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."
Yeah i think I've went there once in my life. The nearest one from me was 1 hour away. Also, expensive dinners did not make sence if you're good at cooking at home.
I’ve only been once and it was years later than I was originally going to go. My mom had wanted to save up to take me when I was a teen but then our nearest location closed (Olive Garden came within a few years later, although that left three or four years ago, I think).
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.
Based on what I've read a few years ago, most Japanese don't understand Red Lobster until they actually try it, a big thing was butter. Japanese never use butter on their seafood, so the fact that it's practically a nessisary ingredient with most Red Lobster dishes, it blew some of their minds.
@@kg-Whatthehelliseventhat i was speaking on the early part of the movie where they talked about opening one in the 1970s. I've personally never seen one in Japan modern day.
@@FatherAxeKeeper oh gotcha, yea I don't think Japanese people would enjoy RL. Maybe if they had sushi... red sushi lobster... oh my. Plus they kinda avoid breads and pasta. Rl would have to completely change their whole menu. Bobs big boy here does not have hamburger buns... no big boy either. Wtf??? No buns...
@@kg-Whatthehelliseventhat lol yes the first culture shock i felt after moving to Japan was going to a Big Boy after a show and finding zero burgers haha. I highly recommend Village Vanguard for a great cheeseburger though! not the bookstore, but a pub of the same name. theres one in Shimokitazawa.
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.
Yup. PE generally cannot run companies. Their hearts aren’t in it. I have seen quite a few abysmal failures from PE-run companies, and personally experienced a vendor that was taken over by PE, which absolutely tanked their customer service/experience to an absolutely insane degree. It was like high schoolers were running it, at least from a customer’s standpoint. The height of incompetence and, to me, clearly they are just milking it as a cash cow. Awful.
singularity. if you own all the competition it makes no sense to keep them all competing and driving down your own bottom line. we are headed into a very dark future
@@DieselRamcharger Well, I'm an optimist. Trends don't continue on forever, especially when consumer and worker backlash is bubbling so strong. I don't think it'll be the case forever; eventually, some businesses will tout that they are succeeding. by, you know, doing GOOD business, and others will hopefully follow.
@@DieselRamcharger LOL ah yes, your view that "trends are unchanging and immutable, despite the obvious backlash the trend is attracting" view really stands up to the test of time. You have no way to predict the future any better than I do
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.
@@anthonysoto2788 how is that her fault? If she was devoted to her work and worked for that long, that would imply she did nothing to deserve being fired. It's literally greed at its finest.
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!
@@OfficialROZWBRAZELAnd this is why McDonald’s survives to this day. The career progression is seriously underrated. The top know what its like to be successful because they’ve actually been behind the counters and grills and know what is expected by the company and customer.
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!
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.
LOL! I passed by the Red Lobster close to my house. Went to check RUclips a few hours later and saw the Bright Sun Films episode. I was like oh no! It’s really real!
Also suspected that and who knows maybe could do a future video about the 99 Cents Only Store or the notorious Chi-Chis restaurant as another ideas though not right away really have to think on that anyway tell Jake about that or Google and YT it too.
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.🤬🤬🤬
They were only stable and profitable because they made serious wage cuts and scaled back the quality of the food. Darden did that in the hopes of selling the brand to someone else. It had been struggling for years.
Red Lobster went the way of U.S. Government. Complete and total gross misappropriation of $. Such as $ to support illegals, $ for the Ukraine War and Israeli WAR as well. Biden is foolishly spending Taxpayers $ and we are 35 Trillion indebt. No business sense at all.
weird that you say that because it was a foreign company that killed them - it did start with original owners, but the people they sold the company to who in turn sold the company and then cold it again is what killed it.
I love how offen private companies raise billions in funding funded by private equity with the dream of conquering all and when it comes time to cash out and go public the general market and public investors just look at it and say "you're losing money, you have no plan to make a profit" and the company turns and says "but look at the growth" and the public says "so you have a plan to get bigger and burn more money faster? Cool, hard pass." And that's why SPACs are popular I guess.
@@somethinglikethat2176 that's not what happens they sold off all of red lobsters property raising 1.6 billion for themselves they then piled on debt to red lobster which doesn't effect the private equity firm while taking money out to give to themselves. They make money either way, it just destroys thousands of people's lives and national institutions. But private equity doesn't care because they get money.
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.
I worked there from 2013 to 2016. We went through a similar experience. Everyone knew the restaurant was in trouble when they changed our uniforms. Those new aprons were garbage.
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.
@@DieselRamcharger Even though we should be reversing that. Maximum information, not dumbing anything down. We are gonna reach a point where the public NEEDS to know everything otherwise we fail as a civilization.
Anytime a private equity firm comes in, it’s only a matter of time before the doors close for good. Leasebacks are ALWAYS a sign the end is near because now every location is now that much less profitable because they now have to pay rent every month. I worked for a now defunct big box retailers who went through this. Our monthly rent in 2008 was 80 grand a month, or about a quarter of our monthly sales.
@@andyspinball What you said is 100% correct, but the weird thing is, why is Lambert just sitting on the land so many of these Sears were located on? The Sears at my mall closed several years ago. The mall is still a successful Simon-owned mall with 3 other current anchors. Local media has interviewed Simon reps from Indianapolis on several occasions. The mall reps say they'd love the opportunity to move forward with the abandoned Sears site, but the owners (Lambert's company) are apparently in no hurry to sell. So the Sears space just continues to sit empty. It's curious to me.
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.
grew up in coastal virginia. had to drive past a dozen fresh seafood places to go to red lobster, but as kids we loved the place in the 80's. The cheddar biscuits were a large part of that! It went steadily downhill through the 90s though. I think we took my son once in the mid 2000's and it was pretty terrible.
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.
It would probably be hard but smart to say No to an Amazon or Netflix deal. So many good series die before getting a second season meanwhile other shows like Big Mouth or that re-imagining of LOTR.....
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.
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.
What has killed Red Lobster has been the same process that has been killing similar restaurants and retail establishments for a few decades at this point. Red Lobster, just like Sears, is a company built to cater to the middle class. Its product and price point are intended for the middle class consumer. That pool of consumers has been disappearing as the American middle class has shrunk and largely disappeared. This decline has been a long time coming, and has many facets. Acquisition and destruction by Private Equity is a common theme in these cases, but it is not the root cause, more of a proximate process by which these things happen. Nor is the news of the endless shrimp promotion killing the chain remotely accurate, an $11 Million dollar loss cannot kill a chain of that size unless it was already on its deathbed. Often in cases like this people will point to a decline in quality of food or service the last time they were there and conclude that is the reason for the chain's decline. Some will even make the flippant comment that the chain "deserved" to fail. This however misses the fact that decline of quality and service is a symptom, not a root cause. As the chain begins to struggle economically it becomes less and less able to offer quality service and food. It does eventually produce a feedback cycle, but the notion that one day the chain stopped serving quality for no reason is fanciful. The root cause of the decline of Red Lobster is the decline of the middle class, which was in turn the result of the decline of manufacturing which came about from bad trade, tax, economic, fiscal, environmental, foreign, and industrial policies.
I heard someone close to me recently say that, when going out to eat after church or another occasion, if they get to Olive Garden or Cheddars or Texas Roadhouse or wherever, and the wait line is too long, Red Lobster is the backup plan because there's never a wait. So that's good....AND bad.
I've noticed a pattern with this smaller, affordable food locations. They start of with great quality and affordability, then expand beyond their capacity, quality goes down and become unaffordable. Resulting in bankruptcy I think if many restaurant chains like Red Lobster may have faired better had they remained fewer, with higher quality
That has what has happened to Carl Jr's in Australia. They had only just started to get into our fast food market, but a bit late. We are saturated in American fast food restaurants. Taco Bell arrived here 5 years ago, runs under the same company that took on Carl Jr's. But that company is making a lot of money anyway and never needed to add Carl Jr's. They own KFC and a few other brands that are successful and won't go out of business. Carl Jr's cannot compete in Australia. Not when it tastes exactly the same as Hungry Jack's ( Burger king for the rest of the world)
"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. "
They can go out of business but gets picked up by locals. Blockbusters is a prime example. Held by locals but the company itself is bankrupt and closed down.
@@Dwall44 Bet if Thai Union sticks around they'll close all the restaurants and just stick to selling what's left on grocery shelves. It's not a coincidence that they started selling frozen meals recently. They may not know how to run a restaurant but they may know a thing or two about distributing frozen goods.
I worked at a Red Lobster in 2011. It was an ok job over all. I worked in the kitchen and prepping shrimp for hours while standing on concrete was so much fun. I liked doing the expediting. I'm happy to see I left at a good time a couple years later. Good video
One time while driving from Denver to OK. My friend and I had stopped at a red lobster somewhere in the Texas panhandle. We got about an hour on the road and I had the most severe stomach ache with some pretty bad poops! There wasn’t a rest stop or store for miles and miles! I held on as long as I could and we finally came across a rest stop and I unleashed hell and shook the pillars of heaven! I never ate there again.
I remember going to Red Lobster was a special event as a kid, like for my birthday or if I made honor roll. This was in the early 90s. Good memories, loved the shrimp scampi. Great channel, my man. Informative and entertaining without adding a whole lot of editorial opinions. You def deserve the million plus subs youve got!
Exactly. They don't provide an upscale experience, why in the hell were they charging so much?! It's a platter of deep fried food! Why is it almost $40?!
@@richardcranium3579 Yeah, the inflation rate probably is 9% but these huge companies can just raise individual prices as much as they want so it feels way worse
we both have the same mindset when i see like corporate business going out of business i say "ohh jake is probably going to make video about this soon". or like make video about this.
