The bankrupt casual restaurant chain didn’t fail because of Endless Shrimp. Its problems date back to monopolist seafood conglomerates and a private equity play.
The company abruptly shuttered roughly 50 of its locations across the country last week without informing employees, who showed up to work only to find signs announcing the closures, which may be a potential labor law violation. According to staff complaints, they only later received notice that they’d be laid off or transferred to the remaining stores, in some cases many miles away.
A good read for anyone who wants the truth about the fail upward brunch lords who play with the lives of their workers for high fives and walk away with billions while the companies they put on their resumes get stacked with debt and crumble under the weight.
What’s funny is that years ago in business school we had a case study on this and they tried to spin it as an example of the good private equity does.
Have a feeling they won’t be using it as an example anymore after seeing the end results.
The capitalism-or-death crowd will still likely use it as an example and point to the shrimp idea as a miscalculated attempt to help the masses that failed because of the greed of the poors.
It’s essentially the new corporate raiding model.
I’m calling it, “fail upwards brunch lords” is the phrase of the week.
And Corey’s post about it: https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/23/spineless/
Neutral fact: I’m in my early 40s and went to Red Lobster for the first time in my life 2 weeks ago. While the food was good, the price was too high in my opinion. So, here’s to another 40+ years without going to Red Lobster 🍻
As the article outlined, their value proposition evaporated after seafood suppliers consolidated and monopolies emerged, causing prices to climb. I’ve never been there, as I lived where seafood was always affordable.
