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Red Lobster Files For Bankruptcy After Abruptly Closing Dozens Of Restaurants
Daily Voice ^ | 05/20/2024

Posted on 05/20/2024 10:02:19 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

Red Lobster has filed for bankruptcy just days after closing dozens of its restaurants.

In its bankruptcy petition filed on Sunday, May 19, the company listed assets of $1 billion and liabilities of $10 billion.

The filing stated that the company "intends to use the proceedings to drive operational improvements, simplify the business through a reduction in locations, and pursue a sale of substantially all of its assets as a going concern."

The company said restaurants not listed as "temporarily closed" on its website will remain "open and operating as usual during the Chapter 11 process."

Founded in 1968, Red Lobster has around 600 restaurants in the United States, Canada, and overseas.

"This restructuring is the best path forward for Red Lobster," Jonathan Tibus, the company's CEO, said in a statement. "It allows us to address several financial and operational challenges, emerge stronger, and become re-focused on our growth.

"The support we've received from our lenders and vendors will help ensure that we can complete the sale process quickly and efficiently while remaining focused on our employees and guests."


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Food; Society
KEYWORDS: bankruptcy; redlobster
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To: V_TWIN
If you think Red Lobster was EVER a good value then you sir, don't know good value...
Red Lobster has always, always sucked!

Yes, if you're curious, I've worked in fine restaurants and my step dad was a chef. RL is like the Sizzler of seafood, cheap frozen seafood done very very badly.

21 posted on 05/20/2024 11:21:51 AM PDT by Bullish (...And just like that, I was dropped from the ping-list)
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To: BikerJoe

Your wife ordered a $12 appetizer....a d from what I see the burgers are $16, that sound about right?

That’s ridiculous.....and the tea was probably overpriced as well.


22 posted on 05/20/2024 11:23:51 AM PDT by V_TWIN (America...so great even the people that hate it refuse to leave!)
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To: Bullish

I’m not curious


23 posted on 05/20/2024 11:25:35 AM PDT by V_TWIN (America...so great even the people that hate it refuse to leave!)
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To: SeekAndFind

Women, minorities, and crustaceans hardest hit.


24 posted on 05/20/2024 11:34:41 AM PDT by GreenHornet
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To: Bullish

I’m no expert, nor have I ever been a chef, let alone even a good cook. But I have been a big fan of crab cakes, and will no5 turn down the ones that Red Lobster serves. But, by FAR, the best crab cakes I have ever had were at a place that hasn’t existed for over 10 years - Captain Jack’s at what used to be Downtown Disney.


25 posted on 05/20/2024 11:42:05 AM PDT by Spacetrucker (George Washington didn't use his freedom of speech to defeat the British - HE SHOT THEM .. WITH GUNS)
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To: SeekAndFind

Is this the type where a restaurant chain is “in bankruptcy” but continues to operate, just not paying creditors and old bills they owe”


26 posted on 05/20/2024 11:46:30 AM PDT by frank ballenger (There's a battle outside and it's raging. It'll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Endless shrimp is insane...bread, salad, or pasta are much better ideas to convince people they won’t leave hungry. But shrimp?


27 posted on 05/20/2024 11:54:40 AM PDT by fuzzylogic (welfare state = sharing of poor moral choices among everybody)
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To: SeekAndFind

Was it them, Yogi?


28 posted on 05/20/2024 12:10:08 PM PDT by fella ("As it was before Noah so shall it be again," )
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To: fella

Back in the 50’s till the 70’s Dad worked at The Navy Gun Factory in D.C. While we lived across the river in Virginia. On his way to and from work he would pass the fishermen’s dock where in the evening they would sell their fresh catch. Sometimes on his way home he would pick up some headed shrimp come home make some cocktail sauce, boil the shrimp and that would be dinner. Inland restaurants just can’t match that.


