This CEO Spent 41 Years Working at the Same Chain. He Says This One Habit Is ‘Critically Important’ for Leaders.
Key Takeaways
- Lance Trenary has worked at Golden Corral, the all-you-can-eat buffet chain, for 41 years, stepping into the CEO role in 2015.
- He said it’s important to have a personal relationship with everyone working at the restaurants, from franchisees to employees, for helpful feedback.
- Trenary added that “staying close to the customer” is a “critically important” habit he will “never break.”
Golden Corral’s president and CEO, Lance Trenary, has been working at the buffet chain in some capacity for over four decades. The executive held positions like senior vice president of company operations before becoming CEO in 2015.
Trenary recently told Fox Business that one “critically important” habit was the foundation of his career.
“Staying very close to the customer is really important,” Trenary told the outlet. “I like being out in our restaurants. I’ve been with Golden Corral for 41 years, and I love traveling to restaurants. I know every franchisee, I know every manager in the stores, and I love visiting them.”
Trenary said that listening to the customer is a habit he will “never break.”
“That’s when you get the unfiltered truth about what’s really going on — the way people really think about you and your brand,” he said.
Golden Corral is one of the country’s largest buffet chains. The company says it has nearly 400 company-operated and franchised restaurants in 42 states and serves about three million guests in a typical week.
The restaurant chain is navigating a difficult year
Golden Corral is navigating a tumultuous 2026 because its all-you-can-eat model is vulnerable to rising costs and declining traffic. Trenary said the chain has faced mounting fuel, labor and food costs.
The pressure is especially acute for a buffet that offers unlimited steak and other higher-cost proteins while trying to keep prices relatively affordable. An adult dinner costs between $16.99 and $20.99 on weekdays.
“We’re having a difficult year this year,” Trenary told Fox Business. “This is the first year in several that we’ve had some challenges, but at the end of the day, I don’t get too nervous about it because I’ve got such an incredible team.”
He said the best measure of leadership is not personal achievement, but how many people a leader helps advance.
“Success is not about something that I’ve been able to achieve or something that is an accolade for me as a leader,” he said. “It’s more about the people that I work with and the opportunities that I can create for them.”
Golden Corral’s history
Golden Corral began in 1973 as a modest steakhouse in North Carolina. The company later built its identity around the all-you-can-eat buffet, a model that made abundance, family dining and perceived value central to the brand. By the late 1990s, the buffet had become Golden Corral’s defining format.
The pandemic revealed the vulnerability of that model. When indoor dining restrictions arrived in 2020, communal serving lines and crowded dining rooms became especially difficult to operate. Golden Corral’s sales fell by more than half, and the company eventually lost at least 80 restaurants, per The Wall Street Journal.
Since then, the chain’s recovery has been substantial even as it remains under pressure. Golden Corral’s busiest restaurants now generate about $7 million in annual sales, per the Journal.