{"id":292456,"date":"2026-07-10T17:24:48","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T17:24:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/292456\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T17:24:48","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T17:24:48","slug":"dairy-queen-closes-46-locations-nationwide-since-early-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/292456\/","title":{"rendered":"Dairy Queen closes 46 locations nationwide since early 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dairy Queen<\/a> franchisees have shuttered at least 46 locations nationwide since early 2025, with the newest round of closures wiping out all but one of the chain\u2019s Alaska<\/a> restaurants.<\/p>\n

Three Dairy Queens in Anchorage, Wasilla and Palmer closed on June 30, leaving the state with a single location in Soldotna. A Dairy Queen<\/a> official told local reporters the franchise owner of those three stores had recently shut them down, without disclosing the owner\u2019s name or a reason for the decision.<\/p>\n

Pete Ischi, who co-owns the Soldotna store with his ex-wife, called the shutdown \u201cshocking\u201d and said the family turned down an offer to take over the closed locations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe pay freight to get stuff up to Alaska<\/a>,\u201d he said, noting that competitors in the Lower 48 have distributors far closer at hand.<\/p>\n

The Alaska<\/a> closures came less than three weeks after a Dairy Queen<\/a> in Great Falls<\/a>, Montana, shut its doors on June 13 after nearly 40 years in business. Owner Steve Galloway plans to convert the site into a Mediterranean restaurant called Zesty Eatz, featuring gyros, hummus and baklava.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal is to bring something fresh and exciting to Great Falls,\u201d Mr. Galloway said.<\/p>\n

The bulk of the closures, however, trace back to Texas, where franchisee Project Lonestar shut down roughly 30 locations in February 2025 and 12 more the following month amid a bitter dispute with corporate parent American Dairy Queen<\/a> Corp. The company had terminated the franchise agreements after Lonestar failed to remodel the stores, and a lawsuit later filed by Lonestar<\/a> alleged the corporation instructed a key supplier \u201call shipments of DQ products need to stop immediately,\u201d cutting the stores off from food and supplies. A Dairy Queen<\/a> spokesperson described the Texas closures as an \u201cisolated event\u201d tied to a single franchise owner, and the affected operators have not filed for bankruptcy.<\/p>\n

The wave of closures lands at a tough moment for the restaurant industry. Prices for food away from home climbed 3.5% over the 12 months ending in May, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics<\/a>, adding pressure on chains already grappling with labor, rent and ingredient costs.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Despite the losses, Dairy Queen<\/a> remains firmly in business. Founded in Joliet, Illinois, in 1940, the chain rolled out its malts and shakes in 1949 and introduced the Blizzard in 1985, according to International Dairy Queen<\/a>, the Minneapolis-based parent company now owned by Berkshire Hathaway. The system spans more than 7,800 restaurants across 20-plus countries.<\/p>\n

\n This article was constructed with the assistance of artificial intelligence and published by a member of The Washington Times’ AI News Desk team. The contents of this report are based solely on The Washington Times’ original reporting, wire services, and\/or other sources cited within the report. For more information, please read our AI policy<\/a> or contact Steve Fink, Director of Artificial Intelligence, at sfink@washingtontimes.com<\/a>\n <\/p>\n

\n The Washington Times AI Ethics Newsroom Committee can be reached at aispotlight@washingtontimes.com<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dairy Queen franchisees have shuttered at least 46 locations nationwide since early 2025, with the newest round of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292457,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-292456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292456\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}