www.washingtonpost.com
Open in
urlscan Pro
23.37.45.67
Public Scan
URL:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2024/05/17/red-lobster-closings-endless-shrimp/?utm_campaign=wp_post_most&utm_medium=email&...
Submission: On May 21 via api from BE — Scanned from DE
Submission: On May 21 via api from BE — Scanned from DE
Form analysis
1 forms found in the DOM<form class="wpds-c-gRPFSl wpds-c-gRPFSl-jGNYrR-isSlim-false">
<div class="transition-all duration-200 ease-in-out"><button type="submit" data-qa="sc-newsletter-signup-button" class="wpds-c-kSOqLF wpds-c-kSOqLF-uTUwn-variant-primary wpds-c-kSOqLF-eHdizY-density-default wpds-c-kSOqLF-ejCoEP-icon-left">Sign
up</button></div>
</form>
Text Content
Accessibility statementSkip to main content Democracy Dies in Darkness SubscribeSign in Advertisement Democracy Dies in Darkness FoodRecipes News How To Dining Newsletter Instagram FoodRecipes News How To Dining Newsletter Instagram IF RED LOBSTER’S BUTTER-BATHED SHIP IS SINKING, REMEMBER THE SHRIMP The casual sit-down seafood restaurant is shuttering restaurants and could be on the verge of bankruptcy. By Emily Heil May 17, 2024 at 9:52 a.m. EDT A closed Red Lobster in Torrance, Calif. (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP/Getty Images) Listen 9 min Share Comment on this storyComment1750 Add to your saved stories Save They say the shrimp did it. Locations of Red Lobster all over the country have been closing down, with dozens shuttering their doors this week. The company is reportedly teetering on bankruptcy, and some analysts say the money the iconic chain lost on its “endless shrimp” deal — where diners unexpectedly gobbled up enough to put the company millions of dollars in the hole — was its death blow. Get the Eat Voraciously newsletter for delicious dinner inspiration, delivered straight to your inbox. Were the shrimp simply too irresistible? Or were diners’ appetites (for shellfish, yes, but also for a dazzling bargain) just too cavernous? On a night this week, when I arrive at a still-open location in suburban Suitland, Md., the shrimp is not all-you-could-eat. Still, it is plentiful. The scampi swim in a little ceramic bathtub of pungent parsley-flecked butter and garlic. The butterflied, breadcrumb-coated fried variety are crisp, ready to be dunked by the tail in ramekins of horseradish-spiked cocktail sauce. For $17, you can order two styles: They also come flavored with coconut flakes or Mexican street corn, “dragon” spiced, skewered and grilled or blanketed in Alfredo sauce atop linguine. Sure, the little guys might not be ocean-fresh (they were probably frozen, like much of the seafood we eat), but they are … pretty good, or at least the crowd seems to think so. Advertisement Story continues below advertisement Get the recipe: Red Lobster-Style Cheddar Biscuits With the smell of melted butter and the sound of Britney Spears’s coo in the air, I find it hard to believe that this seafood party could end at any time, and that this location, with its view of full parking lots and Chevrolet dealerships stretching in two directions, could be the scene of what has played out at other locations around the country, with apologetic notes taped to the door and workers loading out furniture and equipment for auction. Here, barely three miles east of Washington, D.C., the margaritas are still beach-bucket-sized and those pillowy-salty cult-favorite Cheddar Bay Biscuits are flowing (a winking server promises an extra delivery to make up for a long wait). There’s a couple on a date that seems to be going well; after the appetizers come, she moves over to sit next to him on the booth bench; his arm snakes around her back. A table of women have gathered for ladies’ night dinner, and they order a round of many-hued margaritas. There’s no way to clink these glasses in a toast — you have to lean over them to slurp from a straw, which they do. The bar is full. Advertisement Story continues below advertisement It’s easy to see how the lure of endless shrimp, though, took a pinch out of Red Lobster’s bottom line. On TikTok, people shared their epic evenings devouring hundreds of shrimp for only $20, after the chain made what had been a limited-time deal a permanent fixture. On Reddit, people gamed out how to get the most out of the special. They boasted of body counts in the hundreds, of getting shooed out by fed-up servers delivering successive plates of seafood with ever-louder thunks of platters. Follow Recipes Follow As the 1990s ads for the chain used to say, “Wow, that’s a lot of shrimp!” To Michael Kaufman, a former restaurant chain executive and Harvard Business School professor, the run on the endless shrimp offer was just another burden for the chain, which was already facing steep challenges, from