Red lobster bankruptcy

Certainly living in Fl I wouldn't go to RL for seafood, but in other regions of the country that don't have access to fresh, it's not bad. And their cheddar bay biscuits are awesome. They are to seafood what Olive Garden is to Italian.
The comment about sears seems like it rings true. Not agile enough to make the right or necessary decisions.

 

Grew up on the Gulf Coast when ship was cheaper than hamburger. Got it fresh off the boats. RL never was “good seafood” to me. Not worth the cost, poorly managed at the local level( and apparently the corporate level), and not great service.
Hate to see a business close (and be ran into the ground by idiots) but this one seemed to be inevitable.

 

You could probably still use gift cards for now (all the articles suggest gift cards could get wiped, not that they are), but I wouldn’t sit on it if you don’t want to lose it.

I wonder what usually happens with Chapter 11, you’d think if they plan on staying in business they wouldn’t want to alienate customers like that.

 

You Should Never Eat Imported Farm-Raised Shrimp. Here's Why - Mashed

Ready for even more problems with shrimp farmed from abroad? In Vietnam, some sellers have been injecting gel into the shrimp to increase their weight and make them seem fresher (via Yahoo News). Although the substance, carboxymethyl cellulose, is not considered harmful for humans to consume, the practice has been labeled unscrupulous. Footage captured by a Vietnamese television station in 2016 appeared to show workers in a Vietnamese shrimp factory injecting tiger shrimp in the heads, tails, and middle of the body with the gel substance. 2019 saw $3.38 billion worth of shrimp exported from Vietnam (via Customs News), so these gel-injected shrimp may have made their way overseas.

Read More: You Should Never Eat Imported Farm-Raised Shrimp. Here's Why - Mashed

 

Fun fact: the first Red Lobster was in Lakeland Florida, and Florida Gator alumnus and former Fl governor, walking Lawton Chiles, was one of the key lead investors.


Red Lobster sites closed in Florida, US: Before endless shrimp woes

 

Yeah I wasn't joking about the gift card either. My youngest son works for Ecolab and they do all the pest control for Red Lobster he has about a half dozen Red Lobster accounts and managers tend to give away gift cards at Christmas time. He got a few and gave me one of them. It is still sitting in the kitchen junk drawer.

 

I assumed people didn't actually go there so this isn't surprising.

 

They were both part of the Darden Restaurants for years, the split was recent but I recall reading about Red Lobsters troubles for years. Their “core” menus definitely bottom tier food quality on both counts. Ironically both also probably most famous for… breads (Olive Garden Breadsticks and Cheddar Bay Biscuits).

 

What is sushi?

 

Hey, I'm old and both wife and I love shrimp and lobster. Fresh and wild caught that is. Hard pass on Red Lobster tho. No loss imo. Haven't eaten there since....HS.

 

I’ve heard of similar things when private research sites are bought up by PE firms. Then they usually come in and cut staff in an effort to increase returns. Usually they have someone with zero experience in running a clinical trial site. Generally with 2-3 years core staff are gone and they are left with a shell of the former company.

 

Plus the “farms” are essentially retention ponds with all kids of nasty run off. Remember shrimp eat the crap on the bottom.

Only eat fresh local wild caught.

 

I suspect this happens in all industries. Right now PE is paying crazy multiples on medical/dental practices. The doctor will owe 5 years but can’t lie. The number is tempting. But just can’t see selling to PE or a DSO. Would rather find a young doctor with similar values and vision.

 

Not that far from the truth. The probable demise of Red Lobster can probably traced back to the sale of the restaurant chain by Darden to a private equity firm.
How Wall Street and Endless Shrimp may have killed Red Lobster

However, the company did not begin its true downfall until Thai Union bought into it in 2016, John Gordon, a restaurant analyst in San Diego, said to Business Insider. While Thai Union had significant experience in the seafood sector, they were "totally unprepared to hold a casual-dining restaurant." And while other restaurant chains have undergone similar struggles throughout the pandemic era, what separates Red Lobster is a "decade of private equity and investor tampering," said Business Insider.​

 

bye bye, shrimp.

 

- Forrest Gump, on the day of his retirement from the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.

 

That’s a lot of work to do 1 million times over!

 

A friend of my parents was a property buyer for Darden and maybe before Darden was divested from General Mills. He had a buddy option the property before they bought it. Think he did 18 months for fraud.

 

The Red Lobster here is still open, but I recently had a hankerin' for crab and crawfish and decided to try a chain called Crackin' Crab and got a big boil bag. Food was good, the drinks were a fraction of the price of Red Lobster, and the waitress was super cool and attentive. The hushpuppies were sub-par IMO, but that was my only minor complaint.

https://www.crackincrab.com/