Red Lobster shrimp deal a hot mess for workers
Looks like the all-you-can-eat shrimp fest that put a nail in the coffin for Red Lobster restaurants was somewhat of a doozy for employees, who complained to the New York Times of the harrowing ordeal that involved overworked employees and scores of gluttonous patrons who camped at tables all day.
While analysts argue that the restaurant chain’s financial woes began much earlier, the shrimp ordeal began in June 2023, when Red Lobster announced its seasonal — and much-dreaded by employees — $20 Ultimate Endless Shrimp would become an “all day, every day” fixture of the menu.
As reported by the New York Times, perhaps employee morale also helped doom the business strategy: “Among employees, news that Endless Shrimp would, in fact, never end was greeted with dread. As an occasional special over the years, it was always a frantic ordeal. Cooks and servers could barely keep up. Bargain hunters griped about the pace of refills. Cops were summoned to handle diners enraged that they couldn’t get takeaway bags.”
“When they dumped this on us in June, we’d already been squeezed to the bone,” Malcom Clarke, then a service manager at the Red Lobster in Orem, Utah, told a reporter. “We got emails from corporate saying: ‘This is a free-for-all. Get that shrimp out as fast as you can.’”
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