rising food and labor costs to lower traffic from consumers feeling pinched. “It was the straw that broke the camel’s back,” he said. Advertisement Story continues below advertisement The company had been bitten in the past by an all-you-can-eat special gone awry. In 2003, it advertised a special on crab legs, and the resulting swarm lost the company so much money that it prompted the departure of then-CEO Edna Morris. It’s not quite time to write Red Lobster’s obituary — experts say the brand could very well emerge from this round of downsizing and even a bankruptcy with a significant national presence intact. And so we come not to bury the Lobster, but to remember it. Which would of course include those TV spots, many diners’ introduction to the chain. The commercials were pageants of lemon wedges being squeezed and splashing butter — so, so much butter. Many starred wholesome families digging into seafood feasts, but some of the most memorable were downright seductive, like this one from 1990: The restaurant’s signature jingle (“Red Lobster for the seafood lover in youuuuu”) played as a smoldering torch song while the shrimp’s butter bath burbled. “Scaaampi,” the narrator practically purrs. The ads were so distinctive that they were even spoofed in a 2017 short horror film starring “Gilded Age” stars Carrie Coon and Morgan Spector (in the 2022 period drama they play husband and wife, but in this she’s a customer trapped in a 1990s Red Lobster commercial and he’s the menacing waiter). The film seems to have disappeared from streaming platforms, alas, but in bootlegged versions, you can see that the means of violence includes melted butter. Throughout the decades, the chain has undergone various reinventions. In 2007, it dropped the tagline “For the seafood lover in you” in favor of “Come see what’s fresh today,” as part of a shift to emphasize its fresh-fish offerings instead of the fried dishes it had long been known for. In 2011, it completed a redesign that invoked the nautical aesthetic of Bar Harbor, Maine (think signal flags, Adirondack chairs and maritime art), a move meant to echo its highlighting of the “flavors of America.” In 2018, it brought out smaller seafood “tasting plates” and dishes with global flavors. Advertisement Story continues below advertisement Of late, Red Lobster has indulged in some cringey youth-oriented marketing, including attempting in a TV ad to capitalize on the viral Tik Tok audio clip of gospel singer Shirley Caesar in which the singer praises “beans, greens, tomatoes, potatoes, you name it!” The chain hired her to sing, in a similar cadence, the makeup of its lobster-and-shrimp promotion: “tails, shrimp, waiters, potatoes …” And inexplicably, in April, it introduced a playlist of AI-generated songs celebrating Cheddar Bay Biscuits (sample track: “Cheddar Bay Bouncin II”). For all that effort, in recent years, the chain seemed to whiff on a gift from the marketing gods. No less a pop goddess than Beyoncé mentioned the chain in her hit 2016 single, “Formation,” the lyrics of which suggested that if her lover, ahem, pleased Queen Bey, he would be rewarded with a visit to Red Lobster. It took the brand a full eight hours (a lifetime in social media time) to respond. And when it did, the engagement it offered was, in the collective judgment of the internet, pretty lame. Behind the scenes, management moves and market forces are what put it in its tenuous spot, experts say. The chain was founded in Florida in 1968 by restaurant giant Bill Darden and enjoyed a long stretch of growth, first under the umbrella of General Mills, which spun the chain off in 1995 under the new Darden Restaurants company. For many people in landlocked towns, Red Lobster was an introduction to the exotic world of lobster tails, snow crab legs and, of course, shrimp. But as its sister restaurant, the Olive Garden, soared, Red Lobster faltered, and the restaurant group sold the seafood chain in 2014 to private equity firm Golden Gate Capital for $2.1 billion. Its supplier, Thai Union Group, eventually became its biggest shareholder. That structure probably encouraged executives to make all-you-can-eat shrimp a permanent menu item, observers say, but it could also have created broader problems. “I’d be concerned that if you are a restaurant chain that is owned by a supplier, you may be constrained in your ability to get competitive pricing,” Kaufman says. Advertisement Story continues below advertisement And Stephen Zagor, a restaurant consultant and professor at Columbia Business School, says the ownership might not be as committed to the core of what Red Lobster does. “They’re not doing it to be in the restaurant business,” he says, “They’re in it to make money.” He says that as Red Lobster raised its