Free markets, free enterprise? No thanks, we’re Amerikans
An amusing story that illustrates perfectly how very far from anything resembling small-business-oriented laissez-faire capitalism we’ve come.
How to Murder a Popular Restaurant Chain With This 1 Weird Trick
Following the unexpected closure of dozens of locations last week, Red Lobster completely expectedly filed for bankruptcy protection this week — and how the seafood chain ended up in Chapter 11 restructuring is a fascinating story of bad decisions, spastic leadership, and shortsighted greed. It’s that last element that really tells the tale.Reb Lobster “temporarily closed” 87 restaurants last week, but as USA Today reported, some of them have “their kitchen equipment up for auction on an online restaurant liquidator.” Temporary, eh?
CNN’s Nathaniel Meyersohn wrote Monday that the chain’s “misguided endless shrimp promotion drove it into bankruptcy.” If you missed the news — I knew about it but my efforts at getting back into shape couldn’t afford it — last summer, Red Lobster made their $20 all-you-can-eat shrimp special a permanent menu item.
“The plan, as far as I can tell,” Luke Winkie wrote for Slate, “was for guests to fill up on just enough shellfish to preserve Red Lobster’s profit margin. It backfired spectacularly: The restaurant’s clientele scarfed down enough shrimp to accumulate an $11 million operating loss in the fourth quarter of 2023.” But that $11 million loss was only a small fraction of the company’s overall $72 million loss last year.
There’s so much more to the story than a money-losing menu item.
Business analyst Trung Phan posted to X that “the interesting part” behind the all-you-can-eat shrimp “is that one of the chain’s owners is Thai seafood firm Thai Union… and it may have used Endless shrimp to dump its own shrimp supply through the 578 restaurants in North America.” Restaurant Business Online reported that bankruptcy court documents question “whether the control Thai Union exerted over the supply chain process drove up costs for the chain, worsening its financial condition.” Quality control was reportedly an issue, too.
“Quality”? At Red Lopster?!? The McDonalds of seafood restaurants, first-choice favorite of Neegrows nationwide and hardly anyone else?
Now you’ve heard everything, right?
Wrong.
There’s still more.
And of course there is, Stephen wouldn’t lie about a thing like that. Thankfully, down South we’ve always been blessed with enough old-school “fish camps” that no sensible person had to even think about resorting to dumps like Red Lopster *shudder* for their seafood needs anyway, so no great loss.













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