More than three months after it announced plans to close hundreds of restaurant locations this year, Papa Johns International appears to have already made significant reductions to its national footprint. 

The pizza delivery and takeout chain has shuttered dozens of locations across at least 17 states in 2026 so far, according to a Fast Company analysis, with restaurants in Texas, California, Florida, and Arizona being hit especially hard.

Other states with multiple Papa Johns closures include Michigan, North Carolina, and Virginia. Some of the stores that have closed were the only Papa Johns in town, such as a recently shuttered location in Scottsboro, in northeastern Alabama.

Papa Johns, which has headquarters in Atlanta and Louisville, Kentucky, had 3,487 locations in North America as of the end of March, most of which are franchised.

In February, the company announced it would close up to 300 locations through the end of 2027, with two-thirds of those closures expected this year. 

Why is Papa Johns closing stores?

Papa Johns has been struggling with declining North American sales, likely for a few reasons.

For starters, consumer tastes are changing, and believe it or not, Americans may be eating less pizza. According to a January report by the Wall Street Journal, pizzerias in the United States are now outnumbered by Mexican restaurants and coffee shops.

Meanwhile, competition among fast food brands is increasingly cutthroat, with younger consumers especially gravitating toward fast-growing chicken-focused chains such as Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers and Dave’s Hot Chicken.

For more health-conscious diners, there’s Sweetgreen or Cava, both of which have greatly expanded their fleets in recent years.

Some challenges facing Papa Johns are sector wide. Restaurants more broadly have been battered by rising operating costs and increasingly price-sensitive diners, with a number of fast food franchisees being pushed into bankruptcy this year.

Papa Johns is not the only quick-serve pizza chain to be reducing its physical footprint. Pizza Hut, too, has been shuttering locations by the hundreds, with its parent company, Yum Brands, now said to be exploring a sale of the chain.

For its 2025 annual report, Papa Johns logged a 2% decline in North American same-store sales. The picture has not improved so far this year, with North American same-store sales tumbling another 6.4% for the first quarter.

It all adds up to a painful run for investors. Shares of Papa Johns International (Nasdaq: PZZA) are down roughly 21% year to date, a contrast to the broader S&P 500, which is up almost 8% during that period. Over the last five years, the pizza chain’s stock price has plummeted more than 69%.

In December, Papa Johns’s board of directors approved a turnaround plan aimed at reducing overhead costs and improving the health of its domestic restaurants.

As part of that plan, Papa Johns disclosed in financial filings last month that it had closed 44 restaurants in North America through March of this year, noting at the time that it expects more closures to come. The company also laid off 7% of its corporate workforce, the filings said.

Which Papa Johns locations are closing? 

Through an analysis of local media reports, online reviews, social media postings, and Papa Johns’s own store locator tool, Fast Company was able to identify more than 40 locations that appear to have closed so far this year.

Those locations, listed below, are certainly an undercount. While Papa Johns revealed that it had already closed 44 locations during the first quarter of 2026, it said in February that it expected as many as 200 locations this year.

The pizza chain has not publicly revealed which locations it has targeted for closure as part of its transformation plan, nor has it said how many jobs could be lost. Fast Company reached out to Papa Johns for additional details. 

The store closures we’ve identified so far include Papa Johns restaurants in 17 states: 

Alabama

• 24875 John T Reid Pkwy Ste A, Scottsboro, AL 35768

Arizona

• 7040 N 16th St, Phoenix, AZ 85020
• 2440 AZ-95 Suite C, Bullhead City, AZ 86442
• 3305 N Swan Rd B-107, Tucson, AZ 85712
• 23359 N Pima Rd STE C-143, Scottsdale, AZ 85255

California

• 9844 National Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90034
• 320 S Central Ave A Ste A, Glendale, CA 91204
• 1248 W Lathrop Rd, Manteca, CA 95336
• 18653 Yorba Linda Blvd, Yorba Linda, CA 92886
• 12467 Rancho Bernardo Rd, San Diego, CA 92128

Colorado

• 8196 Colorado Blvd N4, Longmont, CO 80504

Florida

• 715 Atlantic Blvd #1, Atlantic Beach, FL 32233
• 209 S Cocoa Blvd, Cocoa, FL 32922
• 1583 N Nova Rd, Holly Hill, FL 32117
• 3623 NW Federal Hwy, Jensen Beach, FL 34957
• 41 S Lee St, LaBelle, FL 33935

Georgia

• 112 Walmart Way Unit 921-C8, Eastanollee, GA 30538

Illinois

• 3675 Nameoki Rd, Granite City, IL 62040

Michigan

• 207 S Mitchell St, Cadillac, MI 49601
• 2452 Alpine Ave NW, Grand Rapids, MI 49544

Missouri

• 204 SteamBoat Bend Shpg Ctr, Hannibal, MO 63401

North Carolina

• 150 G Liberty Square Shopping Ctr, Kenansville, NC 28349
• 102 River Oaks Dr, Tarboro, NC 27886
• 3591 Maitland Dr, Raleigh, NC 27610

New York

• 2175 Hylan Blvd./ Midland, Staten Island, NY 10306

Ohio

• 760 N State St, Westerville, OH 43082

Oklahoma

• 3627 N MacArthur Blvd, Warr Acres, OK 73122

South Carolina

• 506 Mercantile Place, Fort Mill, SC 29715

Texas

• 3612 Olton Rd, Plainview, TX 79072
• 2838 S Texas 6, Houston, TX 77082
• 1012 E Ennis Ave Suite G, Ennis, TX 75119
• 5310 E Belknap St # G, Haltom City, TX 76117
• 1056 S Wheeler St, Jasper, TX 75951
• 121 TX-332, Lake Jackson, TX 77566
• 3375 Lamar Ave, Paris, TX 75460
• 135 N Wolfe Nursery Rd, Stephenville, TX 76401
• 6435 San Pedro Ave, San Antonio, TX 78216
• 7014 Fry Rd 112 Ste 110, Cypress, TX 77433
• 9123 N Loop 1604 W Ste. 103, San Antonio, TX 78249
• 6405 W Parker Rd Suite 300, Plano, TX 75093

Virginia

• 570 Celebrate Virginia Pkwy #105, Fredericksburg, VA 22406
• 1423 N Great Neck Rd, Virginia Beach, VA 23454

Wisconsin

• 6500 Monona Dr, Monona, WI 53716

This story is developing and may be updated with additional locations and details…