Was Endless Shrimp to Blame for Red Lobster's Bankruptcy?
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- čas přidán 24. 05. 2024
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Red Lobster was America’s largest casual dining seafood chain, with almost 600 locations across the United States and Canada. Its bankruptcy was announced earlier this week.
The bankruptcy declaration insinuates that the chains equity owner who was also their biggest seafood supplier might have decided that their equity stake in the business was worthless, but that they could extract some extra value from the company before it declared bankruptcy by selling them a lot of extra shrimp, leading to the uneconomical "Endless Shrimp" deal at Red Lobster.
The decision to make the $20-dollar endless shrimp deal a permanent menu item is said to have led to an $11 million dollar loss.
The bankruptcy declaration says that “the Debtors are currently investigating the circumstances around these decisions.”
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All of your cont is wonderful
Long lines? lol
Their excuse sounds fishy.
get loss bro
What does "six times more effective learning with an interactive app than just watching a lecture" mean?
Students did an app lesson or watched a lecture, then did an exam and the average marks were 90% vs 15%?
Sounds like a deeply flawed study.
"Borrowing money to buy a company then immediately selling that company's assets for scrap to pay back what you borrowed to buy the company" is one of those things that feels completely illegal and yet isn't.
#Profiteering
Counterpoint: If a company's assets can be sold for more than the cost of the business as a whole, then it's not a good company and it should be dissolved. Other businesses can use those resources more efficiently.
@@UserNameAnonymous do those other businesses give you endless shrimp?
That ranks right up there with taking a loan out to buy a struggling company, then transferring the debt to the struggling company you just purchased, who was already having issues with debt load before the purchase.
Like naked short selling. Capitalism would be great if we ever practiced it.
If you have infinite shrimp you shouldn't sell them but instead sell shrimp fried rice, as you could save on labor which is the most expensive part of a business, since shrimp are frying the rice for you. If they had hired more MBAs they would've realized this.
I love this comment. 😆🤣
@@fenrirgg But they do know their way around a skillet
@@fenrirgg not with that attitude they can't
you're telling me unlimited shrimp fried this rice?
@@richardbrayshaw570 No you see, it's because of their claws.... They'd just cut the fryer handle in half!
“Even an American with a shellfish allergy would order a third plate” 😂😂🤣 spot on
Could make money selling the drugs to keep you alive!
Lol, you are killing me ;-)
LOL! 😂 i am an American with s shellfish allergy and I eat at Red Lobster
Of crab. You have to say crab. The word crab is just funny.
Honestly, take your Benadryl and stuff as much down as you can before you fall asleep.
A classic case of Shrimpflation.
thats good
It's just as shrimple as that
Thats shirimply awefu @arden6025
Lovely concept!❤❤❤
Fr
My wife overheard this video and sharply turned her head when you mentioned Flava Flav.
I told her you cover both economics and rap music. She is now more confused.
A seafood restaurant raided by corporate pirates - you can’t make this up.
Just wait till they walk the plank with the employees.
Maybe the CEO will get keel hauled
Nice! I didn’t make that connection. That should be the gist of the video description. 😂
When I hear the words “private equity” and “leveraged buyout” well… that’s all I really need to know…
Legal robbery.
Patrick Boyle is the finance comedian didn’t know we needed. So happy when every new video comes out.
Love his dry British humor! I'm rolling on the floor watching his vids!
I’d like to see Patrick co-present with John Oliver on HBO.
@@NinoThePrez I love it, if youre not concentrating you can sometimes miss it, he slips it in so easily
@@mammuchan8923 yes he does.
Im waiting for the stand up special to drop 😂
I was a server at Red Lobster for over 3 years while in college. Endless Shrimp is not new. Groups would come in and actually eat hundreds of shrimp. Some people only came during endless shrimp and ordered nothing but the endless shrimp and water so there wasn't even an up-sale to recover costs.
As servers you also hated it because people were demanding, be there for hours, and then tip you 5 dollars at the end no matter how good or nice you were. It was rough. 😋 Although I remember one kind group that came every time, tipped well, and competed with each other and had to tap out by ordering the pasta. 😂
damn. bro got replaced by a computer
/j
But the food is nasty. The shrimo are marinated to tenderize lol. Why would you be offended ie even if they fed their dogs w it lol
I'm sure the level of customer quality was awesome. Free food or drinks always bring in the classiest and politest customers. i worked bars and restaurants or a few years and they were awful and were rude as hell. I wouldn't go to Red Lobster just because I didn't want to be around those types of customer.
