Waffle House Never Closes (Unless It's Really Bad) 

At over 2000 locations in the United States, you can get waffles 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. That's because a Waffle House never closes - not even under some of the most dangerous weather conditions the Earth can muster. In fact, after a hurricane, the number of operating Waffle Houses in the area can give first responders a rough idea of the magnitude of the disaster. This has been called the Waffle House Index. If the Waffle Houses are closed, you know it's bad. But today a different kind of disaster is befalling the entire world. Can the mighty Waffle House stay open?

Everybody gangsta til Waffle House closes

Two things can survive nuclear winters: 1. Cockroaches 2. Waffle House

I’m not American and this is the first time I’ve heard of Waffle House. This explanation only tells me one thing, if I’m ever going to the US and got into some disaster I won’t be calling 911, I’ll run to this bunker with waffles instead.

It's weird seeing all the "augh, your employees" comments about Waffle House; I wanna explain some things. (Disclosure: I'm an American, not from a waffle house area but I've been to them before, and find the Waffle House Index interesting.) It's not covered in the video but in addition to the solidly-built buildings with their own generators, all the ingredients they use are basic, store well, and won't go bad immediately without refrigeration (eg canned mushrooms, not fresh; "pasteurized process cheese food," not cheese); all the dishes they make require minimal attention to cook (think scrambled eggs, not omelettes). It's not like this is a packed Perkins where you have half a dozen servers checking a dozen times to see if you're ready/if you need a drink refill, a handful of bussers, and a packed kitchen full of cooks fussing over a million varieties of pancakes/waffles/eggs/chicken strips/burgers/etc. They serve waffles. They serve hashbrowns. They serve scrambled or fried eggs. That's it. You can get your hashbrowns/eggs with or without cheese and mushrooms on top. *The whole restaurant can be run easily by two people and adequately with one.* These 1-2 employees who are still working each shift, they're probably from the "reserve cooks" team. They're safe in the cement bunker that is a waffle house; they aren't locals being held financially hostage when they'd rather evacuate their families. At the code yellow point and up until code red, Waffle House is mostly serving police, fire department, first responders, FEMA agents. FEMA developed the (unofficial) Waffle House Index because that's where they eat when they are responding to a disaster. (Fire and police both get steep discounts at waffle house, I believe, so I wouldn't say keeping it open is about profit either.) I'm not saying the US/capitalism doesn't have problems with how it treats workers; it absolutely does. But Waffle House isn't worse than anyplace else, and is arguably better than many. They know how to stay open *safely.* I worked at McDonalds in a blinding snowstorm, workers still had to drive in, we still had to run orders out to parked cars, I still had to reach out the window for the drive through orders though the cold was physically painful and I warmed my hands over the fryer between cars. My university town's walmart made employees sandbag during flooding and when the water came up anyway the city had to evacuate them from the store in the bucket of a bulldozer. Waffle House is better to their employees than that.

I actually work at Waffle House so it’s very interesting watching this video. When the shutdown started that was the first time my store had been shut down EVER since it opened so I knew it was a big deal.

As an American I don't understand all these foreigners saying Waffle House is awful.... Waffle House employees are their own class of Heroes and they aren't forced to go into work during a disaster they have a whole separate line of staff that are willing to be there for Americans in need during a disaster in case the usual ones choose not to go in.

The fact waffle houses are closing is probably the most scary shit I've seen in years.

Just doing a quick fact check since I work at at Waffle House. Just because Waffle House looses power does not mean that it shits down. We use gas grills I have worked several shifts in a store with no power before, some of my Coworkers have worked in stores that have been robbed at gunpoint and didn’t close because of it. When hurricane Dorian hit my manager and an handfukknif upper management were sent to Texas I believe to work over there. They came back with stories of how they were the only place opened for miles they had packed stores with no power and had to boil water before cooking with it because the storm had affected the water quality. In times of emergency Waffle House sees itself as a public service.

As a none American I thought Waffle House was just a myth

now I want some hashbrowns and a waffle

Best ad ever. Now I want a waffle from WH. But I think they won't be shipping to Argentina in the foreseeable future. :P

I want to see an end-of-the-world-catastrophe movie where a Waffle House falls into a ravine opening up in the ground if you zoom into the windows, the employees and customers are just going about a normal day.

