u/tmobilehacked

I largely boycott “local“ businesses that sold out to private equity, consolidators or conglomerates. It’s always the same pattern, locals support a homegrown Austin brand and with our help it builds a cult following, then PE money accelerates expansion and enshitification, a professional CEO replaces the founder and the local identity dies.

I want to create a list of such businesses in Austin for awareness. Below are the ones I’m aware of, please add any others you know of in the comments and I’ll update the post.

• Alamo Drafthouse (Sony)
• Chuy’s (Darden Restaurants)
• Torchy’s (General Atlantic)
• Whataburger (BDT Capital Partners)
• Wholefoods (Amazon)
• Hopdoddy Burger Bar (L Catterton)
• Uchi / Hai Hospitality (KSL Capital Partners)
• Austin Emergency Center (ZT Corporate)
• Shipley Do-Nuts (Levine Leichtman Capital Partners)
• Tumble 22 (BRS & Co. and Rosser Capital Partners)
• Smokey Mo’s Texas BBQ (Switchback Capital)
• Schlotzsky’s (Roark Capital Group)
• Rudy’s Bar-B-Q (Ford Restaurant Group)
• Via 313 (Savory Fund)
• Freebirds World Burrito (Sun Holdings)
• Good Guys Tree Service (Halle Capital)
• Mr. Gatti's Pizza (OneRyan Global LLC)
• Waterloo Sparkling Water (Flexis Capital, Eurazeo Brands, and Moore Strategic Ventures)
• High Brew Coffee (CAVU Consumer Partners)
• Velvet Taco (Leonard Green & Partners)
• Tecovas (Elephant Partners)
• Kendra Scott (Berkshire Partners)
• Outdoor Voices (Consolidated Apparel Group)
• YETI (Cortec Group, now public)
• Koko’s Bavarian (LiveNation)
• Stubb's Bar-B-Q (LiveNation)
• Siete Foods (PepsiCo)
• Bunkhouse Hotels (Hyatt Hotels)
• ARA - Austin Radiological Association (Radiology Partners)
• Urgent Cares (urgentcareownership.com)
• So many veterinarians (Vet Map & List · Private Equity Vet)
• So many dentists (whoownsmydentists.com)
• So many HVAC and plumbing companies