. But one thing that has always struck me was how much the employees seemed to hate their jobs. No matter which location I visited or time of day, EVERY server looked like they wanted to shoot themselves.
I don't blame them. Low pay, shitty hours, and they had to deal with stupid kids ordering milkshakes at 3am in the morning.
That probably ties in with the "outdated equipment". I would roll my eyes at kids ordering large milkshakes at 3am if the milkshake machines were a pain to opperate.
I made milkshakes. We would always leave the freezer cracked open so it would be able to scoop icecream fast. It was a pain in the ass to make shakes super fast if the icecream was super cold. The job was tolerable, but it’s definitely not something I’d want to do for more than a couple years.
I worked at a Steak and Shake and dear god we were not treated the best. We had kids spilling things on purpose parents getting upset over the smallest things. I worked at the BUSIEST store right by my high school and dear god there was not a time where we weren’t crowded and people had to wait to get into the restaurant
every waitress job I had I wanted to shoot myself. it's not just Steak n Shake
Philip Brackett I blame them. I believe, and I raised my kids to believe, that any job worth doing is worth doing well. The problem is (and I know it’s cliche but I’m gonna say it anyway) that not enough parents are raising kids with good work ethic.
With the long ass wait times, you would think they were still grinding the meat and peeling the potatoes for every order
We always said they were still raising the cattle in the back.
😂💀😂
That's the reason I never ate there ..went there with my aunt and brother but left early bc my aunt got angry bc it took too long
That’s weird, I remember going to Steak ‘n Shake back in 2016(I don’t live in the states so I’ve only been there a handful of times while visiting) and it quickly became my favorite restaurant. The food was good, relatively cheap and surprisingly they gave us our food in less than 20 minutes. Maybe it’s changed over the years but I remember having a great experience.
@@n0tfbnglz it did go downhill a bit, at least in the areas where I live. I only know of one that’s open, and it is a disaster. The one not far from me used to be good, and they did really good business, but they shut down a lot of pennsylvania locations
Worked there as a server from 2013-2019. My store was a manager training store as well. It was great in the first half of being there, but went down as a result of Biglari owning the company. There was a lot of “shady” things that went on with him as most of the company shareholders would point out in the last few years I worked there.
The reason for the stores decline had nothing to do with pandemic; they’re just using that to cover for their complete mismanagement of the company. The guy in the video said it best: they weren’t putting money back into Steak n’ Shake.
Some of the issues:
The Managers in training would spend about 4-8 weeks at our store to prep them to manage their own. The GM of our store would receive extra money for every manager who completed the program. However, the assistant managers who also helped out with a ton of training would receive nothing. Plus, we found out later on that these managers in training would be starting at vastly higher wages than the managers who had been either company for 10 years +.
Raises were rarely given to employees preforming well. And also raises had to be approved by the District Managers.
The managers were encouraged not fire bad employees, because the company did not have the financial abilities to deal with any kind of lawsuit.
Managers were expected to work 50 hours a week minimum and were not compensated for overtime. They also tried to screw over the cooks and line workers for overtime by upper management. Look up the lawsuits.
They were completely understaffed and the restaurant model wasn’t sustainable for a 24 hour store. Waiters inside but a drive thru too? Also, drive thru made more profit than inside. So, stores were encouraged to focus on that more than in house guests. Which screwed up everything for the business model.
Equipment was outdated and rarely updated. So, it was constantly breaking down. We only had 2 maintenance guys for 80+ stores. So, if something broke (like shake spinners or heating on one side of the grill) managers were told to “manage it.”
Our POS (Point of Sale) registers and system was outdated and never updated. Would constantly crash and reset at midnight so it would be frozen for like 10 minutes.
Each server literally ran food, drinks, took orders, checked on tables, seated guests at the door, and checked out customers. And received a server wage (4.50 per hr., I think?). Wouldn’t hire someone to check out cause it wasn’t “cost efficient” and DM (District Managers) were constantly on the store managers asses calling if there system showed there were too many people for the amount of people coming in.
Started cutting costs by decreasing food size but at the same price. Spent tons of money on marketing changing all the steak n’ shake signs out front to feature Biglari’s name. His 800% increase that one year didn’t sit well with all the other things going on.
Plus, my store was considered one of the few “good ones” to put that in perspective of how poorly run this company was run.
My favorite is when they were playing with the idea in the company newsletter of getting rid of cherries on milkshakes to cut cost. 🤦♂️ Also, I left when they switched over the milkshake making from handmade to a soft serve machine but still advertised it as “handmade.” This was all the CEO Biglari’s fault. Bad polices, lack of care for employees, mismanagement, and greed are the reasons this company is tanking.
Exactly
Well written and explained, thanks. I’m sorry to hear about your experience.
This underrated comment explains why the Steak 'n Shakes in my area were extremely slow and the wait staff grumpy as hell. I never dished it back because you never know when someone is having a bad day or if it's company related. But none the less, I voted with my wallet and took my business elsewhere.
Typical Indian management,cut costs,service,quality as they view everyone as beneath them and to be taken advantage of( cultural, lasts for generations after immigration). Visit India and you can understand the mindset of stepping on babies to grab whatever you can.
It was weird the last time I went. I'm used to being guided to a seat, served by a waiter, and having that interaction. However, I was thrown for a loop when I walk in the door and told to order and pay at a computer, and then wait for the food to be made and bring it to the table myself. It just kills the atmosphere and turned Stake & Shake into just another fast food joint.
oh and no more steak and shake fry seasoning
PROGRESS!
Self checkouts and machines are killing restaurants and stores. What happened to human interaction?
Their food is great. Stopped going after consistently waiting 30 minutes in a drive thru plus their shoestring fries are plain af.
That’s bc u have to ask for salt you’d be surprised on how many old people eat sns
@@Claytonkrintz old people keep ruining restaurants 😩
Their fries used to be really good, like 20 something years ago I loved to order the cheese fries with a shake, and it was always so good, but now it's all so gross I don't mess with it anymore. Fast food is nasty and (edit: most of) the people who work in fast food don't care at all about their job, and the quality of the food speaks for itself.
I thought it was common knowledge to go for the garlic parm fries anyways 😂
I liked it till there steak burger shrunk to smaller than a mcdonalds burger.
It makes me really sad to see restaurants that somebody put a lot of time and effort into building up go to shit because of selfish corporations :(
@@HuskyGamersUNITE when I was a kid I remember eating at steak and shake and their milkshakes were good but ever since then I haven't had steak and shake I think it's been 10 years
Corpos are the death of everything super evil and selfish
The Management seems like they go to the local Ghetto and hire the staff via Gunpoint.
And horrible customer service
It's what happens when chains like this become too large. When they're small regional chains, they can keep better control over their quality. When they become too large, and go corporate, that's when quality suffers. Thee same thing is happening now to Culver's and Portillo's.
there seems to be a lot of misinformation going on about the actual store practices but really it comes down to staffing issues. I currently work at a SnS; the milkshakes are not handscoopped anymore, it’s through a machine. Our menu size has dramatically sized down. We no longer have seasoned fries or the Cajun burger/seasoning. We no longer have servers (customers order via a kiosk and wait until their food is called out) and we try our best. However, the reason wait times can get so long is because of the demand; some people do come in and order a shake and a burger with fries, but more often we end up with $50/$60 tickets in each car, or groups with 3+ separate orders. That slows down production like crazy. On top of that, delivery services mean that our drive through gets clogged with drivers arriving sometimes 2 minutes after we receive the order, which can also be $60+ sometimes. Typically we have one grill staff, two dressing the burgers and putting together all the sides and sauces, macs, etc and one person on drive through at close. A manager will float and help when they can. Please know that nobody is intentionally making your food poorly or making you wait out of spite; understaffing, doordash and plain old human beings all affect those times
Yes 💯 Correct! Instead of one meal, it's a family meal for one.
