Layoffs Starting
 

Red Lobster closed many restaurants yesterday.
Many Red Lobster restaurants close across Central Florida, nationwide amid financial woes

I guess Tesla and Walmart aren’t the only ones.

Many of them are in Florida - including Leesburg

Altamonte Springs
Daytona Beach Shores
Gainesville
Hialeah
Jacksonville (Commerce Center Drive)
Jacksonville (Baymeadows Road)
Jacksonville (City Station Drive)
Kissimmee
Largo
Leesburg
Orlando (E. Colonial Dr.)
Orlando (W. Colonial Dr.)
Orlando (Golden Sky Lane)
Sanford
Tampa (East Busch Blvd.)
Tampa (Palm Pointe Dr.)

I honestly never understood in states that have access to the ocean and fresh seafood.....why Red Lobster lasted this long in those areas.

Darden Restaurants sold Red Lobster in 2014. They saw the “hand writing on the wall”. Smart move on their part.

No loss visited once not what I would call a good seafood restaurant. Having been to Seafood Shack in Leesburg and Essex Seafood House, Pierson Fl much better than Red Lobster.

Forty five years ago I had a seating issue with my wife and young children at a Red Lobster in Albuquerque, NM. I have been into one since.

Their cheese biscuits are outstanding. Never saw the point of going there just for them.

I love Red Lobster

They are filing for bankruptcy.

Won’t be the last restaurant chains

Yeah, it's weird but people get familiar with brands and stick with it even when there are better quality products elsewhere.

It's restaurants like Red Lobster that are basically 90% the same as they were 20 years ago that this is happening to. Outback and Olive Garden are doing just fine, but they update their menus and mix in different concepts to keep things interesting.

People just get comfortable

I always thought RL was overpriced for the menu fair anyway. Quit them long ago…

I honestly never understood why people go to Aw Shucks instead of Bluefin Grill.:rolleyes:(sarc)

Outback just announced that they are closing 41 restaurants.

All they serve is frozen food. No loss. Sad for the employees who lost their jobs

Make at home..............

Copycat Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuits

I remember seeing the boxed biscuit mix at BJ's.

Like a lot of restaurants it’s just getting to expensive to eat out, like going to McDonalds to get a Hamburger, Small Fries & a small drink, it’s about 10 to $15. Now Red Lobster for me & my wife , 35 to $40.

You raise the minium wage, the resturants raise the prices. Everything gets passed to the customer... Places go out of business....simple

The problem with this recipe it tells me how unhealthy these biscuits really are. Better to eat once in awhile than making a batch.

Thanks for the info

Publix

or it could have been the 9 million dollars or more they lost in the unlimited shrimp plates and didn’t stop even when they knew it was a disaster , it tells you how stupid management was running the business , but oh yeah let’s blame it on a small raise for workers

I read an article recently in a major business publication that predicted that Red Lobster's all you can eat shrimp promotions were leading them to bankruptcy. It is completely unsustainable. Case closed.

I don’t have fish in this, I don’t like seafood. Closest thing to eating seafood for me would be long johns silvers. :oops:I once when to all you can eat catfish cabin which had seafood. I watches herds circling loading up plate after plate of Alaskan snow crabs legs. When they they got done looks like piles of bones stacked two feet on Table like old west pictures of buffalo bones stacked up. The restaurant lasted about 5 months before they was eat out of business.

Amazing how restaurant owners have no clue as to the economics of running a restaurant

Except the majority of RL product is sourced outside the US. That’s on them. How many Maine lobster men would love an exclusive vendor deal with a huge conglomerate. Instead they dovetail in langostino and Caribbean extensions. If you want to argue ‘supply chain’ and price point, eliminate those imports and buy US sourced product

.....and the prices would be even more expensive. I have not done a google search, but I would be surprised if seafood isn't the most labor-intensive protein sources.

Better eat it while can cause the ocean’s are being dredged clean :eclipsee_gold_cup:

Another reason I avoid chains like that....the parent conglomerate would rather quantity of retail brick and mortar rather than less of latter and more consistent quality of product. I get it but I don’t survive on eating out at under $9.99....but when I do, I’d like something that is better than pier bait...and most would pay the additional premium for that level of quality

Well, it is a known fact that US people eat out at a greater rate than even the French. Personally, I would rather read a BAD book than go out to eat. I would rather play shuffleboard than go out to eat. I would even rather cut the grass.

Worldwide, human population is increasing rapidly. The oceans are at record high temperatures for 5 of the last years. The worldwide coral will be down to 15% in 30 years or less. Fish populations have to migrate to new areas. Killer whales are attacking boats in the Mediterranean Sea and scientists don't know why.
-------Under such UNSTABLE CONDITIONS is it any wonder that the Seafood restaurants ARE affected. -----Adversely.

My understanding of killer whales attacking boats is it is a retaliatory action.....other whales have been hit by said boats and its their response to it. Unscientific but definitely reported as such

Yes....but would you ‘cut the grass’ even if all that was available to you was a gas mower, trimmer and blower. Mangia!

The Villages Red Lobster used to have a waiting line, then prices and portions started to change, many Villagers are smart enough to know when things are going down hill.

That's less than 3% of their restaurants. Good companies know when to close down underperforming stores.

At least there will always be Soylent Green. :mmmm:

My wife and I ate at one of those on the closing list about six months ago. Very disappointed and vowed never to return. I guess there are others with our same opinion. We used to enjoy going to Red Lobster but had not visited in years as we had moved to an ocean side town with places where you could watch your dinner being unloaded from the boat and carried into the kitchen. Sad.

I'm not much of an economist (my wife handles that) but I did some checking to see just how restaurant costs break down. Several websites give the two major costs after the restaurant is up and running as food costs (a range of 25% to 40%) and labor (30%). Given how prices on just about everything food-related have soared, and given the fact that competent restaurant help seems to be becoming more and more scarce, it is easy to see why restaurants are closing. Profits apparently are razor-thin in the restaurant business anyway, and given those two things it is easy to see how restaurants that don't measure up are closing.

But apparently it doesn't have to be that way. There ARE restaurants that continue and even flourish without huge price hikes, and with loyal, capable staff people. One such is Cam Ranh Bay in Bloomington, MN; a Vietnamese restaurant owned and run by Vietnamese people. Good food, great service and pretty stable pricing: we ate there regularly before moving to TV and even now, when I visit up there, Cam Ranh Bay is a must-stop for me. I've gone there maybe six times in the past four years but the wait staff all remember be and my preferences. Prices have increased maybe 10% since 2020. The impressive part is not just the food and stable prices, but watching how the place runs. No waitstaff person EVER goes anywhere empty-handed (my wife says that is one of the characteristics of a good waitstaff person), and they all seem to work together in a synchronized, almost choreographed manner. Most of the waitstaff I recognize from probably 10 years back.

There are several other like places I've eaten over the years that share these characteristics to an extent. The only commonality is that they are Asian-run, with predominantly Asian staff. They function in the same economy as the other restaurants whose success goes up and down like so many yo-yos, but they don't--AND they do it with only moderate price hikes, if that.

Why is that?

Why?
Because you’re comparing a single, family owned and operated establishment with one that is part of a conglomerate. Obviously the example you gave is that of a family who sunk their own money into the operation coupled with the commitment of that family ....daily to its success. Again, quality over quantity.