menu prices, it became less of a deal for diners, who have plenty of other choices, including the proliferating range of fast-casual spots: “They became too much a part of American wallpaper.” And the problem might not be just Red Lobster’s but that of all casual sit-down restaurants. Menu prices in the category are up 20 percent since 2021, in the face of higher costs on everything from labor to napkins, and customers are starting to balk, according to data from researcher Technomic. Story continues below advertisement Some are offering deals to lure them back in — such as Red Lobster’s endless shrimp, which turned out to be the miscalculation on top of the cherry. The company underestimated not just how much people would eat, it overestimated how much other business it would drive. Advertisement “Those calculations,” Kaufman says, “just didn’t square with what the consumer did.” I can relate. In Suitland, the meal has ended and a server delivers containers for our leftovers. The shrimp from my seafood feast is long gone and so are the lobster tails. And I decide not to toss in the tangle of crab legs I couldn’t polish off. But those cheesy, addictive biscuits go directly into the box. After all, I don’t know when I might have them again. Get the recipe: Red-Lobster Style Cheddar Biscuits Share 1750 Comments NewsletterThursdays for 12 weeks Voraciously: Meal Plan of Action Dinner needs a game plan. Menus and meal prep guides for the week ahead — every Thursday for 12 weeks. Sign up Subscribe to comment and get the full experience. Choose your plan → Advertisement Advertisement TOP STORIES Advice Moral dilemmas, relationships, parenting and more Carolyn Hax: Friends say to break other plans to avoid offending new man Ask Amy: Should my husband get a say in what I do with my inheritance? Ask Amy: Can’t a single woman eat alone without interruption? back Try a different topic Sign in or create a free account to save your preferences Advertisement Advertisement Company About The Post Newsroom Policies & Standards Diversity & Inclusion Careers Media & Community Relations WP Creative Group Accessibility Statement Sitemap Get The Post Become a Subscriber Gift Subscriptions Mobile & Apps Newsletters & Alerts Washington Post Live Reprints & Permissions Post Store Books & E-Books Print Archives (Subscribers Only) Today’s Paper Public Notices Coupons Contact Us Contact the Newsroom Contact Customer Care Contact the Opinions Team Advertise Licensing & Syndication Request a Correction Send a News Tip Report a Vulnerability Terms of Use Digital Products Terms of Sale Print Products Terms of Sale Terms of Service Privacy Policy Cookie Settings Submissions & Discussion Policy RSS Terms of Service Ad Choices washingtonpost.com © 1996-2024 The Washington Post * washingtonpost.com * © 1996-2024 The Washington Post * About The Post * Contact the Newsroom * Contact Customer Care * Request a Correction * Send a News Tip * Report a Vulnerability * Download the Washington Post App * Policies & Standards * Terms of Service * Privacy Policy * Cookie Settings * Print Products Terms of Sale * Digital Products Terms of Sale * Submissions & Discussion Policy * RSS Terms of Service * Ad Choices * Coupons WE CARE ABOUT YOUR PRIVACY We and our 44 partners store and/or access information on a device, such as unique IDs in cookies to process personal data. You may accept or manage your choices by clicking below, including your right to object where legitimate interest is used, or at any time in the privacy policy page. These choices will be signaled to our partners and will not affect browsing data. If you click “I accept,” in addition to processing data using cookies and similar technologies for the purposes to the right, you also agree we may process the profile information you provide and your interactions with our surveys and other interactive content for personalized advertising. If you do not accept, we will process cookies and associated data for strictly necessary purposes and process non-cookie data as set forth in our Privacy Policy (consistent with law and, if applicable, other choices you have made). WE AND OUR PARTNERS PROCESS COOKIE DATA TO PROVIDE: Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Create profiles for personalised advertising. Use profiles to select personalised advertising. Create profiles to personalise content. Use profiles to select personalised content. Measure advertising performance. Measure content performance. Understand audiences through statistics or combinations of data from different sources. Develop and improve services. Store and/or access information on a device. Use limited data to select content. Use limited data to select advertising. List of Partners (vendors) I Accept Reject All Show Purposes