Thats all good but this was a problem in 2010 not today. They are slow if you're alone or the store is packed.
@@derekbutts2660 considering I was speaking about my experiences /now/ at Steak ‘n Shake and not in 2010, I really don’t understand the relevance of your response. All I can tell you is that nowadays, even when the store seems “empty” , deliveries from doordash, ubereats, grubhub, etc are constantly flooding in. My suggestion is to have some more empathy or cut your losses and leave lol
@@TheTickleGirls I cut my losses and left. All the excuses you’re providing apply equally to every other comparable restaurant that doesn’t make me wait 20 minutes for a burger and fries.
@@maverator I mean, expect for the fact that our food is actually made to order from fresh, meaning it takes us longer to make food than McDonald’s, Burger King, etc, and that also impacts timing. Not to mention when we run out of available supplies or certain fresh items like lettuce, tomatoes, etc
Always loved my local Steak 'n Shake. The last time my wife and I went, the employees were literally hiding from us (we were the only customers in the restaurant). People were also driving away from the drive-thru. I guess no one was paying attention to them, either. That location is now gone, which sucks. I really loved the garlic burger.
Thumbs up for your Yuri Bezmenov photo. I also enjoyed your comment.
Might be opportunity to reopen store, change sign, provide quality food,reasonable price,good service, community interaction. As long as equipment is in place and reopening wouldn't cost too much
5:37 are we gonna ignore that the waitress and the customer have the EXACT SAME FACE.
I was hoping I wasn't the only one who noticed..
Oh shit you're right haha
Maybe they are brother and sister.
☠️😂
@@FlintIronstag23 Making the exact same facial expressions at the exact same angles at the exact same moment the photograph was taken? Doubtful.
As someone who has worked at several fast-food places, including Steak n Shake during their decline, I can tell you that their single biggest mistake Biglari made was not caring for his employees.
In general fast food is pretty terrible as far as pay and working conditions go, but most places can get away with it because the crew is easy to replace. Not so at Steak n Shake. It may have been a burger place with a drive-thru, but working there was far more complicated than somewhere like Burger King or Jack in the Box. Since the Steakburgers and Shakes were made from scratch, it actually took some time to learn how to prepare them correctly and quickly. Each store relied it's long-term grill experts, guys who had been on the job for years who could fry up 40+ burgers in a few minutes and have them all come out delicious
A year or so after Biglari took over though a new rule came down from the corporate office: no one except a manager can make over $12 an hour, and each shift was only allowed to have two full-time employees. The people who had been there for years, the seasoned cooks making $15 an hour and working 40+ hours a week, suddenly found their wages and hours cut severely. Most of them quit that day, and managers were urged to hire part timers at minimum wage to replace them.
From there it was all downhill. Food quality dropped and wait times went up as unskilled teenagers replaced the good cooks. Servers started getting less tips because the food was bad and so the experienced wait staff quit not long after. Soon the whole store moved at a snails pace. Sales were down, and the sales that you did get often came attached to angry customers. Things got so stressful that even the teenagers started dropping out, giving us even higher turnover rates. Every manager that was there when I started was gone by the time I finally quit, replaced by hastily promoted employees who were in way over their heads. Less then a year later every store in the area shut down.
Long story short, pay your workers a decent wage.
And if you go to a Steak N Shake now, and wonder why it's full of inattentive teenagers on their phones; it's on purpose. Management doesn't want to pay enough to hire an adult who might actually give a damn.
only been there once the service was rude and food was disgusting
I work there now, yes the staff is mostly teens although the managment we are under is very good. We get started at 11/ hour (more than minumun wage) and we are not allowed on our phones. We are much more improved with the cleaning aspect compared to the old management. The old management here sucked though and our reviews are so low because of them LMAO
@@phlegmaticSof Where
Another factor is them closing was pricing. The restaurant in Colorado at 285 and Hampden sold food at a previously agreed upon price structure for the area which worked. When the chain was sold or they had to renew their franchisee contract, Corporate said they had to lower their menu prices to make them uniform. The managers of the place told us that if they did that, they couldn't make any money and that Corporate didn't understand that different locations cost different amounts to run. Something in IL would cost less to operate than something in CO.
Wow this explains the steak n shake in my area. I used to love going there as a kid/teenager and getting a burger. I used to get the “Snack pack” but I stopped going because Everytime we went there it was something wrong with our order. Now it is closed and i was our only location in the area.
Steak N Shake was where I went in my town because they were the ONLY place you could get a real burger that isn’t McDonalds after dark. After 2020 they cut their hours to not be open at night and since then, I’ve just been watching more and more of them shut down. Great food, sad to see the franchise dying.
They did it to themselves, sadly. Better food than most fast food places. Don't know bout yours, but mine has gone to 100% kiosk ordering and ask for tips. You are literally doing no service, why ask for tips? Location is a big reason for me though. Only 1 near me, but still several miles from me. BK and Hardees is close enough in both distance and quality that I just dont drive twice the distance.
@@billybob4274 No service, most local restaurants closed (2 out of 3 closed!) and fewer menu choices for burgers and shakes. Clearly, a business on the ropes.
@@berkeleygang1834 I worked at steak n shake before the mass closing of stores in the st louis region. Their menu is so expansive nobody can learn it. Almost nobody ordered the hot dogs, chicken tenders, mac and cheese, for example. The fancy briachi buns were seldom used. Every time somebody ordered one of these weird things the whole line would slow down to accommodate them. They needed to stick with what they did good at, like five guys burgers and fries. Make good steakburgers, make good milkshakes, make good chili, good fries and onion rings, and thats fucking it. Their drive through were always packed and the service was always slow because their menu was just plain too fucking complicated.
Yup I survived on Steak ‘n Shake in college. Cheap prices, better quality, and beats the stereotypical “ramen” college diet.
McDonalds are not real burgers. All their food is crap.
Steak ‘n Shake will always hold a special place in my heart. But it’s a memory shelf sort of place.
In the 90s it was the spot my best friend and I always went. The food was good, the kitsch was perfection, and it was always a high speed experience.
Fast forward 20 years and the restaurants are dirty and worn out, the items we loved best are non existent, and food itself just doesn’t taste good anymore.
It’s a shame. I’m never glad she passed away but Steak ‘n Shake is one of the things I’m glad she can’t see today.
Steak ‘n Shake is now same category as Burger King once great then fell from grace no hope for return
"Steak & Wait" as my friend has called it.
I’ve worked at one I relate to this, damn cooks suck
I can go to cook out or a Wendy’s and they still faster than s&s
ahh yess it took so long. def worth it but if we got our food first it was always soggy and gross by the time we got a shake
@@treyign cook out is the way to go
They opened a Steak & Shake just a 5 minute walk from my job in 2018. I went there on my 30 minute lunch break. I had to go back to work before my food was cooked.
They've closed down since then and I'm still waiting for my order.
I just love watching Company Man describe the rise and fall of companies.
Yes, as do nosotros
yeah, many of these companies he talks about I have never been to or particularly care about (Steak n Shake for example lol) but idk, something about the way this guy explains things is always interesting to me no matter what the subject
f
Don't we all?
@@BendyDH Same, but sometimes I don't even know the companies (or I am not impacted by them)
The Steak 'n Shake in our town basically just kept getting more run down and dilapidated. The wouldn't spend the money to clean the place up and make it look inviting. And it basically took forever to get fed there no matter the time of day or the crowd. But the last straw was when they screwed up their "rewards" program. You used to be able to pay through the app and have it charged to your credit card. They changed it to where you had to buy a gift card and add it to your account and keep funds on it to use the app. That was just more trouble than it was worth especially since it didn't work half the time and the people in the stores didn't understand it. I just said screw it, if you want me to make it hard for me to give you my money I'll just keep it and havent been there in years. I wouldn't even notice if they went out of business.