29 posted on 05/20/2024 12:28:07 PM PDT by fella ("As it was before Noah so shall it be again," )
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To: SeekAndFind

Won’t miss ‘em. Ate in one in Michigan once. Yuck! Never again.


30 posted on 05/20/2024 1:00:24 PM PDT by Chad C. Mulligan
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To: SeekAndFind
Red Lobster was the chain version of a popular seafood restaurant in Orlando named Gary's Duck Inn. I ate there with my family when I was a boy. Gary's was a dress up place that drew a solid business crowd in suits during the week and families on the weekend.

In its best years, Red Lobster was the pioneer chain operator of upper end seafood restaurants. Eventually, the market Red Lobster appealed to fragmented and diminished, with seafood becoming available in many other restaurants, dress up going by the wayside, and alcohol and bar service becoming the key to profitability. Red Lobster's corporate parent will survive in that they wisely branched out and developed other restaurant chains that continue to be successful.

31 posted on 05/20/2024 1:19:22 PM PDT by Rockingham (`)
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To: nwrep

3 1/2 hours since you posted and no one has responded. I’ll try. I assume Joshus C meant the practice of plastic bags and a large purse into which you shovel the food for consumption at home.

While a grad student working on my PhD in biophysics & physiology, I had occasion to get my basal metabolic rate measured to confirm what an undergrad TA experience had indicated. My BMR was 3+ SD high. I’d been ca 145-147 lbs and 6’ through my teens and the military.

Life was pretty good, with the GI Bill and an ONR research assistantship but about 1x per 2 weeks I’d bicycle 12 miles to a local chain buffet and eat until surfeit.

Once, ca 50 years ago, a new manager came on duty. He eventually sat down at a neighboring table and watched to see if I was stealing food.

He knew that I knew that, etc. I made two more passes than I ordinarily would have just to show him he needed to reset his metrics.

He should have asked the staff. They knew me by name and let me store my bike in the basement. A bigger problem for the managers was having to run the staff back to their jobs - they sometimes gathered at nearby tables to listen to we grad and med students talk about the week’s events.


32 posted on 05/20/2024 5:38:06 PM PDT by NelsTandberg ( )
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To: NelsTandberg

Thank you for the explanation, the thought of hiding food in a purse never occurred to me. May I ask what was so fascinating about your student week events that the staff eavesdropped on you?


33 posted on 05/20/2024 6:16:55 PM PDT by nwrep
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To: SeekAndFind

So giving away shrimp as a loss leader wasn’t a good idea?

WHOODA THUNK? /s

Woke, young idiots elevated to positions of authority - likely in part via DIE - killed Red Lobster.

Though this case pleases me, there’s a lesson in there from K-12 through all the crap colleges, but it was the idiots at Golden Gate Capital who ultimately stuck a fork in Red Lobster.

This is the pertinent web page

https://goldengatecap.com/responsibility/

Oh, and perhaps stating the obvious, they are San Francisco-based.

Who the hell at GGC or RL didn’t see this coming?

If I had holdings in either, the lawsuits would be flying.


34 posted on 05/20/2024 7:30:40 PM PDT by logi_cal869 (-cynicus the "concern troll" a/o 10/03/2018 /!i!! &@$%&*(@ -)
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To: nwrep

Every time she uses the purse she will remember the shrimp


35 posted on 05/20/2024 7:41:07 PM PDT by Palio di Siena (P01135809)
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To: V_TWIN
Your wife ordered a $12 appetizer....a d from what I see the burgers are $16, that sound about right?

That’s ridiculous.....and the tea was probably overpriced as well.


Yup. And it's not like the appetizer was a lot to eat for the two of us either.
36 posted on 05/21/2024 6:06:21 AM PDT by BikerJoe
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To: BikerJoe

My wife bought me a flat top griddle for Christmas.....I figure it’ll have paid for itself from savings over eating out by this July.


37 posted on 05/21/2024 6:10:58 AM PDT by V_TWIN (America...so great even the people that hate it refuse to leave!)
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