Waffle House ($PRIVATE:WAFFLEHOUSE) is known for staying open through thick and thin, natural disasters, riots, demonstrations, major upheavals, and all. But the one thing that will shutter more than 400 locations as of the time of this writing (and counting) is a global pandemic. The Covid-19 outbreak has made going to a diner and eating with people hard to justify.
As a result, the Facebook 'Were Here' count is hitting a plateau, and Likes have shot up.
That is, just as the chain announced rare closures of its locations in the name of social distancing, thousands of Facebook users began following the chain, looking for updates, or perhaps even just to show their support for a much-loved late-night and early morning staple. On March 15, the chain had 759,000 followers on Facebook. As of today, that number has spiked to 763,000. Historically, the restaurant only picks up a few followers a day.
In other words, it's dangerous to go to a sit-down restaurant right now, so if you're a fan of Waffle House, just give them a like online, like the two thousand people over the last 24 hours did. If more locations close down, there could be more appreciation shown through messages and memes, which could result in Waffle House getting to that vaunted 1-million Facebook likes this year.
We've seen tweets trying to show which are open and which aren't, but when this article was first being written the number of closures was at 365. It was updated to 418 by the time this was edited, and there's no telling in which states or cities the chain will shut its doors next.
It all depends on the final word via each state's governor, but as for now, maybe just don't get breakfast at a Waffle House until it's safe to go back outside. As far as which states have the most Waffle Houses, that's broken down here:
|
State |
Waffle Houses |
|---|---|
|
GA |
440 |
|
NC |
184 |
|
FL |
174 |
|
SC |
169 |
|
AL |
154 |
|
TN |
130 |
|
TX |
117 |
|
LA |
95 |
|
MS |
89 |
|
OH |
77 |
Meanwhile, if you need to know the status of your local Waffle House, the official website breaks down which are "temporarily closed."
About the Data:
Thinknum tracks companies using the information they post online - jobs, social and web traffic, product sales and app ratings - and creates data sets that measure factors like hiring, revenue and foot traffic. Data sets may not be fully comprehensive (they only account for what is available on the web), but they can be used to gauge performance factors like staffing and sales.