Fast forward to 2021 and I see steak ‘n Shake has finally updated a lot of their systems. You could walk up and order everything off the kiosk, we’re dine in traditionally, there’s dedicated pickup sections for food app workers, and at least the store near me looks like it has a whole new layer of paint over everything
I really don't see kiosks and removing all customer service as an improvement. Even McDonald's via kiosk or chick fil a via app will bring the food to the table
Menu way slimmed down, food took forever. Hardly any employees in the kitchen.
@@MM-fe9mz Oh I see the kiosks has a huge improvement. instead of there being only one register to check out as it was a whole life multiple people can check out at one time using multiple kiosks. He still customer service, multiple employees talk to me every time I go, and if I’m dining in I still get traditional restaurant service with a hostess or waitress checking in on me every so often during my visit. I do you agree with Isabel about there being barely any employees there. Running on a skeleton crew is a little bit ridiculous. I do see a lot of improvements.
@@WilfredoLuciano maybe ours is different. The kiosk was for ordering right when you come in, not just for paying at the end.
There was only one person you'd see that would come out from the back to call the numbers when food was ready. There definitely wasn't ANYONE checking on anyone. And when someone had a problem with their order she acted like it was a major imposition to come out to the dining room to figure it out for them.
If your going to force kiosk ordering at least include McDonald's little tent numbers so they can bring the food to the table.
Or maybe get those little baby kiosks that tgi fridays I think has that allow paying from the tables, would be cool if you could order from them too, to be able to order sitting down instead of right when you walk in.
Other than asking if I needed ketchup after calling out my number and me saying yes her giving two then acting annoyed when I asked for more. We had zero employee interaction.
Might as well just wall off the kitchen and put a wall of compartment doors like the old time lunch mats had.
I see a lot of negative responses to the kiosk in other comments. It’s funny because people complain “the human element is gone” but then turn right around and say it takes too long to wait for someone to bring you your food or bill wait in line to pay. Smh there just is no such thing as a happy customer anymore. Covid ruined that. Everyone expects everything of everybody immediately. Personally I liked the human element back when I would go in college. I got to know the night staff pretty well and they’d sit and chat with us.
But I can see moving towards kiosk a necessity. Much more efficient to have everyone tap their order, immediately pay (like at every other fast food joint), then come up and get it when you’re called (again like every other fast food restaurant). If you want the human element, go to a real restaurant where you’ll wait 15+ for your food. If you want quick food, go to a fast food restaurant where employees are just essentially Manufacturing drones. But you can’t have it both ways
The service is horrible at our local SnS. That’s why we stopped going.
A the last time i went to steak 'n shake the stole my moms credit card
Went twice,service terrible. Wait time was so long I left to never return.
Crafty Jocey yeah the guy in the first window took it and walked away and took forever giving it back and we checked it a day later and we lost 1,000$ (it's ok we got the money back)
Ppl say that about ours too but they are full of shit as Ive never had cold food and Ive never waited longer than 5 mins for my food.
@Forgiven Willing Servant of Christ Without being condescending or insulting, may you please explain how exactly people promoting equality for marginalized people are responsible for slowing service at Steak & Shake?
EDIT: No, he couldn't.
The last two times I’ve gone there the wait has just been terrible, it sucks to say because the food is pretty good
Facts.
That’s unfortunate, as I had a positive first time eating there. They must’ve been doing something wrong though because they permanently closed down 2 months after that.
In n out waitime is longer
What happened to the concept of 'good food takes time'?
That’s why I stopped going awhile ago. Their food is not special enough to wait a long time
I used to go to Steak n' Shake all the time with my dad as a kid, and then with my friends as a teenager all throughout the 2000s and early 2010s. But toward 2015-2016 - very much in line with your analyses - our visits became more synonymous with long wait times, disgruntled employees, early, unpredictable, unexplained closing times or even seating limits, and unimpressive quality. This coincided with the rise of chains with similar models such as Freddy's and Culver's in my area - while they couldn't offer the same 24/7 service that Steak n' Shake offered, the quality and service was far more consistent...and let's face it - even going to my local Steak n' Shake locations at *normal* hours, there was a decent chance you'd be turned away, and many of them closed their dining rooms altogether at dinner time/late night hours. It became so common for my friends and I to try to go to Steak n' Shake and leave unserved and disappointed that we just stopped bothering, and now if I'm in the mood for a steakburger and a milkshake I go straight for Culver's instead. It's a shame, as I have so many positive memories tied to the place, but they just haven't been the same for almost a decade.
A lack of direction is definitely a key factor. When you have that many ownership changes with their own different approaches to the business it kind of catches up. Damn shame too because I enjoy their food and especially their shakes
I lost interest in steak and shake after it stopped being a diner and started being a fast food joint.
whats the difference? haha
@@shramo The vibes and level of service
It's like they don't know what their identity should be. It's not acceptable for the only customer in the drive-thru to wait 25 minutes for their food and pay 30% more than you would at any other fast food place. They should remove the drive thru, up the quality of the food, and be the good late night burger joint.
I went into a steak and shake once and they had roaches in the corner, that was 2011, I haven’t been there since and never will eat from them again.
Back in like 2016 that use to be the ideal hangout spot with my friends and my siblings now we just pick up and leave due to corona
I live in Indiana. There was once a time in my life when the pride for Steak ‘n Shake was so real that I’d eat there for my birthday! Now.. it’s just sad.
The Steak n Shake on the Southside of Indianapolis. We used to cruise there in the 70's.😝
Now all the Steak ‘n Shake are shit hole restaurants
Worked at one in far-northern IN right when B took over. The video isn't kidding, something needed to change... but going uber-McD's when that behemoth was getting pretentious wasn't the right idea.
Our Steak and Shake was shut down for awhile because everyone was doing drugs, literally cocaine and speedballing. I know because an ex friend of mine who worked there told me. I drive by there a lot because its near a Walmart I frequent and they were even doing a free fries promotion because they are struggling so bad
@@suicidalanderson2500 lmao i wonder if the steak and shake location you're referring to is the same one im thinking of. had the same situation. also by a walmart
Dude I went there every year for almost 15 years, I ordered the same meal and I never got tired of it. The food was always so good. During the covid shit storm I watched location after location close. As an adult I'm saddened because this place has the best melt ever and best milkshakes.
I worked there 2015-16 as a teenager… we used to love the place when it came to dining in but when we were on the clock we hated it. It’s sad seeing it’s demise because it really could’ve gone bigger. I really hope they don’t continue to close their doors and miraculously make a huge comeback. I miss those 3am milkshake runs with my friends.
“They put a lot of emphasis on quality and cleanliness” sounds like the opposite of every steak and shake I’ve been to.
Not to mention the ridiculous wait times
Hideika damn hahahahaha that sucks so bad
Mine got shut down for being too dirty
The ones I've been too have been hit or miss when it comes to table cleanliness. Some are cleaner than others. But bathrooms have always been a disaster there across the board. They are almost as bad as Borders Books restrooms.
Gabriel Anselmo the few times i went weren’t so bad. didn’t really notice the restaurants being dirty. only bad thing was the wait times for the food it was almost an hour. it was definitely worth it though! those burgers and fries are really something else & costs next to nothing!
My dad and I went to a Steak n Shake at like midnight a few years ago. The only car in the drive thru line was ours. After we ordered, I had enough time to go to the liquor store next door, buy a bottle of Bourbon, come back to the car only to have forgotten the Coke, go *back* to get the soda, return to the car again and still wait for the food.
@Ivana Notyers a time during the late evening that was between 11:00 post meridiem and 1:00 ante meridiem… better?
awesome story
@Ivana Notyers yes, what the fuck? do you not know what midnight is?
