Where were you when Red Lobster ruined Mother's Day? Were you at the other Red Lobster,
involved in a gunfight? Cheddar Bay Biscuits gave them a great reputation,
but these huge scandals still rocked Red Lobster.
Sustainability is hot right now, and Red Lobster has cashed in on the trend by
promoting its food as sustainable. They use phrases such as "Seafood with standards,"
and "Traceable. Sustainable. Responsible," and have published
neatly edited videos on "Sourcing our catch" and "Sustaining Maine Lobster."
"When we say our seafood is traceable,
it's not just a word on our menu, but a commitment to the places we call home."
But is their food actually sustainable?
Dezzi Rae Marshall, a California woman, launched a class action lawsuit against Red Lobster in June
2021 for deceptive advertising. According to the lawsuit, the restaurant got its lobsters
from The Gulf of Maine Fishery, which, per the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia,
violated the Endangered Species Act by being a potential harm to North Atlantic right whales.
And the shrimp, the lawsuit claims, comes from industrial shrimp farms based out of Vietnam,
India, Indonesia, and China that care little about animal and environmental welfare.
An investigation by AP also traced the shrimp that come to Red Lobster
back to farms in Thailand that employ captive workers, including minors, to peel the shrimp.
Red Lobster did not comment on the claims but said they stand by their slogan,
'Seafoods with Standards'.
Those who planned to surprise their mothers with dinner from Red Lobster on Mother's Day 2020 were
in for an unpleasant surprise instead. Some Red Lobster locations in New York,
Pennsylvania, and Illinois just couldn't meet the demands of their customers,
leaving them waiting and seething all day.
"We've been waiting for two hours and about 20 minutes now.
And they said there's no way to cancel it."
A customer posted on Twitter,
"@redlobster you made this the worst mother's day
for me. I did not get my delivery or my refund. You never answer the phone. "
And yet another angry customer posted,
"Well I waited 2 hours on Mother's Day and still no food and now I waited
almost 24 hours and no response from the company"
All that waiting had one customer at the Red Lobster in East York, Pennsylvania,
fly off the handle and barge into the restaurant to demand her money back. Things
turned ugly when the furious customer slapped an employee at the location, starting a brawl.
In a statement, Red Lobster apologized for the big
mess and cited staffing and operation changes around COVID-19 as the cause.
In 2021, Red Lobster faced multiple discrimination lawsuits. The first was filed by Kimberly Rowe,
a former employee at Red Lobster, who had started off as a server at the chain and was eventually
promoted to manager. Though Rowe was promised a high salary to match her new designation,
Rowe alleged in her lawsuit that it was less than what her male counterparts made.
In yet another case, Miquelle Fountain, a former general manager at a Red Lobster in New York,
slapped a $5-million lawsuit against the restaurant for race and sex discrimination,
per News 18. Fountain, just like Rowe, had started off as a server and become
a general manager in 13 years, during which she served at three locations in Florida, Michigan,
and New York. Fountain alleged that one of her former managers had made racist comments about
her looks and requested her termination solely because of the color of her skin.
"The employer has a responsibility and an obligation to protect you from
discriminatory practices. And Red Lobster failed to do so."
If you have been a Red Lobster regular, you might want to put that king crab down for a second:
According to a survey by Harvard's Kennedy School's Shift Project,
almost 63% of Red Lobster employees worked even when they were sick in Fall 2021.
Shocking? So is the 2022 investigative report by Popular Information and More Perfect Union,
which published quotes from current and former employees who said they didn't
have a choice but to continue working even if they didn't feel up to it.
A former bartender at a Red Lobster in Pennsylvania, James Swartz,
said that he was threatened by his managers when he asked for
time off after developing COVID-like symptoms. His managers said he would
have to find someone to cover his shift, or else they would have to write him up.
Swartz ultimately took two weeks off, without pay. While Swartz
was able to manage by the skin of his teeth as he had a second job,
other employees might not have had that option. Which is why organizations such
as More Perfect Union and Some Of Us started petitions demanding that Red Lobster start
giving paid sick leave to its employees - which would be good news for the customers as well.
In 2013, three women who worked at the Red Lobster in Salisbury, Maryland filed a sexual harassment
lawsuit. According to the lawsuit, the culinary manager at the location had used vulgar words and
behaved inappropriately towards the employees. When they complained to the general manager,
he also directed inappropriate remarks at them. The case was then escalated to the
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which filed the lawsuit against Red Lobster
for harboring a sexually hostile environment and violating the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Red Lobster condemned the incident, saying that the company,
"...values having a diverse,
safe workplace where all individuals can pursue their professional dreams."
The statement further went on to say that the chain had investigated the
incident and fired the employee who was accused of sexual harassment.
The chain also paid a total of $160,000 to the victims, besides providing training
to all its employees on how to comply with federal antidiscrimination laws.
The scariest thing at Red Lobster is supposed to be Codzilla,
the nickname for the restaurant's oversized fish sandwich. But there have been a number of
scary incidents at Red Lobster over the years that proved legitimately life-threatening.
In 2019, for instance, a massive brawl broke out between customers and employees.
The whole fight was caught on security cameras, and perhaps the most surprising thing
is that the fight started even though there was a cop standing right there!
