Endless Shrimp Pushed Red Lobster Toward Bankruptcy. Now It’s Back With 3 Key Limits

The chain says it’s rebuilt the promotion with stronger financial discipline this time around. Not every diner is convinced.

It’s not every day a company revives the exact thing that nearly destroyed it.

The Endless Shrimp promotion is back at Red Lobster, roughly two years after the same deal helped push the seafood chain into millions of dollars in losses, dozens of store closures, and a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.

The legal fallout from that original deal

The legal fallout from that original deal is still unfolding. A creditor-owned trust has sued Thai Union, Red Lobster’s former majority owner, alleging the company deliberately drove the chain toward bankruptcy through the promotion, a scheme its own creditors have described as a “car crash.”

However, that’s not stopping the chain.

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“Our guests made it clear they wanted more Endless Shrimp, and we listened,” Red Lobster told Inc.

With the deal, diners can mix and match a variety of flavors, including garlic-bread-crusted shrimp, shrimp linguini Alfredo, garlic shrimp scampi, Parrot Isle coconut shrimp, and Walt’s Favorite Shrimp—all for a promotion that generally runs $24.99 per person at most U.S. locations.

Alex Schwartz, marketing director at Signature Systems told Inc. that Red Lobster is taking a real gamble by bringing back a promotion that was previously so controversial and poorly executed. “This move, if executed properly, could help to bolster the brand and sales,” he said. “It’s a gamble, but one that could pay off handsomely.”

Source: www.inc.com