The Demise of Burger Station

Written as a prompt for Writer's Cramp

The announcement came as a footnote, almost an afterthought, in the Wall Street Journal. “Burger Station, the once popular burger chain in the Northeast, shuttered its original location in Verona, NJ, this week, proving once again that money managers lack the taste and talent to be in the restaurant business.”

There’s more to the story, of course. Jim Anders grew Burger Station into a chain of 1,932 stores across the Northeast and upper Midwest, achieving success with a simple concept and a unique theme. Serve a simple menu of burgers and fries, with quality ingredients, in clean, well-maintained stores, with friendly customer service and a commitment to community involvement. The unique theme surrounded an impeccably restored 1932 Ford “Little Deuce Coupe” at each location, an annual antique car show with proceeds going to local charities, and a marketing deal with Brian Wilson that allowed Burger Station to use the Beach Boys song in their ads and on-site promotions.

Every success story includes a mixture of inspiration, perspiration, frustration and desire. Although he wanted to have a hand in every aspect of his growing company’s operations, Jim soon learned that a growing business needs a team and investors. As CEO of a publicly traded company, Jim ceded some control of his company to a board of directors and ultimately to shareholders. Jim’s business plan allowed the company to grow despite the fluctuations in the restaurant business. The beginning of the end started with the divorce.

In the divorce proceedings, Jim’s wife claimed that she wanted a divorce because Jim was cheating on her. No, he wasn’t cheating with another person. He was cheating by devoting all his time and attention, and yes, his first love, to Burger Station. She exacted her revenge by selling her share of their jointly held stock to Carrion LLC, a financial management company that thrived on buying healthy companies, taking control, dissecting them, and ultimately disposing of their remaining assets. Jim was left to stand by helplessly as the company he had grown from a single location in a converted gas station systematically was destroyed by an overlord who abandoned the company mission and burdened it with layers of management overhead. In the final board meeting, Carrion executives cited that Burger Station did not “meet the minimum transaction value required of their diversified management portfolio”. In other words, squandering assets and relentless cost-cutting had turned Burger Station into a losing venture to be disposed of.

After the board meeting, Jim drove a U-Haul rental van to his parent’s house, the house that was now his home after the divorce. He reflected on his life’s journey. Never the athletic type in school, Jim chose Home Economics to fill out the schedule for his senior year in high school. He had grown up cooking with his grandmother, listening to her stories and learning how to create good, wholesome meals. After high school, he married his high school sweetheart and like many American men in the 1960s, he served his country in the military. He returned home with the desire to begin his life. As he pondered his next steps, he reviewed his assets. He had earned an Associate's degree in business while he was in the military. His dad left him a long-abandoned Esso gas station and his grandpa left him his prized 1932 Ford Coupe. In 1932, the Ford Motor Company took a huge risk by abandoning the popular Model A design and producing the Model B. As Jim lovingly restored his grandpa’s car, he listened to the Beach Boys and planned his future.