Talk of The Villages Florida - I hope Red Lobster succeeds

Like millions of people, we loved Red Lobster for years after they started. We would even drive an hour to their closest location for a special treat occasionally. But over time, like countless other businesses, they fell victim to the corporate profit demands and the portion sizes began to shrink, prices went up and the quality began to suffer. We thought that more rich sauces were being used to camouflage smaller shrimp and lobster choices. Marketing techniques were used in abundance to attract more volume. Our visits to Red Lobster began to slow until finally we have stopped going to Red Lobster completely (way too expensive too). Yes, I took time on several occasions to complete surveys with detailed suggestions so at least my disappointments were voiced.

My worry about investment groups buying a retailer is the increased profit push without having executives who understand the market forces making changes which could put the chain into a downward spiral such as what happened to J C Penny. The first thing that expert hired by investors did was to stop all coupons, sales, and discounts. The rest is history. I know this is a different business in a different industry completely, but when the opening salvo of this new CEO of Red Lobster is "no more 2 for $25" I worry about what could come next.

I would love to see Red Lobster get back to the high quality of the "old days". But quality is important not just in the taste of food, but also in the portion sizes of the select pieces of fish and in the quality of the value for the customer. I am hoping they succeed in accomplishing this turnaround so we can return to one of our favorite places to dine.