By the mid-1960s,
fast food restaurant chains were quickly spreading across the American
dining landscape and the love affair
with the diner
was on the wane. . While diners had evolved from mere lunch carts, where
factory workers picked up a quick bite to eat during the middle of the
workday, to middle class domesticated dining destinations. According
to author Andrew Hurley, the diner strayed away too much from its social
niche
as a regional, blue-collar small business. Corporately-owned fast food
chains, offering uniform food, prices, and décor from coast to coast,
attracted a clientele that didn’t want any surprises when dining
in unfamiliar locations. |
Fast food
chains had another big advantage over diners: access to national advertising
resulting in
large, national, advertising campaigns. McDonalds
restaurants, in particular, created the happy clown, Ronald, to lure
children, along with their families, into their suburban restaurants.
Radio and television
commercials became a prominent force in shaping the public’s excitement
towards its franchised restaurants. The franchise system itself was conducive
to“rapid cloning” of its reliable and consistent operations. |
In addition to burgeoning suburbia, the turnpike became a convenient
location for restaurants and offered a prime opportunity for the chains
to steal away customers who previously had only diners to choose from.
The Fodero diner company tried to compete with new restaurants like Howard
Johnsons by strategically placing diners in close proximity to these chains.
The company hoped that the travelers initially attracted by the big HoJo
sign would pick the diner, but the reality proved otherwise. As such, the
decline of the diner can be dated to the time when the fast food restaurants
opened up nearby (Hurly 101). The financial losses were too great to keep
many of the diners afloat. |
As
a result of these changes in American dining practices, most of the
authentic diners were out
of business by the 1970s.
Reactions to the diners’ demise
varied. Some diner operators sold their diners and bought franchises.
Some turned over management to employees; this shift in power and loss
of authentic
passion on the part of operators often led to further deterioration of
the diner. Still others moved their restaurants with the hope that a
new location would help improve business. Diners were also gutted and
refashioned
into businesses like banks or record stores. Many just rusted and rotted,
ghostly reminders of a time gone by. |