I am not from the US. And we dont have Red Lobsters in Austria where I am from. But I do have family in the US, and I have dined at a RL back in the 90's and early 2k's. And it was very delicious. Fast forward to 2022, I am married, and went back to the US with my wife. Iv been telling her how good RL was, sure it was probably not a high quality level of food, but still good. We went into the restaurant, and I swear... ALL the food we had had the same texture as rubber. No flavor, and looked like you got it all from a TV dinner. It was such a shock. My wife looked at me confused, because why would she not be. We went to a Dennies the next day...my idea. Lets just say I dont make any more food decisions in our house...
To be fair, your impression was based on an experience you had nearly 30 years prior. The quality was much better then so you are not wrong. RL was good in 90’s. Your wife should forgive you on this one. The Denny’s decision though………. you are on your own for that one. That is unforgivable.😂
Worked there in 2010 to like 2013 and oh boy had the best time and made incredible friendships and connections, thanks to all my people there and thanks Red Lobster by Meadows in Vegas
I'm eating at a Red Lobster here in Georgia with my Dad, aunt, and her husband. My aunt was going to order the fish and chips, which on the menu states it comes with hush puppies, fries, and coleslaw. Per our waitress, the meal DOES NOT COME WITH FRIES even though it says it does on the menu. They were going to charge her EXTRA for the fries.
This is sad.☹️ Sad like the phone card I'm on. 😢 I bought a 40 dollar phone card, because I didn't have enough for the 55 dollar one. And man I am paying for it. ♂️ 👞 I love my phone company, but the 40 dollar card is just not worth it. 📱 After 15 GB, the service goes to 2G on the 40 dollar card. I've been having some really crappy luck here lately. For about the last 2 years, or so. First, my dad died. Then my grandfather died. I haven't won any money at the casino in a while.🩷
man, this hits a little hard tbh. when i was a kid, Redlobster was this family meet up restaurant. aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins would all meet up there every so often for a seafood meal and catch up. the one near where i grew up had a lobster tank in the waiting area (the residents of which usually found themselves on man a meal plate) and i loved to reach down and try to grab one when my grandparents weren't looking.
Worked at Redlobster for 13 years. Got into management after about 9 years. I will say they treated their managers fucking horribly. The VPs were constantly rotating in and out. We had 3 different directors durning my management string. Quit in 2016, and it was one of the best decisions I've ever made.
Man, the closures happened so fast recently, the 3 nearest me are gone. The fresh Lobster was always a highlight aside from grilled Shrimp and the Biscuits. RIP.
Can't believe how much this channel has grown since I started watching. Guess that's what happens when you put out quality content. Thank you for the entertainment you have provided.
I KNEW IT. As soon as i saw the headlines I knew there had to be way more to the story than just “oops we gave away too much shrimp”. You gotta have way more problems behind the scenes for a problem like that not to be easily coarse corrected.
It’s sad that it’s falling. This place was my childhood. The ones near me have all closed. We heard from people who worked there that they weren’t told that their location was closing. They came in for work to see the doors locked and a note saying they closed down. I hope they can make a comeback.
I live in Colorado and used to love Bonanza. Greatest salad bar ever! You didn’t even need the steaks lol. Edit to add : sadly there are no more Bonanzas.
True. There is a restaurant building in Brampton Ontario Canada that was the one and only site of 'Burger Chief' Now there was an American chain from the past. The building basically looks just like it did originally. Didnt last long as a burger joint though. Just a few stores down from Fuddruckers in Brampton. Things change and we all get old.
@@billwendell6886 When my parents split, my dad and I would go to Ponderosa once a week. I was a growing boy and my dad would buy me two rib eye steaks. Very fond memories of the place and time.
Red Lobster was high dining for us landlocked suburbanites of the 1970s. To a kid it was a fantasyland of exotic cuisine from storybook places. At the time seafood at home was tasteless planks of frozen white fish. I'd guess my last visit was around 1985, when the brand started to seem a bit old fashioned. My family also didn't really like the big restaurant chains anyway.
Honesty it feels odd to be an active participant in the bankruptcy of a company. I ate 4ish lbs of shrimp last year during their endless shrimp promotion. I went in coming for a deal and walked out putting them in the red like a bunch of other people did too.
What has killed Red Lobster has been the same process that has been killing similar restaurants and retail establishments for a few decades at this point. Red Lobster, just like Sears, is a company built to cater to the middle class. Its product and price point are intended for the middle class consumer. That pool of consumers has been disappearing as the American middle class has shrunk and largely disappeared. This decline has been a long time coming, and has many facets. Acquisition and destruction by Private Equity is a common theme in these cases, but it is not the root cause, more of a proximate process by which these things happen. Nor is the news of the endless shrimp promotion killing the chain remotely accurate, an $11 Million dollar loss cannot kill a chain of that size unless it was already on its deathbed. Often in cases like this people will point to a decline in quality of food or service the last time they were there and conclude that is the reason for the chain's decline. Some will even make the flippant comment that the chain "deserved" to fail. This however misses the fact that decline of quality and service is a symptom, not a root cause. As the chain begins to struggle economically it becomes less and less able to offer quality service and food. It does eventually produce a feedback cycle, but the notion that one day the chain stopped serving quality for no reason is fanciful. The root cause of the decline of Red Lobster is the decline of the middle class, which was in turn the result of the decline of manufacturing which came about from bad trade, tax, economic, fiscal, environmental, foreign, and industrial policies.
Please do a video on Friendlys. It was one of the most well known chains in all of New England and the East Coast. I grew up in a small town that had 2 of them. They were shockingly popular. But by my late teens/early 20s (2014-16ish) they suddenly started losing popularity and then almost all of them closed across the east coast. I’d love to hear your take on their business.
I used to work at a Friendly's in Ohio when I was younger. It wasn't very good and neither was I; merely the fact that they were letting me wait tables (!) was a bad sign of things to come. The ice cream was the only really special thing on the menu, the rest of the food was meh. And if you were one of my mean customers, I sincerely apologize and promise you I got out of the waiting business quickly after that.
I remember Friendly's. There are still a few that survive. I'm from Maryland and there's at least one in Glen Burnie. It's super tiny though. The food was pretty good and the ice cream sundaes were delicious. It was a great place to go with family.
My sister asked me why Red Lobster went bankrupt. I answered her by saying, "If there are 3 restaurants you can't live without, Red Lobster is on no one's list." I think that's what best describes the company.
@@cgschow1971 well yes, in the end it was a majority shareholder abusing their power to force RL take a big loss to direct money from RL into the majority shareholder's other businesses (lawsuits have already been filed). However previous owners made the mistake of waving the red flag of "all you can eat" at a customer base who view such offers as a personal challenge.
At this point if a Private Equity firm buys something you can be certain that in just a few years it will be gone. Buy, load the firm with the purchase debt, sell the good stuff - like the land under the building, and collect rents as long as possible while servicing the debt you put them under. And when the banks won't lend you any more money you burn it for the insurance...no that was Goodfellas...bankrupt and walk away. Lather rinse repeat.
I worked at Red Lobster from 2019-2021. I was BOH and dishwasher. When the pandemic hit, we had one dishwasher during the day (me) and it was hellish. Our line cooks were great, but they ended up quitting to work at the steakhouse across the street when we all came back to work. My manager, the building owner, had to run the line or do dishes sometimes to keep the place afloat. We did our best. After I quit, I went back to that same location in 2022 for my birthday and I got the worst food poisoning I've ever had. Thanks for the memories, Red Lobster.
One of the things missing from this analysis is that the consolidation of seafood suppliers hurt Red Lobster, and is probably the reason why Darden moved away from the brand. Before, there were hundreds of suppliers and they could negotiate good deals on seafood to make it affordable. With the consolidation (which Thai Union was one of), it was harder to get deals that would fit their business model. To be honest, it was going to be hard sailing for them, even before private equity raided their assets.
You're not correct about that. With a name like Red Lobster, any sea food company would want them as a customer - a life long customer at that and they would bend over backwards to get them the seafood at the price they needed it. I know this because I work in food on that level. Their biggest problem was using an international supplier period. Had they used local fisheries in US and surrounding waters product, they would have kept their costs down since international shipping costs have quadrupled in the last 5 years. AND shipping delays cause issues too. Price per lb. will just keep skyrocketing - mostly because of the logistics.
@@ChromaKeyMystress Yet, as with farming, “local” fishing has consolidated and become more corporately operated over time. There are fewer and fewer “little guys” anymore which limits options for food chains. Factor in natural disasters (Hurricanes, etc), oil spills (Deepwater Horizon), and government regulations, and it’s no wonder food chains will partner with foreign suppliers who can guarantee a constant supply of product. Yes, it can be shortsighted. And no one can predict financial crises like 2008 or the Covid Pandemic. So many factors that can contribute to temporary success or long term failure. 🤷🏻♂️
@@fallout560 As popular as they are, likely it'll be like Chi Chi's salsa... somebody will buy the recipe and IP and keep selling it as a retail product if it gets liquidated more than likely. (Man do I miss Chi Chi's from my childhood!)
You're a talented documentary filmmaker! Seriously I run a multi million dollar company and it's shocking how these big investment firms don't understand what makes success. People and product... they seem to take away from both categories right away
Now, it’s not unheard of that a private equity firm can acquire a business and successfully continue to run it; and oh boy Thai Union successfully ran it.. into the ground. Thanks again for making these videos, Jake! A lot of these bankruptcies and executive failures would be forgotten to history, but you continue to bring it to the limelight, which many like me greatly appreciate
@@Andum48 After a bit of research, I stumbled upon Blackstone Inc., a massive private equity firm. They run many companies, mainly Hilton Worldwide Services, which is also a massive hospitality company in it of themselves: Blackstone has held an ownership stake in the company since 2007.
