Golden Corral is the number one all you

can eat buffet chain in the United

States with an estimated $1.6 billion in

sales each year. An impressive number,

especially when you consider that just

about every other major buffet chain in

the country has effectively failed, or

at the very least, they have been

severely diminished from where they once

were. Previous videos on this channel

include the decline of CeCe, Sweet

Tomatoes, Ponderosa, Old Country Buffet,

and Sizzler. All of which have filed for

bankruptcy at least once and have mostly

disappeared. Meanwhile, Golden Corral

has been much more resilient. They have

survived multiple changes in the market,

consumer preferences, negative media

attention, a pandemic, and so much more.

And after all of it, they are arguably

doing better today than ever before. So,

in this video, I want to explore how

Golden Corral has been such a standout

success over the years by highlighting

some of the more drastic rises and falls

throughout its history. Starting off

with the initial rise, not as a buffet,

but as a budget steakhouse, if you can

believe that. See, back in the 1970s and

the 1980s, there was a trend in the

industry where all these restaurants

open that specialized in selling lower

grade steaks for only a few dollars. It

was appealing to many customers because

it allowed them to take their family out

for an affordable steak dinner, which in

the past would have been a much more

classy and expensive experience. These

budget steakous typically had a

southwestern theme with the biggest

chain being Ponderosa. Well, in the

early 1970s, James Maynard and William

Carl were trying to break into the

restaurant industry by opening one of

these steakouses in North Carolina. They

started out by applying to Ponderosa

along with some of the other similar

chains to open their own franchise. But

after being rejected by all of them due

to lack of experience, they were able to

raise enough money to start their own

original concept. At first, it was

called Golden Steer, but after issues

registering the name, they quickly

changed it to Golden Corral. They stood

out from the others by offering fresher

and slightly higher quality food. Unlike

Ponderosa, their steaks were USDA choice

beef, never frozen, and cut at the

restaurants along with their fries.

Obviously, that led to comparatively

higher costs, leading to losses at two

of their first three locations. But as

they continued to open more restaurants,

they focused on smaller locations in

smaller towns that were mostly

overlooked by the competing steakouses.

So, the higher sales combined with

economies of scale helped them become

profitable. Within about a decade, they

had opened around 200 locations when

they almost doubled in size by acquiring

a competing company in Kansas called

Sirloin Stockade. But by the end of the

1980s, most of these budget steakhouses

were struggling. I recommend watching my

video about Ponderosa if you want to

hear a little bit more about the reasons

behind it. But going back to my list,

Golden Corral's first fall, I would say

it was mostly due to Americans eating

less red meat. At the time, many people

were abandoning it in favor of other

meats that they felt were healthier,

like chicken or fish. I'm sure I do not

have to explain how that would be bad

news for a steakhouse like Golden Corral

that generated most of their sales from

red meat. In short, there were more

steakous than ever before competing for

fewer customers. A common response to

this for many of the chains, including

Golden Corral at first, was to add a

salad bar, providing an attractive

alternative for many of their customers.

However, the drawbacks to this plan

included the fact that it was considered

more of a side offering. While their

core business was still centered around

a declining food, but also consider the

fact that these smaller buildings and

lower population communities were not

built to accommodate a salad bar. It

took up too much room and eliminated up

to 30 seats from their dining area. Here

is where I really have to respect them

because instead of clinging on to a

dying concept, they invested a lot of

money and took some big risks to

essentially transform the entire

business. And that is going to lead me

into the next rise of Golden Corral,

which of course would be the buffet.

Seriously, they adapted a new strategy

that in a lot of ways was the exact

opposite as before. Instead of focusing

on mostly ignored small towns, they

started opening restaurants in much

larger, more competitive markets. And

most of those new locations were at

least twice the size of the previous

ones. Not only to accommodate more

customers, but to make room for their

all you can eat buffet that consisted of

more than 150 items, including their

brass bell bakery that made fresh rolls

every 15 minutes. There have been

changes over the years since, but

basically it became much more like the

Golden Corral that you recognize today.

They also started franchising in a big

way, and as far as I could tell, it was

a stable program. At first, it was only

open to the company's existing general

managers, but when they expanded it,

they still required previous restaurant

experience and forced them to attend a

12-week training program. By the early

1990s, sales were rising again to new

highs each year, and they continued that

momentum well into the 2000s. Now, I do

not want to make it seem like it has

been a flawless journey from that point

because they have experienced some

potentially major setbacks. Some of

these include a Salmonella outbreak in

2003, a noro virus outbreak in 2012.

That was followed by a viral video the

next year where an employee at a Golden

Corral in Florida filmed a lot of gross

food sitting next to dumpsters. You

might remember that one. It was pretty

big. The company quickly fired the

manager of that location and assured the

public that the food was never going to

be served to customers. Though, you

might want to look a little further into

it before you finalize your opinions

about it. My point here is that despite

some potentially major setbacks, Golden

Corral has risen above every other major

buffet chain in the country. So I want

to take a minute to theorize as to why

that might be the case. The biggest

thing that stands out to me that is at

the root of it is the fact that Golden

Corral has always been a privatelyowned

company with very consistent leadership.

