Ruby Tuesday CEO Steps Down

#1
VolnJC

VolnJC

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#1
After closing 95 restaurants, RT CEO J.J Buettgen stepped down. They just can't seem to find their identity...have turned over their menu several times. I do like them because you can make your own salad there.

Ruby Tuesday CEO steps down
 
#2
#2
I worked there for 6 years at three different locations while I was going through school. Used to be kind of a cool hang out spot with good food.

About 2006/2007 they got into this whole "high quality casual dining" thing and lost any identity as a brand. All the local sports decor came off the wall and paintings of people with no faces replaced that.

Portion size shrank and prices were raised. Rolling out a new menu every 3 months is not very smart either.

For awhile they had a "always fresh, never frozen" slogan in regards to their meat but quite the opposite was true.
 
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#3
#3
ATC_VOL said:
I worked there for 6 years at three different locations while I was going through school. Used to be kind of a cool hang out spot with good food.

About 2006/2007 they got into this whole "high quality casual dining" thing and lost any identity as a brand. All the local sports decor came off the wall and paintings of people with no faces replaced that.

Portion size shrank and prices were raised. Rolling out a new menu every 3 months is not very smart either.

For awhile they had a "always fresh, never frozen" slogan in regards to their meat but quite the opposite was true.
Click to expand...

I worked there for a summer before that transition happened and it was tough to make money
 
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#4
#4
crusse10 said:
I worked there for a summer before that transition happened and it was tough to make money
Click to expand...

I was a cook but I know servers seemed to keep making less and less. Plus they tipped out to the hostess, food runner, and to-go person.
 
#7
#7
They have made all the wrong moves. Decide to go uppity just before a recession cut eating out budgets and people flocked to lower cost restaurants. Took a lot of good stuff off the menu and replaced it with less popular items. Sanitized the identity of the stores. It used to be cool to look at all the UT stuff they amassed in the Knoxville stores. Who knows where it all went. We used to eat there quite regularly but when it became all square plates and less of a bar we stopped going. Haven't eaten at one in ten years. At this rate they'll wind up as a case study for somebody's strategic management class in the near future.
 
#8
#8
Both in my area shut down -- I would say the locations of them were the problem more than the food
 
#10
#10
Sad to see. Worked there for a few years surname college. Started by 2 UT students on the strip and became a large chain
 
#11
#11
Bartended there in the late 70's in Nashville.. Smoked lots of dope, cracked lots of pretty and ugly woman.. Even meet my wife there, she was a Vandy student coming in with her girl friends. We hit it off she was dateing a Dr student. I Told her I never been to college you need to stick with him he take care of you.
I put this log chain to her and that was it she done moved in.
That was 40 years ago and I still got her!!!

Ruby Tuesdays the good ol days.
 
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#12
#12
Orange Daddy said:
Bartended there in the late 70's in Nashville.. Smoked lots of dope, cracked lots of pretty and ugly woman.. Even meet my wife there, she was a Vandy student coming in with her girl friends. We hit it off she was dateing a Dr student. I Told her I never been to college you need to stick with him he take care of you.
I put this log chain to her and that was it she done moved in.
That was 40 years ago and I still got her!!!

Ruby Tuesdays the good ol days.
Click to expand...
Lol
 
#14
#14
DancingOutlaw said:
They have made all the wrong moves. Decide to go uppity just before a recession cut eating out budgets and people flocked to lower cost restaurants. Took a lot of good stuff off the menu and replaced it with less popular items. Sanitized the identity of the stores. It used to be cool to look at all the UT stuff they amassed in the Knoxville stores. Who knows where it all went. We used to eat there quite regularly but when it became all square plates and less of a bar we stopped going. Haven't eaten at one in ten years. At this rate they'll wind up as a case study for somebody's strategic management class in the near future.
Click to expand...

Perfectly stated, it was the same for us. We used to go there all the time, then it got awful overnight.


Also, OD needs to be up for post of the year.
 
#16
#16
Used to love going there in the early to mid 2000s. They used to have good, giant burgers for a good price, and the restaurant had a nice casual, almost sports bar feel to it. After they tried to go all "fancy" and serious, it sucked.

I'm not surprised I keep seeing all of them close.
 
#17
#17
VolsSportsFan said:
Used to love going there in the early to mid 2000s. They used to have good, giant burgers for a good price, and the restaurant had a nice casual, almost sports bar feel to it. After they tried to go all "fancy" and serious, it sucked.

I'm not surprised I keep seeing all of them close.
Click to expand...
Rubies had a cool factor, good restaurant and bar. Great locations on Cumberland, Brainard rd in Chatt and Hilton Head.
They lost the bar thing and went corporate.

Im pretry sure one of my friends was a catalyst in the terrible changes. He's long gone and living out West now.
 
#18
#18
Ruby Tuesday, Applebees, Bennigans... Their time has come and gone. I do not shed a tear. Buh-bye.
 
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#19
#19
I got my first serving job at RT in Franklin. Agree with the previous comments. It was good back in the early 2000s. They had my favorite burger from a chain restaurant. Luckily I left before the format started to change.

Even back then it was the least money I made at any of the restaurants where I worked though.
 
#21
#21
doozer said:
Cooked for 6 years myself at a few stores. Left in 2006 as well.

Where did you work?
Click to expand...

East Towne Mall and Emory Rd in Knoxville and in Murfreesboro. 2/3 are closed now.

I started in '05 and left in '11
 
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#22
#22
DancingOutlaw said:
They have made all the wrong moves. Decide to go uppity just before a recession cut eating out budgets and people flocked to lower cost restaurants. Took a lot of good stuff off the menu and replaced it with less popular items. Sanitized the identity of the stores. It used to be cool to look at all the UT stuff they amassed in the Knoxville stores. Who knows where it all went. We used to eat there quite regularly but when it became all square plates and less of a bar we stopped going. Haven't eaten at one in ten years. At this rate they'll wind up as a case study for somebody's strategic management class in the near future.
Click to expand...

I would like to know where it went because several of the items that the Bearden HS Hockey club donated under the condition that they be returned never quite made it back.
 
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#24
#24
Started at Ruby's in '03 at the one in Moody, AL. Went to the one in Fountain City and then Johnson City at ETSU.
Quit in '08. Bartended, Served, and Worked in the Kitchen some. They forgot where they came from and thought they knew what the customers wanted more than the customers did. It was sad to see them drop off so much. Good money when I started and kept going downhill until I couldn't pay bills on what we were making there.
 
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