11 Signs Hardee's Is Struggling

Many people have a go-to fast food chain when they are looking for a quick meal, are feeling too lazy to cook, or are just craving a particular menu item. For quite a few Americans, that fast food chain is Hardee's. Wilber Hardee opened the first location of his namesake eatery in Greenville, North Carolina in 1960. Today, the restaurant's menu has a little bit of everything — from biscuit-based breakfast sandwiches to charbroiled burgers to hand-breaded chicken tenders, Hardee's has options for any time of day.

If you see the Hardee's sign with a smiling star and think that it looks familiar from another chain, you'd be right — Carl's Jr. sports the same logo. That may leave you wondering: If these two chains have the same branding, why do Hardee's and Carl's Jr. have different names? In 1997, Hardee's was acquired by CKE Restaurants — the parent company of Carl's Jr. — and the corporation gradually started integrating the Carl's Jr. menu items, design elements, and signage into Hardee's locations during the early 2000s. However, in April of 2024, CKE took steps toward the separation and individualization of these fast food chains.

Unfortunately for Hardee's fans, those efforts may be in vain, as this fast food chain might not be around much longer. Quick-service chains have been struggling, and Hardee's is one of them — its management claims that over 1,800 Hardee's eateries are now operating internationally, but there used to be at least 2,000 locations. Here are other signs as to why Hardee's might soon become nothing more than a memory. 

The most recent warning sign that Hardee's is going downhill were protests that occurred at multiple restaurant locations in late 2024. Activists from The Humane League — a global nonprofit dedicated to ending abuse of animals raised for food production — staged demonstrations in October 2024 at Hardee's restaurants and the CKE headquarters in Franklin, Tennessee.

These demonstrations went on for days, and were not only highlighting the animal welfare practices of Hardee's and its parent company, but also a supposed lack of transparency. CKE previously vowed to transition toward using 100% cage-free eggs by the end of 2025, and the corporation has met that commitment at all of its domestic Carl's Jr. locations. However, according to Humane League officials (via the Williamson Herald), the company has not fully revealed its progress in this effort for Hardee's East Coast locations, where fewer laws regulate the use of battery cages for hens.

One Humane League protester told the Williamson Herald that they suspect CKE is not reporting on those locations because the numbers do not appear favorable. The Humane League also planned protests at Hardee's in Columbus, Ohio and Indianapolis, Indiana in October of 2024, as well as at a location in Charleston, South Carolina. Having demonstrators outside of Hardee's locations — with bullhorns, signs, and even wearing a chicken costume while sitting in a cage — is not a good look for the restaurant chain, or its controlling company. 

The future of Hardee's has been uncertain for a while. In May of 2023, one of the chain's largest franchisees — Summit Restaurant Holdings — filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. As a franchise holder, Summit operated nearly 150 Hardee's locations in eight states, 39 of which it closed before announcing the bankruptcy. 

According to Restaurant Dive, Summit's bankruptcy filings stated that its business "suffered significantly from loss of foot traffic, resulting in declining revenue without proportionate decreases in rental obligations, debt service, and other liabilities." Within a few months, CKE found a buyer for 81 of the remaining Hardee's locations formerly operated by Summit: High Bluff Capital Partners, which is the parent company of Church's, Quiznos, and Taco Del Mar.

While it is positive that a buyer took over a majority of the Hardee's restaurants that Summit managed, and those locations weren't forced to close down, it's always a red flag when a major franchisee files for bankruptcy. It is additionally concerning that Summit cited low foot traffic and decreased revenue as part of the reason for going bankrupt. 

Recent closures of Hardee's locations are not confined to restaurants that were operated by Summit. Over the past couple years, many other locations shut their doors permanently, confirming the status of Hardee's as one of the burger chains that might disappear. 

In 2024 (per Finance Buzz), Hardee's closed several locations across central and southern Illinois. Meanwhile, a Hardee's in Spring Hill, Tennessee — not far from CKE's headquarters — was also shuttered, with its workers given the option to work at other locations in the area. Joplin, Missouri also saw the closure of five Hardee's restaurants during 2023 and 2024. What's more, multiple Hardee's locations in Wichita, Kansas — all owned by Capstone Restaurant Group, and only opened since 2016 — were abruptly closed in spring of 2023, according to the Wichita Eagle. 