Waitstaff draws straws when it comes to dark customer
Yeah the problem with doing that kind of "promotion" like "endless shrimp" is it attracts the wrong "customers," the cheapskates. Their only goal in life is to take everything they can possibly take and pay as little as possible. They're experts at gaming this kind of thing. If it can be gamed it will be gamed.
It was private equity people. A private equity firm bought red lobster and forced them to buy shrimp from a company the private equity company already owned. The reason for the endless shrimp was the force Red lobster to buy overpriced shrimp from a company the private equity firm owned so they could legally extract all the value from Red lobster for themselves. Same thing happened to KB Toys and Toys r Us
meanwhile back in reality red lobster has been having endless shrimp for at least 20 years before Thai union bought them...
@@pagansmc13 I can't tell if you're trying to disagree with me or agree with me. But in case anyone is confused yeah they had 20 safe years before private equity started to suck them dry like a crab leg
Thai union isnt owned by a private equity firm so your facts are wrong. If you watched the video you would have heard that. Within the filing it seems as if new management thinks Thai union attempted to extract value by becoming the sole supplier of shrimp, not Golden Gate Capital.
@@brandonjacobs5452 yeah they are You're just wrong about that. Do you work for the private equity firm in this case or something? Jesus it's weird how people just lie on the internet now.... I hope you're at least getting paid for this
That doesn't make much sense. I think poor management is a much better explanation. Thai Union had a 100% stake in the company, so they field all the losses. They aren't "extracting" anything. If they wanted to "extract" they would literally be better off just liquidating directly because even if they sold $11 million in shrimp they lost $76 million that year! Thai Union did not make out well in this situation!
I was thinking this whole story is irrelevant to the core interest of rap but the Patrick brought it all home at the end. Well done!
As someone who grew up along the coast, I once ate at Red Lobster and was baffled how it could stay in business. The food is ... not good.
Few people know what good seafood is
True, but anyone anywhere can master a cheddar biscuit, like they are so famous for. Try as I might I could never figure out how anyone who'd ever had any kind of bread, cheese or combination thereof could find anything special, much less iconic, about those dry salty crumbwads.
Because for most people in a landlocked state, fresh fish ain’t an option.
The really nauseous bit is the elitism
@@GaaaaaameRed Lobster was actually decent in its first two phases.
Given Red Lobsters dominant position in commercial lobster sales, if restaurant chain goes out of business, price of lobster sold by commercial fishermen will be depressed.
Oh no, cheap lobster!
Red lobster was doing fine until the latest sale to the Thai investors. They cut what quality was there and raised the prices from 30-50% in about three months.
Red Lobster was never known for quality
Sales didn't start declining over the last 12 months because younger people think it isn't stylish enough. It's because they can't afford to go eat seafood (which is expensive). Unless they were spending $20 to gorge on bottomless shrimp, apparently...
Welcome to Inflation Party Economics.
$50 is the new $20.
@@WindFireAllThatKindOfThing yeah, really
The non-bioomer generation is too busy working at the Red lobster to eat at Red lobster.
A 20$ buffet is probably a better deal for a starving student than a 15$ hamburger with 5$ side of fries.
Calories per Dollar
Simple analysis
I did all you can eat shrimp. I ate 3 and never went back. Should be called “all you can stomach shrimp”.
To paraphrase the Huey Lewis song: All you can eat for $1.99...but one dollar's worth, was all that I could stand.
You're not supposed to eat the head of the shrimp bruh, that's why you got sick
@@everythingponySo you have a weak stomach got it
@@everythingponyActually you can. As long as it's properly cleaned and cooked there's no issue with eating the head. I personally don't like to though.
You are weak
Why didn't anyone tell me there was endless shrimp for $20?
