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Friendly's shrinks to 87 locations as 90% of its restaurants close

9/19/2026

87 restaurants in 11 Eastern states is all that remains of Friendly's, the Springfield, Massachusetts family-dining chain that peaked at roughly 850 locations in the mid-1990s.

The contraction represents 90% of the store base.

Amici Partners Group, LLC acquired the chain out of its second bankruptcy in 2021, inheriting what it described as a 130-store restaurant chain; the current count has since slipped to 87.

Kahn, a marketing professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, told Fox News Digital there is "a lot of life left" in the brand.