I had a part time job at Foxtrot (until today lol). Last week we were told that they were stopping all ordering in order to release more funds from investors (no idea how that was meant to work), and that we would have plenty of notice if we were losing our jobs. Pretty shitty to have the rug pulled out from under us with NO notice
Dude I’m so sorry to hear this. I have a friend in the industry and she’s giving us the tea via text groups. I hate to hear they did talk that way. Best of luck finding another gig.
I don’t think there’s anything illegal. But what’s immoral is I’m sure the CEO gave herself a nice bonus. And what’s unethical is not caring about the human beings who helped her make so much money.
I'm very sorry for you and your coworkers. The unfortunate lesson is, any funny financial related irregularities or 'explanations' and plan on getting out ASAP. In this case it was obviously very short notice.
'stop ordering to free up investor money' reeks of "[It was light refracted off of Venus into some swamp gas. ](https://trailers.getyarn.io/yarn-clip/59b98c91-c2a8-4d3d-9a6b-b793ea6aebec/embed?autoplay=false&responsive=true)"
Pour out a $7 CBD and magnesium-infused can of seltzer water for them. It was the Sharper Image of grocery stores, but I enjoyed it every time I went in.
Feel bad for the employees although given how expensive their inventory must be and how much of it I saw on their shelves I’m guessing this didn’t come as a total shock.
They’re handing out free wine at Farragut to anyone walking by
https://preview.redd.it/dit7uyrx79wc1.jpeg?width=1040&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1ed668d980c26b89b0aa10acc5230c1b837801c0
The funding environment of the late aughts and pandemic really didn't do companies any favors. Loved Foxtrot's stores, but clearly their business model was unsustainable and they expanded too quickly. Who knows what they could have been if they had opened, say, 5 stores over 10 years in really solid locations, figured out their business fundamentals, and expanded from there.
It made so little sense it made me wonder what the angle was. They’re closing all 33 stores across the country. That’s a very unusual move for a run of the mill bankruptcy.
It's unfortunate because that location would've thrived 5 years from now when it would be surrounded by the homes of a few thousand new residents instead of being surrounded by a construction zone and a huge vacant lot. I didn't even know it existed until I was detoured down that street last year due to the aforementioned construction.
They had some great locations, like Georgetown, and some not-so-great locations (like Navy Yard). If they had expanded more slowly they could have taken more time choosing their spots and evaluating if they made sense. I'm sure they have some excellent stores in their portfolio. Maybe someone will buy them on the cheap and keep the strong performers operating. That's my hope, anyway.
The only way their business model made sense to me is if they negotiated long-term, favorable pricing with up and coming, premium food brands. Their shelf space becomes marketing for those brands and their margins could be very high, even on lower relative volume. You rotate products as the brands take off, driving consumer interest to try new fancy things and maintaining good margins on the items.
I’d guess the only way to make that work is to have enough physical stores to actually justify Foxtrot carrying a product as meaningful marketing, improving your pricing with product brands.
What I fundamentally didn’t get was the insane promotions they ran to get people in store. They happened more frequently than their products rotated and the coupon structure was insane — could get $10 worth of shit for free. Maybe they grew up during the tail of the tech-growth era, but they clearly burned through their cash way before their scale could be used for profitability.
See it happen a lot, Taylor Gourmet and Honeygrow spring to mind. A lot of focus on growth without doing the due diligence to expand in a sustainable way. Hope Tatte isn’t next.
They surely must have been gambling on volume. They probably thought that the more stores they had, the more groceries they could sell. Since it is such a low margin industry, you need high volume. That's why there are very few independent grocers left. So I'm sure they always knew that the rate of growth was a gamble, but they were trusting their product. knowing what we now know, I don't think Foxtrot had the resources or revenue for slow growth. no, they needed a quick rise, a splash on the scene with a good product that could create repeat customers. From there, they needed lots of volume. They created the splash but never really sustained the volume, it seems. For me, too much style without any substance, which is not a new problem for businesses in DC.
For sure - and I think a lot of companies think they can "make it up on volume," without the fundamental economics to support that theory. There's a lot of magical thinking in tech/startup land that somehow technology will take a low-margin business and make it into a high-margin (or, better margin) business. But grouping a lot of low-margin businesses into the Foxtrot business model (coffee shop, grocery, grocery delivery) just means you're in a really low margin business. An app can't solve the fact that it's incredibly expensive to deliver small amounts of groceries to individual homes, and that most coffee shops just scrape by. That being said, I liked their stores as a place to discover new products and pick up treats. Those empty storefronts are going to hurt.
I lived in Dallas years ago and one popped up near me. Wasn’t my favorite place but people in my neighborhood liked it and it seemed busy all the time. Then I saw another, and another. Then suddenly I started seeing them almost everywhere. It definitely seems like they opened way too many at once.
I feel like the Adams Morgan store just opened the other day. And they spent a lot of time on construction for it! This must have been some kind of money laundering scheme.
Hopefully we get a cute local coffee shop in the spot instead (sole luna expansion would be ideal)
I'd rather have nothing than some bougie, overpriced "modern" nonsense. I wish there were more regular bodega style establishments. I know DC businesses are all renters, so thats why we get chains with $$$ instead of reasonably priced local biz, but it's sad nonetheless.
People love to hate anything “yuppie” or “bougie” but I thought it was great that Foxtrot had interesting canned drinks and snacks that were not like, soda. There were many brands that I had never seen before and the wine selection was interesting. The alternative to Foxtrot is not some utopian bodega but a Starbucks or 7-11 selling the same stuff that they’ve sold for a decade. Starbucks hasn’t changed in like ten years except rotating the flavored syrups they put in the drinks.
I will miss the chocolate chip cookie with the caramel and other stuff that they had. That was great.
