Bankrupt - Red Lobster

Since the late 1960's, Red Lobster has grown to become an American seafood institution with over 650 restaurants and tens of thousands of employees. It's also one of the most successful casual restaurant chains to ever exist. So it was pretty surprising to many when they filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in early 2024. However while many in the media reported on the famous Endless Shrimp as the culprit, the truth as to how this company fell so quickly is a bit more complicated. Join me today as we find out how this iconic chain ultimately declared bankruptcy.

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Bright Sun Films 2024

Presented in 4K

[paulrippcord]

Being lower middle class, I remember that Red Lobster was the fancy place you’d go to for your birthday dinner.

[maeganmonster]

My dad knew the owner of our local red lobster. Red lobster "temporarily" closed the restaurant when the pandemic began, but at some point stopped paying rent and totally abandoned the site. The owner let my dad come in and take whatever he wanted, since red lobster wasnt coming back for it. His freezer was stocked with frozen Mac n cheese, cheesecake, etc bulk frozen foods from the restaurant, for months. He also took the dishes, cups, and silverware. Every time I eat at his house I'm like "yep, this is a red lobster cup/plate/fork."

[dunnowy]

We live in an era where half the companies in the country are run by firms who don't give a shit about the company they own. It's unreal.

[Dcole]

This feels like the gutting of Toys R Us all over again. Original brand owners did nothing wrong and then in swoops private equity to destroy it.

[jthang]

What I learned from Bankrupt is: Decades old successful company? Going thru hard times ? + Private Equity ^ leveraged buyout = rich get richer and company gets gutted.

[FatherAxeKeeper]

Red Lobster opening a location in Japan seemed like a very bold move, as Japan already has a plethora of top of the line seafood restaurants all over the country.

[leesweets]

I worked for RL; they suck as a company in general. Abusive.
While I was there I saw them fire an older woman who was only two weeks out from a company retirement.
They dont do those retirement packages anymore but she was grandfathered in from the early days of the company.
Instead of giving it to her they found an excuse to fire her without benefits, after probably nearly a half century of devoted service.

[christopherbarton]

From someone who’s worked in enough corporate companies over the years, I learned real quick that just because you sit in a lavish office/boardroom doesn’t make you an expert on what the company does that you work for and make policies and procedures on. You may be able to crunch numbers, but if you have no idea on how the actual operations work in the factories/retail/restaurants, etc…, you have no business being an executive for that company. And yes that is Al Bundy celebrating at Red Lobster after scoring 4 touchdowns in one game!

[mitchellangelo]

My parents loved Red Lobster. We went there all the time when I was a kid. We last went in 2015ish, not long after my dad's health started failing. My parents passed in 2022.

Last month, my son randomly wanted to go to red lobster (not long after the bankruptcy announcement). So, we went. And we had a great time! It brought back a lot of memories for me, we both thought the food was delicious, and the staff was super friendly! They even let him "hold" a lobster.

I think that's the real tragedy of these poor decisions made by these corporate entities: they impact our friends and neighbors who are just trying to make a living.

I hope we can go back soon to support these folks. Good video!

[bobdobalina]

Lobsters everywhere are breathing a sigh of relief.

[ChestersButterfly]

Not gonna lie, when I saw Red Lobsters closing their doors around my hometown, my first thought was, 'Bright Sun Films' gonna do a video on this to make it real.

[SomeRandomDude]

The story is so typical of corporate America today. At some point in your video you mentioned that Red Lobster had plateaued, but they were “stable and profitable”. Unfortunately, for corporate America that doesn’t work today, we have to have quarterly growth eternally.🤬🤬🤬

[kenmmcnatt]

Your comment on mainstream media coverage is spot on. They tend to reduce things to the lowest common denominator. This is why I watch channels like yours for a much more detailed analysis.

[KingAndy]

I worked at red lobster for 9 years. From 2013 - 2022…. All of this makes so much sense. All these changes were definitely felt by the staff… I remember coworkers saying RL wouldn’t last long after Darden dropped them. It kinda crazy looking at the story this way and not thru the lens of an employee.

[derekrequiem]

"Sir please it's been 3 days I want to go home..."
"YOU SAID *ENDLESS*

[sharpshooterpeonnut]

"Bankruptcy is a word that is often misunderstood. It does not mean we are going out of business. It simply means that all of our locations except for maybe one in New York City, one in Chicago and one in Los Angeles are closing forever. "

[leew]

I have fond memories of this restaurant. My Grandfather would take me every Friday night after my Grandmother passed away in 1986. The food was good during that time period but over the years it went down. I live on the Gulf Coast so many people asked themselves; why go to a place and be served frozen seafood when we have fresh seafood restaurants 10 miles down the road on the water. None the less, Red Lobster had its place in time and left me with memories of me and my Grandfather that not everyone had and that I will never forget.

[KannikCat]

I hadn't been to a Red Lobster in years, but my family ate there not infrequently in the 80s and 90s. I had heard their quality had gone down... alas, what happens when private equity gets their pincers on a brand.

[KENTROVERSY]

Had a Red Lobster 10 minutes from my house that caught fire over 2 years ago. It's sat abandoned and was never even cleaned out, let alone renovated. That told me back then that the company was on the edge and not going to bother reopening it.

[k]

How Amazon or Netflix isn’t hurling money at you for this work (maybe they are) is shocking. This series is better than anything I see on any streaming service.