Red Lobster by us was shuttered 2 weeks ago. The last time we went was years ago and the meal wasn't great, too much salt in the food. Thanks Jake for the timely video🦞
As a former red lobster employee I enjoyed my time there. When Darden sold it to golden gate and thai union I left about a year later. I am very sad to see it close down.
Thank you for your service. Red lobster has been a fave of mine since pretty much birth. I haven’t been in like three years…but I still love it and at one time…talking for 20 years…I was going at least 15 times a year….and probably more like once every two weeks. So yeah…truly heartbreaking.
The Canadian Red Lobster restaurants were one of the very few that offered "employee benefits" like eyeglasses and some other stuff. It was always a desirable job for cooks and they had relatively low turnover in the kitchen compared to most "corporate kitchens."
They both kind of suffered from the same fate. Ruby Tuesday had a theme, stuff all over the walls and at least in the Knoxville area they would have memorabilia specific to the local high schools or locally known people. Red Lobster pretty much always looked like someone's idea of what a lobster house in New England looks like. They both eventually changed to completely sanitized dining areas, nothing to differentiate themselves from anyone else. They took away things that people liked and replaced them with things people were indifferent to. They badly misunderstood why their customers came to their restaurants, and tried to be something that no one really wanted.
The reason Ruby Tuesday was the original founder of the company was always involved. (After he retired and left, the company tanked and became any other family style restaurant.
I'm not disappointed to see that they are struggling. I've been to several of their locations that were ran down and needed closed. Only reason they were ran down is the mismanagement from the so called location managers. It's probably better that they just save everyone the time and just close for good.
Thanks for making the video. It was nostalgic and sad. Almost my entire family worked at Red Lobster since the early 90s. I remember in the late 2000s people would wait 2 hours to eat there even on non-weekend nights. My location had many many many people cross 10, 20, and even 30 year anniversaries. Red Lobster used to give everyone (even part-time people) vacation pay up until 15 years ago or so. For servers they would normalize your tips and give you that pay. It's crazy to think now. I caught up with some friends who were working there the last year or so. Many of the people who made our location great left because they couldn't do it anymore or were let go for arbitrary reasons. Things got bad. Servers are expected to have up to 10 tables. For context, when I worked there each server would have standardly have 3 tables, and sometimes 4 if things were really busy and we didn't have enough servers on that night. I hope they can survive and come back to being a great restaurant.
Way back in the late 90s Red Lobster became a yearly tradition. Usually around the NFL playoffs and even if our team didn't win it was off to Red Lobster . It's sad to see a company so well know looking at an unknown future.
Every time again, I'm impressed by the research and preparation you put in your films, Jake. How many are you to make these documentaries? Keep up the good work!
I remember being a kid and thinking that Red Lobster was fancy fancy. The kind of place you only went for a birthday or holiday where a parent was sick and didn't want to cook a full meal. Those Cheddar Bay Biscuits will always hold a place in my heart, but I'll be damned if I say that it's "good food."
The decline of red lobster makes me really sad. I have very fond memories of going as a young kid. Private equity are parasites that will destroy our economy.
I live in a coastal area with lots of good local seafood restaurants. It has been many years since I have been in a Red Lobster, and I don't remember being particularly impressed. With so many good local restaurants, it is hard to see how Red Lobster can compete. There are still a few scattered around. Out of curiosity, I looked it up and found that the one closest to me has closed, and the one I remember visiting years ago is long gone. I will be surprised if the few remaining locations in my area last much longer. This is a restaurant chain that has run its course. If I were an employee at one of the locations that is still open, I would be looking for another job and would get out of there as soon as possible.
Red Lobster was always more about giving a coastal-ish experience to people that lived nowhere near the ocean. If you live by the ocean, yeah, you have entirely different expectations. It would be like getting your typical supermarket tomatoes after living in the Italian countryside.
@@maxpowr90Red Lobster already closed 96-98% of their New England restaurants, like back in the late 90s/early 2000s. I'm not surprised they didn't do well sales wise, in that region....
Oh man. This one hits a little close to home. I grew up going to the one in college park, ga. I was a hospitality management major and my internship was with Darden restaurants at the camp creek marketplace red lobster. I learned so much about running a busy location. It was efficient, clean, and everyone was hardworking. It felt like they cared about quality. It wasn’t until years later that I saw the news about Darden restaurants selling the brand. I was really shocked at that. I’m glad Darden restaurants is doing well but sad Red Lobster is basically over.
I'm 30 years old and have never once been inside a Red Lobster, so it's news to me that this company was as beloved and as popular as it was leading up to this sad time in its history. There is one within walking distance of my apartment, but I don't know how much longer it will be there. I'll have to pop in to see what it looks like before it goes.
Loved the video - quick note on the sale lease back: This was a tax dodge more then anything else. They created a vehicle called a REIT and put the real estate in there and sold that - while maintaining a some large stake if i recall. The reason this unlocks value is that REITs are not taxed on a corporate level - they are flow through entities. So, you move the profits from red lobster to this reit through the lease payments. This makes red lobster look less profitable -> less taxes. In turn the REIT is more profitable but would you look at that they don't have to pay taxes -> less overall taxes.
If you're ever up to it, a bankruptcy video on General Motors would be welcomed! My great-grandfather, grandfather and dad all worked for GM, and when I was born in 1960 I was given shares of GM stock, which of course became worthless when GM went bankrupt.
Uhhh... GM stock is worth 45 bucks a share. It's far from "worthless." It's all-time high was ~$63 in 2020 before Trump let the bottom fall out of the economy. But, it's still far in excess of its all-time average price.
@@tim3172lolol - I hope you're kidding and realize that GM went bankrupt in 09 and all their stock became worthless. . The current stock has nothing to do with all that was held in 08'
@@tim3172it's not the same GM, so his shares were worthless. When General Motors (GM) went bankrupt in 2009, the restructuring process resulted in the creation of a new entity, often referred to as "New GM." Here's a summary of what happened: 1. **Bankruptcy and Restructuring**: GM filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on June 1, 2009. During the restructuring, the company's viable assets were transferred to a new entity, also called General Motors Company, while the old entity (referred to as "Old GM") retained the non-viable assets and liabilities. 2. **Shareholders**: Shareholders of the pre-bankruptcy GM (Old GM) did not retain their shares in the new GM. The stock of Old GM (GM) became essentially worthless. The new GM issued new stock, which started trading publicly in November 2010, after the company emerged from bankruptcy. 3. **Government Ownership**: As part of the bailout and restructuring process, the U.S. Treasury and other governments received significant ownership stakes in the new GM in exchange for the financial support provided during the bankruptcy. 4. **New GM IPO**: The new GM held an initial public offering (IPO) on November 17, 2010, allowing it to return to the stock market. The ticker symbol for the new GM stock is GM. In summary, shareholders of the old GM lost their investments, and new stock was issued for the restructured company, which began trading in 2010.
When I was a kid in the 70's, Red Lobster was a once or twice a year special treat... There was only one location in Houston, the West Side just off Loop 610 just south of the 290 interchange, not far from a big stadium out there (used to be out there not sure if it still is). Back then it was MUCH nicer than the average restaurant... remember the sailor costumes that the waitresses wore back then, fancy decor, etc. Mom usually got a daquiri with her meal and Dad a cocktail, which was very rare for them, and my grandmother usually got crab, which back then was already pulled out of the shell and served in an oval dish with drawn butter on the side. It was REALLY good back then, tasted awesome. In the 90's and 2000's it had become a "restaurant on every corner" sort of place, very common, but the prices had gone up and the quality/taste had gone down. We still ate there fairly often because my folks liked seafood and being older, they would usually pay particularly on special occasions. In the 2010's the quality DEFINITELY went down and the prices kept going up. It was easy to tell most of the stuff was frozen and reheated stuff, not that good, and basically 2-3X the cost of say Captain D's or Long John Silver's which tasted about the same or even slightly better depending on locations. The service became pretty abysmal... it was clear they were cost cutting and the locations we had really showed it, understaffed and lousy service and bad attitude. Then they started changing their menus considerably every time we went in there... We'd always tended to get the same menu items every time, our 'old reliable" but every time we went the menu would be different, they were taking bad advice that the reason they couldn't compete was because sit down restaurants were hurting and their menu needed updating and all this sort of nonsense... "people want Panera type joints or Chipotle or whatever' Seems kinda stupid to me because IF I wanted to eat at a joint like that, I'd eat at the ones that are already out there. Trying to turn Red Lobster into them was just a fools' errand IMHO. Seafood USED to be cheap and back in the 70's was abundant and not that many places serving it. That's changed a lot in 50 years... now seafood is EXPENSIVE and a LOT of places are serving it. We basically quit going to Red Lobster because they were charging PREMIUM prices for low-grade prefab seafood that wasn't markedly better than you could get at a chain like Captain D's or LJS for about half to third the price, and RL wasn't that nice or special anymore, so why bother. They had outgrown themselves. Tried to cut costs by shafting the waitstaff and hiring food warmers instead of chefs and going to mostly frozen/prefab stuff of much lower quality. Last time we went to a Red Lobster was over a year ago when my nephew was about to graduate college and we went to visit him It was terrible, food was crummy, crab legs weren't even on the menu anymore, nor most of the traditional menu items we used to get, and the prices were atrocious... IIRC dinner for the four of us, me, my wife, teenage daughter, and nephew, was over $150 bucks and we didn't have anything special. I swore off RL after that. SO not surprised to see that they're going toe up. When these "venture capitalists" get involved you can bet your shirt that it's the kiss of death for any business... they sell off what they can milk the rest for every penny they can get, run it in the ground, and then sell out the husk. There's a lot of local seafood restaurants that are going the same way-- want to charge high prices but serve low quality seafood... and people aren't going to pay top dollar for substandard crap.