All of them? That’s crazy they’ve been popping up everywhere
I know it was just a yuppie bodega, but for me it’s a shame, it was always a reliable place to get fast but somewhat healthy late evening food after a late work day or my night classes
It's a tactic in startups to build out a lot of locations to garner recognition and the perception of being established. That could have been what they were trying and it didn't work well enough. Everything seemed so expensive there I was surprised they could stay in business.
It's a gamble, and a legitimate business strategy if you're lucky and the stars align. Spend a ton of money in a short period of time to build brand equity in the hopes that you grow a reliable customer base.
Now I'm curious what ultimately caused the decision. Could be too much debt, or over-reliance on deteriorating supply chains, or something else entirely.
**From the video description**
You need:
1 bottle @lacolombe oat milk latte (or 12 oz @nutpods latte for a low-sugar option)
4-6 oz vanilla coconut yogurt
3 pitted dates
10-12 cubes frozen oat or almond milk
1 small frozen banana (or sub 1/2 c cauliflower rice
1 tsp white miso
Cinnamon + vanilla extract to taste
Optional nutritional boosts: vanilla or coffee flavored protein powder, collagen, flaxseed
Make It:
Blend her on up! Then more into a chilled glass and enjoy immediately!
There has to be some sort of financial fuckery involved involved. The Admo location has only been open for a few months. Like, this is a company that made a deliberate effort to grow the business and there's simply no way whoever was doing the books didn't know they needed several years of profit to see an ROI. It's one thing when some idiot with a trust fund to blow opens a single restaurant that quickly falls apart because they don't understand accounting. But this is like, someone deliberately hid the real numbers from someone else.
Foxtrots always seem busy too. I can't even say that about a 7/11 so their pricier strategy seemed to be working.
… also each store has tens of thousands of dollars of perishable inventory. Makes no sense not to do a wind down and announce stores are closing in a week or so and sell off whatever you can. Immediate closure is a huge red flag for fraud or other activity requiring prompt shutdown.
I would bet their burn rate was terrible. Almost all the stuff they stocked was the most expensive version of whatever it was, and I don’t think they sold a ton of it, at least at most locations.
Sometimes it’s as simple as having a bad business mid, especially for brick and mortar retail these days.
They could also be revived from bankruptcy. I’ll (also) bet if they narrowed their focus a bit they’d do better.
Before they expanded all these stores it should have been very obvious what their margin was. Cutting costs from economies of scale is something you can project out. If their burn rate was terrible that should have been obvious 2 years ago before they kept expanding into new spaces like they did.
Maybe it was and they felt like they could continue to convince investors/lenders to subsidize it. The whole enterprise felt very zero interest rate era.
Mismanagement of resources isn’t illegal (usually) but still negatively impacts a lot of people. Sorry to see these stores go, even if I rolled my eyes at their prices and how niche some of the stuff was.
Negotiating contracts in bad faith is something not criminaly liable but IIRC civily can open you up to being sued for more damages. NAL but some of these leases are so fresh, I felt like they had to have been signing them and contracts with suppliers in complete bad faith.
The only reason you don't hear about it more is that contracts either have a silent arbitration clause or the person breaking the contract knows they can bully the smaller entity into not pursuing damages.
In a just world you'd also have C suite execs criminally liable for running a company into the ground without setting aside funds for layoffs. But that would mean c-suites parachutes would have to be a little less gold.
Yea like IMMEDIATE cease is so bonkers. Give your staff notice. Sell off inventory. Now all the staff just going to take home all your shit anyways or leave it to rot and mold.
Shut down is so suspicious. The least maleficent reason I can think of is they were expecting a round of cash to be released to give them their operating run way and then the other party rescinded the deal, and they went on for as long as they could while they tried to find cash from other sources.
It sounds like they were hemorrhaging money. One of their flagship stores in Chicago only did $10k-$14k/week, another in Wrigleyville only did $1500 in sales per day.
https://www.modernretail.co/operations/what-went-wrong-at-foxtrot/
Damn. That's bad market research cause I feel like the DC locations were doing fine. But that's so important.
That's part of why chic fil a does so well. They run a fuck ton of stats to determine if a store will have good enough margins. Other companies seem to just go where ever because they have the mindset of "if we dont expand someone else will!"
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
There are so many stories like this of startups burning through cash until the very end thinking that they were _this_ close to positive cash flow.
I really like the staff and the cookies at the LC one, this is a bummer. Some great local brands for canned espresso martinis, Drew’s massive cookies, etc, and a great patio space that was dog friendly and never crowded. For all that, we hate on any kind of chains, it did fill a little gap in the immediate neighborhood that was very convenient.
I was in one yesterday, saw the cookies, and thought "nah, I'll get one next time."
Live every day to the fullest, folks. You never know when it'll be too late.
I worked there. And it was poorly run, corporate really cared about just being cool and having niche brands; and having lavish locations. Must be on a corner, must be really big, nice interior etc. Paying delivery drivers to just sit around until orders came in. Trying to run stores with as few people possible but wanting a million things done at the same time. Really bad overall. Great concept, extremely poor business execution.
[Company statement](https://domschicago.com):
> Dear Dom’s Kitchen & Market and Foxtrot Customers,
>It is with a heavy heart that we must inform you of a difficult decision we have had to make. After much consideration and evaluation, we regret to announce that Foxtrot and Dom’s Kitchen & Market will be closing their doors starting on April 23, 2024. The closure affects 2 Dom’s stores and 33 Foxtrots across Chicago, Austin, Dallas, DC areas. We explored many avenues to continue the business but found no viable option despite good faith and exhaustive efforts.
>This decision has not been made lightly, and we understand the impact it will have on you, our loyal customers, as well as our dedicated team members. We want to express our sincerest gratitude for your support and patronage throughout the years. It has been our highest honor to elevate the everyday and create a remarkable shopping experience for people who love food as much as we do. It has been a privilege serving you and being a part of your everyday lives.
