Sandy’s first opened its doors in Central Illinois in 1956, established by four businessmen named Gus “Brick” Lundberg, Robert C. Wenger, Paul White and W. K. Davidson. In the Midwest, Sandy’s was the ancestor of the Hardee’s chain.
Originally, the four owners wanted to open McDonald’s franchises, but because the area they were going for was too high in traffic (which resulted in higher fees to pay), they decided not to pursue the idea further.
D’Lites
D’Lites was founded in 1978 and, within less than a decade, the fast food chain had soon expanded to over 100 locations nationwide.
Unfortunately, their success was very short-lived due to their inability to offer people healthier food options.
D’Lites
Most of their competitors, such as McDonald’s, Burger King and Wendy’s, started creating healthier food choices, which left D’Lites lagging.
Although they were miles ahead of the pack as far as non-healthy fast food was concerned, it seems they lacked the foresight to expand their menu to suit the blossoming healthy eating trends. Eventually, the company could no longer keep up with their competition, so one by one, they closed all of their store locations.
Sandy’s
Instead, they ended up opening a new chain of burger joints, which they made to imitate their competition.
Sandy’s lasted for a good 20 years before McDonald’s eventually took over and Sandy’s shut down.
Wimpy
The Wimpy brand was established by Edward Gold in 1934, in Bloomington, Indiana. The first shopfront was established in Chicago that same year.
In 1954, Wimpy’s was introduced to the United Kingdom as “Wimpy bar”. The chain quickly expanded into a massive 1,500 locations worldwide.