Isn’t it liquor stores closed after 9 pm?
@@robertthomas4633 in Texas it does
My grandfather was one of Steak N Shake's first customers. He was born in Normal IL in 1898 and lived very close to the very first one. I worked at SnS while in high school. I loved their fast food as compared to McDonalds. Today, the Steak n Shake nearest to me in Lafayette IN. Sorry to say, but it has been a drive thru only for over two years because of Covid and nobody wanting to work there.
Steak 'n shake was my true childhood. Going there when my family was on a vacation was like heaven. I used to put the fries in the middle crease of the hot dog (TRY IT, ITS SO DANG GOOD). Seeing all the locations go, makes me want to cry. Goodbye, true dining king.
I've been to every Steak n' Shake in my area and here is the problem: staffing, staffing, staffing. I know it's hard to quantify stuff like that, but it's like they hire the worst quality of people to work there. I'm not just talking sometimes they're a little unenthusiastic or might be having a bad day. That stuff I'm very sympathetic about. I used to do food service. I get it. But, I've literally been seated at a table that still had food on the floor and was snapped at when I asked them to clean it before we sat down or let us sit at another table. I've waited my entire meal for a shake only to have the waiter bring it to me after it had been sitting on the counter the entire time. It was completely melted and when I said I just wanted a refund for the shake since we were about to leave, the manager argued with me about it. These are two examples of many I have from pretty much any SnS I've been in in the past 6 or 7 years. It's to the point where I don't even want to go into any new ones just because I assume I'll get bad service.
If they want to get better, they need stronger hiring practices. Pay better than other fast food places do. Yeah, it's more expensive, but I'm willing to pay a few bucks more to go to the friendly Steak and Shakes I remember in my youth rather than ever step foot into the dirty, full of rude staff stores of present day.
That's the flip side of trying to lower your prices too far. You get to the point where there's not enough cash coming in to pay decent wages, and you end up with people who take low pay because they have trouble getting work elsewhere. It's the same problem big-box discount retailers perennially have to wrangle with. In 2015 Walmart made the situation a lot worse when, to save on benefits costs, cut nearly all their full-time staff in the stores, only to replace them with part-timers. When those full-timers were put out, a lot of experience went out the door with them.
Funny how many people have similar stories, probably from all across the US. I doubt that's just a local issue.
I was last at a Steak ‘n Shake about 2 years ago, and there were about 12 of us. With coupons we were out of there for about $40. That’s about $3/person, and we all had burgers, fries, shakes. Their prices are just plain way too low to be sustainable. At those prices they’re always going to be understaffed and will have a lot of trouble finding good staff.
because everybody in the world wants CEO next to their name on the door and too keep all the money for themselves. YOU PAY PEOPLE SHIT - YOU'RE GONNA GET SHIT - period
This is absolutely a huge part of their problem. It's very disappointing because when their burgers are made properly, they blow the competition out of the water. I first worked at a Steak n' Shake in Peru, IL and it was run very well. It was a training store where people who wanted to become managers of other Steak n' Shakes would come to be trained. So they had their shit together and the food was efficient, clean, and delicious. I then moved to Peoria, IL and having actually enjoyed cooking at the SnS in Peru(a rarity in the restaurant business), I transferred to one of the restaurants in Peoria. The difference was astounding. Absolutely zero accountability by or from management, employees did whatever they wanted (the stories i could tell). Cockroach infestations, absolutely disgusting work conditions, layers of fruit fly shit on the dish-drying racks. I learned that every SnS in Peoria was like that, and all owned by the same guy. When they don't even care about the basics of food service, they certainly don't care about properly staffing the restaurant either.
"They emphasized quality and cleanliness" this is hilarious considering what their restaurants are like now lol
It depends on where you live. Dairy Queen food quality and cleanliness varies greatly depending on where the restaurant is located. Our local Dairy Queen seems to be quite dirty and the furniture inside the restaurant is damaged so we stopped going there.
I was gonna say I currently work at steak n shake wich is owned by some guy name Sadar, but our store has the highest gold standard in the Florida state
@@Brokenvisual22 which steak n shake is that? I live in Florida and the one in my town is just awful
@@Brokenvisual22 Sardar is Biglari’s first name. Sincerely, a former Steak n Shake employee.
The one I used to go to in Reno was gross. Not sure how it is now. Hopefully better. I used to love the milkshakes in Saint Louis as a kid.
I am so happy to hear this. Steak ‘n Shake was the worst and most traumatic job I’ve ever had
I went back in 2015 my senior year of highschool with friends around 11pm. There were about 5 of us and we were waiting over and hour for our food
Last time I ate there one of their cooks had a heart attack and died. When the paramedics arrived they brought him out to the dining area to try and jumpstart his heart. Man when I tell you that was a weird ass experience, none of the customers knew what was happening. Strange thing is the people around kept eating and somebody else whispered “wow dinner and a show” 💀 I was in disbelief how many people were unbothered. I had to leave I felt like I was invading on something
This sounds exactly like what happened at the heart attack grill. Word for word.
Bro the lad who said dinner and a show is a legend 😂
Undead WalUwUgi what’s the heart attack grill?? Is it like a themed restaurant?
My first job out of college was in the office of a big insurance company. A guy in another department dropped dead of a heart attack. They wheeled the covered gurney down the aisle by our desks and nobody seemed to care. It was like "he's in a better place now" not working for this shit hole company.
I cannot EXPRESS through text how fucking hard I’m laughing right now at these comments 💀💀💀my mom just came in and was like why are you screaming
They "temporarily closed" the location by me for "remodeling"...then signs came up saying that for only $10,000 you could the owner of that location...then it got torn down last week.
Same with the one near me and I bet we do not live in the same city.
Here in Toledo, both steak and shake locations were closed last July because the health inspector deemed them "an immediate threat to public heath" and pulled their licenses. They reopened a month later but then one closed quickly after for "renovations" and has the "buy this franchise" sign in the window
@@Doctors_TARDIS that 10000 buy in seems like a scam. I'd like to hear some stories on what happened after people did that.
Yep ! The one down the street from where I work had the same "$10,000" sign up for a long time until it just recently was turned into a Starbucks.
Same around Pittsburgh. Last time thru Ohio along I-70 where still open.
I’m watching “The Decline of Steak ‘n Shake” as I sit outside my campus Steak ‘n Shake waiting for food
I loved Steak and Shake when I discovered it driving through Indiana around '92 or '93. I love their take on Chili (which is very different from most others) especially because they used to have a great pepper sauce on the table. But that's long gone. The biggest change I've seen recently is the speed and the cleanliness. S&S is one of those weird tweener restaurants, that fast casual where they still use wait staff. And honestly they seem to hire those brand new to waiting tables. I'm sure once a Steak and Shake waiter or waitress gets it, they move on to a real restaurant to earn real money. They also seem to remain dirty, and maybe that's partially due to the 24 hours of service. I wish they'd get back on the horse, as I still like their Chili and the Frisco Melt.
I live in Normal IL and the actual original spot of the first location is now a monicals pizza
I went to school in Normal and remember hearing something about SnS leaving that particular location because it flooded easily.
sad face
LOVE Monicals Pizza! It's now spread to Indianapolis, where I live.
@@keithbk it’s the French dressing dipping sauce that gets me lol
Hey I remember you. You still doing any Rick and Morty giveaways?
I'd say this is pretty spot on. I started at SnS back in 2011, so practically the height of the Biglari era, and I can tell you every year after things got a little bit worse and a little bit worse and then a lot worse. I worked as a production trainer at one of the top performing stores in our district and you could tell the company's priorities weren't lined up properly. For a time we spent more energy training managers to work at other stores than we did promoting our own store's staff. And don't get me started on the piss poor wages. When I left in 2016 I knew it was only a matter of time before it all just imploded.