I feel bad for the employees who seem to not be worth much in the company's view.

I have worked for waffle house for 30 years, I have never seen or heard of them closing since 1955, they could not find the keys for the locks on the doors so they had to put new locks on the doors because of this virus and laid off a lot of people and closed the doors on most stores that i know of.... It truly must be bad this go round.

Guy one - ITS THE END OF THE WORLD ! ! ! ! Guy two - how do you know that ? Guy one - Waffle house is closed Guy two - Dear god

Waffle house has saved my ass on so many occasions.

I love the point this makes. If nothing ameliorable is ever treated as an emergency, merely part of a plan, then EVERYTHING is business as usual! Fire service has always operated this way, of course.

This video gave me one of the greatest culture shock of my life. During the description of Waffle House corporate policy, I was outraged as a European, yet it was being described as something praise-worthy. I really wasn't as expert on American culture as I thought

Waffle house should run the government...

We need the SCP Foundation to Classify Waffle House

you CANT out waffle the house, it's simply impossible

Very well produced and accurate video! Subbed.

in the next duodectillion years the entire world would be black holes and waffle house spaceships

Good to know since hurricane Ian is about to hit tampa. Glad waffle is 4min walk

Desaster: Happens Wafflehouse CEO: It‘s time to mobilize the troops. Wafflehouse Employee: Jarvis, activate barn door protocol.

Missed opportunity to say “Unless it’s really affle”

*man serving me bacon strips while the suns crashing on the spot*

5:40 nope, when waffle House opens that just means it's not terrible anymore. Too many people will take "it can't be that bad" literally

waffle house employees are scp operatives

I thought this video was much older than it was. I had seen it before but didn't realize on a second viewing that it was released after Covid until it was mentioned in the video... Time has no meaning anymore.

I'm vehementemente opposed to Bell icon but just slightly considered it because it's maddening that this did not show up on my feed until now.

Bro who risking their life just to eat some bloody Waffle House 💀

If the waffle house is closed, it's too late, it has already begun and your only hope at survival is to pray to whatever god, demon or scientist you belive in

YALL PRAY FOR ME MY WAFFLE HOUSE NEXT TO ME CLOSED

I’d honestly love to see a feature length film about the corporate Waffle House team meeting up to during a gigantic storm and working together to keep their restaurants open. It’s super impressive, honestly.

THE WAFFLE HOUSE HAS FOUND IT'S NEW HOST

Thanks Conor

This IS some good stuff

“It’s more then just a promise it’s corporate policy”

The waffle house wont even close if for some reason a goddamn mass Keter-class SCP containment breach were to happen. It IS a SCP.

Ok.... I never heard of a waffle house as a European. What a weird, absurd concept. Lives of employees are risked no matter what to sell waffles for 24/7?! US is a absurd place

i'm pretty sure that a waffle house could be used for a nuclear shelter

There's also the Big Mac Index

well are there resttrenus as nice as there homepage? Maybe they should improve a bit on that instead of keeping open doing a hurricane. :-)

That Is Good Business

We are DOOMED

Is the waffle house the scp foundation of fast food

just imagine going to waffle house only to see it's closed at that point it's too late

I live near one of these should I be scared??

If Waffle House is closed we're probably already dead

why is waffle house more organized than the government

We dont have a waffle house in WA CA OR NV But its cray for sure Good stuff.

5:20- Weeks, oh how ignorant scientists were when corona begun

Cracker Barrel is a close contender for crisis management during storms.

Kim Jong Un: *You can't beat me* Americans: *I know, but he can* *W a f f l e H o u s e*

bro just tried to grab some food after hurricane beryl all three near me are closed, storm wasn't even bad waffle house ain't what it used to be i guess.

Nice! Must have landed a Sponsor with Rogers Family.

