Biology of Business

Sbarro

Restaurants - Fast Food · Founded 1956 · Defunct 2014

By Alex Denne

Sbarro's multiple bankruptcies (2011, 2014) demonstrate how mall dependency became existential risk as retail shifted online. The pizza chain's food court locations meant its fate was tied to mall traffic—and mall traffic collapsed. Like a symbiont that dies when its host species declines, Sbarro couldn't survive the ecosystem it depended on disappearing. Each bankruptcy shed locations but couldn't solve the fundamental habitat problem.

Key Facts

1956
Founded