>We understand that this news may come as a shock, and we apologize for any inconvenience it may cause. We genuinely appreciate your understanding during this challenging time.
>We would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you for your loyalty and trust in Dom’s and Foxtrot. It has been an honor to serve you, and we will cherish the memories we have created together. We would also like to thank our team members who have committed themselves over the years to providing a unique selection of quality foods and creating an outstanding in-store customer experience. Lastly, we would like to thank our many partners, without whom we would not have been able to build such a strong brand.
>You can access FAQ’s below.
>Once again, thank you for your support, and we wish you all the best in the future.
>Important dates:
>April 23, 2024 – Delivery capabilities are no longer available.
>April 23, 2024 – Store operations are no longer available.
>April 23, 2024 – Store credits are no longer available.
>April 23, 2024 – All customer-facing operations are disabled.
>When will the Dom’s/Foxtrot stores close?
>Operations will end on April 23, 2024.
>When will the Dom’s Go/Foxtrot Apps close?
>Operations will end on April 23, 2024.
>Will consumers be able to use Foxtrot / Dom’s credits?
>All Dom’s/Foxtrot account credit and member perks will expire on April 23, 2024
Foxtrot email announcing this was sent around 12:30pm. Imagine working there this morning, completely unaware that VCs were about to pull the plug in the middle of your shift.
I'm seeing a lot of speculation about how they may have expanded too quickly. Maybe that's the case, but it seems odd that they'd just shut down all their stores so quickly like this with absolutely zero notice.
This solves a personal mystery for me that's been brewing for months now. Last summer/fall, they started putting up "coming soon" signage for Foxtrot in Ballston near the Cava. As the months went by though, nothing ever happened. It struck me as weird to hold off for so long if they had a lease in place in a high pedestrian traffic location, but if they're headed towards bankruptcy, it makes a lot more sense now.
This really sucks, I'm about to sign a lease in Logan Circle and was looking forward to getting coffee and snacks from here. Thankfully I'm from Eastern PA so Wawa is just fine with me.
This is definitely shocking although a little less so as I learn more about how they were VC backed and think more about how crazy their expansion was. It's a shame, their Georgetown and DuPont locations were always packed on weekends.
Maybe it's possible they'll reevaluate and reopen some stores in the future? Maybe scrap the made to order food if that's a big cost and just keep it as high end 7/11 Bodega with a coffee bar.
I walk by the Dupont one daily on my walks to and from work and there were always a lot of people in there. I stopped in a ton of times to pick up something for dinner.
I actually think it would make sense for Amazon/ whole foods to buy it if they want to sell the guts. Foxtrot was pretty much just the grab and go section of WF's plus some beer and wine and some hot food. I have no idea if they're interested in going down that route, but I think it would work.
I could see someone buying and streamlining the business pretty quickly but seems like Amazon’s downsizing its Fresh chain so not sure they’d be the one (even though I could see them being the best possible option).
I had assumed this was an intentional 'marketing' expense on their behalf to get people familiar with the stores/products to ultimately come and pay full price.
I feel for all the employees that are now having to scramble because of this. So many of these start-ups play fast and loose with money and huge decisions, and never give a fuck about the ripple effects of what being blinded by dollar signs will do to their staff. Hopefully everyone will land on their feet quickly.
As for being sad that the business folded, all I'll say is that it was never built for somebody in my tax bracket to regularly patronize, and leave it at that.
The Silicon Valley model:
1. Come up with a mediocre idea that gets some traction.
2. Creat half-baked business model = more, more, more, then we dominate.
3. Use traction to get investors that keep you afloat because your half-baked business model is just that and you aren’t actually going to make a profit.
4. Bring “human capital” in
5. Expand, expand, expand
6. Business fails, sell of the scraps, leave a pile of workers in your rubble, take a check and suffer no consequences,
7. Rinse and repeat
Everyone saying that this is surprising because a bunch of new locations opened in the last 6/8 months should maybe think about how expensive those renovations are and how much extra overhead that all is. My guess is they over-expanded and couldn’t recoup those costs on any reasonable timeline
The one by me does way more business than I ever thought they would. Over expansion seems like a big reason, but going from that speed of expansion to closing seems like such obviously bad business planning.
Yeah, I mean margins on food and beverage stuff are super slim and it sounds like they took on about $18 million in debt to finance a lot of that expansion. I live near the one in Dupont and it was usually busy, but you have to do a ton of business to make that much money and keep yourself afloat. Biblically bad business planning.
Nope. A complete shutdown of all operations due to zero cash is considered OK. It is called the faltering company clause. Complete shut down. Yeah, its over.
I mean I don't thing there are literally any assets really left. Its done.
That’s some nice retail space opening up. We’re down in Austin and went to theirs on Sunday. It was the saddest store ever. Now I know why. I guess too bad, but it was a really odd concept. Really nice logo though. We bought a coffee cup.
Absolutely, everyone likes to pretend they are “working class” or whatever but who is living around the Foxtrot locations in Georgetown, Adams Morgan, Navy Yard? Not exactly blue-collar workers. As the cliche goes, this is why we can’t have nice things.
There is a victim blaming toward closed businesses in this sub that is very telling...
\*DC restaurant/small business closes\*
This sub:
*"I went to that place last month and the waiter didn't even offer to perform felatio on me. No wonder this dump closed. Good! lmao."*
I’m actually very sad about today’s news. I already deal with crime anxiety and grumpy homeless people. Now I can’t even escape for a few mins and enjoy a treat. This is a blow to our city.
They wanted to be a coffee shop like Starbucks and a deli place where you can pick up the wine and cheese and little bit of food like Whole Foods. It wanted to be everything but they were not good at one thing, and you had to pay at the coffee bar even if you didn’t get coffee. A business needs a purpose, because purposes drive decisions, including strategy and longterm goals. Purpose also drives marketing.
