Local pizza shop shuts down abruptly, lashes out at ‘corporate’

Customers who expected to pick up dinner at a Beavercreek pizza shop Thursday night instead encountered a hand-lettered “closed” sign that blamed the restaurant’s corporate owners for the shop’s abrupt shutdown.

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Here’s the text of the note taped to the entrance of Papa Murphy’s Take & Bake Pizza at 1195 N. Fairfield Road north of U.S. 35 Thursday evening:

“STORE CLOSED — Corporate closed this store because we wouldn’t spend $140,000 for new floors, POS (point of sale) system, new ceiling, and new make line. This would have been money WASTED!!”

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The Papa Murphy’s web site no longer lists the Beavercreek store, or the chain’s Centerville restaurant at 832 S. Main St., as active store locations.

Messages left with a spokeswoman for the Papa Murphy’s restaurant chain Thursday night were not immediately returned. Attempts to reach the local franchise owner were not successful.

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In its most recent financial results for the third quarter of 2017, announced a month ago, the Vancouver, Washington-based Papa Murphy's reported a drop in revenue from the previous year. Domestic same-store sales decreased 4.1 percent compared to the third quarter of 2016, including a 2.7 percent decline at company-owned stores.

The company reported a net loss of $1.9 million compared to $421,000 in the prior year’s third quarter.

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