The Decline of Red Lobster...What Happened?

Episode Description: America's biggest casual dining seafood restaurant may be filing for bankruptcy. This video outlines Red Lobster's history while identifying the main reasons behind their struggles.

To submit ideas and vote on future topics:

A very special thanks to this wonderful group of Patrons:
Library of Scars, Craig Mews, Jon Sturtz, Gabriela Martinez Celaya, Jennifer Yugo, Checkered Omega, Caitlin Kenney, Jandel, John Briscoe, Laura Floyd, John & Becki Johnston, Kib Bibens-LeFebvre, Andrew Jeeves, aziz alfozan, Audria Richmond, Adamant, Moriah Krawec, Dandaley, Tyrone Cowan, NoChance13, Ronnie Cheng, Astra, Ahmad, milkshake, Jon, Christian & Penny Gray, Emerald Computers – Jason Dragon, Brett Walton, Peter Wesselius, Meow Wolf, MyNameIsKir, Sirpoptart.

Company Declines:
______________________________

[seanwilliams]

Biggest issue with Red Lobster is the quality of the food went down and they didn't think people would notice for some reason. People ALWAYS notice eventually. Same thing has happened with places like Applebee's, Chilli's, and lots of other chains.

[Noah_Levy]

The funniest thing about this is that the biggest concern for most consumers about the biggest seafood chain going under is losing access to the biscuits.

[paulwitrock]

I’m here three weeks later and red lobster has declared bankruptcy.

[CollinMacQuarrie]

When you increase prices, decrease quality of food and service, decrease portion size, and shift towards a more casual dining room appearance, you are destroying yourself. After our expectedly disappointing meal on Sunday, my girlfriend and I wondered how this company hasn’t declared bankruptcy yet; how timely this video is!

[RazorFoxDV]

I remember as a kid in the early-to-mid 80s, my middle-class family considered Red Lobster to be a fancy place. I think it was because I remember Red Lobster's interior being more dimly-lit than other restaurants as opposed to the glaring fluorescent lights of more downmarket establishments such as fast food, and so in my mind even to this day, the darker a restaurant's interior is, the nicer I perceive it to be. Steak and Ale had similar lighting and so, to me, it was fancy!

[maryaltshuller]

I can remember as a teenager back in the '70s Red Lobster would run coupons in the newspaper once in a while. My mom would cut out the coupon and our family of six would go out to eat somewhere nice. My mom wanted my sibs and I to try good seafood. My sister, though, the picky eater, wouldn't try any fish or seafood - she always ordered chicken something-or-other. We were always encouraged to order the Plentiful Platter where there was an assortment of seafood for us to try.

[Thraxs]

I’m surprised you didn’t mention the quality of the food. All of these chains that offer lobster, shrimp pastas, etc are charging top dollar and putting out overcooked laughable portions. They typically charge 25+ for a 7 dollar tail and roughly 6 shrimp with a pound of pasta. It isn’t worth the price. When I was younger I remember Red Lobster being packed and enjoying what I ate. The last few times I gave them a chance it was a long wait in an half empty restaurant for overpriced mediocre food.

[LordSluggo]

I remember being a kid when Red Lobster was considered fancy, and now it's basically a punchline

[ds]

Growing up in rural South Dakota in the 80s and 90s, a trip to town for Red Lobster was a huge deal. It's sad to see what's happening.

[Nelly_B]

It seems that many places I used to consider “fancy” (Olive Garden, Red Lobster, etc.) are proving to decline in quality for the sake of efficiency and profit margins

[whiskeybravo]

Feel like Red Lobster is just the latest walking the path of death of these casual chains (Fridays, OG, Unos, Chilis etc etc) where their basic frozen food and overpriced mid drinks used to be the standard but there's been a reawakening of actual restaurants that offer a higher quality that these chains just can't touch

[jflatley]

Former Olive Garden employee here. Everything you said is true. We were also owned by Darden for the longest time, during my years of service. I miss those times!

[tew]

Those cheddar bay biscuits slap though

[Cactuscorpus]

As a former manager of our local Red Lobster, the split from Darden was initially viewed as a huge boone. Darden had always leveraged Chef Mike (thats a microwave) as much as possible, and after the change in leadership we were able to put in boiler stations, saute stations, and really made the food fesh and higher quality. However putting all these upgrades in all the stores, re-training entire kitchen staff and management, and the errors that happened after the change caused a huge hit to the company.

[memyself-lhxl]

I know exactly what happened. I used to take my family to Red Lobster. I loved the biscuits. Service went to crap. 30 minute wait times to get order taken. No refreshing of drinks. Once you order, it took an hour to get cold food.

[tate]

I remember back to business school, and all the case studies we would do on business failures, like these videos (which I love) so much time and effort and analysis is put into everything EXCEPT the most simple, obvious, in-your-face explanation... THE FOOD JUST SUCKS! You don't need marketing studies, cash infusions, rebranding, changes in leadership, you just need to make the food not suck.

[JBabyLeather]

It’s really interesting. When I was younger, it was one of the most fancy restaurants in our town. It was the best place to go on a fancy date. I actually had quite a few dates there. But I think that Fancy dining places that were more affordable started to get more casual. And people didn’t really see it as a fancy place anymore.

[TrashQueenAndKing]

What happened is they sell those cheddar biscuits at stores that you can freshly bake yourself, so there's no reason to go.

[ChanOliver]

The best part of every Wednesday: Watching a Company Man video

[CentralKentuckyElevators]

A few years ago, I was at a small town in northern Ohio on a small trip and a friend of mine suggested that we go to their local Red Lobster. Not long after I ate there, I started to feel really lethargic and then I started vomiting and was sick for the next several days. If there’s anything certain in my life, it’s that I will NEVER go to Red Lobster again.