The Flying J Travel Plaza, 4245 W. Highway 50, has shortened its food service hours because of the economy.
Food service hours at the plaza previously ran 24 hours a day. Now the restaurant will close from midnight to 5 a.m. Sunday through Thursday. The restaurant will stay open all night on Fridays and Saturdays.
“It’s a corporate decision,” said restaurant manager Todd Wilson. “With the economy on the downturn, corporate is pulling third shift from a lot of stores.”
Wilson said the shortening of hours is not a local phenomenon, and is not related to business lost because of Emporia’s recently passed smoking ban.
“Business hasn’t really dropped off because of the smoking ban,” Wilson said.
Flying J and its Big West refining and Longhorn Pipeline subsidiaries filed for bankruptcy last December.
The company operates approximately 250 travel plazas and fuel stations nationwide, employs more than 16,000 people in the United States and Canada, and is among the 20 largest private companies in America, according to a news release from the company.