High-end Steakhouse chain Ruth's Chris returned $20 million in government stimulus this week after getting blowback from politicians, the public, and small businesses in need of financial aid. Ruth’s Chris, which has 136 locations across the United States, is a publicly traded corporation and in significantly better financial standing than many small businesses.
“The intent of this money was not for big, public companies that have access to capital,” Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said from the White House on Wednesday. In addition to being publicly traded, 55 of the Ruth’s Chris US locations are operated as franchises, independent from the corporate Ruth’s Chris Hospitality. Though the franchises are able to apply for their own small business loans, forgivable through the Paycheck Protection Program, they would likely not have been able to receive money from the corporate loans. --
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