Fast-casual chain Slim Chickens has opened two new restaurants in the state in recent weeks, showing that business must go on as Arkansas' economy adjusts to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Fayetteville-based company said recently that two separate franchisees have opened stores, one in Russellville and one in Searcy. The owners of both locations say they're doing good business via their drive-thru and curbside pickup but they are not yet ready to open their dining areas.
The Russellville store, the city's first (if you don't count the one on the Arkansas Tech campus) is owned by the Dixie Chicken franchise group and is Slim Chickens' 104th location. The Searcy store is owed by DHR Franchise Group and is Slim Chickens' 105th location.
In Arkansas, Slim Chickens has 22 open locations. Nationally it has 85 open stores in 15 states. Internationally, the company has nine open stores, two in Kuwait and seven in London. Of these stores, 23 are owned by the corporation.
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Tom Gordon, Slim Chickens' co-founder and chief executive, said in a recent interview the new locations are mirroring the chainwide practice of focusing on drive-thru and curbside pickup. In Northwest Arkansas, Slim Chickens has its dining areas open but with a limit of 33% capacity, Gordon said. In the rest of the state, the dining rooms remain closed.
"We want to be cautions," he said in a recent interview. "We want to make sure we're doing the right things."
Gordon said opening the company's dining area at reduced capacity isn't practical in many instances. Slim Chickens' fast-casual concept allowed it to pivot fairly seamlessly to focus on its other options, including customers' use of its app to order curbside pickup.
"The app has been critical," he said.
Arkansas' official count of coronavirus cases surpassed 6,000 last week, according to earlier reporting by the Democrat-Gazette. On Thursday, the state reported 125 deaths from covid-19 infections.
Of the 1,727 Arkansans with active infections as of May 26, 14 said they had been to a restaurant in the two weeks before their diagnosis, according to the Health Department. During the same two weeks, 19 said they had been to a barbershop, 12 had been to church, eight had been to a child care center, six had been to a hotel or motel and 55 said they had been to a health care provider, such as a doctor or dentist.
In mid-May, the National Restaurant Association said takeout and delivery options helped but didn't make up for mandated elimination of on-premises traffic. According to the association, in April eating and drinking places saw revenue of just over $32.4 billion on a seasonally-adjusted basis, according to preliminary data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Eating and drinking businesses prepare meals, snacks and beverages to customer order for immediate on-premises and off-premises consumption.
This was the smallest volume since March 2005, according to the association, but when adjusted for inflation April revenue plunged to its lowest level since October 1984. In March, consumers spent only $46 billion in restaurants, about $20 billion less than expected.
Gordon said that in March as the pandemic began to grow things became worrisome, but once the company's executives got over the initial shock the chain was able to adjust quickly. Its fast-casual business model helped, he said, because the chain wasn't reliant solely on its dining rooms to do business.
Into that mix, though, the two new Arkansas stores faced the pressure of opening brand-new locations in an unknown and rapidly evolving business environment.
"They weren't worried at all," said Gordon of the franchisees. "They're excited."
John Luckett, chief operating partner of the Dixie Chicken franchise group, said the new Russellville location has been busy since it opened weeks ago. The restaurant on East Main Street is the group's 10th Slim Chickens operation and the group plans to open 15 to 20 new locations over the next five years. He said opening a new restaurant is a challenge but opening one in a pandemic is doubly so.
He said a third of the business at the location comes from the curbside pickup and the store is focused on keeping the drive-thru experience as simple and quick as possible.
"You have to evolve and be sensitive to that," Luckett said.
Cody Davis, who along with his brother Scott Davis and partner Josh Rowden of the DHR Franchise Group, said the Searcy location on East Beebe Capps Expressway is the group's second Slim Chickens restaurant. Its first location is in Mississippi. While the location has a large dining area, it's not open at this time.
He said the Searcy restaurant is set up to maximize efficiently in the drive-thru, with extra workers outside the restaurant taking orders with iPads while maintaining social-distancing guidelines. The restaurant also has 10 parking spots dedicated to curbside pickup.
"Our employees have stepped up and our service is top-notch," he said.
SundayMonday Business on 05/31/2020