This so spot on to my time at Steak 'n Shake, I worked there for 2017-2019 and I remember at the time our store was one of the best stores in the company (Was told we were number 1 in sales but don't quote me on that). I was promoted to Production Trainer within a year practically as soon as I turned 18 and it was nice was making 12 an hour and I liked my coworkers but come 2019 and I was on my third GM and 2nd management staff. I'll never forget training MIT's two to 3 times my age at the time and that's when I knew something was off. Every time I tried to put in my two weeks corporate would just give me a raise (Thats how I was making 12 an hour lmao) but it really just felt like every time our store asked for new equipment we were denied. I remember telling trainees that the grill was older than me and we constantly had to do maintenance. All that whilst having to train the managers for other stores nearly everyone who mattered quit by march 2019 and ever since all I ever hear is how bad its gotten at that location.
Yeah i worked there too this summer and the sns i worked at was the most fucking disgusting place i ever worked at which is another reason why no one goes there lol
@Boo Babylon DUDE...STOP
:o
I was a manager there from 01-06. It was already headed in that direction even then.
Likely will be burried but thought I'd give my best story from Steak n' Shake. My family and I went in during a vacation so this was my first experience there. We ordered our food and I ordered there Nutella shake (this was when Nutella was really huge and popular).
The shake kind of kept getting delayed even after we had ate all our food. Got it 5 minutes after we finished and jammed my straw in. Got stuck half way down. Despite the wait I essentially got a vanilla milkshake with about 4 tablespoons of nutella frozen in the center. I was kind of laid back about it and just enjoyed it with a spoon. Despite it being a funny story I look back on, I could imagine the majority of people getting really mad at something like that.
Thanks for this! I worked here from 1999-2007 and it still has the same problems now that it did back then.
Their wait times are the worst I've ever seen in a fast food restaurant I swear. If there are more than 2 cars in the drive thru it's easily going to be a 15-20 minute wait.
Since when was steak and shake supposed to be fast food? I thought it worked more like a denny's. It's a diner.
This ain't burger king. THey cook your beef to order. What you want? lol It's not a fast food joint. They do that for your convenience.
@@undeadwaluwugi758 A restaurant with a driv thru is considered fast food, don't pretend like it's not. If places like Chic Fil A, Culvers, In N Out, Freddy's, and Whataburger with similar menus with a driv thru and have low wait times, there is no excuse that Steak N Shake can't either.
@@2332Stephen PLENTY of fast food restaurants that cook your food to order that are wayyy faster, yet Steak can't keep up. That's just a poor excuse.
@@LeeEverett1 which ones..the only one I know of is whataburger..the rest of them have the heat trays
Back when they did their gimmick, there was a lot of distrust of burger joints, including the charge that they use substandard meat, even unsavory bits. So doing it in the open was part of building confidence.
White Castle did the same early on.
Arby's used to have a whole boneless roast on an upright spit,and shave the beef of for each order.
@@christelheadington1136 now they just have meatboard
Since the making of this video, the 1 location in AZ closed just a handful of months into the pandemic. I remember going to it once and it reminded me too much of Shake shack and smash burger which both already had a handful of locations in the area (smashburger more so). Plus they were quite a bit pricey and the wait on the food was too long like the video mentions. The two other places are pricey too but not as expensive. It was a good burger but it was a somewhat long drive for me since there was only one location, plus there are sooooo many other burgers options out here. They're taking too long to fix the problem.
Excellent business analysis. I love your channel. Thank you for producing such great content.
I really like Steak n' Shake, the fries, and burgers, and milkshakes are simple, cheap, and good, and now I'm craving it.
mine got replaced by a Freddy's steakhouse so I can't complain lol.
@@540mak4 I just love diners
@I OFFER YOU THIS I think dining in is still closed and it's just drive up and take out
it’s not cheap😭
Nick Yennerell $5.86 for fries, a double cheeseburger, and a drink is pretty cheap
I used to love S&S. But now "In sight, it's gag-me filthy."
The causes of it's fall, IMO, are (1) employees seem unhappy (not taken care of by the company) so they are disinterested in store success (it's just a job until they can get a better job), and (2) the stores are now plain dirty.
Do you know anyone who genuinely chooses to work as a restaurant server or frycook?
@@MostlyPonies1 a lot of good people who want to earn money to feed their family?
It may not be great money, but I respect anyone who is willing to work hard. I suspect you do as well.
I agree with this sentiment. I recall a few years ago when as Steak and Shake had opened up on 3rd Street in Santa Monica. As a mid-westerner who hadn't been to one in years, I was pretty excited. After going in and placing an order, I then went into the restroom. What quickly spoiled my appetite was the employee that was in there, changing into his uniform. Not only did this guy smell rancid, but he had laid his UNIFORM on the floor of the bathroom while he changed out of his street clothes.
Now, I get it, sometimes people are working to pull themselves out of a tough situation, but if you're working in food, being somewhat sanitary is a must, and laying your work uniform on the floor of the restroom is just nasty.
After that, I still chanced getting my order. Sadly, what arrived was not anywhere near the quality I rememberers of Steak and Shake, and it really did seem like the people working there had zero care about the product they were putting out.
Considering the fact that a location like this is in a high value (probably loss leading strictly for status/publicity) area, they only really did themselves in. Having really liked Steak and Shake growing up, I think that single experience I had has pretty much turned me off from ever going to another one anywhere.
@@migueldelmazo5244 The better question may be. "Who wants to stay in that job out of their love for it?". Doing a job only out of necessity plus how the owners/corporate treat their employees is going to be different then performing a job you love and pays the bills.
Really Office Space nailed it. You do enough just so you don't get fired. The success of the workplace doesn't help the employee invest in it if the workplace doesn't invest in the employee.
@@DesignIncase I agree with your sentiment. Employers should encourage workers to want to be at their job by treating them fairly (or well) and by providing a good work environment. It's the moral thing to do, and as many modern companies have shown, it can actually lead to increased profits, not less.
My (albeit poorly worded and much too succinct) point is that in our relatively free-association society, no one is locked into their job by the force of the employer. Life circumstances may make decisions more difficult, but people are free to leave their position for another. If that is the case, then if I see someone working a job I would prefer not to have, I assume that they are doing it for their own good and for the good of those they love. I could be wrong in many cases, but it helps me remember to treat them well and with respect.
I figure you do the same; just less nerdy than me. :) (I know I can be long winded).
Wish you the best out there!
I used to live in California but I moved to Kansas recently. Never heard of Stake N’ Shake before I moved, but I’ve been enjoying it here. The wait times are actually not bad here.
There's one in Lincoln IL at a truck stop and when talking with them, they said the pandemic actually saved that store, they were on the verge of closing due to bankruptcy, and going to carry out only saved that store.
“Normal, Illinois” has got to be the most mundane place name that I’ve ever heard lol
I grew up there. It is
So many hot college girls there though.
@@turtleislandlac1490 ok Roshi
I guess you’ve never heard of Boring, Oregon.
Bean Burrito it is normal. I’m about an hour from it.
Speaking as a former GM, they treat the store level employees like garbage. I was working 80 hour weeks to make my store run well. I couldn't keep staff, and the above store leaders would say they were aware and would help, but never did. Despite the fact I halved their food waste and labor, they wanted more, for less. It was awful. I quit pretty rapidly. Best choice I ever made.
I agree. My wife and i both worked for them. My wife is still there and i honestly want to fight the management
Worst company I ever worked for as a GM. I took a zero point store to a 14 point store. I was also a training store. I won’t even go through all the BS. Do yourself a favor don’t work for SNS
My dad was literally shot and killed at a Steak & Shake bc a former employee decided to rob it
I was hired to be a GM at a decent salary in a Dayton, Ohio market store. The district manager who hired me painted a nice picture of the hours - between 50 to 55 a week with excellent PTO - and the working conditions, and I was excited to start.
