Chain restaurants struggle, compete for customers

CHICAGO — Fortunes at chain restaurants are tumbling, the fallout from a strategy of slashing menu prices in the hopes that a cheap meal will be enough to entice diners back to their booths.

Instead, diners are ringing up smaller checks, or simply staying home.

And the deep discounts, like the two meals for $20 being offered at places such as Chili's and Applebee's, come...