Having grown up in and around restaurants, I was usually pretty conscious of materials costs and wages in places, so I was very quickly attuned to just how much shrimp I, or anyone at my table needed to eat, before we reached a break-even point, and be “getting a better deal for our dollar”. To keep a long story short, they always lost a tremendous amount of money on us, but we also always tipped very well at the locations we went to, as we had excellent service and a to-go box at the end with a couple sleeves of biscuits. I knew this day would come, and I take full blame for contributing to their downfall. I am very thankful for all the free food, and I wish the best to the people who served us. 😅
The biggest problem I see with all sit down chain restaurants, is management. You get fast food quality at a premium. No one cares, employees do what they want with almost no consequence, because management can’t replace them. Equipment is disgusting because no one maintains it, leading to constant repairs bills. I know all this because I repair the equipment. The things I’ve seen while working is insane, (mushrooms growing in an ice machine for example) and management ignores it.
It's a low margin business. Chain restaurants didn't really exist until about 60 or 70 years ago en masse. The problem you're actually identifying is that there's no more restaurants anymore, only businesses with a restaurant model. Those managers would be doing a much better job if they were actually chefs. Cutting costs until it cuts into apathy, that's why you have your line of work. I don't know where you're working btw, but turnover is typically ridiculous in restaurants. Btw, now that I'm thinking about it, you ought to go peep Europe, their standardization is next level over there. We've truly let things go to shit here. I'm with you on that. Here, at least with some contrast to Europe, work doesn't give you dignity anymore, it robs it from you. Those managers have bigger day to day problems than the mushrooms in the ice machine; that part's apparently your job.
@@subcitizen2012 Mushrooms in the ice machine is definitely a management, not a repair, problem.
Pat Finnerty makes this the rap rock crossover we didn't know we needed
I hear August is Falling has a new album coming out!
Love that Pat Finnerty’s parents ended up in Patrick Boyle’s video
@@TheGotoGeek August is Falling got me through Grad school back in '95, idk what I would have done without that band.
I'm thinking he did all this just for the rap reference.
I'm watching this on a Saturdaaay noight
Endless shrimp will destroy us all.
What we need to balance the equation, is more white wine!
Why is this so funny.
Plate 'o shrimp
Idk why but I just pictured one of those homeless people with signs you see in disaster movies but instead of “the end is nigh” it was this lol
Another victory for sea creatures.
Younger people have generally been boycotting all manner of fast food restaurants and casual dining chains because the feeling is that if they are going to spend that much money on eating out, they may as well go to a mom and pop outfit with something totally unique and different. This leaves chains like Red Lobster and even the likes of Starbucks totally stuck.
I struggle to see this as anything but a win for the world in general.
Or you know when everything is microwaved
I don't think "boycotting" is the right word here. What you're describing is more choosing to support smaller businesses in a turbulent economic time, not so much some issue with the business they aren't frequenting anymore. There's also the fact you can buy stuff cheaper at a store and make it at home in a time when money's tight...Starbucks and Red Lobster aren't exactly cheap, even in the best economy. And both of them have issues with their food someone may not like...SB's food isn't exactly great so they make their money from their drinks (most of which can be made at home), and Red Lobster was premium prices for meh food.
40 years ago I tried a Red Lobster for its unlimited shrimp. The buffet offered 25mm shrimps still in the shells. 30 minutes of extracting the edible shrimp meat would yield less than a teaspoon of food. I never returned.
You certainly showed them!
De-shelling a shrimp takes seconds you absolute spaz.
If shrimp is that small, you eat it with the shell.
@@I.amthatrealJuan 😬 ikky
@@Threemore650 You Westerners are nitpicky. You won't get sick from the thin shell.
I remember walking into a Guitar Center once. A salesman walked up and asked what he could help me with. I said "Oh, nothing, just looking around". He said "Then what are you doing here?" and turned around and sat back down. I left and never went back. I actually was planning on buying a keyboard, but I didn't want to be bugged while looking.
One jerk has a lot of power
I stood in front of the microphone counter, ready to buy, and the clerks ignored me. I walked out and never went back.
Hah that's nuts. Every salesman knows you wait until they've looked around a bit, then ask if they have any questions. Because it doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize if someone comes into the store and immediately have questions, that they'll seek YOU out. Otherwise you're just annoying/bothering the customer the second they walk into your store.
lol, you might as well have said, “I just want to waste your time for a half hour because I’m going to buy whatever I want at Sweetwater or Amazon”.
You boomers crack me up. You were never going to give that salesperson any business but you expect to be catered to while you treat the store like a showroom for online businesses.
