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“Last year, Red Lobster reported $11 million in operating losses following its flubbed ‘Ultimate Endless Shrimp’ deal, which backfired when it reeled in too many customers after the limited-time promo became a permanent menu fixture last June. The restaurant chain later reported $12.5 million in losses in the fourth quarter of 2023.”
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Well considering that I’m a “millennial” and literally not a single person I know has ever visited, requested, or mentioned Red Lobster as a restaurant choice… they might have deeper trouble than some shitty shrimp. Can’t run a business forever when your largest potential market is 65+…
The “endless shrimp” excuse seems like a marketing ploy. Doesn’t hit as hard as “no one’s coming to our restaurants to eat our shitty food.”
The biscuits are the best part and they sell the mix, so not a lot of reason to visit if there’s any other options for seafood.
The biscuits are amazing
God yes. When i die, take my ashes to cheddar bay
Now you can make them at home!
I live in Saskatchewan, which is as land locked as it gets in Canada. And for some reason, my city has a Red Lobster. I don’t think I’ve heard anyone talk about going to it because who would expect a seafood restaurant all the way out here to be good? I have no clue how they’re making enough money to operate.
(Also, nice pfp! 🐾 )
Everything in red lobster is frozen anyway.
But then again, all fish is frozen before being served to kill parasites. Even the most delicious sushi will be flash frozen first. I’ve had high end raw fish in Las Vegas, a literal dessert.
That said, yeah, Red Lobster isn’t going to be top notch on the coast, let alone butt fuck nowhere.
I’ve had high end raw fish in Las Vegas, a literal dessert.
Fish as a dessert??
Desert. The fish was a desert. It’s Las Vegas that’s in a dessert, obviously.
* cries in iron chef *
las vegas flies in a cargo jet of fish hourly.
Thanks ^///^
Once their cheddar biscuits became purchasable on a store shelf, I imagine that decreased the impetus to visit the actual restaurant.
Their biscuits are the best part.
In the late 90s I mentioned never having tried lobster. This resulted in a dangerous u-turn and a drive to the closest red lobster. Only time I went and I forgot until your comment.
this is hilarious fellow millennial, because I just went to Red Lobster today and had a great time.
Of course this was the first time I’ve been in 20+ years so it’s not like I’m a regular.
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@cyborganism @wreckedcarzz If you take internet reviews there are only three types of restaurants.
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Excellent places that deserve their Michelin Stars
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Excellent places that should have Michelin Stars
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Diarrhea fuel garbage pits. With food so disgusting you shouldn’t even feed it to the stray dog that bit your baby.
On our national deal hunting website you can see all the “It gives you diarrhea comments” every time there’s a coupon for McDonalds or franchised Shawarma
Chain restaurants also have a ton of variance. Most Olive garden is shit these dates, but A. They were great in the mid 90s before they enshittified, and B. I’m sure there’s still a great Olive Garden out there somewhere.
olive garden is the same company as red lobster and chili’s
Red lobster was sold off from the olive garden parent company 10 years ago
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I don’t know man. I went to a red lobster once in 2004.
They always had the perception of expensive for me. So growing up, they were a special occasion place to get seafood. I’ve been a few times in the last few years. Their food was good, but not great and the places were never packed.
Between Red Lobster and almost any other seafood place, the other one would win out for taste and quality.
They had a huge marketing issue, offering “cheap” all you can eat, but making the place look and try to feel like a upscale option when it was basically a seafood Applebee’s.
It’s like Panera or Olive Garden. Just boring flavorless food that is only attractive to people who don’t know better.
It is peak 90s restaurant culture.
And then in some areas seen as luxury. Same goes for Olive Garden.
Millennial here hooked on their biscuits. It’s just you.
You can make them at home. Sam’s Club, and Costco both sell the dough mix. It also allows you to use white extra sharp cheddar to make them that much yummier
I’ve been to red lobster once and spent a very uncomfortable period of time on the porcelain throne shortly after. The news of bankruptcy does not surprise me.
The previous owners purchased the company via a leveraged buyout. It’s not one quarters losses, it’s the massive long-term debt on it’s books.
This is a handy excuse to fuck over employees and suppliers.
It’s also really expensive importing biscuits from Cheddar Bay
Why didn’t they stop doing it sooner? Lol once they saw it was costing too much they could have retired it and made up some new marketing crap.
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The endless shrimp reason is just BS.
They’re old restaurants and people just don’t go there to be “fancy” anymore. Younger people just don’t eat a lot of crab, shrimp, and lobster nowadays, and due to ocean issues crab prices and seafood prices have increased even more than beef and other food costs, so they’re having to charge more more things fewer people want to go there for. They keep hauling in more and more, but prices have tripled over the past 10 years or so for lobster. Same over the last several years with crab. Especially with the mass die off of snowcrab a year or so ago.
They tried all sorts of tricks actually. But this event brought people in. In the 90’s I’d see it on the local news about the hour long waits and whatnot. This was still true up until the last time I went.
I recall they slowed service, refill limits at a time, even type of order repeat(not getting 10 scampi in a row). I was a fan of the grilled shrimp and as a teen could eat 20 orders (a feat I’m not so proud of now). As an adult I stopped eating there when I realized what I was doing to my body (mid 00s).