Since it has never been on the stock

market, it has had the freedom to make

major changes when necessary and focus

on long-term stability and growth as

opposed to short-term profits.

Co-founder William Carl was involved

with the company as a member of the

board of directors for 23 years, while

co-founder James Maynard, I believe, may

still be involved with the company in

some way at 85 years old. He was the

original CEO for 16 years before

stepping down to run Golden Corral's

holding company when he was replaced by

Ted Fowler, who had already been with

the company for over a decade and served

as CEO for the next 25 years. In 2015,

he was replaced by Lance Trinary, who

had already been with the company for 30

years and remains CEO today. and he has

gone so far as to say there's no doubt

having consistency of leadership and

ownership brings such value to our

organization. What I'm trying to say is

that Golden Corral has been operated

with a consistent vision by people who

are personally invested and passionate

about its success and I do not think

that we can say the same about any of

those other major buffet chains. I also

theorized that the company's willingness

to reinvest and remodel locations has

helped keep them more relevant and

upto-date compared to those others.

Obviously that whole bigger location

buffet initiative is probably the

biggest example of this. But then also

in 2000 they started converting to what

they call the strata design where you

could watch the food being prepared.

They introduced the gateway design

characterized by a quieter, more relaxed

dining room that is bigger further from

the buffet and features a fireplace.

Another theory is that the menu has been

more extensive than most competitors. As

they put it, Golden Corral's unmatched

variety accommodates to most all

nutrition needs such as low carb, vegan,

paleo, and plant-based diet plans. So,

there is something for everybody,

including the kids. In 2010, they

started introducing cotton candy, which

is pretty unusual for a restaurant. In

the following year, they introduced the

chocolate fountain, or as they call it,

the chocolate wonderfall. I guess this

can be summarized by saying that most of

the mistakes made by the competing

buffet chains have not been committed by

Golden Corral. Going back to my list,

Golden Corral has had some major issues

during the pandemic. Obviously, most

restaurants were impacted, but Golden

Corral was among the most impacted

considering a buffet is more of an

in-person community dining experience.

Not the kind of place you would think to

order from online or have delivered. and

potentially, when you think about it,

one of the worst places to spread germs

with people getting so close to the food

and serving themselves from the same

utensils. Most of their locations were

shut down for a while, causing some of

their biggest franchises to file for

bankruptcy. Sales were more than cut in

half in 2020, while they closed over 100

locations in the following years. They

were forced to make a lot of temporary

changes that fundamentally altered the

customers experience. They changed it so

that the employees had to get the food

for the customers who were sitting at

the table. Of course, they didn't have

drive-throughs already, so they had to

kind of meet people in the parking lot

to fill orders. It was a mess. I mean,

this has to be one of the worst things

that can happen to a buffet restaurant

and easily the most uncertain period

that Golden Corral has ever experienced.

But they were able to survive. Bringing

me to the final rise on my list that I'm

just going to call surviving. There is

of course more involved in it, but to

keep it simple, Golden Corral was in a

much stronger position than any other

major buffet chain going into the

pandemic. Competitors like Sweet

Tomatoes and Old Country Buffet were not

able to survive it. So now there is less

competition than ever before. Just based

on some of the comments from my videos

about those other chains, it seems like

a lot of people have switched over to

Golden Corral, considering it is one of

the only comparable options at this

point. Sales have since recovered very

close to their previous highs despite

operating so many fewer locations,

meaning sales per location are stronger

than they have ever been. In 2023, the

CEO said, "Our company's balance sheet

is stronger than it's ever been in our

50-year history. We're completely

debtree now." They even started a fast

casual restaurant in Southern Pines,

North Carolina called Homeward Kitchen

that was rebranded as Golden Corral

Favorites. It serves many of the

familiar foods in a different format.

So, it is another example of the company

experimenting with ways to stay up

todate and capitalize on different

trends. I just want to say that I

realize there are mixed opinions out

there regarding Golden Corral, but

however you feel about the food or the

service or whatever else, you have to

admit that this is an impressive story.

Golden Corral has outlasted their

biggest competitors as a budget

steakhouse and then did it again as a

buffet chain. It could have easily

crumbled multiple times throughout its

50 plus year history, but it still

exists, potentially stronger than ever

before, and I think that is pretty cool.

Let me know in the comments, what are

your thoughts about Golden Corral, and

how does it compare to those other

buffet chains? Would you say that it is

a good value given the selection and the

quality of the food, or is it one of

those places that you would much rather

avoid? I am also curious if anybody out

there happened to visit while it was

still a steakhouse. I know it would have

been over 30 years ago, but it would be

interesting to hear about the experience

and any small elements that might still

exist today. And any other thoughts you

have about Golden Corral, leave them in

the comments. I'd like to hear what you

have to say. Thank you for watching.