@@jonny-b4954 Experienced salesmen also know not to waste time or effort on non-buyers. Trying to cultivate non-buyers into buyers is for rookies.
Hedge funds bought them, racked up the debt with large bonuses for themselves and made the employees pay the price.
True story. My friend and I once went to Red lobster during their unlimited crab deal and ate a combined 21 lb over the course of many hours. We were eventually asked to leave as they were closing the restaurant.
How could you look at yourselves in the mirror without feeling disgust?
@@SensSword "Disgust"? That's an odd way of spelling "immense pride".
@SensSword sounds pretty good to me, seems like all you gotta do is starve yourself and just watch that crab come in droves
There is no excuse for people like you and your friend. You are both shit stains on the underwater of humanity.
@@hoilst265 Nah its disgust. You have to put yourself in another person's shoes. Imagine you are waiting outside for a table to find a couple of guys just sitting there eating for hours on end. If I was the TC or his friend I'd feel very bad for wasting people's time.
I don't know but I've been sitting in Red Lobster since endless shrimp started. Yep, I've been living at a Red Lobster 🦞 for years. 😳
Checks out
Will someone think about the cheddar bay biscuits
They just need to open a stand and sell those.
I think those are still available in grocery stores. You can still get Marie Calendar chicken pot pies even though there are very few Marie Calendar restaurants around.
@@springinfialta106They're not the same. I've gotten that one from the grocery store a few times now and every time they are off somehow
They're definitely lower quality in the box.
I've never been a fan of them personally, but just make them from scratch if you don't like the box mix ones. It's not that hard. I used to be a professional baker, but I'd say making those biscuits is not that hard baking skillwise for the at home cook. You don't have to be a pro. I'm sure there is a 5 star rated copycat recipe online and follow it.
I quit going to red lobster several years ago.When the lobster started tasting dry and smaller portions.
“The food is terrible and the portions are small.” 😂
@@MarcosElMalo2 One of my favorite all-time quotes!
Same here. I went there every so often and loved the White Wine and Roasted-Garlic Mussels. Sometime after Covid started, the price went up to 15 bucks from the 10 bucks, and the portions became 50% smaller. Never went back.
@@MarcosElMalo2 Well, that's essentially how I feel about life - full of loneliness, and misery, and suffering, and unhappiness, and it's all over much too quickly.
Hehehe....hilarious. You used to go, but the quality dipped. So, you were out. That's funny.
For someone who doesn’t really study finance, I get way, way too excited for new Patrick Boyle videos. Top tier.
Patrick Boyle is the greatest dry wit of finance y t
I wonder how patrick introduces himself these days. CZcamsr, fund manager, deadpan extraordinaire?
Vetted rap music expert
Duh, he is obviously a Hip Hop News Reporter, didn't we just watch a whole video about Flava Flave looking to get into the restaurant business?
Its so obvious now!
Veteran Rap historian and Rap News Reporter
Award Winning Rap News Reporter Economist, Patrick Boyle
No way!!! You used Pat Finnerty!!! Two of my favorite channels coming together?!?! What a day!!!
What makes this stock stink?
@@MarcosElMalo2 😂
Seriously that was cool to see!!
I thought my phone had glitched at first.
The Simpsons clips were too good to not use them.
The Pat Finnerty clips were even better.
I worked at red lobster 20 years ago and Endless Shrimp and other all-you-can-eat deals were super common even back then. How can something they have been doing for decades suddenly be so horrible? It doesnt make sense to me
My main man Patrick Boyle! Thank you so much. At first i judged you on a somewhat stiff appearance. But that's your style and i wouldn't change any thing about you now. I have watched so many of your videos and i truly appreciate your time. You are awesome and i learn so much watching your videos! Thank you again!
His video of that long city in some desert is one of the best pieces he ever published😂😂
@@Bill_the_Terrible BTT .............Classic !!!!
What's wrong with his appearance?
@@jphineas nothing at all! I was glad when I no longer had to wear a suit and tie to work. I thought the tie was more like a leash and suits were old fashion. But my man Boyle rocks it. In fact I think I will start wearing a suit and tie more often. It was just my personal opinion that I was projecting on Mr. Boyle. It got to the point where I saw suits and tie only being worn by people I did not trust such as politicians, lawyers and High ranking CEO, presidents...., Hollywood celebs and such. That's all. I felt like to wear one I was 'selling out'. But I am changed man and I am proud to say that Mr Boyle was responsible for this change.
