Red Lobster Closes Dozens of Restaurants Across U.S.
The seafood chain is shutting down locations in 27 states.
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In 2003, Red Lobster, the restaurant chain famous for its Cheddar Bay Biscuits as much as its seafood, began offering its “Endless Shrimp” deal. For a limited time each year, customers could mix and match two shrimp dishes with unlimited refills, plus enjoy a side and biscuit, all for a bargain price. The promotion proved so popular that in 2023, Red Lobster decided to celebrate by putting “Ultimate Endless Shrimp” on its permanent menu for just $20.
That move to make customers happy worked, increasing overall traffic to the restaurants. But it proved less lucrative than expected, even as the price kept rising up to $25. According to CNN, Red Lobster reported a $12.5 million operating loss in the last quarter of 2023. On top of that, Thai Union Group, a controlling shareholder in the brand, announced it would divest from Red Lobster in January 2024 due to at least $22 million in losses throughout the prior year.
Like its eponymous lobster, that has put the chain in some financial hot water which might be why, as of Monday, May 14, Red Lobster has closed dozens of locations in 27 states — even going so far as to begin auctioning off kitchen equipment from some locations through a restaurant liquidator.
According to Restaurant Business Online, as of Tuesday morning, the Red Lobster website listed 99 of its 650+ locations across the country as “temporarily closed,” representing about 15 percent of all its restaurants. A list of 87 known closures compiled by USA Today shows the following states have at least one these shuttered Red Lobster location (with the total number of closed restaurants in parentheses):
Alabama (3), Arizona (1), California (6), Colorado (4), Florida (16), Georgia (3), Idaho (1), Illinois (2), Indiana (2), Iowa (1), Kansas (2), Louisiana (1), Maryland (4), Mississippi (1), Missouri (1), New Jersey (4), New York (10), North Carolina (4), North Dakota (1), Oklahoma (3), Pennsylvania (1), South Carolina (1), Tennessee (1), Texas (8), Virginia (3), Washington (1), Wisconsin (2).
It should be noted that back in 2003, Red Lobster also introduced an “Endless Crab” deal that was a financial headache for the company — but these types of promotions have persisted, nonetheless. Perhaps down but not out after 2023’s shrimp problems, earlier this year, the chain even tried an Endless Lobster promotion, though this time it was as a contest limited to just 150 winners.
Prior to the abrupt restaurant closures, it was reported that the chain may be considering filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy — that was shortly after the chain hired a known restructuring expert as its new CEO. So while fewer Americans will have access to Ultimate Endless Shrimp this summer, we’ll have to wait and see whether this will be the end of “Endless” at Red Lobster or not.
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