At least one Hardee's location has already closed its doors in 2025. During January, a Hardee's in Bear, Delaware appeared to go out of business, with its signage removed and a notice posted asking customers to visit an alternative location, according to Delaware Business Now; this closure left just nine Hardee's locations operating in Delaware. 

When fast food customers elect to use a drive-thru, it's usually because they seek an experience that is quick and easy. To streamline the process, some fast food drive-thrus are using AI technology, including Hardee's. In May of 2023, CKE announced partnerships with three different companies offering AI-based voice-ordering platforms: Presto Automation, OpenCity, and Valyant AI. 

However, AI seems to be losing its grip on fast food drive-thru lanes — and this extends to Presto Automation, after the company disclosed to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it employs off-site human workers who review and correct customer orders received by its AI platform to ensure accuracy. It was revealed that these employees help with more than 70% of orders.

When a writer for Inverse visited a Carl's Jr. drive-thru to test out the AI being utilized by CKE, he found it was accurate with taking orders, but stated that the process felt slower due to awkward pauses. The writer also noted that the AI tried to upsell him multiple times. Overall, he expressed that the whole interaction felt sad, and that the use of AI was clearly more about boosting the chain's profitability rather than improving customer experiences.

A 2024 report on drive-thru wait times published by Intouch Insight confirmed that the process of ordering at the Hardee's drive-thru can be slow, and is apparently getting slower. In 2022, Hardee's earned praise as the third-highest category leader for the fastest total time customers spent in a drive-thru — but by 2024, the chain didn't even crack the top five. 

Even before the advent of AI, Hardee's faced difficulties with another technological advancement — the rise of online review platforms. On Yelp, the Hardee's brand has over 1,380 locations rated on the site, with more than 9,000 reviews ... and those reviews have earned the chain an underwhelming average rating of 2.3 out of 5. 

A customer recently visited a Hardee's location in Virginia, and took to Yelp afterwards to bemoan the "extremely poor" service and long wait time. The diner added that they were made to feel as though they were bothering the workers on duty. In addition to negative feedback about the service at Hardee's, there are also complaints about the chain's food. Another Yelp reviewer ordered Hardee's double cheeseburger combo, and was fairly disappointed with what they received, stating that the burgers were small, the patties overcooked to the point of appearing "like hockey pucks," the cheese was not melted, and the buns were stale. The diner concluded the review by saying, "all Hardee's in the area have definitely gone downhill." 

A Tripadvisor review encapsulated an unpleasant Hardee's experience with the title "Bad customer service and bad food." In the post the patron not only complained about a long wait time, but also receiving food that was cold and seemingly spoiled. When the diner brought this to the attention of an employee and asked for their money back, the alleged response was that nothing was wrong with the food, and the refund request was denied. Because of this interaction at Hardee's, according to the review, the chain "lost a 40 year customer." 

If long drive-thru wait times and bad customer reviews weren't enough, Hardee's also hasn't done well in industry rankings. In a 2024 QSR Magazine analysis of fast food chains ranked by sales, Hardee's placed a middling number 30. The list reported that Hardee's made more than $1.9 billion in U.S. sales during 2023, which seems impressive ... until noting that the list's first-place chain, McDonald's, reported domestic sales of over $53 billion in the same year. The ranking also noted that Hardee's had a total of 1,707 units in 2023, which is 45 fewer locations than it had the year before.

In July of 2024, USA Today ranked the 10 best fast food restaurants in the U.S., based on votes submitted by readers. Hardee's was ranked fifth, while In-N-Out Burger, Chick-fil-A, KFC, and Del Taco took the top spots. Another ranking by PriceListo presented the worst fast food chains in the U.S. based on Tripadvisor review scores, as reported by The Mirror. In that ranking, Hardee's came in eighth, with a review score of 3.27 out of 5; we guess this is one ranking where the chain can be happy that it didn't take the top spot.

Another struggle for the chain is that Hardee's is facing a serious limitation in where it can open new locations. Due to the widespread presence of a popular Canadian fast food chain named Harvey's — which has a somewhat similar menu to Hardee's, as it also serves burgers and chicken tenders — Hardee's is unable to establish locations for our northern neighbors. Apparently, according to Money Inc., Canadians believe that the similarity of the chains' names would be an issue if Hardee's were to open restaurants in the land of Harvey's.

This is especially interesting when considering that Hardee's was owned by the Canadian company Imasco before the burger chain was sold to CKE in 1997. Since then, CKE has opened Carl's Jr. restaurants in Canada — beginning in 2011 with a location in British Columbia — but it seems unlikely that a Hardee's will ever be established in the Great White North. 