@@Bill_the_TerribleI have watched the video three times, the jokes and delivery are fantastic😄
"Tales from the trenches of Red Lobster's endless shrimp" is one hell of an article title
A buffet is no longer a viable business model in the USA. We have no shame, and no self control.
Then you haven't seen any Chinese buffet full of Chinese mainlanders.
Yep. The general public has become more rude and doesn't know how to behave.
Actions that were embarrassing and that would be immediately publicly shamed just 10 years ago have become more and more normal to the point everyone just ignores it.
@@monkeydog8681 Winston at ADVChina said those are hotspots for grabhags to literally fight over the available food.
Lose the bull
Criticism is considered harassment now.
It always seems so wrong to me that a firm like Golden Gate Capital can takeover and then plunder a seemingly otherwise successful business like this.
Feels similar to what has happened to Thames Water here in the UK, would love if @PBoyle could do a video on that.
Loving the video as always Patrick, can't wait for the rap news segment.
I visited on May 20 with a friend. We were seated quickly and food and service were hot and really good. We did not excessively order shrimp and enjoyed 6 servings total per person.
The Dragon Shrimp was really tasty, but we thought that the Shrimp Scampi and Shrimp Linguine were the best. We weren't sure if we would ever be able to visit again for this promo. I was really happy about this working-out, and it was a nice departure from $15-$16 hamburgers and unrelenting sticker shock on just about everything.
I will not be eating-out at all going forward in what to me has become a Freak Show and a HellScape. In the future I will fondly look back upon my recent visit to Red Lobster as "the good times" and I have lowered my expectations so much that these little things, along with the fact that I can buy a loaf of bread for .55 cents at ALDI, and 10 lbs. of potatoes for $4.99., and 5 lbs. of flour for $2.35,, make me most grateful for even what little I now have since I fell-out of the "Middle Class" and now consider myself in "the working poor" class.
I don’t know what is more sad Red Lobster closing or me watching a 20 min video about Red Lobster and endless shrimp lol . Cheddar bay for life 😂
Endless shrimp will destroy us all
Just look what it did to Cleveland!
I'm going to order the "All You Can Learn Brilliant Deal" as soon as a table frees up
The crab dish/epi pen swipe at America was savage but also 100 percent dead on.
I want to defend our reputation but right in the comments we have people letting us know how very fair that assessment is. And this is the finance channel with the people making the economic case for eating 14,000 calories of fried seafood in a single setting, we aren't even hearing from the kinds of people who don't do a little math before committing 6 hours to a Red Lobster visit.
I used to go to an all-you-can-eat place called "Golden Conveyor." You sat in a chair like a dentist chair that could be leaned back. It was attached to a conveyor. They stuck a wide mouth funnel in your mouth, then a feeding tube would dump your choice of genetically modified foodstuff from a row of feeding troughs.
why'd you stop going?
I wanna puke just hearing about it.
@@HCBukko My Golden Corral closed last year. I was there shortly before that and there was a guy wedged trying to get through the front door, but I don't think that had anything to do with them closing.
@@zurielsss Not a good idea with a conveyor in your mouth.
@@DKNguyen3.1415 I am just surprised people will pay for having food crammed down your throat 😅
There's an empty red lobster restaurant on my way to work that I drive by every day. It was my favorite restaurant. My grandma took me there every sunday after church. I want my shrimp back.
Speaking as an American in my 50s, I have never once been inside a red lobster.
@PhasePolarizor right
I’m in my 50s and we all just called it Red Lobster. 🦞
It's rather cramped and dank inside, wouldn't recommend it.
We went in for the endless shrimp last year and got at least a dozen orders of shrimp each. We had a plan of not eating all day while walking around a newly built mall, just seeing what was there and which stores were open so we were really hungry by the end of it. It was pretty obvious by the 8th plate that they didn't want us to keep ordering. By the 10th we had to walk from our table to find our waiter because they stopped coming back and by that time we had been there for nearly 2 hours. The food itself isn't that phenomenal but the fact that it's unlimited makes up for it. I've never eaten at red lobster but we told ourselves that it was worth it and that we should go back for the next endless deal. It's sad to see it go, but I couldn't believe it would have worked out well for them either.
