The number of Cheesecake Factory restaurants might be holding steady for the moment, but
sales in recent years have been stagnant.
Things aren't looking so great for the once-popular chain.
So why is this mall dining staple struggling?
Next to an array of decadent cheesecakes, the restaurant is probably best-known for
its incredibly long menu.
The sheer size of it can be as overwhelming as it is appetizing.
So why have a menu that contains 250 items?
Founder David Marshall had this to say about it:
"I wasn't a chef, I had no experience in the restaurant business [...] I made sure that
everything we served, was something I could make myself.
[...] I probably should have kept the menu slimmer, if I knew then what I know today…
I had no idea we would become a chain, and would have to recreate this menu dozens of
times."
"Which one?The classic burger, the ranchhouse burger, the BBQ burger, or the kobe burger?"
"Can't we just go to Big Boy?"
The trend of the long menu appears to be waning with American diners.
National chains have begun slimming down menus over the last decade in order to cut costs,
and because a massive menu sends a message that the food might not be great.
The Cheesecake Factory, however, has resisted change.
"Did you get that memo?"
"Yeah, I got the memo. And I understand the policy. The problem is I just forgot."
Restaurant diners today are also demanding that their food be healthier and fresher.
While the The Cheesecake Factory does make all of their food with fresh ingredients,
it's hard to market yourself as healthy dining when you're known for large portions and decadent
desserts.
And many, many of its dishes really are unhealthy.
The restaurant was named by the Center for Science in the Public Interest as the winner
of its "Xtreme Eating" survey in 2014 for having three of the unhealthiest dishes in
the country.
As mouth-watering as the Bruléed French Toast looks, it's hard to justify ordering a breakfast
that's packed with 2,800 calories and 93 grams of saturated fat.
That accolade wasn't enough to scare The Cheesecake Factory into a diet and once again, in 2017
it took home top honors with its 2,310 calorie Pasta Napoletana.
While they did release a SkinnyLicious Menu in an attempt to keep up with the times, even
that is a minefield of fat, sugar, and sodium.
It's no wonder that health-conscious diners may be finding other places to eat.
It's not easy being an hourly employee in the food industry, but it's also not easy
running a chain of restaurants dependent on hourly employees.
When numerous states across the country implemented an increase in minimum wages in January 2018,
restaurants scrambled to find a way to adjust to the change and stay afloat.
According to the company's CFO, Matthew Clark, the Cheesecake Factory was hit especially
hard and stock plunged 14 percent.
Why?
A big part was California's minimum wage climbing toward $15 an hour in 2022.
The company has more locations in California than any other state and they're feeling the
pressure.
That's not an easy thing for a restaurant to deal with, and grappling with the rising
cost of medical coverage for its workers has been a bit of a tightrope walk for the Cheesecake
Factory, too.
According to Clark, $4.6 million in higher group medical insurance costs year-over-year
led to smaller than expected revenue in August of 2018.
"I don't believe in coddling people.
In the wild, there is no healthcare.”
The Cheesecake Factory certainly qualifies as a decadent night out with its pages-long
menu and dessert selection, but that decadence isn't cheap.
Entrees run from around $15 to $21 and unfortunately, the prices at the Cheesecake Factory have
continued to climb over the years.
From 2011 to 2015, the average check total grew by nine percent, and in 2017, the average
check jumped to $21.85 compared with $19.70 in 2013.
A lot of these increases likely have to do with those rising labor and insurance costs,
but that also means that the number of diners who are willing to shell out for a night at
The Cheesecake Factory is likely going down.
Back in the dark ages, if you wanted to cook a meal you had to go to the grocery store
and comb through the aisles for every ingredient, and it was a serious hassle.
That made heading to a restaurant like The Cheesecake Factory an easy choice for that
special occasion, but now, even the laziest among us can be home chefs and whip up a healthy
meal like grilled teriyaki salmon with roasted heirloom potatoes without having to set foot
in a grocery store or even look up the recipe.
There are an ever-growing number of home delivery meal kits available, and industry experts
say it's making Americans more savvy with our food dollars.
Who can blame us when we can create restaurant-worthy meals for a fraction of the cost, all without
ever changing out of our pajama pants?
The meal kit boom is taking a slice of pie away from the restaurant market, and with
more options, people simply aren't hitting up the Cheesecake Factory as often as they
once were, especially since those new options take require less effort and less money.
The millennial generation has become the largest consumer group and their spending habits are
without a doubt influencing the food industry.
If you own a food truck, this is great news, but if you run a casual-dining chain restaurant,
eh, not so much.
With more food options available, casual-dining chains are simply struggling to get millennial
customers into their booths, and simply walking blindly into a Cheesecake Factory doesn't
happen as frequently.
Then, there's the growing popularity of fast casual, quick service restaurants.
Diners are starting to gravitate toward eateries where they can be in and out the door in under
a half hour.
Good luck squeezing a 30 minute dinner in at Cheesecake Factory — you'll probably
be waiting on a table at least that long.
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