“From Beloved Beacon to Forgotten Relic: Unraveling the Astonishing Decline of Howard Johnson’s Empire”
Sprague agreed. And the one restaurant became two, though initially leaving Sprague some $17,000, about $384K today, in debt. Remarkably, however, by the end of the first summer business was already booming at a whopping 700 meals served per day, plus ice cream sales. Thanks to this, despite only being opened seasonally, within two years the second Howard Johnson’s location was operating debt free.
Naturally, Johnson didn’t stop there. Despite the Great Depression raging, Johnson managed to expand to 41 restaurants by the end of 1936 and his company ballooning to over 100 by 1939.
As for this rapid growth despite not exactly being the best timing given the Great Depression, Johnson would state, “I think that building my business was my only form of recreation. I never played golf. I never played tennis. I never did anything after I left school. I ate, slept, and thought of nothing but the business.”
As to what he was thinking of when thinking about business, as alluded to, he made sure every restaurant looked the same and had the very distinctive bright orange roof and blue spire for easily recognizing the restaurant from a distance, as well as was among the first restaurants to ever put their name and logo on a giant pylon to be extremely visible from the road, now a staple of the industry for such establishments. On that note of highways, he also targeted areas where there were turnpikes or significant bends in the road where people would have to slow down or stop, and then be staring right at his restaurant when they did so.