As an European this is a very interesting deep dive into American culture. I won’t judge you my burgers friends, I, also, would too eat an ungodly amount of shrimps if offered the possibility. I may die in the process, but that would be a sacrifice I am willing to make!
It's a certain subsection of the population that likes these casual dining spots, but as they are going bankrupt, it's certainly a rapidly shrinking population (i.e. boomers)
I can't believe I had to wait until 16:38 to understand why a rap news channel was covering a bankruptcy. I was really expecting it had something to do with Jay-Z throwing a fit at not getting taken out by Beyoncé after their anniversary.
This channel is rapidly becoming one of my favourites in the rap/finance space
I used to work at The Lobster (no, we don't really call it that) and some families would sit down for 4+ hours when we offered "unlimited shrimp/crab/whatever".
We'd eventually have to just.... stop showing up to their table, giving them increasingly worse service until they got the hint and left. Obviously we never got tips on those (FIVE HOUR TURN AROUND) tables, but it was better to just get them tf out than deal with their entitlement.
So blacks and fatties, got it.
If the restaurant is dumb enough to offer that deal then don't blame customers for taking advantage of it.
I'm an American millennial. This restaurant was a favorite of my grandparents when I was a kid. Red Lobster was where we went to celebrate some special occasion. I used to love the hushpuppies.
i was NOT expecting to see pat finnerty in a patrick boyle video, that's the collab of the century for me
What makes this stock stink should be a thing.
As a musician who was forced at times to endure the Guitar Center experience, I can assure you that there was never anything cool about that company.
So glad to see Patrick focusing more on Rap
They were people posting videos of themselves eating endless shrimp and giving tips on how to get the most bag for your buck. Strategies included not eating any of the bread that they give to you at the starting, and eating only a minimal amount of salad later on so that you can say room for the shrimp. I swear man this only happens in America.
"Bankrupting yourself with a storyline from the Simpsons is the most meme stock thing you can do." 😄😄😄
Life imitating art imitating life
It would have been fun to take Takeru Kobayashi to Red Lobster during one of their all you can eat promotions. He is the Hot Dog eating champion.
On a more serious note when private equity strips out all the equity in a firm and loads it up with debt the bankruptcy court should be allowed to claw back a lot of that money.
Will that be crab claws?
what should be made public is how much compensation and entitlements the top tier of the management got....and where the money went
Shut it commie
You'll need some duct tape and fire arms to get that sir.
Fried shrimp prawns were top-notch. Equally addicting: warm, garlic buttered biscuits.
It's cheddar bay biscuits. Please show some respect.
We are all overlooking the most important thing about this - Simpsons predicted it. Again.
That was the first thing I thought when I saw the clip. 😆😆🤦♀🤦♀
John Pinette - Around the world in 80 buffets.
I’m glad this video didn’t deviate too far from the channels regular output of hip hop related news. It’s important to stay on brand.
🤣😂🤣 as an American with a shellfish allergy who has ate more than 3 plates of crab legs at red lobster I took that personally
Bro this is so funny to me. About 15 years ago, our family of 40 plus people would go to red lobster for zpecial occasions. My dad ordered the endless shrimp, and adter the 3rd dish, they would deliver him a plate of 1 shrimp. Endless but never said how much. Now, we just make the food ourselves. It tastes better and more flexible for a large family gathering.
This gentleman has the gift of common sense.I admire such a rare trait nowadays
"Thai Union disputes ... its relation to Red Lobster." Does this mean they are giving up their ownership of Red Lobster. Is it free? Can I just walk in and take it. I've always dreamed of owning a failing seafood fast casual dining chain.
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hey thats me
Well, I hope that my local Red Lobster survives. I've been going there for over 30 years. Love that restaurant.
Several times this video referenced a $20 price point on the Endless Shrimp deal, but it only cost $20 for a relatively short period of time. The price was quickly jacked up to $25 not to mention the side items included was reduced from 2 to 1 and Red Lobster began charging a premium for a mere side salad. Approximately 4-5 years ago the price of Endless Shrimp was $15.99 and only $15 on Mondays. $15.99 --> $25 represents more than a 50% increase.
Reducing the side items is exceptionally baffling. Those are certainly cheaper than the shrimp, so during a shortage you should include _more_ of them so people will be able to eat less of the shrimp.