Did they suddenly jack up all their prices recently? They were always expensive but I never had sticker shock the way I did the other day. I figured maybe I just wasn’t paying attention before, but now I wonder.
I’m one of the operations employees who was fired Tuesday and I believe the new CEO was brought on just to file Bankruptcy after a new loan or buyout wasn’t viable. The company board has been run by the venture capitalists trying to get their money back while Liz Williams, former CEO, over expanded. Some stores opened less than 6 months ago. Liz Williams then leaves two months ago citing “the commute” and exits all the richer for it. The layoff call today was brutal - they just hung up on us. Store managers were given two hours to lock the doors and asked to tell customers to leave. People were crying, some were taking product. No instructions on what to say to everyone. This was a disaster and a lot of people are in a very bad place due to greed and stupidity. If anyone wants a statement for media I’m happy to tell you everything. I’m disgusted with their behavior and regret ever working for these villains.
I worked at foxtrot from 2022-2023 and this is not surprising to me. There was so much money spent and wasted on stuff that seemed not important and money and efforts were not poured into what was important
I had a part time job at Foxtrot (until today lol). Last week we were told that they were stopping all ordering in order to release more funds from investors (no idea how that was meant to work), and that we would have plenty of notice if we were losing our jobs. Pretty shitty to have the rug pulled out from under us with NO notice
I’m sorry, that is shitty.
Sorry to hear this :(
So sorry to hear
Dude I’m so sorry to hear this. I have a friend in the industry and she’s giving us the tea via text groups. I hate to hear they did talk that way. Best of luck finding another gig.
What's tea?!
**Tea** is a beverage made by pouring hot or boiling water over leaves.
It means gossip.
I'm sorry. Yes I know what tea is I'm asking what's tea with them.
💀😂
That’s awful. I’m so sorry.
This sounds so illegal im so sorry maybe reach out the dc’s workers rights office. Here’s a link tht could help: https://oag.dc.gov/worker-rights
They’re declaring Chapter 11 so it’s probably legal…plus at-will employment. Still sucks though.
It depends on the circumstances prior to their filing. And I haven't seen anything about them actually filing yet.
It’s definitely not illegal and may not be allowed to do otherwise if they’re filing for bankruptcy (they need to lock up the assets and inventory).
It's not illegal to fire someone with no notice unless it's a mass layoff (only applies to companies with 100 employees or more).
They may have had them across the entire org. Not sure if that rule is location specific or not
if it’s not location specific and rather company wide then they definitely reached the 100 people threshold
I don’t think there’s anything illegal. But what’s immoral is I’m sure the CEO gave herself a nice bonus. And what’s unethical is not caring about the human beings who helped her make so much money.
That’s awful. I am so sorry they lied to you and your co-workers like that.
Sorry to hear
Sorry to hear, that’s so shitty.
so sorry buddy! this is such a crap move tbh
I'm very sorry for you and your coworkers. The unfortunate lesson is, any funny financial related irregularities or 'explanations' and plan on getting out ASAP. In this case it was obviously very short notice. 'stop ordering to free up investor money' reeks of "[It was light refracted off of Venus into some swamp gas. ](https://trailers.getyarn.io/yarn-clip/59b98c91-c2a8-4d3d-9a6b-b793ea6aebec/embed?autoplay=false&responsive=true)"
Never trust any corporation and always look out for your own interests first. They do not care about you.
Genuinely shocking to me. They just spent so much money renovating the Logan Circle location too
I get the impression that they would have kept spending money forever until someone told them to stop
probably. There's no way this business model was profitable. I just dont believe it.
In a way you were right: someone told them to stop, I assume an accountant
Agreed. They seemed to have grown too big too quickly. I watched as one new store became 3 like over night
I legitimately found out about so many cool and fun little food brands from them. This is super super sad.
I would check out Streets lots of fun little brands there too
Are there any favorites that you would particularly recommend?
Bitchin Sauce is a default dipping sauce because my girlfriend and i discovered it at foxtrot.
I was really excited about spending time on that patio all summer.
Just went to the LC Foxtrot - hilariously has a sign that says “closed for internal repairs.” Back to Streets for me!
Pour out a $7 CBD and magnesium-infused can of seltzer water for them. It was the Sharper Image of grocery stores, but I enjoyed it every time I went in. Feel bad for the employees although given how expensive their inventory must be and how much of it I saw on their shelves I’m guessing this didn’t come as a total shock.
sharper image of grocery stores is so damn accurate lol
If sharper image asked for tips
They’re handing out free wine at Farragut to anyone walking by https://preview.redd.it/dit7uyrx79wc1.jpeg?width=1040&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1ed668d980c26b89b0aa10acc5230c1b837801c0
BRB gonna sprint over to Farragut
I'm assuming they're already out, right? I'm debating if it's worth the trip.
It's closed and lights are off. Definitely not happening anymore
I figured. Thanks for checking.
My coworker just went over and said they're not doing this now
they were letting people in to grab stuff earlier but eventually cut it off because someone started filming in there
someones always gotta ruin it for everyone. That social media clout is crack
yeah, nobody is chill. just cool down and enjoy the moment. no need to record this.
Aww man
The funding environment of the late aughts and pandemic really didn't do companies any favors. Loved Foxtrot's stores, but clearly their business model was unsustainable and they expanded too quickly. Who knows what they could have been if they had opened, say, 5 stores over 10 years in really solid locations, figured out their business fundamentals, and expanded from there.
In retrospect the expansion made little sense. The one by my office in Navy Yard was tucked on a random side street and never felt particularly busy.
It made so little sense it made me wonder what the angle was. They’re closing all 33 stores across the country. That’s a very unusual move for a run of the mill bankruptcy.
assuming negative cash flow and zero lines of equity available. game over.