Another quality vid Jake! Can ya look into doing an abandoned video on St Luke Hospital in Pasadena CA? I have some footage you’re welcome to use and some direct info on it!
Seems like once a 'Private Equity Firm' steps in, you can pretty much kiss the company goodbye. They are going to saddle it with debt and a destroyed reputation, while stripping it of any capital. How is this even legal?
I'm in my early twenties. My town's Red Lobster has been there for as long as I can remember. It was located in a place near a large road, prime restaurant location, etc etc. And every time we passed by, it was always bustling. Due to its pricing, my family went rarely, but it indeed felt like a special occasion, and it was always crowded with long-ish wait times. So imagine my surprise upon returning home from university and seeing the Red Lobster, still looking shiny and sharp from the new black roof rebranding, surrounded by yellow caution tape and utterly vacant. I don't know what will happen to that restaurant's dead husk... I wonder if it will be left abandoned and to rot. What a shame for such an old, popular place.
My local (30 minutes away) location has gradually been going down hill. From the food being off to the removal of the iconic lobster tank. There's better seafood locations, but the nostalgia of going for birthdays still makes this hurt
Thank you for actually reporting on what happened with the company. I was very confused by the news of it. The red lobsters near me are doing ok. Clearly quality has dwindled but I just put that to everything now a days. Lowering quality and increasing prices.
I grew up in Lakeland Florida in the 70s. That Lake Parker Red Lobster served me some of the tastiest meals in my life to this day. It was the most delicious seafood anywhere as far as my family thought. I got to eat there in the heyday and I've also seen the decline. Coincidentally, we lived in Myrtle Beach for a few years in the 2010s. The Myrtle Beach location was so bad that we tried it once and vowed not to return to that location. We can all hope that Red Lobster can claw (pun) it's way back. Great video as always.
Al Bundy alert a @4:00! We were just talking about how many restaurant chains have gone under and Red Lobster came up. This is what happens when a company gets into the restaurant business and knows nothing about running one. Never a good sign.
Nope. They were just the 'sucker' that bought it, after private equity gutted it, and the original owner got out because there simply isn't enough middle class families left with money to spend on seafood. Red Lobster cannot operate without a middle class.
Any recommendations? Cause I was excited for that very thing when I visited and I had a lot of okay food and some of the worst food poisoning I’ve ever had haha
Why go to Red Lobster in New England when you can go to any seafood resturant where they can get fresh caught fish? Growing up we would go spend our summers camping on the RI shore. My Dad would go get Lobsters fresh off the boat and every fish market had clams just dug up that morning. Compare that to over priced rubber lobster from Red Lobster.
I loved Red Lobster's endless shrimp. I would go during those promotions & feast on their shrimp Alfredo, as it was my favorite & scrumptious. However, I started to see a decline in quality around 2018 or so. The Alfredo sauce had changed; it wasn't as good, & I suspect that some of the ingredients had been switched for less expensive ones. I also liked their 4 course lunch special which disappeared during the "pandemic" when they scaled their menu back. It's a shame that they've closed; I miss those special afternoon feasts of shrimp Alfredo.
Hello! I have a topic for the next video: 99 cents store. I believe they are starting to close stores and thing it should be a pretty interesting video idea. When I was young, I went to my nearby 99 cent store. But it recently closed and I didn’t know. Seeing the store brings back many memories shopping there.
![BLACK BAG - Official Trailer [HD] - Only in Theaters March 14](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Du0Xp8WX_7I/mqdefault.jpg)
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."
But what of the owner? Did he lose all that he'd put into the franchise?
@@oregonsenior4204 They rent they do not own. All that stuff still belongs to red lobster / their liquidators.
This story sounds like a convincing plot of a drama movie.
Lmao you go boy, tell your dad I am proud of him
Hope he didn't forget the cheddar biscuit mix. Those are so yummy!
Being lower middle class, I remember that Red Lobster was the fancy place you’d go to for your birthday dinner.
Yeah i think I've went there once in my life. The nearest one from me was 1 hour away. Also, expensive dinners did not make sence if you're good at cooking at home.
You explained it perfectly. It was always seen as the fancy place as lower middle class. I think I have been there maybe 1 time in 30 years.
Same
I agree with you. Ive only gone there twice in my life because it’s so expensive.
I’ve only been once and it was years later than I was originally going to go. My mom had wanted to save up to take me when I was a teen but then our nearest location closed (Olive Garden came within a few years later, although that left three or four years ago, I think).
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.
Based on what I've read a few years ago, most Japanese don't understand Red Lobster until they actually try it, a big thing was butter. Japanese never use butter on their seafood, so the fact that it's practically a nessisary ingredient with most Red Lobster dishes, it blew some of their minds.
Hi,
I live in Japan. Where are they opening a RL at?
@@kg-Whatthehelliseventhat i was speaking on the early part of the movie where they talked about opening one in the 1970s. I've personally never seen one in Japan modern day.
@@FatherAxeKeeper oh gotcha, yea I don't think Japanese people would enjoy RL. Maybe if they had sushi... red sushi lobster... oh my.
Plus they kinda avoid breads and pasta. Rl would have to completely change their whole menu.
Bobs big boy here does not have hamburger buns... no big boy either. Wtf??? No buns...
@@kg-Whatthehelliseventhat lol yes the first culture shock i felt after moving to Japan was going to a Big Boy after a show and finding zero burgers haha. I highly recommend Village Vanguard for a great cheeseburger though! not the bookstore, but a pub of the same name. theres one in Shimokitazawa.
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.
Yup. PE generally cannot run companies. Their hearts aren’t in it. I have seen quite a few abysmal failures from PE-run companies, and personally experienced a vendor that was taken over by PE, which absolutely tanked their customer service/experience to an absolutely insane degree. It was like high schoolers were running it, at least from a customer’s standpoint. The height of incompetence and, to me, clearly they are just milking it as a cash cow. Awful.
Sad part is that a fair bit of the companies on bankrupt were handled well at first
And everything we enjoy gets worse all the time
RIP Toys R Us
@@chaostheory16Unless it's Petco yeah your very Right.
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.
fuck private equity
Locust investors. Buy, plunder, throw away.
Its not like they were forced to sell.
high crime states turning Democrat most everything in blue run states fail. Sad reality mane coon but facts.
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.
It really sucks being an employee at one of them and being powerless at seeing execs actively sabotaging and looting the company.
singularity. if you own all the competition it makes no sense to keep them all competing and driving down your own bottom line. we are headed into a very dark future
@@DieselRamcharger Well, I'm an optimist. Trends don't continue on forever, especially when consumer and worker backlash is bubbling so strong. I don't think it'll be the case forever; eventually, some businesses will tout that they are succeeding. by, you know, doing GOOD business, and others will hopefully follow.
@@dunnowy123 You are free to believe whatever you want. Youre wrong. But thats fine.
@@DieselRamcharger LOL ah yes, your view that "trends are unchanging and immutable, despite the obvious backlash the trend is attracting" view really stands up to the test of time. You have no way to predict the future any better than I do
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.
I hope she sued them
Her fault
rough
@@anthonysoto2788 how is that her fault? If she was devoted to her work and worked for that long, that would imply she did nothing to deserve being fired. It's literally greed at its finest.
@@anthonysoto2788 How?
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!
How many companies/chains have to be sacrificed before this lesson is learned? 😞
@@OfficialROZWBRAZELAnd this is why McDonald’s survives to this day. The career progression is seriously underrated. The top know what its like to be successful because they’ve actually been behind the counters and grills and know what is expected by the company and customer.
@DavidLimofLimReport who really does that?
and yet they are worshiped as gods by a certain demographic.
@@zix1257 Like Jack Welch of GE fame? I've heard the execs who took over Boeing after the merger were big Welch fans.
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!
I got to hold a lobster there too! It’s pretty cool we got to have the same experience
You didn’t notice the change in quality of the food when you last went??? Food is not good anymore and extremely overpriced 💯
@@Kayla-hs9rt no
Lobsters everywhere are breathing a sigh of relief.
Lobsters don't sigh
@@Nookdashiddole not until now
Maybe lobster will be cheap again
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.
LOL! I passed by the Red Lobster close to my house. Went to check RUclips a few hours later and saw the Bright Sun Films episode. I was like oh no! It’s really real!
Lol.
Was that Ed O’Neil (Al Bundy) in one of the ads?
I thought the same @@scipioafricanus4328
Also suspected that and who knows maybe could do a future video about the 99 Cents Only Store or the notorious Chi-Chis restaurant as another ideas though not right away really have to think on that anyway tell Jake about that or Google and YT it too.
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.🤬🤬🤬
They were only stable and profitable because they made serious wage cuts and scaled back the quality of the food. Darden did that in the hopes of selling the brand to someone else. It had been struggling for years.
Private equity
Red Lobster went the way of U.S. Government. Complete and total gross misappropriation of $. Such as $ to support illegals, $ for the Ukraine War and Israeli WAR as well. Biden is foolishly spending Taxpayers $ and we are 35 Trillion indebt. No business sense at all.
sadly, a profit or breaking even isn't good enough anymore. it has to be a 25% profit over last quarter or it's a loss
weird that you say that because it was a foreign company that killed them - it did start with original owners, but the people they sold the company to who in turn sold the company and then cold it again is what killed it.
I could hear the laughter underneath the words "private equity firm".
I love how offen private companies raise billions in funding funded by private equity with the dream of conquering all and when it comes time to cash out and go public the general market and public investors just look at it and say "you're losing money, you have no plan to make a profit" and the company turns and says "but look at the growth" and the public says "so you have a plan to get bigger and burn more money faster? Cool, hard pass."
And that's why SPACs are popular I guess.