This type of thing isn't that unusual anymore, I know that most big retailers nowadays have a generator in every store, a big water tank with 7 days' water supplies in the receiving yard, secure areas for staff during strikes/rioting, trained fire fighters and first aiders on every shift (an OHSA requirement generally), emergency response teams, an app you can download from the play store so every staff member can have continuous updates and emergency plans and contact details, a private security force, gunshot kits and first aid boxes, spare clothing, emergency food supplies and cussions that can be used to make bedding if needed, company cellphones (one of which is a satalite phone) and a lot of other stuff, and this is just a retail normal store with 30 to 600 employees per branch and a thousand or so branches on two continents/9 countries. The 4 biggest competitor retail companies have exactly the same minimum standards, bomb threats to earthquakes to war to general strikes of public transport is not a reason to close, although snow would probably mean closing, if it ever happened, but thats not something which has happened near any store since the 1920s so it's unlikely.

Honestly if waffle house closes, Start panicking.

if the waffle house is closed you best pray to whatever you believe in and go full black airforce 10 crocs sports mode energy mode

They opened a Waffle House in my town. It is full and it lives up to the mythology.

Oh great Lawdy, not the waffle houses!

Great video. Really entertaining.

“Hey can we go to Waffle House.” “No there closed.” “GO IN THE CAR” “Why?-“ “GO IN THE FRICKING CAR!” “Breaking news. Ohio is coming to destroy half of the earth. We are taking Waffle House in a space ship and the space ship will go to a new earth that we planned to make and we think the planet is ready. So ride to a space ship that is huge inside of it it is like the earth but without the sky.” “OH F-“ I like waffles btw so if I see a Waffle House I will go there of I could. me when I hear a storm is coming that could kill us all:eh Me when I hear Waffle House is closed:OH S-

The Waffle House has found its new Host

Is this not an April fools joke

This is SCP 1870

The Waffle House reserve, like the army reserve but it’s Waffle House.

Half of the cooks and servers at my WH are hooked on Fentanyl and/or Meth .. and don’t show up for their shifts.. they wind up working the dependable workers till they quit from the stress and go somewhere else I’ve seen cooks promoted to “ Rock star “ status just as an incentive to keep them from quitting … they can’t do more than 3 orders at a time without jacking shit up… they keep half the store closed or do to go orders only because they can’t assemble a decent crew to cover 3 shifts

The pancake town is about to ruin this world

It just seems so irresponsible to force your employees to drive to work in a hurricane just for a fuck stick to get their waffles.

This seems like satire but I can actually believe corporate really cares that little about their employees, and they get paid minimum wage! Why do people put up with this shit

This inspiring as shit video, but doesn't address the issue that staff are still forced to work during unsafe conditions at extremely low wages (as low as $3.60 per hour, according to my search). Also, nice to know that Patrons can buy free advertisement.

Do not die waffle House your family and we love you stay with us

They are probably open again now. I really wanna go to Waffle House.

none in Calif.

Waffle House is an SCP

When waffle house closes you know shits about to go downhill.

are you saying there are some Waffle Houses still open?

Also we cook for drunk people, a little oh storm is nothing, try fitting 100 drunks in a 40 seat resturaunt talk about danger!

0:01 That powerful storm system is spinning the wrong way around. Hello! In northern hemisphere the storms spin counter-clockwise.

bet they have a nuclear bunker underneath all of them

I like Waffles House

The waffle house has found it's new host

Waffle House does close for cleaning

Very admirable business policy. Waffle House for President, anyone?

All I heard was that Waffle Houe is such a greedy corporation that they force employees to work through the absolute worst conditions in the pursuit of profit. If Waffle House has all this amazing infrastructure to stay open during disasters, why aren't they HELPING during the disaster? Give out free food, offer your building as a shelter, give out grants or other assistance to other struggling businesses... WTF

Katrina and Joplin couldnt close waffle house. Government?

Not a word on the employees who are forced to keep working in these ridiculously dangerous circumstances? I'm sorry Matt, but you really dropped the ball here. This story isn't just about the resilience of a company, but also about a company wilfully risking the lives of its (expendable) employees because it has a ridiculous corporate strategy. If you tell the first part, you need to at least acknowledge the second.

And now, the Waffle House has its new host

This is a masterpiece!

The amount of work for keeping a fucking Waffle House open is fucking stupid xD

The Waffle House has found it’s new host

Waffle House has a new host

Is this actually real??

waffle house has found it's new host, or more exactly....leaving to the location it's new host is.

Day 577 : The Rona is still bout, but we finna be fine soon

Yo btw, they are closed for this new storm. just saying.

This is thread readon why America was never invaded.