Worse, in 2021, a brawl between two groups of customers inside a Red Lobster
in Wisconsin ended with one of them firing two shots into the restaurant. Thankfully,
the police reported that no one was injured. Unfortunately, that wasn't the
case in a 2021 shooting in Missouri that left one man wounded, or a 2018 shooting
in the parking lot of a Texas Red Lobster that tragically claimed the victim's life.
Though it's Red Lobster's policy to ensure that all its customers' information remains private,
Devin Barnes, who had dined at the chain, found a picture of his receipt posted on social media.
Besides his name, though, it also had a racial slur that he claimed
he didn't write. He sued Red Lobster for $1 million for defamation, telling WSMV,
"It's been horrific. I mean, I just have been getting all these threats and everything."
The waitress, Toni Jenkins, insisted that the receipt was real.
She told The Tennessean that she didn't mean to publicly call out Barnes,
but simply posted the note to bring attention to racism.
"I was not trying to get back at him or bring any attention to him at all."
Red Lobster responded to the incident with a statement that read in part,
"This kind of language is completely disgusting and
has no place in our restaurant or anywhere else."
Just because seafood can be healthy doesn't mean it always is.
Some found that out when the Center for Science in the Public Interest
listed Red Lobster's combo platter as the unhealthiest restaurant meal in 2015.
According to the report, if a person were to eat the chain's Parrot Isle Jumbo Coconut shrimp,
a side of French fries, one Cheddar Bay Biscuit, a Caesar salad, Walt's Favorite shrimp,
and Linguine Alfredo, they would consume 2,710 calories, 37 grams of saturated fat, and
6,530 milligrams of sodium. As the report points out, that is
"...enough calories for more than one day,
enough saturated fat for nearly two days, and enough sodium for four days."
Seafood by itself is actually healthy,
unless it's prepared in an unhealthy way. So don't blame the shrimp, blame the chefs.
Red Lobster's Malibu Hurricanes are great, but unlike their endless shrimp, there is a limit
to how much you can have. But one octogenarian had too much alcohol at the restaurant and ended
up falling in the parking lot, breaking her hip and arm and injuring her head. Marlene Spencer,
who had to spend six days at the hospital to get a full hip replacement, sued the restaurant for
serving her too much alcohol, and sought damages for her medical expenses and mental anguish.
The lawsuit mentioned that the restaurant staff was asked by Spencer's daughter to
limit the alcohol they served her mom. But despite that request, Spencer had walked out
of the restaurant with a blood alcohol content of .31, which is about four times more than the
legal limit in Texas. The lawsuit added that the restaurant had also overserved alcohol to multiple
customers from the nearby senior living center who had dined at the restaurant in the past.
While Red Lobster did not comment on the lawsuit, they did confirm that they had a
strict policy about serving alcohol, and that the staff was trained to follow the policy.
Darden Restaurants was the parent company of Red Lobster till 2014. In 2012,
a lawsuit was filed in Miami Federal Court that the organization had been underpaying their
employees. According to the lawsuit, anyone who worked in Red Lobster, Olive Garden, and LongHorn
Steakhouse (all owned by Darden) between 2009 and 2012 should be compensated by the company.
Lead lawyer David Lichter said,
"It seeks potentially tens of millions of dollars in back pay and other compensation,
plus interest and attorneys' fees."
According to the lawsuit, servers were made to work even after clocking out,
and those who worked more than 40 hours per week were not paid overtime,
as they were entitled to. Some tipped employees were made to do non-tipped work — like vacuuming,
arranging silverware, etc. — for more than 20% of their work hours. This requires them to be paid
the federal minimum wage, which Red Lobster's parent company never did, claimed the lawsuit.
Though Darden refuted the claims, history lays bare more instances where the restaurant giant
has violated labor laws. A report from Al Jazeera uncovered numerous instances of
Darden underpaying workers. Lawsuits similar to the one filed in Florida were filed in
New York and Illinois as well. And in 2011, Darden had to pay a civil penalty of around
$27,000 in back pay to more than 100 employees in Texas.
The meat in Red Lobster's lobster bisque may not be all lobster,
revealed a 2016 report. The investigation carried out by Inside Edition broke every lobster lover's
heart when it revealed that many restaurants, including Red Lobster, actually substitute other
seafood in the place of lobster. Which seems a big deal for a chain called Red Lobster!
The Inside Edition team ordered lobster bisque from three different Red Lobster locations,
scooped out the meat, and sent it for DNA testing to a lab. The results showed that two locations
had used a mix of lobster and langostino in their soup, and the third had used 100% langostino.
"What is langostino? This is a langostino, and it looks nothing like a lobster!"
At $4 a pound, langostino is a cheap substitute for real Maine lobster,
which comes in at around $24 a pound.
With restaurants using cheap langostinos in their lobster dishes, Maine Fishermen lose
a lot of money - and customers unwittingly pay high prices for lower quality foods.
Which is the main problem: according to the FDA, if a restaurant uses langostino instead
of lobster, it should specifically mention that. But Red Lobster hadn't done so for their bisque.
And if Red Lobster's lobster is a lie, what in this world can we trust?
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