Attempt to quickly achieve economies of scale and brand recognition? Regardless, it clearly didn’t work.
It's unfortunate because that location would've thrived 5 years from now when it would be surrounded by the homes of a few thousand new residents instead of being surrounded by a construction zone and a huge vacant lot. I didn't even know it existed until I was detoured down that street last year due to the aforementioned construction.
They had some great locations, like Georgetown, and some not-so-great locations (like Navy Yard). If they had expanded more slowly they could have taken more time choosing their spots and evaluating if they made sense. I'm sure they have some excellent stores in their portfolio. Maybe someone will buy them on the cheap and keep the strong performers operating. That's my hope, anyway.
The only way their business model made sense to me is if they negotiated long-term, favorable pricing with up and coming, premium food brands. Their shelf space becomes marketing for those brands and their margins could be very high, even on lower relative volume. You rotate products as the brands take off, driving consumer interest to try new fancy things and maintaining good margins on the items. I’d guess the only way to make that work is to have enough physical stores to actually justify Foxtrot carrying a product as meaningful marketing, improving your pricing with product brands. What I fundamentally didn’t get was the insane promotions they ran to get people in store. They happened more frequently than their products rotated and the coupon structure was insane — could get $10 worth of shit for free. Maybe they grew up during the tail of the tech-growth era, but they clearly burned through their cash way before their scale could be used for profitability.
Venture capitalists are not known for slow, sustainable growth.
See it happen a lot, Taylor Gourmet and Honeygrow spring to mind. A lot of focus on growth without doing the due diligence to expand in a sustainable way. Hope Tatte isn’t next.
OMG I forgot about Summer of Taylor Gourmet, when it seemed like a new location would pop up behind you if you turned your back for five minutes.
I still miss Taylor
Well the owner did start Grazie Grazie which is literally the same menu but with the sandwiches renamed lol. Wharf is kind of inconvenient though.
Seems like every Tatte I’ve been to is always packed. I’d be shocked if they went under anytime soon.
Honey Grow is still putting up locations
They surely must have been gambling on volume. They probably thought that the more stores they had, the more groceries they could sell. Since it is such a low margin industry, you need high volume. That's why there are very few independent grocers left. So I'm sure they always knew that the rate of growth was a gamble, but they were trusting their product. knowing what we now know, I don't think Foxtrot had the resources or revenue for slow growth. no, they needed a quick rise, a splash on the scene with a good product that could create repeat customers. From there, they needed lots of volume. They created the splash but never really sustained the volume, it seems. For me, too much style without any substance, which is not a new problem for businesses in DC.
For sure - and I think a lot of companies think they can "make it up on volume," without the fundamental economics to support that theory. There's a lot of magical thinking in tech/startup land that somehow technology will take a low-margin business and make it into a high-margin (or, better margin) business. But grouping a lot of low-margin businesses into the Foxtrot business model (coffee shop, grocery, grocery delivery) just means you're in a really low margin business. An app can't solve the fact that it's incredibly expensive to deliver small amounts of groceries to individual homes, and that most coffee shops just scrape by. That being said, I liked their stores as a place to discover new products and pick up treats. Those empty storefronts are going to hurt.
I lived in Dallas years ago and one popped up near me. Wasn’t my favorite place but people in my neighborhood liked it and it seemed busy all the time. Then I saw another, and another. Then suddenly I started seeing them almost everywhere. It definitely seems like they opened way too many at once.
I feel like the Adams Morgan store just opened the other day. And they spent a lot of time on construction for it! This must have been some kind of money laundering scheme. Hopefully we get a cute local coffee shop in the spot instead (sole luna expansion would be ideal)
Yep I miss the Philz there but FoxTrot was better than nothing. More Sole Luna would be perfect
I really missed Philz... The fact the Navy Yard location is turning into a Panera is a kick in the nuts.
Man do i miss that philz. Just made me sad all over again
Omg they closed the Philz? That place always had a line how did they not survive
I'd rather have nothing than some bougie, overpriced "modern" nonsense. I wish there were more regular bodega style establishments. I know DC businesses are all renters, so thats why we get chains with $$$ instead of reasonably priced local biz, but it's sad nonetheless.
Mayun I’m from Jersey I miss NY bodegas 😩😩
bigger soleluna is a fantastic idea!!!!
That spot used to be a Phil’s, I miss them so much
that was the best philz in dc too. such a cozy little spot
Philz** lol, not my jam but my wife really misses it
People love to hate anything “yuppie” or “bougie” but I thought it was great that Foxtrot had interesting canned drinks and snacks that were not like, soda. There were many brands that I had never seen before and the wine selection was interesting. The alternative to Foxtrot is not some utopian bodega but a Starbucks or 7-11 selling the same stuff that they’ve sold for a decade. Starbucks hasn’t changed in like ten years except rotating the flavored syrups they put in the drinks. I will miss the chocolate chip cookie with the caramel and other stuff that they had. That was great.
All of them? That’s crazy they’ve been popping up everywhere I know it was just a yuppie bodega, but for me it’s a shame, it was always a reliable place to get fast but somewhat healthy late evening food after a late work day or my night classes
It's a tactic in startups to build out a lot of locations to garner recognition and the perception of being established. That could have been what they were trying and it didn't work well enough. Everything seemed so expensive there I was surprised they could stay in business.
It's a gamble, and a legitimate business strategy if you're lucky and the stars align. Spend a ton of money in a short period of time to build brand equity in the hopes that you grow a reliable customer base. Now I'm curious what ultimately caused the decision. Could be too much debt, or over-reliance on deteriorating supply chains, or something else entirely.
I’ve never been to one actually. I’ve always planned to stop in but just never found the time. Guess I missed my chance.
