Shake Shack’s six “underperforming” California restaurant closures resulted in 138 layoffs, including 32 in Oakland, according to a state filing.
The company said the layoffs are permanent across Oakland and five Southern California restaurants, which had all closed as of Tuesday. Workers can apply at other Shake Shack locations to be rehired.
The New York-based burger chain, which has more than 400 locations globally, said Tuesday that the California locations had poor performances and in some cases were “cannibalizing sales” from nearby restaurants. Two Shake Shacks in Houston and one in Columbus, Ohio, are also closing for the same reasons.
Shake Shack’s layoffs add to the wave of Bay Area job cuts that have slammed into the tech sector, and also biotech, manufacturing, restaurants and retail companies. Just this past week, Apple, Scale AI, Brave, BioMarin and Genentech had layoffs.
Shake Shack’s southern California layoffs include 18 employees in downtown Los Angeles, 24 in Culver City, 20 in Los Angeles’ Koreatown, 18 in Silver Lake and 24 in Canoga Park.
Laid off employees were mostly classified as team members. More than two dozen trainers and “cross trainers” were also affected, the latter being the company’s term for higher-ranking trainers who also train employees “on the road,” according to its website.
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