Red Lobster officially files for bankruptcy after being rinsed of cash by all you can eat shrimp deals

UK Daily Mail ^ | May 20 2024 | ISABELLE STANLEY and ALICE WRIGHT FOR DAILYMAIL.COM and AP

[knighthawk]

Red Lobster has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection days after shuttering nearly 100 restaurants across America.

The seafood chain, which has closed restaurants in 27 states, has been struggling with rising lease and labor costs in recent years and also promotions like its iconic all-you-can-eat shrimp deal that backfired.

Demand for one such recent promotion overwhelmed restaurants, reportedly contributing to hundreds of millions in losses.

[erlayman]

At least they did stop boiling lobsters alive. Take progress where you can find it sometimes.

[Psalm 73]

Howard Johnson's used to have "All you can eat" fish fries.

- back in the late 70's we had very little money so we would eat like birds until Tuesday when we'd hit Ho-Jo's for a ton of fried fish.

They tried to make it uncomfortable for us, but we were shameless....

[OttawaFreeper]

Well, they bought out my favourite chain up here, The Ponderosa, back in the mid 1980s.

[Ezekiel]

It’s a trap!

Poor Marty.

[Allegra]

I don’t know how Olive Garden is doing. I’ve been to one once and that was with a gift certificate over ten years ago.

[Psalm 73]

"At least they did stop boiling lobsters alive."

So, what, they shot them first?

[Red Badger]

Ours is always crowded. I don’t like pasta, so we don’t go there hardly at all. The company I work for has a dinner there every couple of years.................

[Ezekiel]

I don’t know how Olive Garden is doing. I’ve been to one once and that was with a gift certificate over ten years ago.

Perhaps wondering when you'll ever leave!

Basta!

(That's a lotta pasta.)

[Cold_Red_Steel]

Red Lobster has had all you can eat shrimp deals for many years, and they didn’t go out of business then, and likely it’s not the reason for their bankruptcy now.

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The same reason Subway abandoned their “$5 Footlong” deal?

[caww]

More than likely wages affected both.

[Bob434]

I usually give a restwraunt a couple of tries after a bad meal incase that particular meal was a fluke- but eventually it becomes clear that the service sucks, the food is not going to get better, and there are better places to eat.

[BipolarBob]

Maybe they drowned them. I was wondering the same thing.

[Cold_Red_Steel]

At least they did stop boiling lobsters alive. Take progress where you can find it sometimes.

---

From what I’ve read, the food is no longer prepared on the premises. Its cooked and flash-frozen off-site to be reheated and served at the restaurants.

They’re still boiled alive, its just outsourced!

[caww]

We still have the only surviving Ponderosa in our state. I’ve never seen it not packed.

[BipolarBob]

I think it was because they are scavengers. Like the rest of the forbidden list.

[devere]

Good food and bad service I may try again, but bad food never.

[dfwgator]

Up until maybe 20 years or so ago, restaurants could have all you can eat promotions and be OK, but now I think people have gotten so greedy and piggish that this is the kind of result they’re more likely to get.

A classic example of "This is why we can't have nice things."

[adorno]

The same reason Subway abandoned their “$5 Footlong” deal?

Yet, Subway has had their $5 foot-long deal for many years too, and they didn't go out of business years ago. It's only recently, like in the Biden years, when Subway has started to feel the inflation pinch. Inflation was not a problem for any businesses before Biden.

[Bob434]

My thought is that when a resteraunt offers all you can eat for a “low low price”, that they must have a ton of food about to go bad and want to salvage some profit off it (HA! Prophet Offit. I’m a poet and didn’t even realize it)

[BipolarBob]

They’re still boiled alive, its just outsourced!

Well that makes it okay. We can't manufacture a lot of things here because of pollution but if we outsource it, our EPA has no say-so. We're saving the Planet that way . . . somehow.