Red Lobster occupies a strange place in the landscape of American dining, and Slate says
it has something to do with their long-time link to the middle class.
They captured the market of normal American families looking for a good meal out that
wasn't going to break the bank.
"Well, look, let's get something to eat.
There's a Red Lobster nearby."
"Maybe some other time."
"Shooter!
I thought we were going to be friends!"
Let's talk about Red Lobster and what you might not know about this iconic American
chain.
Late biscuits
Those garlicky Cheddar Bay biscuits are so firmly associated with Red Lobster that it's
surprising they're a fairly late addition to the menu.
They only showed up in the early 1990s, and we even know who to thank for creating them:
Kurt Hankins.
Five years after they were introduced, they were given their now-famous name: Cheddar
Bay Biscuits.
As Hankins explained on Darden Digest:
"It's a fictitious name created to bring the biscuits to life, embody the seaside theme
and emphasize that these are not your typical biscuits.."
Were they a success?
They serve over 1 million biscuits every day, so yeah — we'd call that a hit.
Truly endless shrimp
Sure, they might say it's endless shrimp, but is it really?
In 2016, Business Insider headed to Red Lobster with a plan: eat so much of the Endless Shrimp
menu that they were cut off.
They weren't.
The two reporters sat at Red Lobster for almost eight hours and by the time they finished
the marathon, they'd eaten a grand total of 305 shrimp.
Red Lobster was not only cheering on their shrimp genocide, but the store's manager came
over and introduced them to some shrimp-filled options not on the main menu.
"Shrimp gumbo, pan-fried, deep-fried, stir-fried, there's pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut
shrimp."
Just a fluke?
A group from The Huffington Post tried it in 2013, and one person alone downed a staggering
101 shrimp.
Endless, indeed!
When Red Lobster's infinite shrimp plot momentarily flailed in 2014, it wasn't because of the
quantity of shrimp they went through, it was because of their costs.
According to Quartz, disease swept through the world's largest shrimp-producing countries
and drove the prices through the roof.
Between 2009 and 2013, the price Red Lobster was paying for their shrimp tripled.
That's enough to break any business, especially one reliant on the product in question as
a main staple.
"Shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich… that's about it."
Crab catastrophe
While Endless Shrimp is a serious money-maker, Endless Snow Crab was a devastating mistake.
"All the hot, steamy snow crab legs you can eat, now at Red Lobster!"
According to Anchor of Gold, Red Lobster introduced their Endless Snow Crab in 2003, when the
price of crab was around $5 a pound.
They were charging $20 per customer, and you can probably already see where the math isn't
going to quite work out.
Ultimately, the promotion meant they were losing about $1.1 million a month while it
was running.
The difference is that snow crab is highly regulated, and just how much is going to hit
the market depends on what's approved by the US government.
Less crab means higher prices, but appetites of customers always stay the same.
Farm dreams
Red Lobster isn't just selling lobster, they're trying to find a way to make the lobster industry
completely self-sustainable.
According to ABC News, Darden Group started funding work in developing lobster farming
programs way back in 1998, and it took a pretty shocking 16 years before researchers were
able to raise lobsters in captivity.
The ultimate goal?
Supply Red Lobster with sustainably raised spiny lobsters.
Unfortunately, Darden and Red Lobster have since parted ways, and the project appears
to be at a stand-still.
Lobster lookalikes
In 2016, it was Red Lobster who was in hot water after Inside Edition did some serious
DNA testing.
When they took samples of the meat from the chain's lobster bisque, they found not all
of it was the sort of lobster customers tended to expect: part was langostino, a sea creature
which isn't a true lobster.
In fact, it has more in common with your average hermit crab.
That's the stuff of scandal, and Red Lobster scrambled to explain the bisque was prepared
with a variety of lobster, including Maine and langostino.
When Inside Edition wanted to know what was going on, Red Lobster called it the "luck
of the ladle".
But if you want to be completely sure you're getting your money's worth, you may want to
order something else.
"No soup for you!"
Liquor lawsuit
Any restaurant serving alcohol has a responsibility to their customers, and in 2017, one Red Lobster
customer sued after she walked out with a blood-alcohol level of .31, more than three
times the legal limit.
She didn't get far, 82-year-old Marlene Spencer fell in the parking lot, hitting her head
and breaking both her hip and her right arm.
According to the Houston Chronicle, the suit charged that it wasn't the first time that
particular Red Lobster location had over-served Spencer and some of the other residents of
her senior living center.
"This is the WRONG way to consume alcohol."
"Whoa, that's a pretty stiff cloud!"
Red Lobster responded with a statement simply clarifying they had strict guidelines in place
for serving alcohol, although Spencer's daughter claimed she'd spoken to staff and management
more than once about their alcohol policies.
Fishy innovation
What would the world be without popcorn shrimp?
A much sadder place, that's for sure, and you can apparently thank Red Lobster for inventing
it, even though it's served all over the place now.
"This isn't popcorn, you idiot, this is popcorn SHRIMP!"
"You know, I knew there was something familiar about it."
"Hold on, where are the kids?"
"AHHHHH!!!"
Joe Lee, one of the founding members of the restaurant, said popcorn shrimp was just one
of the things they invented to revolutionize the restaurant industry.
They also claim to have pioneered the very first point-of-sale system at a time when
computer technology was finally catching up to what the world wanted it for.
They wanted to be able to keep track of sales, and kick-started a system that's in pretty
much every store and restaurant today.
"One double cheeseburger, ching!
Large fries and a large soda, cha-ching!"
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