Observant customers are claiming that Hardee's has been downsizing its menu items and lowering the quality of its food. One change that customers noticed was the chain replacing its Thickburgers line — which were offered as ⅓-, ½- and ⅔-pound burgers — with burgers that are based on quarter-pound beef patties. The chain still offers a ½-pound Monster Burger, but that consists of two quarter-pound patties.

Customers seem disappointed with this change, with one Redditor saying that the Thickburger was a primary "reason we would go to Hardee's." Another user on Reddit recently ate at Hardee's, and said that while the burger tasted okay, the patty was "just sad compared to the old ⅓ lb." This feedback was commented on by a former Hardee's employee, who said the change was due to the Thickburger patties being too expensive for the chain's management. A different Redditor theorized that the chain secretly changed their beef source, to the detriment of how Hardee's food tastes today, saying that "now they are thin, greasy, disgusting burgers."

Another reduction that customers noticed was with Hardee's drinks. One diner on Reddit was shocked at the diminutive size of the drink they received, and even questioned the Hardee's employee if it was the right size, but the worker confirmed that it was "definitely a large cup." One more change that has drawn negative feedback online is a perceived shrinkage in the size of Hardee's chicken tenders, which one patron on Reddit lamented as being "laughably small." 

In line with current trends, Hardee's added plant-based menu options in December of 2019. That month, the chain's parent company, CKE, announced that it would expand its partnership with Beyond Meat after selling over 6.7 million Beyond Famous Star burgers at Carl's Jr. in less than a year. The plant-based selections that were added at Hardee's included Beyond Sausage Burritos, Beyond Sausage Biscuits, Beyond Sausage & Egg Biscuits, and the Original Beyond Thickburger. 

However, not long after these meat-free menu items were added, customers noticed that they started to disappear — unfortunately, this isn't the only time Beyond Meat hasn't lasted at fast food restaurants. A customer on Reddit said that they were disappointed after their local Hardee's indicated that the Beyond Thickburger would be discontinued, adding that Hardee's was "one of the only places [where] I like the Beyond Burger." A commenter followed up on that thread to say that a manager at their local Hardee's also admitted that the meatless burger would soon no longer be available. One customer even took to Reddit to share that they were given a big box of leftover Beyond Burger patties by their local restaurant. At least someone benefited from the meat-free burgers being discontinued — we can't say the same for Hardee's. 

Long before the negative reviews, franchisee bankruptcy, and rough rankings, the reputation of both Hardee's and Carl's Jr. was struggling due to years of releasing sexually suggestive commercials. In 2005, CKE started releasing these commercials for both chains that typically involved famous women — like Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian, and Heidi Klum — eating burgers in a risqué manner, and the company continued this ad campaign for more than a decade. These commercials received a lot of backlash, and even inspired a boycott against Carl's Jr.

In February of 2018, according to Fox News, Hardee's tried to create some distance from Carl's Jr., as CKE announcing that its two chains would be focusing on "solo careers." Soon afterwards (per Business Wire), Hardee's announced its new "brand defining campaign" called Tastes Like America, which would use real people and real food to create a "comfort culture" around the restaurant.

However, despite this move away from the sexually charged commercials affiliated with Carl's Jr., in November of 2018 Hardee's released a promotion with Tinder that allowed the dating app's users to swipe on a character named Chris P. — who had a giant chicken tender instead of a head — and receive a QR code to get a buy-one, get-one deal on a five-piece chicken tender combo. This seemed like a depressing step backwards for the chain's rebranding efforts, and certainly didn't help boost comfort or culture. 

Fast food prices have seen a surge, and the cause is not only caused by inflation, but the rise in labor and production costs. According to PR Newswire, Restaurant365's annual industry survey found that in 2024, 88% of participating restaurants experienced increased labor costs, and 86% had increased food costs. The survey also found that in 2025, 27% of restaurant leaders are primarily worried about rising food costs. In addition, 82% of participants said that they expect food costs to increase, and 77% predict that labor costs will go up as well.

This is concerning for the future of Hardee's, because when Summit Restaurant Group filed for bankruptcy, in court documents the franchisee cited rising food and labor costs as having major negative impacts to the company's cash flow. In order to survive these competitive times for fast food restaurants, Hardee's will need to remain profitable enough to overcome rising costs, while doing a better job of keeping its clientele happy.