@@somethinglikethat2176 that's not what happens they sold off all of red lobsters property raising 1.6 billion for themselves they then piled on debt to red lobster which doesn't effect the private equity firm while taking money out to give to themselves. They make money either way, it just destroys thousands of people's lives and national institutions. But private equity doesn't care because they get money.
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.
I worked there from 2013 to 2016. We went through a similar experience. Everyone knew the restaurant was in trouble when they changed our uniforms. Those new aprons were garbage.
Ed O’Neill just casually showing up in a retro Red Lobster ad just made my week.
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.
yeah he does a great job peeling back the layers. It was just like with Bed Bath, higher ups making just atrocious choices that compounded overtime.
I swear, watching the MSM about literally anything makes you dumber...
@@JasonAdank that is their point and purpose.
@@DieselRamcharger Even though we should be reversing that. Maximum information, not dumbing anything down. We are gonna reach a point where the public NEEDS to know everything otherwise we fail as a civilization.
Anytime a private equity firm comes in, it’s only a matter of time before the doors close for good. Leasebacks are ALWAYS a sign the end is near because now every location is now that much less profitable because they now have to pay rent every month. I worked for a now defunct big box retailers who went through this. Our monthly rent in 2008 was 80 grand a month, or about a quarter of our monthly sales.
Look what they did to Sears. Completely demolished the business and never had any intention of making it work in the retail space.
@@ronniepratt8710 I worked there, too. Guess what happened to the store I worked in? Yep. Closed.
See Also: SEARS, KMART and Eddie Lambert. It's about the land not the business to them.
@@andyspinball What you said is 100% correct, but the weird thing is, why is Lambert just sitting on the land so many of these Sears were located on? The Sears at my mall closed several years ago. The mall is still a successful Simon-owned mall with 3 other current anchors. Local media has interviewed Simon reps from Indianapolis on several occasions. The mall reps say they'd love the opportunity to move forward with the abandoned Sears site, but the owners (Lambert's company) are apparently in no hurry to sell. So the Sears space just continues to sit empty. It's curious to me.
@@victorlovisa9966 Probably rent-seeking on Lambert's part. Why sell it when you can just earn money passively by sitting on valuable real estate?
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.
Nice 😊
Schoene Erinnerung an Opa❣
I love these old commercials. Not a single black face.
grew up in coastal virginia. had to drive past a dozen fresh seafood places to go to red lobster, but as kids we loved the place in the 80's. The cheddar biscuits were a large part of that! It went steadily downhill through the 90s though. I think we took my son once in the mid 2000's and it was pretty terrible.
Bruh that makes me cry 😭
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.
It would probably be hard but smart to say No to an Amazon or Netflix deal. So many good series die before getting a second season meanwhile other shows like Big Mouth or that re-imagining of LOTR.....
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.
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.
Pincers. Hah.
We stopped going a couple years ago after successively worse and worse experiences with the food itself.
the quality was pretty sad in 80/90's... when I stopped going there
Instead of “not infrequently”, how about you just say “frequently”
What has killed Red Lobster has been the same process that has been killing similar restaurants and retail establishments for a few decades at this point. Red Lobster, just like Sears, is a company built to cater to the middle class. Its product and price point are intended for the middle class consumer. That pool of consumers has been disappearing as the American middle class has shrunk and largely disappeared.
This decline has been a long time coming, and has many facets. Acquisition and destruction by Private Equity is a common theme in these cases, but it is not the root cause, more of a proximate process by which these things happen. Nor is the news of the endless shrimp promotion killing the chain remotely accurate, an $11 Million dollar loss cannot kill a chain of that size unless it was already on its deathbed.
Often in cases like this people will point to a decline in quality of food or service the last time they were there and conclude that is the reason for the chain's decline. Some will even make the flippant comment that the chain "deserved" to fail. This however misses the fact that decline of quality and service is a symptom, not a root cause. As the chain begins to struggle economically it becomes less and less able to offer quality service and food. It does eventually produce a feedback cycle, but the notion that one day the chain stopped serving quality for no reason is fanciful.
The root cause of the decline of Red Lobster is the decline of the middle class, which was in turn the result of the decline of manufacturing which came about from bad trade, tax, economic, fiscal, environmental, foreign, and industrial policies.
I've also noticed red lobster declined heavily in quality. The last few times I went too, the restaurant was almost completely empty.
100% Couldn't agree more.
I heard someone close to me recently say that, when going out to eat after church or another occasion, if they get to Olive Garden or Cheddars or Texas Roadhouse or wherever, and the wait line is too long, Red Lobster is the backup plan because there's never a wait. So that's good....AND bad.
if the restaurant is almost empty when you go to eat - it's not a good thing because you are eating old food.
@@ChromaKeyMystress Yep. & it usually means the cook sucks. Which is why no one is there in the first place, bad prices &/or bad food. Lol.
It didnt decline, it failed to innovate & everybody else caught up
I've noticed a pattern with this smaller, affordable food locations. They start of with great quality and affordability, then expand beyond their capacity, quality goes down and become unaffordable. Resulting in bankruptcy
I think if many restaurant chains like Red Lobster may have faired better had they remained fewer, with higher quality
I mean thats pretty much the life cycle of most restaurants
That's pretty much in-n-out's strategy
That has what has happened to Carl Jr's in Australia. They had only just started to get into our fast food market, but a bit late. We are saturated in American fast food restaurants. Taco Bell arrived here 5 years ago, runs under the same company that took on Carl Jr's. But that company is making a lot of money anyway and never needed to add Carl Jr's. They own KFC and a few other brands that are successful and won't go out of business.
Carl Jr's cannot compete in Australia. Not when it tastes exactly the same as Hungry Jack's ( Burger king for the rest of the world)
"Sir please it's been 3 days I want to go home..."
"YOU SAID *ENDLESS* SHRIMP!!!!!!"
To be honest, the Intro is sick! It's almost like it's from a TV documentary show.
Thanks so much!
"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. "
So they’re not closing every single location? Please say yes, because I can’t process cheddar bay biscuits being a thing of the past lol.
@@Dwall44they sell them in the supermarket or make them yourselves you lazy dweller 😂
They can go out of business but gets picked up by locals. Blockbusters is a prime example.
Held by locals but the company itself is bankrupt and closed down.
@@Dwall44You can find plenty of recipes for them online. Worry not.
@@Dwall44 Bet if Thai Union sticks around they'll close all the restaurants and just stick to selling what's left on grocery shelves. It's not a coincidence that they started selling frozen meals recently. They may not know how to run a restaurant but they may know a thing or two about distributing frozen goods.
I worked at a Red Lobster in 2011. It was an ok job over all. I worked in the kitchen and prepping shrimp for hours while standing on concrete was so much fun. I liked doing the expediting. I'm happy to see I left at a good time a couple years later. Good video
I also worked there in the 90’s. It was one of my first jobs and I enjoyed the same positions.
It was very rewarding working there in its hay day
One time while driving from Denver to OK. My friend and I had stopped at a red lobster somewhere in the Texas panhandle. We got about an hour on the road and I had the most severe stomach ache with some pretty bad poops! There wasn’t a rest stop or store for miles and miles! I held on as long as I could and we finally came across a rest stop and I unleashed hell and shook the pillars of heaven! I never ate there again.
I remember going to Red Lobster was a special event as a kid, like for my birthday or if I made honor roll. This was in the early 90s. Good memories, loved the shrimp scampi.
Great channel, my man. Informative and entertaining without adding a whole lot of editorial opinions. You def deserve the million plus subs youve got!
Last time I was there I was stunned by the pricing like everything was at least 125% more expensive than even 2022
Exactly. They don't provide an upscale experience, why in the hell were they charging so much?! It's a platter of deep fried food! Why is it almost $40?!
Have you shopped anywhere else lately?
The government says it’s only “9%” inflation rate…….🤦♂️
Elections have consequences. Economics matter.
@@1johncabs Barely, our government suckles at the teets of mega corporations and the ultra wealthy hardly matters what senile 80 yr old is in office
@@richardcranium3579 Yeah, the inflation rate probably is 9% but these huge companies can just raise individual prices as much as they want so it feels way worse
A few weeks ago when I heard Red Lobster went bankrupt, the only thing that came to mind was Jake making a video on it as soon as possible
we both have the same mindset when i see like corporate business going out of business i say "ohh jake is probably going to make video about this soon". or like make video about this.
I thought the same thing! And I'm glad he did!! ❤
Same
I am not from the US. And we dont have Red Lobsters in Austria where I am from. But I do have family in the US, and I have dined at a RL back in the 90's and early 2k's. And it was very delicious.
Fast forward to 2022, I am married, and went back to the US with my wife. Iv been telling her how good RL was, sure it was probably not a high quality level of food, but still good.
We went into the restaurant, and I swear... ALL the food we had had the same texture as rubber. No flavor, and looked like you got it all from a TV dinner. It was such a shock. My wife looked at me confused, because why would she not be.
We went to a Dennies the next day...my idea. Lets just say I dont make any more food decisions in our house...
To be fair, your impression was based on an experience you had nearly 30 years prior. The quality was much better then so you are not wrong. RL was good in 90’s. Your wife should forgive you on this one.
The Denny’s decision though………. you are on your own for that one. That is unforgivable.😂
*Denny's
❤
Hasn't been good since the 1980s.
lol. your wife was like wtf is wrong with you, this is sht! Im sorry honey, it was actually good once many decades ago....
@@JasonAdank That about covers it hah xD
I have no Red Lobsters in my state, we have enough local seafood joints that we don’t need RL.
