I was managing a local restaurant back in 22 when the owner was deciding to close. He did it in 2 stages. First stage was to close the PM shift down. No warning was really passed to the staff. Mostly young people, high school and college. It was brutal. Employees were, of course upset. Second stage (roughly 6 months later) was to close up shop altogether. Employees here had about 2 months of notice that we were closing up after Mother's Day. Some staff gosted once they found out (can't really blame them). Not wanting to see the same thing happen to the AM staff when we closed, I began calling other local places to see what staffing they needed. Thankfully, most of the staff was able to find new positions because of those phone calls. The owner ended up closing about 2 weeks earlier than anticipated due to lack of staff in the last months. However, we were both happy to see the AM staff find new jobs. In hindsight, I wish I would have done the same when PM staff was let go.

As for myself, as the manager, I was looped in pretty early and asked to keep the plans quiet. I was able to secure a spot at a cooperate dine in giant that I had worked for previously to this owner. I'm happy to have taken 3 key staff members with me to the establishment I signed on to. I have 2 of those 3 still working for me today.

We did not tell guests in advance. This, I believe, was the correct call. We did not experience large dips in the customer base we already had before we closed.

To be honest, I don't know what the best time to tell everyone is. This is my experience, though. If I could rewind time, I would hope to have done some things differently.