Papa John's to close 300 underperforming stores by the end of 2027

[TheFugitive]

Papa John's Pizza becomes the latest restaurant chain to announce the closure of hundreds of underperforming locations.

https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/26/food/papa-johns-closures

The plan is to close 200 by the end of this year, and an additional 100 by the end of next year.  No specific locations have been announced yet.  They had roughly 3500 locations at the start of this year. Papa John's saw a 5.4% decline in same-store sales in the 4th. quarter of 2025, which would be enough to send any chain's management into panic.

There is only one Papa John's location in my area, and it's not particularly convenient for me to get to it.  Here in Pittsburgh the pizza competition from "mom and pops" is pretty intense.