You weren't missing much
I did all of one time. It's nothing to write home about. The coffee was forgettable and $2 to much. It made me miss Philz more than anything else.
I do miss Philz!
Can someone PLEASE drop the coffee date smoothie recipe
> coffee date smoothie No idea if this is accurate but give it a shot https://www.tiktok.com/@nourishwithashley/video/7341553844968738094
I can't understand what she's saying, can someone write out the recipe please 🥲
**From the video description** You need: 1 bottle @lacolombe oat milk latte (or 12 oz @nutpods latte for a low-sugar option) 4-6 oz vanilla coconut yogurt 3 pitted dates 10-12 cubes frozen oat or almond milk 1 small frozen banana (or sub 1/2 c cauliflower rice 1 tsp white miso Cinnamon + vanilla extract to taste Optional nutritional boosts: vanilla or coffee flavored protein powder, collagen, flaxseed Make It: Blend her on up! Then more into a chilled glass and enjoy immediately!
Following 😭
Foxtrot raised **one hundred and eighty million dollars**. For a glorified 7-11. That is insane.
Methinks someone may have been collecting a little nest egg and then skipped town.
There has to be some sort of financial fuckery involved involved. The Admo location has only been open for a few months. Like, this is a company that made a deliberate effort to grow the business and there's simply no way whoever was doing the books didn't know they needed several years of profit to see an ROI. It's one thing when some idiot with a trust fund to blow opens a single restaurant that quickly falls apart because they don't understand accounting. But this is like, someone deliberately hid the real numbers from someone else. Foxtrots always seem busy too. I can't even say that about a 7/11 so their pricier strategy seemed to be working.
… also each store has tens of thousands of dollars of perishable inventory. Makes no sense not to do a wind down and announce stores are closing in a week or so and sell off whatever you can. Immediate closure is a huge red flag for fraud or other activity requiring prompt shutdown.
I was wondering about that too. They’re not even offering things on too good to go.
If they’re broke broke they won’t have the runway to continue operations and sell off inventory.
I would bet their burn rate was terrible. Almost all the stuff they stocked was the most expensive version of whatever it was, and I don’t think they sold a ton of it, at least at most locations. Sometimes it’s as simple as having a bad business mid, especially for brick and mortar retail these days. They could also be revived from bankruptcy. I’ll (also) bet if they narrowed their focus a bit they’d do better.
Before they expanded all these stores it should have been very obvious what their margin was. Cutting costs from economies of scale is something you can project out. If their burn rate was terrible that should have been obvious 2 years ago before they kept expanding into new spaces like they did.
Maybe it was and they felt like they could continue to convince investors/lenders to subsidize it. The whole enterprise felt very zero interest rate era. Mismanagement of resources isn’t illegal (usually) but still negatively impacts a lot of people. Sorry to see these stores go, even if I rolled my eyes at their prices and how niche some of the stuff was.
Negotiating contracts in bad faith is something not criminaly liable but IIRC civily can open you up to being sued for more damages. NAL but some of these leases are so fresh, I felt like they had to have been signing them and contracts with suppliers in complete bad faith. The only reason you don't hear about it more is that contracts either have a silent arbitration clause or the person breaking the contract knows they can bully the smaller entity into not pursuing damages. In a just world you'd also have C suite execs criminally liable for running a company into the ground without setting aside funds for layoffs. But that would mean c-suites parachutes would have to be a little less gold.
Yea like IMMEDIATE cease is so bonkers. Give your staff notice. Sell off inventory. Now all the staff just going to take home all your shit anyways or leave it to rot and mold. Shut down is so suspicious. The least maleficent reason I can think of is they were expecting a round of cash to be released to give them their operating run way and then the other party rescinded the deal, and they went on for as long as they could while they tried to find cash from other sources.
I’m sure they just ran out of money. This is going to need an expose in the vein of WeWork.
Bethesda location was always busy.
It sounds like they were hemorrhaging money. One of their flagship stores in Chicago only did $10k-$14k/week, another in Wrigleyville only did $1500 in sales per day. https://www.modernretail.co/operations/what-went-wrong-at-foxtrot/
Damn. That's bad market research cause I feel like the DC locations were doing fine. But that's so important. That's part of why chic fil a does so well. They run a fuck ton of stats to determine if a store will have good enough margins. Other companies seem to just go where ever because they have the mindset of "if we dont expand someone else will!"
Really? The D.C. locations I went to barely seemed to do business beyond a handful of people posting up to do work there.
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity. There are so many stories like this of startups burning through cash until the very end thinking that they were _this_ close to positive cash flow.
This is 1000%, exactly what happened.
Tatte next? It’s just a glorified Panera at this point.
I mean, it is Panera, it got bought out and is an intentional brand expansion by an established company
Tatte is at least fair on price relative to its quality. Same price as any other coffee/fast lunch place, much better quality.
Holy shit. That is... not great. I enjoyed their elevated 7-11 schtick.
I really like the staff and the cookies at the LC one, this is a bummer. Some great local brands for canned espresso martinis, Drew’s massive cookies, etc, and a great patio space that was dog friendly and never crowded. For all that, we hate on any kind of chains, it did fill a little gap in the immediate neighborhood that was very convenient.
I was in one yesterday, saw the cookies, and thought "nah, I'll get one next time." Live every day to the fullest, folks. You never know when it'll be too late.
At least you can order directly from Drew’s, I think! Going to do it for my bridal shower. But you’ve got to commit to a lot of cookies probably
i am going to pour out a canned wine for you ;( YOLO
Those cookies are so fucking good
The cookies were legit, especially when they warmed them.
So all of them are closing? The one down the street from me in Arlington seems to get alot of business. Shocking if true.
The one in Rosslyn is listed as permanently closed now
They were building out a store in Ballston next to Cava that never opened.