Worked there in 2010 to like 2013 and oh boy had the best time and made incredible friendships and connections, thanks to all my people there and thanks Red Lobster by Meadows in Vegas
I'm eating at a Red Lobster here in Georgia with my Dad, aunt, and her husband. My aunt was going to order the fish and chips, which on the menu states it comes with hush puppies, fries, and coleslaw. Per our waitress, the meal DOES NOT COME WITH FRIES even though it says it does on the menu. They were going to charge her EXTRA for the fries.
Oh my gosh. I hope the waitress gave her the fries.
A young Al Bundy makes an appearance @4:00 :D
I was just coming to call that out lol. Great catch!
Ed O'Neill…
I noticed that too and then noticed your comment
Good call...I wonder was that before married with children?
Just coming fresh off his four touchdown performance at Polk High.
I really thought you were going to say "Drowning in an ocean...of endless shrimp", you had me there for a second.
This is sad.☹️ Sad like the phone card I'm on. 😢 I bought a 40 dollar phone card, because I didn't have enough for the 55 dollar one. And man I am paying for it. ♂️ 👞 I love my phone company, but the 40 dollar card is just not worth it. 📱 After 15 GB, the service goes to 2G on the 40 dollar card. I've been having some really crappy luck here lately. For about the last 2 years, or so. First, my dad died. Then my grandfather died. I haven't won any money at the casino in a while.🩷
man, this hits a little hard tbh. when i was a kid, Redlobster was this family meet up restaurant. aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins would all meet up there every so often for a seafood meal and catch up. the one near where i grew up had a lobster tank in the waiting area (the residents of which usually found themselves on man a meal plate) and i loved to reach down and try to grab one when my grandparents weren't looking.
When you upgraded to Red Lobs from Sizzler, you knew dinner was gonna be a treat!
Worked at Redlobster for 13 years. Got into management after about 9 years. I will say they treated their managers fucking horribly. The VPs were constantly rotating in and out. We had 3 different directors durning my management string. Quit in 2016, and it was one of the best decisions I've ever made.
Sounds like you saw the writing on the wall.
Man, the closures happened so fast recently, the 3 nearest me are gone. The fresh Lobster was always a highlight aside from grilled Shrimp and the Biscuits. RIP.
Its wasnt fresh. The tank lobsters were for show. They served frozen lobster tails
You ain’t lyin. My grandma wanted to go on her birthday the day after it was CLOSED!!!!
My local area still got 10 Red Lobsters open if you're willing to go down to Florida for them lol.
@@sayto_00Plenty of fresh local seafood places are around in Florida. Why waste time going to RL? If you are in Kansas, I get it.
Can't believe how much this channel has grown since I started watching. Guess that's what happens when you put out quality content. Thank you for the entertainment you have provided.
Thank you so much!
And they have plenty of bankruptcies to cover.
I KNEW IT. As soon as i saw the headlines I knew there had to be way more to the story than just “oops we gave away too much shrimp”. You gotta have way more problems behind the scenes for a problem like that not to be easily coarse corrected.
It’s sad that it’s falling. This place was my childhood. The ones near me have all closed. We heard from people who worked there that they weren’t told that their location was closing. They came in for work to see the doors locked and a note saying they closed down. I hope they can make a comeback.
Fun Fact: Many of the Red Lobster's Canadian locations were originally defunct Ponderosa/ Bonanza Steakhouse restaurants.
I live in Colorado and used to love Bonanza. Greatest salad bar ever! You didn’t even need the steaks lol. Edit to add : sadly there are no more Bonanzas.
There are still Ponderosa and Bonanza locations in Puerto Rico
If it weren't for them, I would never have eaten steak again, my mother cooked it into oblivion.
True. There is a restaurant building in Brampton Ontario Canada that was the one and only site of 'Burger Chief'
Now there was an American chain from the past. The building basically looks just like it did originally. Didnt last long as a burger joint though.
Just a few stores down from Fuddruckers in Brampton.
Things change and we all get old.
@@billwendell6886 When my parents split, my dad and I would go to Ponderosa once a week. I was a growing boy and my dad would buy me two rib eye steaks. Very fond memories of the place and time.
Red Lobster was high dining for us landlocked suburbanites of the 1970s. To a kid it was a fantasyland of exotic cuisine from storybook places. At the time seafood at home was tasteless planks of frozen white fish. I'd guess my last visit was around 1985, when the brand started to seem a bit old fashioned. My family also didn't really like the big restaurant chains anyway.
Red Lobster went black… and now they can never come back 😂
Honesty it feels odd to be an active participant in the bankruptcy of a company. I ate 4ish lbs of shrimp last year during their endless shrimp promotion. I went in coming for a deal and walked out putting them in the red like a bunch of other people did too.
and yet your heart didn’t explode with high cholesterol? Congratulations!!
@@rickster100100when your bipolar, dry comment muscles through to be extra sarcastic…but it’s just cringey af. That’s you right now.
.
That didn't do it. They got screwed, but it wasn't by their customers.
What has killed Red Lobster has been the same process that has been killing similar restaurants and retail establishments for a few decades at this point. Red Lobster, just like Sears, is a company built to cater to the middle class. Its product and price point are intended for the middle class consumer. That pool of consumers has been disappearing as the American middle class has shrunk and largely disappeared.
This decline has been a long time coming, and has many facets. Acquisition and destruction by Private Equity is a common theme in these cases, but it is not the root cause, more of a proximate process by which these things happen. Nor is the news of the endless shrimp promotion killing the chain remotely accurate, an $11 Million dollar loss cannot kill a chain of that size unless it was already on its deathbed.
Often in cases like this people will point to a decline in quality of food or service the last time they were there and conclude that is the reason for the chain's decline. Some will even make the flippant comment that the chain "deserved" to fail. This however misses the fact that decline of quality and service is a symptom, not a root cause. As the chain begins to struggle economically it becomes less and less able to offer quality service and food. It does eventually produce a feedback cycle, but the notion that one day the chain stopped serving quality for no reason is fanciful.
The root cause of the decline of Red Lobster is the decline of the middle class, which was in turn the result of the decline of manufacturing which came about from bad trade, tax, economic, fiscal, environmental, foreign, and industrial policies.
They made an official announcement they’ve exited their bankruptcy and have new owners.
Love your videos. They really tell us so much about backgrounds of companies
Please do a video on Friendlys. It was one of the most well known chains in all of New England and the East Coast. I grew up in a small town that had 2 of them. They were shockingly popular. But by my late teens/early 20s (2014-16ish) they suddenly started losing popularity and then almost all of them closed across the east coast. I’d love to hear your take on their business.
It’s on the to do list!
Good Burger 2 filmed its' titular restaurant scenes inside a former Friendlys in North Providence, RI.
I used to work at a Friendly's in Ohio when I was younger. It wasn't very good and neither was I; merely the fact that they were letting me wait tables (!) was a bad sign of things to come. The ice cream was the only really special thing on the menu, the rest of the food was meh. And if you were one of my mean customers, I sincerely apologize and promise you I got out of the waiting business quickly after that.
I remember Friendly's. There are still a few that survive. I'm from Maryland and there's at least one in Glen Burnie. It's super tiny though. The food was pretty good and the ice cream sundaes were delicious. It was a great place to go with family.
@@BrightSunFilms I possibly could save Red Lobster. If you are interested I will share.
My sister asked me why Red Lobster went bankrupt. I answered her by saying, "If there are 3 restaurants you can't live without, Red Lobster is on no one's list." I think that's what best describes the company.
one by me rules
They're the Applebee's of seafood. Of course, I'm not surprised Red Lobster isn't doing well.
@@BoratWankstadamn. I kinda like Applebee's... even more so than TGIF
It’s on mine 😭
I miss Ruby Tuesday's. They had the best cheeseburger and fries.
I love the fact that “shrimpfest was too successful” was partially related to the bankruptcy of red lobster
You like killing animals
Right? 😂
I'm calling BS on that. Lot's more going wrong.
@@cgschow1971 Like being looted by management.
@@cgschow1971 well yes, in the end it was a majority shareholder abusing their power to force RL take a big loss to direct money from RL into the majority shareholder's other businesses (lawsuits have already been filed).
However previous owners made the mistake of waving the red flag of "all you can eat" at a customer base who view such offers as a personal challenge.
At this point if a Private Equity firm buys something you can be certain that in just a few years it will be gone. Buy, load the firm with the purchase debt, sell the good stuff - like the land under the building, and collect rents as long as possible while servicing the debt you put them under. And when the banks won't lend you any more money you burn it for the insurance...no that was Goodfellas...bankrupt and walk away. Lather rinse repeat.
Until we reach a point where PE's are gutted as a practice for hording too much money and when society improves.
I worked at Red Lobster from 2019-2021. I was BOH and dishwasher. When the pandemic hit, we had one dishwasher during the day (me) and it was hellish. Our line cooks were great, but they ended up quitting to work at the steakhouse across the street when we all came back to work. My manager, the building owner, had to run the line or do dishes sometimes to keep the place afloat. We did our best. After I quit, I went back to that same location in 2022 for my birthday and I got the worst food poisoning I've ever had. Thanks for the memories, Red Lobster.
One of the things missing from this analysis is that the consolidation of seafood suppliers hurt Red Lobster, and is probably the reason why Darden moved away from the brand. Before, there were hundreds of suppliers and they could negotiate good deals on seafood to make it affordable. With the consolidation (which Thai Union was one of), it was harder to get deals that would fit their business model. To be honest, it was going to be hard sailing for them, even before private equity raided their assets.
You're not correct about that. With a name like Red Lobster, any sea food company would want them as a customer - a life long customer at that and they would bend over backwards to get them the seafood at the price they needed it. I know this because I work in food on that level. Their biggest problem was using an international supplier period. Had they used local fisheries in US and surrounding waters product, they would have kept their costs down since international shipping costs have quadrupled in the last 5 years. AND shipping delays cause issues too. Price per lb. will just keep skyrocketing - mostly because of the logistics.