I was never asked to leave due to the amount I ate, but I experienced some of these. damn if it wasn’t 5-10 minutes between food, couldn’t order more until you had cleared the only 2 plates allowed at a time, never find the waiter, etc. oh, and they would bring those ungodly amazing biscuits over, “to hold me over”.
I do not miss the man I was back then. I can honestly say I’m half the man I was then.
You can make the biscuits at home. I personally would find better recipes for much of the rest of their menu.
Yeah. I have made them since I stopped going there. And far better than the box mix you buy at the store.
First time I heard of this, feels like I missed a huge opportunity
Same. I love me unlimited shrampies. I had no idea it was permanent on the menu.
permanent
Well, not anymore…
Of eating shitty frozen shrimp? No, no you did not miss an opportunity.
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So shrimp is shitty. Got it. Don’t eat it anyway, because it’s shit. No opportunity missed here.
That goes for all fish and seafood. Unless you caught it yourself, or personally know who did, it’s frozen.
Blind taste tests have shown most people can’t tell the difference. Of the few who can, most prefer the frozen. Probably because it’s what they’re used to. “Fresh Seafood” is a scam
I have personally done a blind taste test just for fun with several different types of fish that my family caught and the two of us that were doing it both couldn’t tell for shit what was frozen and what wasn’t. Anecdotal for sure but I thought for sure I’d be able to tell easily.
That goes for all fish and seafood.
Agreed. I don’t eat any of that shit. I don’t like it. Lol
Lol are you a literal child lol
*flash frozen. Different from frozen in your freezer.
“Stop liking what I don’t like!”
Quantity + salt and butter > quality lol
(Joking, fresh is best obvs.)
How’s the air feel with your nose that high up?
Whut?
Edit: like …are you arguing that fresh seafood isn’t inherently better than literally any other age of seafood because of course it is? I’m legit confused, lol.
You just come off very snobbish in that comment.
Yes, obviously fresh food is best, but not everyone can have that.
Maybe it’s just me
Sorry? I was just joking around about shrimpfest.
Edit: removed irrelevant personal story
Same here. It was always overshadowed by unlimited soup salad and bread sticks I guess.
I know right? We should sue them for insufficient advertising.
Every time I went to get a “All you can eat” deal from places that weren’t normally a buffet you would have to wait for a waiter to bring you more and the waiter hates the extra trips to the table and/or the owner tells their employees to drag their feet bringing more and makes the amount they bring miniscule. Just an awful experience the couple times I tried.
I don’t go out to eat except for a Asian buffet a couple times a year. I’d rather eat cheetos in the basement.
Sorry mcdonalds and taco bell, your shit was barely worth it when it was cheap. Insane prices coming out of the fast food industry these days.
I own a oven and can buy frozen pizzas, get fucked.
Fucking the frozen pizza is slightly better than fucking them straight out of the oven.
The Applebees of the sea.
If that much loss is going to bring down a corporation? Maybe the corpo wasn’t being taken care of good enough
I bet this is just the setup for when they try to weasel their way out of California’s minimum wage and then when they win, they’ll use the same playbook to try to get around minimum wage in other states. This could cause a snowball effect where a nonzero number of employers get a free pass on select labor laws.
Hopefully they just lose and go out of business.
What does 11 million dollars in shrimp look like? Let alone 11 million in losses, how much god damn shrimp is that? Was cocktail sauce calculated into this?
The cost here for shitty frozen shrimp is about $13 for 2lbs of “31-40” (31-40 shrimp per lb); at that cost, averaging 35 shrimp per pound, you could buy approximately 29,615,385 shrimp, which would weigh around 400 tons. I think I did that math right. It’s late.
And you know they ain’t buying it at the Piggly Wiggly, but at a deep discount they negotiated ages ago with their distributor(s).
Those are Walmart prices, but yeah for sure
Appreciate you. You’re causing me and my friends to consider indoor shrimp farming for profit.
Probably don’t do that, but if you do, send me some shramp
I’ll take two pallets of frozen shrimp please
That’ll be $4
(I have tiny pallets)
But the sign said all you can eat!
the frying dutchman is actually a killer name
I’ve only gone to red lobster for the endless shrimp (though there are much better all-you-can-eat options out there). They should try making their regular offerings better. It also doesn’t help that private equity is in the middle of raiding the company and that’s probably the main reason they’re currently eyeing bankruptcy.
Same with olive garden they want the decades old prime real estate. They could give a fuck about the restaurant
Some people can’t help themselves at the seafood buffet
I’m not surprised. Every endless seafood deal Red Lobster did lost money.
Red Lobster: “Endless Shrimp”
Ocean: “Dude… no.”
Did they learn nothing from The Simpsons?
Man. They always do everything first.
Yep Simpsons already did it https://youtu.be/PHr-C-qIfRU
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If they are going into chapter 11 then the losses are privatized. Chapter 11 halts debt collection temporally while restructuring happens. Afterwords the previous owners own none of the company or a much reduced chunk of the company. The previous debtors now own most or all of the company. Similar to a bank repossessing a house it’s debtors repossessing a business.
It’s also possible for the judge or who they appoint to run the bankruptcy too determine there isn’t any hope saving the business and convert it to a chapter 7 which is close everything and sell off the assets to try and pay back the debtors.
Either was the original owners usually get little to nothing.
That’s what they get for offering 30 shrimp for just $10.99 and fueling people’s addictions…
