Ruby Tuesday in Pocatello closes abruptly due to poor sales

The Ruby Tuesday restaurant in Pocatello closed it’s doors abruptly on Christmas after the owners of the chain restaurant posted a note on the door saying, “Business permanently closed. Watch for a new restaurant opening soon.” The note was the first that customers and employees had heard about the closure.

The last day of operation was Friday, Dec. 23. According to owners, the restaurant had to shut down because of low sales and a steady decline in business. The owners said they are hopeful a new restaurant will come in and maybe retain some of Ruby Tuesday’s employees. The owners said Ruby Tuesday is also working to reimburse customers who still have gift cards for the restaurant.

The owners of the restaurant issued the following statement:

“With a heavy heart, the owners of Ruby Tuesday have officially closed the doors of the Pocatello location. A steady decline of business and a struggling corporate brand have made it impossible to continue doing business. Though the closing was abrupt, we did everything we could to keep the doors open up until Christmas, and we were hoping for a strong sales month in December so we might continue, but that simply wasn’t the case.

Ruby Tuesday originally opened the Pocatello location with a strong management team, and a group of silent local investors that wanted to bring more dining options to our home town. We had hoped to provide additional jobs and flexible hours for high school and university students which we have successfully done for the past several years. We have struggled with several management changes thru the years, and with the corporate brand struggling we simply could not stay on a financially viable course. The investors have been supplementing the store for the past two years hoping for things to rebound, but that rebound never occurred, and the final cash infusions to the store have been exhausted.

We have had some great and dedicated employees over the years – and some dedicated patrons who have helped support or endeavor, and for this we thank you.

We are working diligently with some interested restaurants in hopes that they can take over the restaurant quickly and we will attempt to setup a custom interview process for our existing employees in hope that the can be re-employed by the new tenant.

We are also working on a program to reimburse anybody who has a balance remaining on their Ruby Tuesday gift cards. This requires use of the Ruby Tuesday POS system which we will no longer have access to – but we are putting together a plan to get these processed, and get refunds sent to people as quickly as possible. We will post additional information on this as quickly as we can.

Sincerely – Ruby Tuesday – Pocatello”

We are investigating the closure and will provide additional details when they become available.