@@ChromaKeyMystress Yet, as with farming, “local” fishing has consolidated and become more corporately operated over time. There are fewer and fewer “little guys” anymore which limits options for food chains. Factor in natural disasters (Hurricanes, etc), oil spills (Deepwater Horizon), and government regulations, and it’s no wonder food chains will partner with foreign suppliers who can guarantee a constant supply of product. Yes, it can be shortsighted. And no one can predict financial crises like 2008 or the Covid Pandemic. So many factors that can contribute to temporary success or long term failure. 🤷🏻♂️
Gotta stock up on them cheddar biscuit boxes from Sam’s Club, lads.
Or save up those imitation cheddar bay biscuit recipes
$2.99 at Big Lots!
they're not chapter 7 yet, so those mixes are safe...for now
@@fallout560thank god
@@fallout560 As popular as they are, likely it'll be like Chi Chi's salsa... somebody will buy the recipe and IP and keep selling it as a retail product if it gets liquidated more than likely. (Man do I miss Chi Chi's from my childhood!)
4:00 I didn't expect to see Al Bundy in a Red Lobster commercial 😂😂😂
yeah well he's an actor sooooooooooo
He didn’t tell Peggy he was eating there so he could finally have some good grub for himself.
When Mr. High school quarter back star eats at a place, you take notice.
1985
You're a talented documentary filmmaker! Seriously I run a multi million dollar company and it's shocking how these big investment firms don't understand what makes success. People and product... they seem to take away from both categories right away
It feels weird watching this for free. You are doing great work
Thank you!
Now, it’s not unheard of that a private equity firm can acquire a business and successfully continue to run it; and oh boy Thai Union successfully ran it.. into the ground.
Thanks again for making these videos, Jake! A lot of these bankruptcies and executive failures would be forgotten to history, but you continue to bring it to the limelight, which many like me greatly appreciate
Ok I'll bite, name a business successfully run by a private equity firm for more then 5 years.
@@Andum48 After a bit of research, I stumbled upon Blackstone Inc., a massive private equity firm. They run many companies, mainly Hilton Worldwide Services, which is also a massive hospitality company in it of themselves: Blackstone has held an ownership stake in the company since 2007.
Red Lobster by us was shuttered 2 weeks ago. The last time we went was years ago and the meal wasn't great, too much salt in the food. Thanks Jake for the timely video🦞
The cheddar bay biscuits saved them😂
Yep pretty mediocre food considering the price
@@N_g_erthat’s like hitting the megamillions but for ghey.
@@N_g_erno offense but nobody cares. like at all.
Same complaint with my parents, too much salt.
As a former red lobster employee I enjoyed my time there. When Darden sold it to golden gate and thai union I left about a year later. I am very sad to see it close down.
Thank you for your service. Red lobster has been a fave of mine since pretty much birth. I haven’t been in like three years…but I still love it and at one time…talking for 20 years…I was going at least 15 times a year….and probably more like once every two weeks. So yeah…truly heartbreaking.
Worked there for 13 years. It was a great place to work as an employee, but being a manager was a nightmare.
@@pistachiosandpopcorn7146 Thank you. Cooking for people was fun. Always enjoyed hearing stories like yours.
@@GeminiWoods yeah basically why I left.
The Canadian Red Lobster restaurants were one of the very few that offered "employee benefits" like eyeglasses and some other stuff. It was always a desirable job for cooks and they had relatively low turnover in the kitchen compared to most "corporate kitchens."
I was thinking "wait haven't I seen a video like this already" but then I remembered that was the Ruby Tuesday one lol
They both kind of suffered from the same fate. Ruby Tuesday had a theme, stuff all over the walls and at least in the Knoxville area they would have memorabilia specific to the local high schools or locally known people. Red Lobster pretty much always looked like someone's idea of what a lobster house in New England looks like. They both eventually changed to completely sanitized dining areas, nothing to differentiate themselves from anyone else. They took away things that people liked and replaced them with things people were indifferent to. They badly misunderstood why their customers came to their restaurants, and tried to be something that no one really wanted.
The reason Ruby Tuesday was the original founder of the company was always involved. (After he retired and left, the company tanked and became any other family style restaurant.
I still love red lobster so many great memories of family gatherings , birthdays , anniversary’s etc .
I'm not disappointed to see that they are struggling. I've been to several of their locations that were ran down and needed closed. Only reason they were ran down is the mismanagement from the so called location managers.
It's probably better that they just save everyone the time and just close for good.
Last time I ate at red lobster my mom complained about the soup being too salty, and they said sorry it's pre-made.
Premade food is full of chemicals. Real food isn't supposed to last days.
Thanks for making the video. It was nostalgic and sad. Almost my entire family worked at Red Lobster since the early 90s. I remember in the late 2000s people would wait 2 hours to eat there even on non-weekend nights. My location had many many many people cross 10, 20, and even 30 year anniversaries. Red Lobster used to give everyone (even part-time people) vacation pay up until 15 years ago or so. For servers they would normalize your tips and give you that pay. It's crazy to think now.
I caught up with some friends who were working there the last year or so. Many of the people who made our location great left because they couldn't do it anymore or were let go for arbitrary reasons. Things got bad. Servers are expected to have up to 10 tables. For context, when I worked there each server would have standardly have 3 tables, and sometimes 4 if things were really busy and we didn't have enough servers on that night.
I hope they can survive and come back to being a great restaurant.
And I’m sure the execs are eating Ultimate Feasts on their $475 million shrimp boat 😢
“Shrimp boat” as in boat made of shrimp, boat shaped as a shrimp or a shrimp fishing boat?
Are you dissing Forrest Gump?
@@Whitephosphorenjoyer it's shrimp all the way down
Run, swiggy, run!!
450 million dollar shrimp boat??
Stop 🤦🏻♂️
Way back in the late 90s Red Lobster became a yearly tradition. Usually around the NFL playoffs and even if our team didn't win it was off to Red Lobster . It's sad to see a company so well know looking at an unknown future.
Every time again, I'm impressed by the research and preparation you put in your films, Jake. How many are you to make these documentaries? Keep up the good work!
Thank you so much!
I remember being a kid and thinking that Red Lobster was fancy fancy. The kind of place you only went for a birthday or holiday where a parent was sick and didn't want to cook a full meal. Those Cheddar Bay Biscuits will always hold a place in my heart, but I'll be damned if I say that it's "good food."
The decline of red lobster makes me really sad. I have very fond memories of going as a young kid. Private equity are parasites that will destroy our economy.
I live in a coastal area with lots of good local seafood restaurants. It has been many years since I have been in a Red Lobster, and I don't remember being particularly impressed. With so many good local restaurants, it is hard to see how Red Lobster can compete. There are still a few scattered around. Out of curiosity, I looked it up and found that the one closest to me has closed, and the one I remember visiting years ago is long gone. I will be surprised if the few remaining locations in my area last much longer. This is a restaurant chain that has run its course. If I were an employee at one of the locations that is still open, I would be looking for another job and would get out of there as soon as possible.
Basically the reason why there are like 2 Red Lobsters in New England.
Red Lobster was always more about giving a coastal-ish experience to people that lived nowhere near the ocean.
If you live by the ocean, yeah, you have entirely different expectations. It would be like getting your typical supermarket tomatoes after living in the Italian countryside.
@@maxpowr90Red Lobster already closed 96-98% of their New England restaurants, like back in the late 90s/early 2000s. I'm not surprised they didn't do well sales wise, in that region....
Oh man. This one hits a little close to home. I grew up going to the one in college park, ga. I was a hospitality management major and my internship was with Darden restaurants at the camp creek marketplace red lobster. I learned so much about running a busy location. It was efficient, clean, and everyone was hardworking. It felt like they cared about quality. It wasn’t until years later that I saw the news about Darden restaurants selling the brand. I was really shocked at that. I’m glad Darden restaurants is doing well but sad Red Lobster is basically over.
I'm 30 years old and have never once been inside a Red Lobster, so it's news to me that this company was as beloved and as popular as it was leading up to this sad time in its history. There is one within walking distance of my apartment, but I don't know how much longer it will be there. I'll have to pop in to see what it looks like before it goes.
That's Ed O'Neil at 4:02!
Must have been after he scored 4 touchdowns. 😂
@@iamsolodadfor Polk county high!
@@iamsolodad In one game!
No, that's Al Bundy 😂😂
@ZhovtoBlakytniy Right he was in love with that bite lol
I remember seeing so many ads for Red Lobster when I was watching TV as a kid, it was very nostalgic. Sad to see them go
Their endless shrimp special has been a tradition for me and my mom. It's going to be really sad if Red Lobster fully goes under.
Another great video Jake. Nice to see a lot of shots of the Burlington location which is actually the one I went to most recently.
Since 1987 (the year we got married), my husband and I have had lunch at Red Lobster every Christmas Eve. It's kind of sad to lose that tradition. 😥
Whenever a private equity firm is involved, hang onto your hats! 😢
Its most likely the kiss of death for that company
Loved the video - quick note on the sale lease back: This was a tax dodge more then anything else. They created a vehicle called a REIT and put the real estate in there and sold that - while maintaining a some large stake if i recall. The reason this unlocks value is that REITs are not taxed on a corporate level - they are flow through entities. So, you move the profits from red lobster to this reit through the lease payments. This makes red lobster look less profitable -> less taxes. In turn the REIT is more profitable but would you look at that they don't have to pay taxes -> less overall taxes.
If you're ever up to it, a bankruptcy video on General Motors would be welcomed! My great-grandfather, grandfather and dad all worked for GM, and when I was born in 1960 I was given shares of GM stock, which of course became worthless when GM went bankrupt.