@@MissRora so true
It's $28 for the endless shrimp in upstate ny.
@@MissRora There was a restaurant in Perth (Australia) a few years ago that did a AUD $5 steak (3.50 USD). It was nothing too fancy, it was a normal (albeit 250 gram) sirloin steak with sauce (no side), pint of the house beer cost $AUD 3.50 (about 2.50 USD). When asked, the (new) owner said that he had done a similar thing before, and that people typically go in groups so not everyone orders the steak, they normally order a side in addition and not everyone orders the beer.
What happened was that people ordered two steaks, because the sides were more expensive or roughly the same price and pretty much everyone in Perth will drink beer at that price point (the sodas cost about the same).
I have no idea wtf the owner thought was going to happen. If the desirable things are the loss leader, of course people are just going to have more of that.
...if only there were a way to know what's happened to prices in the last 4-5yrs. I just don't know if anyone has looked at consumer prices in that time period. Maybe someone should start keeping an index or something...of consumer prices.
We had a chain in Corpus Christi Texas called "Boat Net". We called it the poor man's Red Lobster. They recently closed up.
I looked up the search trends for epi pens vs endless crab and it literally follows the trend 1:1 😂
To those concerned about Japan buying our 2nd largest steel supplier: What about Thailand owning our ONLY supplier of Cheddar Bay biscuits?
At least if the Japanese own it you know the money will be spent on upgrading the factory, unless they leave American in charge.
First thing fire all the yanks in senior mgt as they are interested in enriching themselves at the expense of everyone else.
Thailand is a major supplier of seafood, so it is really a case of a supplier stabilizing their business relationships with their chief buyers.
Ah I remember all you can eat lobster when I went to the US… the most glorious and horrendous experience of pure gluttony
I see your gluttony, but raise you an Argentine Churrascaria buffet. You haven't sinned until you eat $120 of various meat cuts from various animals straight from a sword for $34.99.
Same thing happened to Sizzler Steakhouse. They introduced endless shrimp to attract customers and it lead to their bankruptcy.
I heard the unlimited salad bar also injured their revenue.
Sizzler was my first salad bar. (1980's I guess)
I had the endless shrimp as a young boy. I remember it well. Sizzler was great!
its not the shrimp that led to bankruptcy
It was their lack of seasoning.
Was puzzled about you covering this story until you revealed the “Flav” angle.
Keep up the great work.
When I was younger me and a friend who were both over 300 pounds at the time, didnt eat all day and went to eat dinner at a local chinese restaurant that had all you can eat crablegs. I have no idea how much we ate but all we ate was crablegs off of their buffet table, and there was dozens of plates and an entire table full of crableg claws. The owner kept telling us try the eggrolls try the sushi, we just literally maxed out on crablegs. The next week, they sttopped serving crab in their buffet and I never went back.
I feel bad for the owner.
This is why it's economically irrational to go to a buffet unless you're planning on overeating.
@@pfeilspitzebuffets are usually very cheap. It’s good for your wallet tbh
You are the worst sort of person.
People like you spoil it for everyone.
Sounds like they saved your life.
I can't speak for every location, but I can tell you exactly what happened to my local red lobster.....
It became popular with a certain crowd. You could still tolerate the place, but then endless shrimp happened. The domino effect that occurred was amazing to watch.
The "crowd" of animals that took over scared normal people away. Families wouldn't go within 5 miles of the place.
That dame crowd is notorious for not tipping, so the long term employees all fled. This made it so only the dregs would work there, and as a result the service began to really suffer.
Eventually it became the home of escalades and drug dealers, and no business can survive that.
Yes. I served at red lobster for 6 months. The customers who came in definitely changed during endless shrimp.
So your racism contributed to the problem but you couldn't quite admit it. Fascinating.
@@subcitizen2012😂 How is not wanting to eat in a violent, chaotic restaurant with poor service racist?
@@subcitizen2012 absolutely wrong. Some of the worst of the worst are the retired old white folks, especially after church. It's not racism because it has nothing to do with color.
I love the horror stories from the employees. In fact I would watch a whole movie describing those cases.
Most shrimp sold in the US does not come from the US. This makes me pretty reluctant to eat restaurant shrimp.
