WELL DONE

Shake Shack’s Danny Meyer Returns $10M PPP Loan Meant for Small-Business Relief

Group founder Danny Meyer said the federal program’s rules were “extremely confusing.”

Shake Shack, the up-market hamburger chain with 189 spots in the U.S. owned by celebrity restaurateur Danny Meyer, will return a $10 million federal loan it got through the coronavirus Paycheck Protection Program that was meant to help small businesses. The $349 billion stimulus has already run dry, less than two weeks after it launched. In a statement, Meyer and his partner Randy Garutti, Shake Shack’s CEO, said: “The ‘PPP’ came with no user manual and it was extremely confusing.” They said they had no idea the fund would dry up so quickly, so after they were able to secure separate funding last week, “we’ve decided to immediately return the entire $10 million” so restaurants that “need it most can get it now.”