When I spoke with corporate - some lady out of Cleveland - she painted an entirely different picture. She told me I would be working a lot more than 50 to 50 hours that I may be pushing 80 or more. She said that if there were no help, I couldn't take PTO. She made it like it was frowned upon if I were sick.
She told me she wanted me to know the truth before I started and quit like so many had before. I thanked her, and I declined the job. I called the district manager to tell him, and he tried to talk me out of it. That is one of the stores that is closed. I'm glad she told me, and from your comment and others, it sounds like she did me a huge favor.
@@ronniewylie5115 you made a good decision. I can assure you of that. The lady out of Cleveland is more accurate.
I remember I used to go almost every week with my grandpa and get food on Friday’s after school. Was never amazing but a strawberry milkshake and a burger and fries always hit the spot. Also when they had their salt and vinegar fries a few years ago had be going as an adult as well.
After watching this video, I checked to see if my local Steak n' Shake location were still there, and all of them have now closed. While the reasoning Larry gave could very well have played a big factor in why they started to lose profits, there's no excuse for not updating your equipment and layouts to keep up with sales. It's just so sad to see. Still one of my favorite places to get a burger and fries with a shake. Hopefully they can get pulled out of the ground once again in the future.
Mine has been here for many years now, still going strong. What I think this channel fails to realize is all the choices today. McDonalds is the grossest food I have ever eaten, yet I still eat there occasionally. Why? Cause it's closer. Steak n Shake is much better, but further away. 2 of the 3 Burger Kings near me shut down. One McDonalds to rule them all. But they are so gross. McNuggets have sucked for awhile now, meat has always been eh, fries are their redeeming feature but that is on the decline.
Just not enough stores imo. When I have to go 2-3 times the distance/time to get to the closest Stake n Shake compared to McD or BK or Hardees, sorry SnS. Might start hittin up the closer sonic, but eh.
Yeah, you're definitely not wrong. The only ones near me were next to interstates, so definitely not down the street by any means. McD is 5 minutes and SnS was 20, but now the nearest SnS is 30 minutes away. I find it hard to believe that I will ever eat there again unless we go out of our way specifically for it. And if I'm going to go through all that trouble just for some food, it's not going to be for some $5 burgers and a shake. Love their food, but not enough to spend over an hour getting it. Not to mention that their drive thru took an ungodly amount of time due to each order being made only when actually ordered. Never really bothered me since I always picked my food up or ate inside, but having all that infrastructure for something that just doesn't work was probably losing them some money also.
Nothing to update. The low quality employees and pathetic store management is to blame.
Have one down the street, they closed and open more times than I can count. Service so bad I refuse to go there anymore. Too bad, because I like the food and the prices. But I am done
The last time I went, a few of the employees quit and walked out, not even finishing up orders. We had to wait a long time for food, which was a takeout order. We went to pay and the cashier told us not to and just gave it to us before she too walked out
Wow, that sounds like a crazy experience. Things must have been really bad there if they all left at the same time in one night! @.@
Thats crazy, I linda wish I was there to see it all go down
@@jessicaedwards3197 Definitely, either the manager or corporate was awful. I don't know much about Steak and Shake and whether they franchise or whatever but for everyone to walk out it must have been really bad, maybe the workers weren't paid.
And then they all clapped
@@evancampbell1963 If more then three people quit, it's likely more are going to quit.
I love these retro diner style restaurants, so it’s a shame to see such a popular chain go downhill like this.
I think the demand of these retro type restaurants have gone down a lot since 2015, there was over 5 different locations of steak n steak and other retro restaurants, now there’s just 1, I especially miss “highway 55” that place was so good
@@Mmaples19 I have to disagree on Hwy 55. Food was ok, but I liked SnS better. Didn't help that the only Hwy 55 was 15 miles from me, but if the food was good I wouldn't mind. It was average though. Just a theme, and average food.
We had three curb service style Steak 'n Shakes in Daytona Beach in the 70's and my best friend managed two of them after the beachside location was replaced with a commercial strip. We still have one of the newer drive thru window stores operating here. My friend moved into rent to own store management with several different franchises.
My husband and I LOVED doing late night S&S visits just to people watch. Unfortunately our usual place had awful management that ran off their best servers... then COVID... now it's only open a few hours a day and is order kiosks with little to no human interaction, which ruined the whole experience. We've stopped going. 😔
The steak and shake in my area has been “Under Renovation” for like 2 years lol
Ditto, Cincinnati, oakley.
Lmao. Same with mine, never did reopen from being "renovated". Now it's officially shut down
Same
Same in St.Petes Fl.
rick woods stl mo
Food is good. Service sucks at most I’ve been to.
And appearance of, shall we say, substance use
no its not i worked at one and its so nasty i use to love the food now its totally ruined seeing how gross it was made
@@Wherestheredwave as my old workplace when I was on drugs. I say I was the higher acheiver compared to the drunk waiter and my opiate addicted manager
I've seen a cook fall asleep at the grill while eating at one location
Everyone I've been to has been so slow service wise. It's the main reason I rarely patronized their establishments.
One of my last memories I have of my grandfather before he passed away was going out to eat with him at steak and shake. it was his favorite restaurant. It's sad to see how it's nothing more than a fast food place now and, as much as I still miss him, on the other hand I'm glad he's not around to see his favorite restaurant turn into the terrible mess it is today.
Went once during a road trip and the food was so bad! I remember my whole family laughing about it and it wasn’t a big deal, but the burgers all came out cold and the fries weren’t salted at all! The saving grace was the soda lol!! I have a photo from the trip of just me holding the cup and the sad fries. 😂 we are all cracking up about it and still ate it. Good memories!
What happened? They forgot to clean their restaraunts for like 10 years.
you can blame that on pathetic humans and the way i look at restaurant people.They are not the brightest people u could think of.
Fr the one in my area was so dirty
they shut down the whole cincinnati franchise because of this
My boyfriend and I like to watch these videos while eating tacos in the Lowe's parking lot at 2am
Ah, I miss those kinda nights...
Now that's love...
@Leonhardt no one cares if you asked or not 😂
Goals 😂💯
Jamal I care -_-
Steak n Shake is a love/hate thing for me. I LOVE Frisco Melts and their delicious fries and shakes, but every time I go, I feel like there is no way to get around having to wait for 20 minutes or more to receive your food. While I could say that I also don't care for the inconsistency (sometimes it's hot garbage, though usually its really damn good), the wait time is what always keeps me away. If I'm going to wait so long for food, I'd rather go to a true sit-down restaurant or fast-casual place.
S&S is my husband's guilty pleasure meal (hey we all got em), and every time we go I am AMAZED at how rough it is. We'll get a milk shake that is straight up solid, not mixed at all, fries that are crumbs. And there is one staff car in the parking lot with darkened windows so the building looks abandoned from the outside.
when you said "focus on cleanliness" I was stunned. Every steak and shake i've ever gone to has been the dirtiest establishment on the block. Wait times are usually terrible as well. I only eat there when I'm feeling lazy and super cheap, or when they're the only store open at 3am and I ran out of food in my fridge.
They used not to be that way before but nowadays you are spot on
@@DeezNuts- I dunno that was my experiences 10+ years back in Florida at ANY S&S.
Bad staff, bad food, bad wait times, dirty as hell...each and every time.
That's what you get when staff is full of blacks and latinos
@@DivineHyperion damn dude calm down
@@SuperLucacio Just laying out the truth bomb. I'm as calm as a Shaolin Monk.
"Local college protesting because they sold beer" what?
That sounds like something a college would do.
Imean, selling beer at a gas station where ppl could drink and drive... i can see it
@@marzipan2555 have you ever been to a gas station? 99% of them sell beer
I bet the people who had the idea to protest follow fads because their such boring libtards
@@shithappens6887 but not a single one of them serves beer. there is a big difference - especially legally.
