Dickey's BBQ Chain Closes Nearly 100 Locations (Is Yours One?)

The restaurant industry continues to struggle, and Dickey's Barbecue Pit is not immune. 

Nearly half of Dickey's Barbecue Pit locations were closed or sold during the last fiscal year ending in May 2024. As of February 2025, that leaves around 318 locations across the country still open for business according to their website. 

Restaurants are becoming increasingly aware that today's diners are struggling to go out to eat more on a limited budget. 

For Dickey's Barbecue Pit, that could mean adjusting their business strategies and customer base altogether moving forward.  

Editor's note: For the most updated info about Dickey's Barbecue Pit closures, click here.

Dickey's Barbecue Pit was founded in 1941 in Dallas, Texas. It took more than 50 years for the restaurant to begin franchising, and by 2012, it was dubbed the fastest-growing restaurant chain in the U.S by Technomic. 

Customers love the meat smoked on-site, which uses wood-burning hickory pits to create a rich barbecue flavor. Their menu also offers home-style sides like fried okra, barbecue beans, and green beans with bacon that taste like they came from a home picnic. 

Dickey's operates eight different brands, including Wing Boss, Big Deal Burger, Trailer Birds, and Barbecue at Home.

Along with closing many physical locations, nearly all of Dickey's virtual restaurants have be shuttered.  

Virtual restaurants or "ghost kitchens" rose to prominence during the pandemic as a way for restauranteurs to start their own pop-up, to-go location without all of the hefty operating costs of a sit-down eatery. 

However, some ghost kitchen owners reported steep fees and costs, according to a December 2024 Restaurant Business article. 

Dickey's Barbecue Pit may be struggling financially, but honing in on the success of their subsidiaries could be the future. Wycliff Douglas Provisions could help the company pivot from franchising restaurants to selling food products. WDP is a meat processing company that delivers ready-to-eat and ready-to-cook meats to restaurants, retail stores, and private-label clients.

In October 2024, Nation's Restaurant News reporting of Technomic's numbers said that WDP was, "registering a 105% year-over-year increase in sales and a 200% increase in its customer base. WDP has also extended its shipping beyond Texas to all U.S. markets."

Alternatively, Restaurant Business reported in December 2024 that for a recent fiscal year sales for the company's overall subsidiaries decreased by 9% in tandem with franchise-related royalties. "The company relies nearly as much on selling product to operators as it does on taking franchise royalties, according to the FDD," Restaurant Business said in December 2024. 

Moving forward, the company may find potential growth in subsidiaries like WDP, instead of opening new sit-down or virtual restaurants. 

Dickey's Barbecue Pit is far from the only restaurant chain that has faced financial challenges in the past few years. Places like Red Lobster, White Castle, Boston Market, and other recognizable brands have struggled to stay relevant to American diners. 

Families struggling to move beyond living paycheck to paycheck have little choice but to cut pleasures such as dining out from their budgets.