Three Dairy Queen restaurants in Alaska closed on June 30, wiping out locations in Anchorage, Wasilla and Palmer and leaving just one Dairy Queen left in the state. The remaining store is in Soldotna.
The closures put a sharp local marker on a broader run of Dairy Queen closures that has touched at least 46 locations nationwide since early 2025. Customers in Anchorage, Wasilla and Palmer lost their neighborhood stores at the end of the month, while one Alaska Dairy Queen kept operating farther south in Soldotna.
A Dairy Queen official said the franchise owner of those Alaska locations had recently closed them, but did not name the owner or explain why. That missing detail matters because the chain has tried to separate some shutdowns from a wider pattern: a Dairy Queen spokesperson called the Texas shutdowns an isolated event tied to the same franchise owner, even as Project Lonestar closed 30 Texas locations in February and 12 more in March after the operator failed to remodel the restaurants.
The Alaska shutdowns also fit a larger squeeze on the brand’s footprint. Dairy Queen still operates about 7,800 restaurants across 20 countries through International Dairy Queen, but recent closures have shown how fast that system can contract in one market when a franchise relationship breaks down. The franchisees involved in the recent closures have not filed for bankruptcy protection, and the company has not said whether any of the Alaska locations will reopen or be replaced.
There was one more sign of the same pressure in June. A Dairy Queen in Great Falls, MT, closed on June 13 after nearly four decades in business, and Steve Galloway now plans to replace it with a Mediterranean restaurant called Zesty Eatz.
For Alaska, the immediate future is narrower than it was a week ago. One store remains, one owner has not been named, and the company has not given a reason for the shutdowns — leaving Soldotna as the last place in the state where Dairy Queen still serves customers.