A lot of mornings, the drive thru was closed, as no employees showed up. Other mornings they were significantly understaffed. This happened consistently at two locations near Cincinnati (Springdale and Mason). I was surprised that this was allowed.
searched this video because its been more than 3 years since i've been to steak and shake and I remember liking it alot. Tried it again Saturday and Today; both times i got an intense stomach ache and diarrhea.
I used to go there with some friends late at night when we were hanging out and got hungry. Every time it was what you would call a bad experience. We didn't really care because we were young and it was late and we had nowhere to be. One time we went to pay and waited for a long time at the counter while not one member of the staff was anywhere to be found. It was like they vanished. Eventually one of them walked through the entrance and came up to process our payment. One our way out to the car we saw what was going on. The entire staff was hanging out in the parking lot listening to music and smoking. Again we really didn't care at the time but it's something you remember if you are looking for somewhere to eat but are a little more strapped on time. Awhile later we went back and later that night I got a really severe case of food poisoning. I vomited up everything for hours. It had to have been Steak N Shake so I avoided it for awhile. A few weeks later I was hanging out with friends again and they wanted to grab food. The only thing open was that damn Steak N Shake. I didn't have many choices so I went and ordered something safe, like some kind of Grilled Cheese and Bacon meal. Sure enough I got food poisoning again, only this time is was even more severe. A few hours later I still couldn't keep down the smallest amount of water so I ended up needing a visit to the ER where they had me on anti-nausea meds, IVs, and pain meds because the abdominal pain was pretty bad. I don't think I'd survive a next time and I should have never gone back but I caved in under pressure. The restaurant was always a mess and the staff took forever to do anything even when you were the only ones there. They weren't particularly polite but those are things I can shrug off if it's 1 am, I have all the time in the world, and I'm hungry. You can't shrug off major bouts of food poisoning though. Their standards are just really low now and a really poorly run restaurant apparently has no oversight. It was always like that whenever we went. I know we shouldn't have kept going there but we had no other options at that time.
How long ago was this? Just out of curiosity.
The problem with you saying you got food poisoning is the fact that it takes 24 hours for the bacteria to pass through your digestive tract. When people eat something and they're throwing up a couple hours later, it's not food poisoning... though most people claim it is.
@@Jeff-sm1ow Do realize how rare getting "staph" is in a restaurant? In fact, Staph was a quality control issue at the manufacturing level, but has largely been non existent these days as the science & tech improved at that level. When was the last time you've heard of someone getting "Staph" from a restaurant? Also, do you realize how hard it is to get rid of staph...Staph will always cause hospitalization. I'm sure it still happens, but statistically, it's barely measurable. The vast, vast majority of people who get sick after eating is because the "germ" already existed in their system, and the body was not able to process the food, thus causing a person to vomit it out. This would be true even if they ate something at home. Actual food poison in almost all cases will also like staph, cause hospitalization. There are countless reasons people can feel lousy after eating something that is NOT food poisoning...which is the vast majority of cases.
Dman Nevada ok but what is it then. It can’t be a coincidence that OP got sick both times they went out to get steak in shake. Also, the food poisoning isn’t only limited to bacteria, and it has something to do with your stomach, not intestines.. I’m pretty positive that what OP got was good poisoning. They were probably even diagnosed with it at the hospital. To sum it up, if it was the food that made OP sick, then it was 95% a type of food poisoning.
Dman, thank you!!! I was about to type the same thing... I have worked in restaurants for over 20 years. I love the "I got food poisoning from your place" call...
Once, my gandparents went to a Steak 'n Shake. They were shown to an empty booth, got their menus... and then went *completely ignored and unnoticed* by any and all staff for more than 30 minutes. They said they weren't even full or busy. They even said they called an employee walking by their table, but before they could even say anything, he said "Hold on a sec" and continued walking and never spoke to them again.
Well your grandparents aren’t the only ppl that had that kinda situation
Because it's steak n shake
It was so weird, growing up we had one right down the street and when we went (which was frequently) it was always packed and then one day it closed. The building has been vacant for 15 years
I moved to Utah from Illinois back in 2014 and the restaurant I missed the most was steak-n-shake. I finally brought my partner with me to Illinois in 2022 and was disappointed at how slow the service was and was very sad to see the side by side milkshake and all the delicious sides I could order with my burger gone. I can’t say I’m excited to visit again.
The problem is when you own a company you have to keep money flowing into it. People buy a failing business and make it profitable and then figure it will continue to be profitable without continued investment. It's like fixing a car and getting it running and then never doing any maintenance on it and wondering why it's not running anymore.
I've got the best one. In Warminster, PA, a Friendly's closed, was stripped down and rebuilt as a Steak N Shake. It opened in Fall 2018. A line down the street, by all means a fantastic grand opening. Too bad the place burned down after 13 hours of operation. They were closed for renovation until May 2019 when they reopened. They lasted 6 months and were closed permanently by December 2019. It is currently being stripped down again ready for the next contestant.
That place is cursed
JUST OVER HALF A DAY?! What the hell happened, a grease fire?
Reminds me of this one place in the small town I used to live in. It was once a catfish restaurant that most people in town seemed to agree was quite good. Then, for whatever reason, it closed. Before my family moved out of there, it had been replaced by at least three other restaurants, all of which failed
@@erics.czernecki7333 I didn't go on opening day because the line was just too long, but I can tell you that there wasn't any evidence of a fire on the exterior of the building. So it was relatively contained.
This makes me want to see him do a video on Friendly’s now.
From 2012-2014 the Valdosta, GA location was incredibly delicious! It did take about as much time as ordering in any other traditional restaurant chain like Applebee's or Ruby Tuesdays but the diner like atmosphere and expansive milkshake offerings made it much better than the generic-ness of the other previously mentioned places.
I went to steak and shake once and waited for 45 minutes being literally the only person in the store and not even getting my order taken after being seated
I live in Normal, fun fact: That original Steak 'n Shake no longer exists. The basement had a flooding problem and now it's a Monical's pizza.
Same! Well
Bloomington but basically the same thing ..
Cool! What year did the original SnS close?
@@benjaminc.m.9873 I couldn't tell you for sure, but I think it was some time in the mid seventies[?] I'd have to do some research.
Hell yeah. From Normal, and the taste is good but the people they employ are pathetic
Chris Kirby and they got rid of their breakfast menu. That’s literally all I cared to eat there.
Steak N Shake was a HUGE part of my childhood. Myself, 4 brothers and parents would go there all the time as kids, and it turned into us bringing friends, etc.
My mom would take me here, she would smoke, drink coffee and I would draw on the placemats and we would talk.
She died in 2013 and I miss her so much.
All of the wait staff knew us by name, and it was just such a fun time of my childhood. I really miss this place and it will always hold a special place in my heart
You and I share a similar childhood. Our Steak N Shake was across the street from our apartment. I still remember the gleaming Stainless Steel counters and eating Chili Mac. Every time I see one it's a flood of memories as my mom passed in 2015.
I used to visit my grandparents once a year in Indiana. My sister and I always begged to go to steak n shake at least once every visit. I haven't been in years because I just don't live near one. But I get off on the nostalgia. I had a lot of great times there with my grandparents as a kid
I liked the fact that they at least once offered the Cincinnati-style chili plate with a variety of toppings, no one else in the Chicago IL area (at least) that I know of has that. I haven't been to one in a while, so I do not know if it is still on the menu.
The Steak ‘n Shake here in Maryland was disgusting and chaotic. They couldn’t keep up.
Yep the one over here by Glen Burnie was a hot mess. The food was meh. Then the guy who owned it originally is in jail now for murder or attempted murder of his wife, I can't remember if he succeeded or not.
