Friendly's has left a bad taste in the mouths of some Wareham residents.

Employees at Friendly's restaurant on Cranberry Highway showed up to work on Tuesday, October 12, to find themselves out of a job. And East Wareham's Cranberry Highway found itself with another closed business -- just a few months after town officials thought they had been assured that the opening of a Friendly's Express in Wareham Crossing would not jeopardize the full-service operation on the other side of town.

"I saw something on Facebook about something weird going on, and called my manager to ask if I should go into work," said Alice Duffy, a four-year, part-time employee of the restaurant.  "She said, 'only if you want to work alone.'"

Duffy said that none of the employees she has spoken with were aware that the restaurant had closed...not the managers, cooks or waitstaff.  In fact, she had thought they were doing pretty well.

"I thought we had a good summer," Duffy said. "There were a few slow days, but the weekends were great."

More infuriating was the fact that "corporate" had explicitly told employees at the restaurant not to worry about their jobs after the Friendly's Express opened in June.

"We were all worried about that," Duffy said.  "But they told us, they're two different entities, not under the same management."

The news also angered Selectman Cara Winslow.  At the June 8 Board of Selectmen Meeting, when Friendly's Express applied for its "common victualer's" license, she specifically asked the company's representatives whether the Cranberry Highway location would be closed. (Scroll down to view a video clip from that meeting.)

The reply: "I am not aware of any plans to close the Cranberry Highway location at this time."

"I depend on them: My daughter and I eat there like three days a week," Winslow said on Friday.  "[The Selectmen] asked them if they were going to close on Cranberry Highway, and they said no, and they invited us to their grand opening in June. We scooped ice cream, and welcomed them to town."

Apparently, officials and employees should have read between the lines of the representative's carefully worded reply to Winslow.

Lynn Bolton, a Friendly's press representative, said that this week that the Cranberry Highway restaurant closed "because they opened a new Friendly's Express in Wareham Crossing."

Bolton said she had to check with the regional manager and human resources about why the employees had not been forewarned.  She had not replied by press time.

Friendly's joins T.J. Maxx, Staples, Payless Shoes and (soon) Walmart in abandoning Cranberry Highway in favor of West Wareham. However, it is the first restaurant chain to head west.

Planning Board Chair George Barrett said that the chain restaurants along Cranberry Highway - which now include the 99, Chili's, Subway, McDonalds and more - have historically been more likely to relocate as opposed to the local restaurants such as Lindsey's or The Lobster Pot.

"Locally owned is more committed to a location," Barrett said.  "They'll stick bad times out."

He and Winslow agreed, however, that the Selectmen could not have denied Friendly's Express a license even if the company had said at the time that the Cranberry Highway restaurant would be closed. Nevertheless,  Winslow felt that the business had been disingenuous with the town, and she couldn't believe a business would so unceremoniously close without a word to its employees.

Duffy agreed with Winslow.

"I'm lucky that I have a full-time job," Duffy said.  "I know a lot of the girls who worked only there and now don't know what to do."

"When you're an employee, you have to give a company two-weeks notice at the least if you want to leave," she continued.  "We employees got no notice.  And they call it Friendly's?"