GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — You'll have to have it your way -- at least for now -- at fewer Burger King stores in the greater Grand Rapids area after seven locations closed.
West Michigan is home to dozens of stores serving up flame-grilled Whoppers, but the fast-food chain recently closed locations in Grand Rapids, Wyoming, Kentwood and Sparta.
13 ON YOUR SIDE visited all seven of the closed stores, each with signs on the door indicating the closure.
The sign on the door at the Leonard Street location in Grand Rapids said the fast food stop is "currently closed," and encouraged patrons to visit the Alpine location instead. "We value your continued business. You rule," the sign on the door at the Leonard Street location read in part.
That store was locked up, with chairs on top of tables despite the menu monitors still on.
In Kentwood, workers were taking food and other inventory out of the store and loading items into a truck at the now-closed Burger King on East Paris Avenue.
A 13 ON YOUR SIDE crew found the Sparta Burger King was closed, but still had a sign outside Tuesday afternoon looking to hire opening and closing managers.
Factorial Restaurant Holdings, LLC. operates 25 Burger King restaurants in the Grand Rapids market.
Jim Macdonald, Vice President of Operations for Factorial Restaurant Holdings, said those seven locations closed last Friday.
The closures, which Macdonald indicated were temporary, weren't due to poor profits.
"We are in good standing with Burger King. We were having a record year in profits," Macdonald said.
The company is in talks with Burger King about franchise and remodeling agreements, he said.
Remodeling would include redoing the dining room, creating a double drive-thru and catering to 3rd party delivery services like DoorDash and Grubhub.
"Hopefully we get this resolved pretty quickly," but he cautioned that this wouldn't be an overnight deal.
Macdonald expects an agreement after the first of the year.
Employees impacted by the closure were shuffled to other locations, Macdonald said.
13 ON YOUR SIDE reached out to Burger King multiple times and has not yet heard back.
The other 18 Burger King locations under the Factorial Holdings ownership don't have franchise agreements up for decades, Macdonald said.
The fast-food chain closed hundreds of restaurants in 2023.
In 2023, franchise owner EYM King of Michigan permanently closed 26 Detroit-area locations.
Here's our current list of stores that are open and closed in the area:
Grand Rapids locations
1209 Leonard St NW, Grand Rapids - Closed
2204 Plainfield Ave NE, Grand Rapids - Closed
471 68th St SW, Grand Rapids - Closed
Grandville Location
31 44th St SW, Grandville - Open
Wyoming locations
990 44th St, Wyoming - Closed
1313 28th St SW, Wyoming - Closed
Kentwood locations
2880 E Paris Ave SE, Kentwood - Closed
Sparta location
590 S State St, Sparta - Closed
Editor's note: In a previous version of this article, we incorrectly reported the Lowell Burger King location was closed. It is open, and it is not operated by Factorial Holdings LLC.