I ate the one in Millersville in the afternoon and it’s pretty empty in there. Food is interesting
Which county?
Jd Brink Ann Arundel
@@dmyst My steak n shake had bed bugs in it. My sister went there in it's last weeks and found her self covered in them when she got home. What the fuck, man?
Culver's: "I'm you, but stronger."
Culvers is so good though.
Culvers is my weekly sin lol
Aaah a fellow wisconsinite lol damnit now I want a butter burger and some cheese curds
@@codyhuseby257 And those fries and that custard.
Freddy's now reigns supremacy.
i was so sad when alot of the restaurants closed near my house. my grandpa also used to work at steak n shake as a manager and got rewarded by my citys police chief for being quick during a major robbery
"We failed customers by not being fast and friendly."
Oh boy, story time: I once went to a Steak and Shake near my house after a late night shift on a Friday. I had a real taste for their burgers. I walked in to put an order and waited and waited to get my order taken. After almost ten minutes of not getting a "hi, we'll be with you in a moment." I walked out. On my way out, I heard the one manager who was running around the register and grill area say, "Until so and so gets here, we're not going to have a cook for the moment."
I just shook my head as I head out the door and back in the car. Now I could count this as a fluke and the fact I live in a "meh" area where fast food service from several chains are way more missed than hits in quality and friendliness, but I also had issues in the past where I had several wrong take out orders when I used to go there frequently. In short, I hope Steak and Shake does better, but you got quite an uphill battle to get there.
Praise the lord!!!!👏👏👏👏 I fucking hate doing grubhub and doordash for this fucking restaurant. They'll keep you waiting for 5 years for your order.
@@lover2ed134 That's funny. My youngest brother did an order last Friday for the same Steak and Shake through Grub Hub and he said that's exactly what's happen to him.
How does a fast food restaurant not have a COOK? How can that EVER happen? Isn't that, like, the most important job? Shouldn't someone else be able to do it for a few minutes?
@@yannickgrignon2473 My guess is that someone was running late during a shift change, but you would think the manager would step in and cover or have someone else cross trained cover until the other guy shows up or something along those lines.
Love how the managers of the restaurants is saying that lol. Doesn't surprise me sadly.
I've always liked Steak 'n' Shake's food, and felt that it justified their premium price point versus McDonalds or Wendy's. But the quality control and service at the restaurants are hugely variable - Across the board, Steak 'n' Shake has horrendous wait times, rude or confused servers, poor POS handling, and low inventory. I've also had the following happen to me at Steak 'n' Shake over the years:
-Servers dropping entire trays of bussed tableware more than once during my visit
-A 45 minute wait at the drive-through due to software issues
-Being served moldy cheese on chili
When it works, it's great, but getting there seems to be a big problem. And I mean, I CAN make hamburgers at home.
The point of getting food at all is to avoid having to make it at home.
So when an establishment (corporation or not) compels you to make food at home instead, then they've failed.
". But the quality control and service at the restaurants are hugely variable"
Exactly this. I've had consistently great food and service at some locations, and terrible service paired with mediocre food at other locations. I suspect it is due to which locations are competently managed.
I remember going to a Steak N Shake in Georgia when I went to visit family. This was maybe back in 2017. I loved their food. It was probably some of the best burgers I've had. Top 3 for sure. So it surprises me to see a video about them.
Went from the authentic, to fake by over-expansion and corner cutting. Small term profits prioritized over the long term. The progression of every failing business.
Your words are wise.
Their menu is good, it seems like everything else is wrong
I worked there in high school back in 2002-2003 and it was a pretty good experience. I’ve gone back many times over the last 20 years and it’s just not the same.
My first visit to a Steak and Shake was in Dallas in 2014. They sat us down and someone took our order. The food was good, but the service was not; it took them a long while to get our order out and the waitress didn't come by to refresh our drinks. A few years later, I stopped by one outside Austin and more or less had the same experience. A few years after that, I found one in San Antonio where you ordered at the counter like a typical fast food place. There, the food didn't take as long and refills were available at the Coca-Cola Freestyle machine, so it became my favorite when I was in the neighborhood. It closed due to COVID but reopened last year. The Freestyle machine is now gone but otherwise it's still good.
Service has to factor into the decline. In St. Louis (where we've lost the bulk of our locations over the past couple of years), the service was inconsistent at best and infamously horrible at worst depending on what location you went to. Certain stores you just learned to avoid, but they all started to slip. In the year before it closed the one nearest me would frequently have the drive-thru closed. In other places staff would be rude and inattentive if you actually went inside. Meanwhile we were seeing more locations opening for restaurants like Chic-fil-A, Culver's, and Freddy's that raised the standard consumers could expect for fast-food service.
The one on Hampton takes forever... I ordered a chocolate shake one time and it never came out. I had to ask the waitress to get me a refund because they were going to charge me for something I didn’t get.
Are Watson and Hampton the only ones left near the city? They're the only two I can think of off of the top of my head.
I have no idea why Steak N Shake even has a drive-through, unless you're just getting a shake I've waited literally 30 minutes in my car for a store that was almost completely empty to get my mushroom and swiss burger combo for $8. Apparently on their job applications they hire everyone who checks the "I prefer to stand around and talk" line on the "What do you usually do for fun" part of the survey.
MFW a customer comes in just 5 hours before we close
I get Steak n shake all the time and Ive never had bad service, never had cold food and Ive never waited longer than 5 mins for my food in the drive thru. Its literally the only restaraunt that I can say that about.
I’m literally in the Steak n Shake line rn and I MUST be getting tracked 😭
But also, Steak n Shake is the best restaurant ever don’t come for it
@@Ash_W04 period gurrlll
@@Ash_W04 its trash food, but im trash, so thats why i love it. Freshly made trash. Frisco melt is life.
Are you still in line?
@@Ash_W04 one of them
Our standout experience with Steak & Shake was going there while our sister was in college.
Was there for 45 minutes after ordering. A single coleslaw for dad.
...An hour and 15 minutes later, only then did the food come out. It was fairly comparable to the Dairy Queen a bit further down.
... It was a 2 hour drive to our sister's college already.
There are a few Steak 'n Shakes near me and each restaurant runs vastly different. There are a couple inside hotel/casinos which are both kept up well, and a standalone store which is run more fast-food style and feels like any other fast-food experience.
I have to say that if you go to one of the casino locations, it's still a fairly good experience. You can get a decent burger and fries for around 10 bucks, service is still pretty friendly, and because they're in casinos they're forced to uphold their cleanliness standards. I still love going to Steak 'n Shake.
I miss Steak n’ Shake, I would eat there at least once a week - always between 2 and 4am for some reason. Eating there alone, in the dead of night, always felt like a nice dining experience; sometimes I would show up in the middle of the day to get a couple of burgers and a shake to go.
My biggest complaint was that you got more fries than actual food. It’s nice that all the combos are $4, but you didn’t get much food because it was 1 burger, and a plate of fries; or 3 chicken tenders, and a plate of fries.
I moved to a different state in 2016, and the closest Stake n’ Shake is just over an hour away, so I’ve only had it twice in the last 4 years.
If you have a Freddy's somewhere close, it's pretty comparable.
Freddy's is WAY better than Steak N Shake.
Ya got a Culver’s?
And I thought I was the only one who did this. I love eating there in the middle of the night. But the one by me is no longer 24 hours. They're kind of like McDonalds when it comes to burger size unfortunately. There's a reason they are one of the cheapest sit down restaurants.
This is also similar with Teddy's Bigger Burgers.
I lost my virginity as a SnS employee back in the dry stock room, will always have fond memories of the place.
I hope it was special for him too.
@@jasonfuller2734 My side job was mopping at the end of the shift so it worked out well.
Jada Fischer?
Maybe if they put that on the menu they might recover.
That's one way to get your teenage son to get a job.