Already did one! ruclips.net/video/xHnPD3ttBlA/видео.htmlsi=RE2cVzFIkxxYgWLp
Uhhh... GM stock is worth 45 bucks a share. It's far from "worthless."
It's all-time high was ~$63 in 2020 before Trump let the bottom fall out of the economy.
But, it's still far in excess of its all-time average price.
@@tim3172lolol - I hope you're kidding and realize that GM went bankrupt in 09 and all their stock became worthless.
.
The current stock has nothing to do with all that was held in 08'
@@tim3172it's not the same GM, so his shares were worthless.
When General Motors (GM) went bankrupt in 2009, the restructuring process resulted in the creation of a new entity, often referred to as "New GM." Here's a summary of what happened:
1. **Bankruptcy and Restructuring**: GM filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on June 1, 2009. During the restructuring, the company's viable assets were transferred to a new entity, also called General Motors Company, while the old entity (referred to as "Old GM") retained the non-viable assets and liabilities.
2. **Shareholders**: Shareholders of the pre-bankruptcy GM (Old GM) did not retain their shares in the new GM. The stock of Old GM (GM) became essentially worthless. The new GM issued new stock, which started trading publicly in November 2010, after the company emerged from bankruptcy.
3. **Government Ownership**: As part of the bailout and restructuring process, the U.S. Treasury and other governments received significant ownership stakes in the new GM in exchange for the financial support provided during the bankruptcy.
4. **New GM IPO**: The new GM held an initial public offering (IPO) on November 17, 2010, allowing it to return to the stock market. The ticker symbol for the new GM stock is GM.
In summary, shareholders of the old GM lost their investments, and new stock was issued for the restructured company, which began trading in 2010.
@@tim3172false, it was restructured with new shares and the old shares prior to bankruptcy became worthless.
My friend went in to Red Lobster when they added the ‘endless shrimp’ to the menu permanently.
I haven’t seen her since.
I miss her.
this is an SCP I think
When I was a kid in the 70's, Red Lobster was a once or twice a year special treat... There was only one location in Houston, the West Side just off Loop 610 just south of the 290 interchange, not far from a big stadium out there (used to be out there not sure if it still is). Back then it was MUCH nicer than the average restaurant... remember the sailor costumes that the waitresses wore back then, fancy decor, etc. Mom usually got a daquiri with her meal and Dad a cocktail, which was very rare for them, and my grandmother usually got crab, which back then was already pulled out of the shell and served in an oval dish with drawn butter on the side. It was REALLY good back then, tasted awesome.
In the 90's and 2000's it had become a "restaurant on every corner" sort of place, very common, but the prices had gone up and the quality/taste had gone down. We still ate there fairly often because my folks liked seafood and being older, they would usually pay particularly on special occasions.
In the 2010's the quality DEFINITELY went down and the prices kept going up. It was easy to tell most of the stuff was frozen and reheated stuff, not that good, and basically 2-3X the cost of say Captain D's or Long John Silver's which tasted about the same or even slightly better depending on locations. The service became pretty abysmal... it was clear they were cost cutting and the locations we had really showed it, understaffed and lousy service and bad attitude. Then they started changing their menus considerably every time we went in there... We'd always tended to get the same menu items every time, our 'old reliable" but every time we went the menu would be different, they were taking bad advice that the reason they couldn't compete was because sit down restaurants were hurting and their menu needed updating and all this sort of nonsense... "people want Panera type joints or Chipotle or whatever' Seems kinda stupid to me because IF I wanted to eat at a joint like that, I'd eat at the ones that are already out there. Trying to turn Red Lobster into them was just a fools' errand IMHO.
Seafood USED to be cheap and back in the 70's was abundant and not that many places serving it. That's changed a lot in 50 years... now seafood is EXPENSIVE and a LOT of places are serving it. We basically quit going to Red Lobster because they were charging PREMIUM prices for low-grade prefab seafood that wasn't markedly better than you could get at a chain like Captain D's or LJS for about half to third the price, and RL wasn't that nice or special anymore, so why bother. They had outgrown themselves. Tried to cut costs by shafting the waitstaff and hiring food warmers instead of chefs and going to mostly frozen/prefab stuff of much lower quality.
Last time we went to a Red Lobster was over a year ago when my nephew was about to graduate college and we went to visit him It was terrible, food was crummy, crab legs weren't even on the menu anymore, nor most of the traditional menu items we used to get, and the prices were atrocious... IIRC dinner for the four of us, me, my wife, teenage daughter, and nephew, was over $150 bucks and we didn't have anything special. I swore off RL after that. SO not surprised to see that they're going toe up.
When these "venture capitalists" get involved you can bet your shirt that it's the kiss of death for any business... they sell off what they can milk the rest for every penny they can get, run it in the ground, and then sell out the husk. There's a lot of local seafood restaurants that are going the same way-- want to charge high prices but serve low quality seafood... and people aren't going to pay top dollar for substandard crap.
Another quality vid Jake! Can ya look into doing an abandoned video on St Luke Hospital in Pasadena CA? I have some footage you’re welcome to use and some direct info on it!
Thank you
Thank you so much! I’ll definitely look into it
I knew this video was coming as soon as the bankruptcy was announced. Keep up the amazing work!
Thank you!
@@BrightSunFilms YOOOOO HES HERE NO WAY
Never ate at a Red Lobster before, but hi and thanks for the video Jake!
Seems like once a 'Private Equity Firm' steps in, you can pretty much kiss the company goodbye. They are going to saddle it with debt and a destroyed reputation, while stripping it of any capital. How is this even legal?
I'm in my early twenties. My town's Red Lobster has been there for as long as I can remember. It was located in a place near a large road, prime restaurant location, etc etc. And every time we passed by, it was always bustling. Due to its pricing, my family went rarely, but it indeed felt like a special occasion, and it was always crowded with long-ish wait times. So imagine my surprise upon returning home from university and seeing the Red Lobster, still looking shiny and sharp from the new black roof rebranding, surrounded by yellow caution tape and utterly vacant. I don't know what will happen to that restaurant's dead husk... I wonder if it will be left abandoned and to rot. What a shame for such an old, popular place.
Pre 2000 life was best.
Prime property location is always gonna bring buyers... it'll get sold and become something else
@@lukestrawwalker The Denny's are weed dispensaries 😄
They look so..... familiar.
My local (30 minutes away) location has gradually been going down hill. From the food being off to the removal of the iconic lobster tank. There's better seafood locations, but the nostalgia of going for birthdays still makes this hurt
Thank you for actually reporting on what happened with the company. I was very confused by the news of it. The red lobsters near me are doing ok. Clearly quality has dwindled but I just put that to everything now a days. Lowering quality and increasing prices.
I grew up in Lakeland Florida in the 70s. That Lake Parker Red Lobster served me some of the tastiest meals in my life to this day. It was the most delicious seafood anywhere as far as my family thought. I got to eat there in the heyday and I've also seen the decline. Coincidentally, we lived in Myrtle Beach for a few years in the 2010s. The Myrtle Beach location was so bad that we tried it once and vowed not to return to that location. We can all hope that Red Lobster can claw (pun) it's way back. Great video as always.
4:00 Ed O'Neill * *really* * loves his seafood.
Al Bundy at a seafood buffet. lol😂
When a Bigmac meal is $12-$20, good luck selling lobster...
Tis why I just order the Big Mac itself
@@tylere.8436 theres so many better things you could get for less DX
@@tylere.8436never order a big Mac. Buy ground meat and make your own burgers. Doesn't take all that long.
@@tylere.8436And, tastes a hellalot better.
@@tanikokishimoto1604 I would, but I'm remodeling my kitchen. so after it's done
Al Bundy alert a @4:00! We were just talking about how many restaurant chains have gone under and Red Lobster came up. This is what happens when a company gets into the restaurant business and knows nothing about running one. Never a good sign.
Nope. They were just the 'sucker' that bought it, after private equity gutted it, and the original owner got out because there simply isn't enough middle class families left with money to spend on seafood. Red Lobster cannot operate without a middle class.
I’ve never eaten at a Red Lobster. They don’t really exist here in New England, where great mom and pop seafood restaurants are plentiful.
True, plus they're much more fresher the what Red Lobster has
Any recommendations? Cause I was excited for that very thing when I visited and I had a lot of okay food and some of the worst food poisoning I’ve ever had haha
I grew up in New Orleans. Couldn't believe anyone went to Red lobster or Subway.
I live in New England I live in Connecticut there's many Red Lobsters in Connecticut, although I will admit I've never eaten at one.
Why go to Red Lobster in New England when you can go to any seafood resturant where they can get fresh caught fish?
Growing up we would go spend our summers camping on the RI shore. My Dad would go get Lobsters fresh off the boat and every fish market had clams just dug up that morning. Compare that to over priced rubber lobster from Red Lobster.
I loved Red Lobster's endless shrimp. I would go during those promotions & feast on their shrimp Alfredo, as it was my favorite & scrumptious. However, I started to see a decline in quality around 2018 or so. The Alfredo sauce had changed; it wasn't as good, & I suspect that some of the ingredients had been switched for less expensive ones. I also liked their 4 course lunch special which disappeared during the "pandemic" when they scaled their menu back. It's a shame that they've closed; I miss those special afternoon feasts of shrimp Alfredo.
Hello! I have a topic for the next video: 99 cents store. I believe they are starting to close stores and thing it should be a pretty interesting video idea. When I was young, I went to my nearby 99 cent store. But it recently closed and I didn’t know. Seeing the store brings back many memories shopping there.
Got my mother to watch your movie on Prime. Never watched you before, but she really enjoyed it.
Tell her I say hi!
We didn't eat out much as a kid, mostly Wendy's or Burger King, but Red Lobster was a special occasion. I've only been there twice growing up.