New Round of Applebee's Closings in Michigan With a Twist

Some of our favorite Michigan Applebee's could close their doors for good while others could merge with a popular breakfast restaurant chain.

Applebee's has been closing restaurants at a breakneck pace over the last 6 years. Every year since 2016, the popular family restaurant has closed multiple locations. In 2017 Dine Equity, the parent company of Applebee's reportedly closed 135 locations. Most recently, 33 Applebee's locations around the nation shut down for good in 2023. Wyoming, Michigan was one of the victims of that cut. Michigan currently has 82 Applebee's locations. Some of those restaurants could be at risk in 2024. This is how Applebee’s president Tony Moralejo framed it during a quarterly earnings call according to Today.com,

We’re expecting 25 to 35 net fewer domestic Applebee’s restaurants. With our new development strategy in place, we feel confident in our ability to continue to open up new restaurants and scale the footprint of our brands over time.

Applebee's was purchased by IHop in 2007 becoming the largest food service company in America. They rebranded the company that owns both food chains 'Dine Brands.' Many found it strange that the company planned to close dozens of Applee's locations while opening a couple of dozen IHop locations. But, that's not the strangest part of this developing story. Michigan could see closed Applebee's locations replaced by Applebee's/IHop hybrid restaurants.

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Ihops has consistently opened dozens of new locations over the last couple of years as Applebee's struggles. What do you think of the Applebee's/IHop hybrid idea? Let us know in the comments.

At the time this article was published, specific locations that will close this year have not been released.