Almost 100 Red Lobster stores have been shut down, and the company has finally filed for bankruptcy. Bad business decisions have done the casual dining chain in.
Among those bad decisions was the spectacular failure of the Endless Shrimp promotion. Instead of saving the chain, it ended up accumulating an $11 million operating loss in Q4 2023.
Endless Bad Business
To be fair, the bankruptcy was not solely caused by the Endless Shrimp promotion. The chain had also gone through multiple owners that didn’t do much to stabilize it. Rising labor costs and real estate costs also contributed to Red Lobster’s downfall.
In the early 2010s, the company was sold to private equity firm Golden Gate Capital; it sold the Red Lobster-owned real estates. The restaurants ended up being beholden to landlords and leases. And this year, minority stakeholder Thai Union Group, decided to cut their investment due to financial losses.
The Promotional Fiasco
However, the promotional fiasco of Endless Shrimp still brought a lot of trouble for the chain. Former Red Lobster employees could testify how hellish the promotion was for them when they worked for the restaurant.
Then again, if customers could get an unlimited supply of fried shrimp, shrimp scampi or “street corn shrimp” for just $20, why would they not take full advantage of it, even to the detriment of the restaurant and its staff?
A Fitting End
Former Red Lobster employees interviewed by Slate shared their horror stories about serving the customers the Endless Shrimp promotion.
Servers, cooks and bussers all thought the deal was a “fitting capstone to an iconic if deeply mediocre chain that’s been drifting out to sea for some time.”
16 Rounds of Shrimp Scampi
James Berke, a 23-year-old former employee from New Jersey, told of a story of a family of five who ordered 16 rounds of shrimp scampi.
“He was there for over two hours on a busy Friday night. They had one of my biggest tables. I just had to watch this man eat plates upon plates of the scampi, which isn’t even served over pasta. It’s shrimp in a garlic-wine butter. It was so gross.”
Major Problems With the Promotion
According to Berke, the Endless Shrimp promotion was highly problematic for two major reasons. First, the $20 price for the promotion was lower compared to the rest of the rest of the restaurant’s menu. An average entrée at the restaurant was $35 at the time.
When the all-you-can-eat format became permanent in the restaurant last summer, Berke made less on tips. Another Red Lobster employee, Steve, who wanted to remain anonymous, confirmed this. “I usually made $200 a night before Endless. Once it became a thing, I was down to $90.”
Customers Wouldn’t Leave
When dinner parties arrived at Red Lobster wanting to pig out on shrimp, they also tended to stay for a long time. Other customers couldn’t get in, so there were fewer people to serve, which meant fewer tippers.
Another problem would be the customers who wouldn’t comply with the restaurant’s rules of the promotion. For this promotion, customers were not allowed to use takeaway for their shrimp. The promotion was also not meant to be shared; meaning, one binge portion was intended for one person only.
Employees Get Disrespected a Lot
Another former employee who wishes to remain anonymous, Josie, said she would get screamed at by customers who contested the promotion’s rules. “You had groups coming in expecting to feed their whole family with one order of endless shrimp.”
When they didn’t get what they wanted, they got angry. Josie said, “It tops any customer service experience I’ve had. Some people are just a different type of stupid, and they all wander into Red Lobster.”
Younger, Rowdier Customers
Steve echoed Josie’s story. He said he’s “never been more disrespected in my life” than by the Endless Shrimp customers. He even said his manager got spat in the face.
Thanks to this promotion, Steve noticed a subtle shift in the type of diners who came into Red Lobster. Older people who “dressed up and looked nice” were replaced by a younger, rowdier crowd.
Hungry People Gone Wild
Josie noted that Endless Shrimp diners often went to the extremes with excess shrimp. She witnessed a single person chow down 30 orders of fried shrimp in four hours.
Meanwhile, if you look at the nutritional information of the Endless Shrimp based on Red Lobster’s website, such a portion is worth around 14,000 calories. “He was a skinny guy, too. I was like, where is it all going?” she wondered.
Missed by ‘Broke’ Customers
The news of Red Lobster’s bankruptcy and many of its stores closing is making some customers upset, particularly those who depend on the cheap Endless Shrimp promotion to sustain themselves.
Michael Durrant, a 23-year-old customer who once ate 83 shrimps and spent between three and four hours in the dining room (and took at least one nap at the table), lamented, “I am bummed that Red Lobster is going away. But I get it. There’s not really anything on the menu worth getting other than the Endless Shrimp.”
Not the Staff’s Problem Anymore
While Durrant might lose his cheap sustenance, employees like Berke, Josie and Steve no longer have to face the sometimes lawless Red Lobster diners anymore. After Berke and Josie worked the Mother’s Day shift, one of the most important days in the sit-down restaurant calendar, they learned their Red Lobsters had been closed permanently.
“They made us work Mother’s Day to get that quick buck, and then they closed us,” Berke said. There is little chance of them getting transferred to the remaining 500 stores still open. While these stores will still be open during the bankruptcy process, the future doesn’t look bright for the chain.
