Two Arby's restaurants in Olathe have closed their doors for good, at 13790 S. Black Bob Road and 18615 W. 151st St. The closures leave just a single Arby's operating within city limits, at 18060 W. 119th St., where signs now direct displaced customers.
The shutdowns were reported by The Kansas City Star, which noted that Arby's has already scrubbed the addresses of both closed locations from its website. The chain's parent company, Inspire Brands, did not respond to the Star's requests for comment, and Flynn Group, described by the paper as a popular franchisee with dozens of Kansas locations, also did not respond.
With the two Olathe closures, about 14 Arby's locations remain across the Kansas City metro, according to the Star's count. That leaves Johnson County shoppers and commuters with fewer roast beef options than before, even as the chain's lone surviving Olathe store keeps serving customers off West 119th Street.
No Clear Explanation Offered for the Closures
Neither Arby's nor its corporate ownership has said why the two Olathe restaurants shut down, and the Star's report does not identify who operated either location or when exactly they closed. The silence from Inspire Brands and Flynn Group leaves Olathe diners without an official account of what happened to the Black Bob Road and West 151st Street stores.
The Star's reporting noted that no national Arby's closures had been reported that same month, though it pointed back to a wave of closures late last year, when the chain quietly shuttered dozens of locations after sales dropped by more than 6%, according to reporting cited by the Star from TheStreet.
Part of a Broader Slowdown for the Chain
The Olathe closures fit into a pattern playing out well beyond Kansas. Arby's closed more than a dozen restaurants across the United States during 2025, with shutdowns reported in eight states, according to Newsweek. In Tennessee alone, four restaurants closed in 2025 — locations in Cordova, Germantown and Memphis shut down in October, following an earlier closure in Murfreesboro in July, Newsweek reported.
The pullback follows a rough 2024 for the sandwich chain. Arby's sales declined 6.3% that year, and the company closed a net 48 restaurants, equal to 1.4% of its total units, per Newsweek's reporting. Whether the Olathe closures reflect that same broader contraction remains unclear, since the company has not commented on the local decisions.
For now, Olathe residents craving curly fries and roast beef sandwiches have one option left in town. The remaining location on West 119th Street continues to operate as the city's sole Arby's, while the fate of the two shuttered buildings on Black Bob Road and West 151st Street has not been announced.
