{"id":58800,"date":"2026-10-22T04:55:27","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T04:55:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/58800\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T04:55:27","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T04:55:27","slug":"why-did-dairy-queen-close-in-alaska-what-we-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/58800\/","title":{"rendered":"Why did Dairy Queen close in Alaska? What we know"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"W4AI3JT4WJE5FF34EOIRRLNKKM\">Like most of the restaurant industry, the ice cream shop sector is facing hard times. <\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"BWDN3KPKPVCU5IHFNRDUHBMBF4\">The popular ice cream chain Dairy Queen\u2019s franchisees have shuttered at least 46 locations nationwide since early 2025, with the most recent closure occurring at the end of June. <\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"J7PJAKR7A5HSHOVRIMO5UNS7NI\">The company\u2019s franchisee shuttered three Dairy Queen locations in Alaska \u2013 Wasilla, Anchorage and Palmer \u2013 on June 30 without providing a reason, according to Anchorage Daily News. <\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"JF6YLPBAGBAD3DC7T63QPG5V3A\">As a result, only one Dairy Queen location remains in Alaska, and that\u2019s in Soldotna. <\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"VUHYMUTZY5ECXJNW2LUELBD34M\">\u201cThe franchise owner of the Anchorage, Wasilla, and Palmer locations recently closed them,\u201d a Dairy Queen chain official told the Anchorage Daily News in an email Thursday. Dairy Queen did not provide the owner\u2019s name or a reason for the closures.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"3I4U7ZVFGRDXRICQVBBO4INOUA\">The Alaska closures came weeks after a Dairy Queen in Great Falls, Montana shuttered its location on June 13, ending 39 years of operation. <\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"AIMMT5D4MVHSNEX2GWQTHHOB4Y\">The former owner, Steve Galloway, planned to convert the site into a Mediterranean restaurant called Zesty Eatz, according to KRTV3.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"NIHQRSY27ZGYNJ624LOE5GWVLM\">\u201cOur goal is to bring something fresh and exciting to Great Falls,\u201d Galloway said. \u201cWe want Zesty Eatz to be a place where families, students, and working professionals can enjoy great food, unique drinks, and outstanding customer service in a welcoming atmosphere.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"QFCFRJL5FFHX7GI5XFOGWF2HSA\">In February 2025, a Dairy Queen franchisee shut down 30 restaurants in Texas due to a dispute with the parent company. The next month, 12 more locations went dark over the same dispute, according to the Austin American-Statesman.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"FGQYN2BF5VHI7PSPGXWVF3QUEY\">Dairy Queen pulled the franchises from franchisee Project Lonestar after it failed to remodel Dairy Queen\u2019s restaurants. As a result, locations couldn\u2019t order supplies from the parent company, TheStreet reported. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Like most of the restaurant industry, the ice cream shop sector is facing hard times. The popular ice cream chain Dairy Queen\u2019s franchisees have shuttered at least 46 locations nationwide since early 2025, with the most recent closure occurring at the end of June. The company\u2019s franchisee shuttered three Dairy Queen locations in Alaska \u2013<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58801,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[6626,6624,6622,6625,6623],"class_list":["post-58800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-alaska","tag-alaska","tag-alaska-dining","tag-alaska-food","tag-alaska-grocery-stores","tag-alaska-restaurants"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dc\/117482784283002347","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}