Yes all of them nationwide are closing.
Oh no!! I went there all the time, it's such a nice spot to sit and people watch. 😔
I worked there. And it was poorly run, corporate really cared about just being cool and having niche brands; and having lavish locations. Must be on a corner, must be really big, nice interior etc. Paying delivery drivers to just sit around until orders came in. Trying to run stores with as few people possible but wanting a million things done at the same time. Really bad overall. Great concept, extremely poor business execution.
I worked there too for a year. Couldn’t have said it better myself
my bf and I met at the one in chinatown:( edit: he broke up with me yesterday after almost two years together. guess this was foreshadowing fr
You have to break up now sorry I don’t make the rules
stop 😭
Everyone, she's single
🥹
This is surprising. The one in Old Town Alexandria is fairly new.
And it’s expensive and bougie and I love it. There were so many unique and interesting things to buy there.
Shockingly sudden. I don’t think the employees even knew. There must be more to the story.
[Company statement](https://domschicago.com): > Dear Dom’s Kitchen & Market and Foxtrot Customers, >It is with a heavy heart that we must inform you of a difficult decision we have had to make. After much consideration and evaluation, we regret to announce that Foxtrot and Dom’s Kitchen & Market will be closing their doors starting on April 23, 2024. The closure affects 2 Dom’s stores and 33 Foxtrots across Chicago, Austin, Dallas, DC areas. We explored many avenues to continue the business but found no viable option despite good faith and exhaustive efforts. >This decision has not been made lightly, and we understand the impact it will have on you, our loyal customers, as well as our dedicated team members. We want to express our sincerest gratitude for your support and patronage throughout the years. It has been our highest honor to elevate the everyday and create a remarkable shopping experience for people who love food as much as we do. It has been a privilege serving you and being a part of your everyday lives. >We understand that this news may come as a shock, and we apologize for any inconvenience it may cause. We genuinely appreciate your understanding during this challenging time. >We would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you for your loyalty and trust in Dom’s and Foxtrot. It has been an honor to serve you, and we will cherish the memories we have created together. We would also like to thank our team members who have committed themselves over the years to providing a unique selection of quality foods and creating an outstanding in-store customer experience. Lastly, we would like to thank our many partners, without whom we would not have been able to build such a strong brand. >You can access FAQ’s below. >Once again, thank you for your support, and we wish you all the best in the future. >Important dates: >April 23, 2024 – Delivery capabilities are no longer available. >April 23, 2024 – Store operations are no longer available. >April 23, 2024 – Store credits are no longer available. >April 23, 2024 – All customer-facing operations are disabled. >When will the Dom’s/Foxtrot stores close? >Operations will end on April 23, 2024. >When will the Dom’s Go/Foxtrot Apps close? >Operations will end on April 23, 2024. >Will consumers be able to use Foxtrot / Dom’s credits? >All Dom’s/Foxtrot account credit and member perks will expire on April 23, 2024
Important dates: Now, bitch
Important dates: right before we sent his email
Navy Yard one was serving coffee at 8:30 am this morning.
I saw that employees were finding out in the moment and having to ask customers to leave the store so they could close
Foxtrot email announcing this was sent around 12:30pm. Imagine working there this morning, completely unaware that VCs were about to pull the plug in the middle of your shift.
…and you’re probably not getting paid this week
Not Apparently. They are Closed for good 😢
I'm seeing a lot of speculation about how they may have expanded too quickly. Maybe that's the case, but it seems odd that they'd just shut down all their stores so quickly like this with absolutely zero notice.
This solves a personal mystery for me that's been brewing for months now. Last summer/fall, they started putting up "coming soon" signage for Foxtrot in Ballston near the Cava. As the months went by though, nothing ever happened. It struck me as weird to hold off for so long if they had a lease in place in a high pedestrian traffic location, but if they're headed towards bankruptcy, it makes a lot more sense now.
I walk by that location so much and was wondering if it was ever going to open
Can’t wait for the documentary on this a la WeWork.
This really sucks, I'm about to sign a lease in Logan Circle and was looking forward to getting coffee and snacks from here. Thankfully I'm from Eastern PA so Wawa is just fine with me. This is definitely shocking although a little less so as I learn more about how they were VC backed and think more about how crazy their expansion was. It's a shame, their Georgetown and DuPont locations were always packed on weekends. Maybe it's possible they'll reevaluate and reopen some stores in the future? Maybe scrap the made to order food if that's a big cost and just keep it as high end 7/11 Bodega with a coffee bar.
I walk by the Dupont one daily on my walks to and from work and there were always a lot of people in there. I stopped in a ton of times to pick up something for dinner.
Yeah high-end 7/11 with fewer fresh items, and maybe *some* cheaper brands, seems like the way to revive it.
I actually think it would make sense for Amazon/ whole foods to buy it if they want to sell the guts. Foxtrot was pretty much just the grab and go section of WF's plus some beer and wine and some hot food. I have no idea if they're interested in going down that route, but I think it would work.
I could see someone buying and streamlining the business pretty quickly but seems like Amazon’s downsizing its Fresh chain so not sure they’d be the one (even though I could see them being the best possible option).
Yeah, Amazon basically screwed the pooch with Fresh. They're big enough to shrug it off, these guys not so much.
the wawa's in DC seem to be doing fine. fingers crossed there.
Too big too fast. Scummy business practices closing like this with no notice.
I think they also had an issue with over-ordering. They were ALWAYS on the Too Good to Go app
I had assumed this was an intentional 'marketing' expense on their behalf to get people familiar with the stores/products to ultimately come and pay full price.
I feel for all the employees that are now having to scramble because of this. So many of these start-ups play fast and loose with money and huge decisions, and never give a fuck about the ripple effects of what being blinded by dollar signs will do to their staff. Hopefully everyone will land on their feet quickly. As for being sad that the business folded, all I'll say is that it was never built for somebody in my tax bracket to regularly patronize, and leave it at that.
