this post was submitted on 21 Apr 2024
410 points (100.0% liked)

Not The Onion

16291 readers
522 users here now

Welcome

We're not The Onion! Not affiliated with them in any way! Not operated by them in any way! All the news here is real!

The Rules

Posts must be:

  1. Links to news stories from...
  2. ...credible sources, with...
  3. ...their original headlines, that...
  4. ...would make people who see the headline think, “That has got to be a story from The Onion, America’s Finest News Source.”

Please also avoid duplicates.

Comments and post content must abide by the server rules for Lemmy.world and generally abstain from trollish, bigoted, or otherwise disruptive behavior that makes this community less fun for everyone.

And that’s basically it!

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

"Last year, Red Lobster reported $11 million in operating losses following its flubbed 'Ultimate Endless Shrimp' deal, which backfired when it reeled in too many customers after the limited-time promo became a permanent menu fixture last June. The restaurant chain later reported $12.5 million in losses in the fourth quarter of 2023."

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 66 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Why didn't they stop doing it sooner? Lol once they saw it was costing too much they could have retired it and made up some new marketing crap.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (2 children)

They tried all sorts of tricks actually. But this event brought people in. In the 90’s I’d see it on the local news about the hour long waits and whatnot. This was still true up until the last time I went.

I recall they slowed service, refill limits at a time, even type of order repeat(not getting 10 scampi in a row). I was a fan of the grilled shrimp and as a teen could eat 20 orders (a feat I’m not so proud of now). As an adult I stopped eating there when I realized what I was doing to my body (mid 00s).

I was never asked to leave due to the amount I ate, but I experienced some of these. damn if it wasn’t 5-10 minutes between food, couldn’t order more until you had cleared the only 2 plates allowed at a time, never find the waiter, etc. oh, and they would bring those ungodly amazing biscuits over, “to hold me over”.

I do not miss the man I was back then. I can honestly say I’m half the man I was then.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 year ago (4 children)

First time I heard of this, feels like I missed a huge opportunity

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Same. I love me unlimited shrampies. I had no idea it was permanent on the menu.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

permanent

Well, not anymore...

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

Same here. It was always overshadowed by unlimited soup salad and bread sticks I guess.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (7 children)

Of eating shitty frozen shrimp? No, no you did not miss an opportunity.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

"Stop liking what I don't like!"

load more comments (5 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Every time I went to get a "All you can eat" deal from places that weren't normally a buffet you would have to wait for a waiter to bring you more and the waiter hates the extra trips to the table and/or the owner tells their employees to drag their feet bringing more and makes the amount they bring miniscule. Just an awful experience the couple times I tried.

I don't go out to eat except for a Asian buffet a couple times a year. I'd rather eat cheetos in the basement.

Sorry mcdonalds and taco bell, your shit was barely worth it when it was cheap. Insane prices coming out of the fast food industry these days.

I own a oven and can buy frozen pizzas, get fucked.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Fucking the frozen pizza is slightly better than fucking them straight out of the oven.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 year ago

The Applebees of the sea.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If that much loss is going to bring down a corporation? Maybe the corpo wasn't being taken care of good enough

[–] someguywithacomputer 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I bet this is just the setup for when they try to weasel their way out of California's minimum wage and then when they win, they'll use the same playbook to try to get around minimum wage in other states. This could cause a snowball effect where a nonzero number of employers get a free pass on select labor laws.

Hopefully they just lose and go out of business.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What does 11 million dollars in shrimp look like? Let alone 11 million in losses, how much god damn shrimp is that? Was cocktail sauce calculated into this?

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago (4 children)

The cost here for shitty frozen shrimp is about $13 for 2lbs of "31-40" (31-40 shrimp per lb); at that cost, averaging 35 shrimp per pound, you could buy approximately 29,615,385 shrimp, which would weigh around 400 tons. I think I did that math right. It's late.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

And you know they ain't buying it at the Piggly Wiggly, but at a deep discount they negotiated ages ago with their distributor(s).

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Appreciate you. You're causing me and my friends to consider indoor shrimp farming for profit.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago (1 children)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I've only gone to red lobster for the endless shrimp (though there are much better all-you-can-eat options out there). They should try making their regular offerings better. It also doesn't help that private equity is in the middle of raiding the company and that's probably the main reason they're currently eyeing bankruptcy.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

Same with olive garden they want the decades old prime real estate. They could give a fuck about the restaurant

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago

Some people can't help themselves at the seafood buffet

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm not surprised. Every endless seafood deal Red Lobster did lost money.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Red Lobster: “Endless Shrimp”

Ocean: “Dude… no.”

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Man. They always do everything first.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

That's what they get for offering 30 shrimp for just $10.99 and fueling people's addictions...

load more comments
view more: next ›