When that 19-year old said she had to watch some guy eat his way through 30 plates. I couldn't help but feel upset at that guy. Like who does stuff like that? You have a line of people waiting behind you and you are going to sit there and eat until you pop? I would have asked that guy to leave or give him the bill for anything beyond a 5th plate. I just can't believe there are people out there who do this sort of thing.
There are millions of such people.
If you bait a trap for wild pigs don't be surprised if that's what you get.
To the title question: no, bad management was responsible for the downfall. Any singular policy or activity like the unlimited shrimp thing was just a symptom, not the cause.
I used to work at Red Lobster 20 years ago. The chefs would sometimes cook their own recipes after hours and it was so much better then the corporate recipe. I'm sure it's only gotten worse. The worlds short supply of lobster is better of in anyone else's hands. And tried Boston Market once after 20 years and t's qualify went down 1000%. Sometimes (often?) there's just no one left at a company who cares about the product.
Thanks for covering this!
Took my kids and another guest about 6 months ago. Horrible service, and food the was way overpriced for what you received. Was given a broken leapfrog type device to pay the bill, then had to get the greeter because the server couldn't be found. Told them never again.
I think the previous Prinvate equity group owners sold Thai Union a declining business, loaded with debt. They sell the real estate, lease back to business decisions are typical of private equity groups extracting profits and cash, then bankrupting or selling off to a buyer of another private equity grp, who continues to cut costs, add debt to the business. So eventually the business goes into bankruptcy. The data shows 10 x's the bankruptcy rate for private equity owned businsses vs other business owners.
This video has it all- Endless shrimp, Pat Finnerty, Flava Flav, and the Grab That Auto 5 song. What more could anyone possibly want?
Can confirm Unlimited shrimp is still available
Charging 150 dollars for a microwaved seafood dinner for 2 is what bankrupted red lobster.
We drove around till 3am looking for an all you could eat fish restaurant.
They have those in Ukraine?
@@McVaiountil Russians sealed the shores
And when they couldn’t find one, they went FISHING.
The biggest problem with Red Lobster is that the food is really expensive for something that is Applebees quality.
as someone who used to patronize the Red Lobster, I am sure it was not the endless shrimp the reason for the collapse. there were many specials that did not make any sense financially, but my guess is that it was the big variety of dishes for low prices.
"I heard they shaved a gorilla" is unfair to our pongid cousins.
Even in the 80's Red Lobster was already seen as a place that only unsophisticated diners believed was upmarket or a the only option if you lived in a smaller community. However, those are fairly large segments of the dining populace, so as a concept, Darden sort of nailed it.
What I don't know is whether the suggestion that the owner mismanaged with some intent is relevant. And assuming it is, what is the remedy? Denial of bankruptcy protection? Do they care? Or is a denial simply worse for the creditors?
The problem is that it is obvious to anyone that buying a struggling business with debt is only going to make it harder for that company to succeed. The only people who benefit are the owner who is bought out and the deal makers. Debt financed business purchases should maybe get more scrutiny and denied if it only makes sense for the flippers.
I think some viewers - who happen to be CZcamsrs - missed the obviously satirical parts of this video - judging by the copycat videos which appeared on the coattails of this excellent piece.
Red Lobster missed the chance to reduce restaurants and increase their frozen food offerings in grocery stores.
Most of the food is frozen anyway. So, just eliminate the restaurant rent, staff, customers, and other people problems and send the food directly to Kroger
Good video, Patrick. I watched the whole thing. I think maybe I went to a Red Lobster four decades ago possibly and all I remember is a microscopic shrimp inside a fist-sized piece of fried coating.
I remember when a Long John Silver restaurant opened by me I went to try it out. Same. Miniscule shrimp inside a giant hollow fried coating. Now I am not a fan of batter in the first place so I was really pissed. So I peeled off all the batter from everything, ate everything inside, and left the cardboard container filled with broken batter bits. It looked almost as if I hadn't eaten anything. Drank my soft drink and left. I was sitting near the aisle, so until they cleared the table, anyone coming in would have seen it.
Less than a month later, I walked by the place and Long Johns was long gone. lol. I like to think I helped some. 🤣
YES , we all know scrimps are not endless
I noticed that if a company fails to stay in Canada, it usually goes bankrupt of starts struggling in the USA a few years after : Radio Shack, Sears, Target, Isuzu, etc.