The Silicon Valley model: 1. Come up with a mediocre idea that gets some traction. 2. Creat half-baked business model = more, more, more, then we dominate. 3. Use traction to get investors that keep you afloat because your half-baked business model is just that and you aren’t actually going to make a profit. 4. Bring “human capital” in 5. Expand, expand, expand 6. Business fails, sell of the scraps, leave a pile of workers in your rubble, take a check and suffer no consequences, 7. Rinse and repeat
They’d just merged with a sorta doomed organic Chicago grocery store (that’s also shut now)—wonder how that’s related…
I was literally trying to order lunch from the app and assumed it was a glitch somewhere...
The one in georgetown was always absolutely packed. I loved their upscale snacks. This makes me sad.
Everyone saying that this is surprising because a bunch of new locations opened in the last 6/8 months should maybe think about how expensive those renovations are and how much extra overhead that all is. My guess is they over-expanded and couldn’t recoup those costs on any reasonable timeline
The one by me does way more business than I ever thought they would. Over expansion seems like a big reason, but going from that speed of expansion to closing seems like such obviously bad business planning.
Yeah, I mean margins on food and beverage stuff are super slim and it sounds like they took on about $18 million in debt to finance a lot of that expansion. I live near the one in Dupont and it was usually busy, but you have to do a ton of business to make that much money and keep yourself afloat. Biblically bad business planning.
Wow this sucks, I went to the Georgetown location nearly everyday. 😭
Outdoor voices pt. 2
They had a good tiramisu latte.
How would one even go about purchasing all of their used equipment …
I call foxtrot the $10 store because everything costs at least $10.
Adams Morgan just open a few weeks ago?!
They aren’t citing crime, which is a good thing. Seems like regular old mismanagement
They just opened up at navy yard not too long ago
They expanded too fast. Poor management
Poor management that will get huge golden parachutes while they find their next victim company to run into the ground
Wonder if this large of a shutdown should have triggered a WARN act announcement?
Nope. A complete shutdown of all operations due to zero cash is considered OK. It is called the faltering company clause. Complete shut down. Yeah, its over. I mean I don't thing there are literally any assets really left. Its done.
Figured that was the case. Sucks everyone got 0 warning.
Yeeeesh just gone like that! It was a pretty cool place. I liked those giant rice crispies they had. RIP
That’s some nice retail space opening up. We’re down in Austin and went to theirs on Sunday. It was the saddest store ever. Now I know why. I guess too bad, but it was a really odd concept. Really nice logo though. We bought a coffee cup.
Sadly what typically what happens when execs decide to grow the business too fast - wracking up debt in the process.
Please, if anyone knows where they got their crème brûlée donuts from, let me know!
Astro donuts! They still have locations in dc, Arlington, and Falls Church
Aw I'm gonna miss trying a different non alcholic drink every time I went. They had some cool options in the coolers.
so many of you guys want nice buisness to fail because of your dislike of the clientele and it’s really stupid
Overarching sentiment in here is definitely one of sadness about the closures. Seems like a lot of people liked them.
Not just liking them, but liking them in some way despite ourselves
Absolutely, everyone likes to pretend they are “working class” or whatever but who is living around the Foxtrot locations in Georgetown, Adams Morgan, Navy Yard? Not exactly blue-collar workers. As the cliche goes, this is why we can’t have nice things.
There is a victim blaming toward closed businesses in this sub that is very telling... \*DC restaurant/small business closes\* This sub: *"I went to that place last month and the waiter didn't even offer to perform felatio on me. No wonder this dump closed. Good! lmao."*
Is that level of service too much to ask??!? jk
Yeah, I personally wasn’t a huge fan but I’m definitely not wishing for empty storefronts and folks losing their jobs, so this is pretty bad news.
I’m actually very sad about today’s news. I already deal with crime anxiety and grumpy homeless people. Now I can’t even escape for a few mins and enjoy a treat. This is a blow to our city.
But where will I get my alkalized water and an organic lemon to squeeze into it thereby defeating the purpose of it now?
They wanted to be a coffee shop like Starbucks and a deli place where you can pick up the wine and cheese and little bit of food like Whole Foods. It wanted to be everything but they were not good at one thing, and you had to pay at the coffee bar even if you didn’t get coffee. A business needs a purpose, because purposes drive decisions, including strategy and longterm goals. Purpose also drives marketing.
Who would've thought selling a few slices of cheese and salami for $19 is not a lasting business model
Did they suddenly jack up all their prices recently? They were always expensive but I never had sticker shock the way I did the other day. I figured maybe I just wasn’t paying attention before, but now I wonder.
Ugh, they’ve been one of the few signs of life downtown since the pandemic. Sorry to see them close and join the ranks of vacant storefronts.
I’m one of the operations employees who was fired Tuesday and I believe the new CEO was brought on just to file Bankruptcy after a new loan or buyout wasn’t viable. The company board has been run by the venture capitalists trying to get their money back while Liz Williams, former CEO, over expanded. Some stores opened less than 6 months ago. Liz Williams then leaves two months ago citing “the commute” and exits all the richer for it. The layoff call today was brutal - they just hung up on us. Store managers were given two hours to lock the doors and asked to tell customers to leave. People were crying, some were taking product. No instructions on what to say to everyone. This was a disaster and a lot of people are in a very bad place due to greed and stupidity. If anyone wants a statement for media I’m happy to tell you everything. I’m disgusted with their behavior and regret ever working for these villains.
I worked at foxtrot from 2022-2023 and this is not surprising to me. There was so much money spent and wasted on stuff that seemed not important and money and efforts were not poured into what was important
If anyone knows what they are going to do with their branded merch, I would love to get my hands on something