Famous burger chain is closing 4 California locations — and workers can’t transfer anywhere else

$25 for a burger, fries, and drink is finally catching up to Five Guys.

The cult-favorite burger chain is closing four California restaurants between late May and early July, citing “financial hardship” in filings with the state. The closures will eliminate 55 jobs, and according to the company’s WARN notices, the affected workers won’t have bumping rights — meaning they can’t transfer to other Five Guys locations to save their jobs.

The closing locations and dates, per California WARN filings:

• Whittier (10140 Carmenita Road) — closing May 25, 13 workers laid off
• City of Industry (1552 S. Azusa Avenue) — closing May 26, 15 workers
• Merced (3572 G Street) — closing June 26, 13 workers
• Hanford (1693 W. Lacey Boulevard, Suite A) — closing July 2, 14 workers

These aren’t isolated decisions. Fast Company reported that at least 14 Five Guys locations have closed or are scheduled to close in the first half of 2026 across seven states — California, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Georgia, and Nebraska. California’s four closures are the most visible because state law requires WARN filings, while Five Guys’ privately held, family-owned status (the Murrell family has run the chain since founding it in Arlington, Virginia in 1986) means most other closure details only surface through local reporting and the company’s own store locator.

California remains one of Five Guys’ biggest markets. The state has roughly 111 to 130 locations depending on which industry tracker you check, second only to Florida’s 132. That means the four closures represent only about 2% of the chain’s California footprint — meaningful for the affected communities, but nowhere near a retreat from the state.

So what’s actually happening?

Analysts call it the “middle-tier squeeze.” Five Guys sits between value fast food like McDonald’s and Taco Bell on one side, and sit-down restaurants on the other — and that middle position has become brutal to defend. A burger, fries, and drink at Five Guys now pushes close to $25 in many markets, a price point that worked fine when value menus were $5 but feels harder to justify when customers are pulling back on every category of spending.

California’s specific cost stack makes it worse. The state’s $20 fast-food minimum wage took effect April 1, 2024, layered on top of high rents, food costs, and insurance. Premium chains with already-elevated prices have less room to absorb that pressure than value brands designed to be cheap from the start.

Still, Five Guys isn’t going anywhere. The chain operates over 1,900 locations worldwide and more than 1,500 in the U.S., and according to QSR Magazine, ended 2024 with a net gain of 37 locations despite closing 28 individual stores that year — the standard pattern of pruning weaker units while opening in better markets. The 2026 closures look like the same playbook, just at an accelerated pace.

For California customers, the local impact is real. Four communities are losing a familiar burger stop, and 55 workers are losing jobs without the option to slide over to another Five Guys.

The bigger question is whether premium fast-food can hold the middle as the $25 meal becomes the test customers keep failing.

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