Hedge fund gobbled for raping capital.

Forced sale by Darden by activist (hedge) investors.

New hedge fund owned RL company immediately sells all its property (land & buildings) to separate property company owned by hedge funds.

Big dividends for hedge funds! Billions sucked out of company into shareholder pockets.

New RL then leases all properties, incurring higher costs (now paying rent!)

Pandemic.

5 year leases all up! Property company raises rent!

RL can't afford higher rent on all locations, no longer has capital to borrow against (all sold 5 years ago), and goes bankrupt.

MBAs are destroying the world.

Not surprised, they've gone downhill and are way too expensive, but im sure they have bankruptcy plan to get back to the way they were!

agreed to sell its business to a new entity wholly owned and controlled by its lenders, a so-called stalking horse arrangement.

Oh. Nvm, time to write them off for good...

So apparently there's foul play.

From this article;

Last summer, under Thai Union, Red Lobster turned $20 endless shrimp into a permanent item on the menu for the first time, instead of its traditional limited-time offer deal. The change cost the company $11 million and cut into Thai Union profit. In its bankruptcy filing, Red Lobster said it is investigating the circumstances of that promotion, which the company’s management opposed.

And then later...

But the company in its bankruptcy filing blamed Thai Union for the losses. Noting that under the guise of a “quality review,” Red Lobster eliminated two of its breaded shrimp suppliers, leaving Thai Union with an exclusive deal. That led to higher costs for the restaurant chain, and did not comply with the company’s typical decision-making process for picking suppliers based on projected demand.

Sounds like Red Lobster got juiced. I've never eaten there, but this is some evil stuff.

In 10 years there will be no real businesses left because they were bought by private equity, then gutted and resold.

This is the price they must pay for offering unlimited shrimp when there aren't unlimited shrimp on the planet.

I'm sick of seeing these types of chains anyways in every small town and big city. We generally make it a point to only ever go to local places if we are eating out, which we rarely do anyways. Eating out is like...$30 /person. $30/groceries per person goes a lot longer and usually tastes way better, imo.

He highlighted the fact that dining costs have outweighed groceries, and that 50% of U.S. states had increased their minimum wages, further reducing Red Lobster's profit margin.

If you can't survive unless you're allowed to pay starvation level wages then the time for your business has come and gone.

The shrimp must flow!