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Maximum Overkill

Red Lobster Is Betting on Black Diners With Its Brand Comeback 🍉

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30 minutes ago, WhiteWonder said:

I'm confused, what is the brand comeback? did black people not generally eat at red lobster before?

 

Maybe they are gearing it towards you and your family type people. The ghetto dwelling white people. :dunno:

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1 minute ago, seafoam1 said:

Maybe they are gearing it towards you and your family type people. The ghetto dwelling white people. :dunno:

Maybe you and your “girlfriend” of 15 years can get out of the apartment for a date night after your shift at the post office  🤷🏻‍♂️ 

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8 minutes ago, WhiteWonder said:

Maybe you and your “girlfriend” of 15 years can get out of the apartment for a date night after your shift at the post office  🤷🏻‍♂️ 

I don't live in your ghetto peanut. I am set for life. ;)

Now get back to work bltch.  :D

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1 hour ago, TimHauck said:

Did they “misbehave”?  Or did they just not buy enough drinks or whatever else whoever thought this promotion was a good idea thought they would.

I did see several white YouTubers do videos where they stayed there all day though.

Yes. They did. Do you have anymore stupid questions? 

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8 hours ago, jonnyutah said:

Yes. They did. 

Link?  And people staying at their tables for a little while longer than they used to isn’t really “misbehaving.”

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9 hours ago, WhiteWonder said:

I'm confused, what is the brand comeback? did black people not generally eat at red lobster before?

 

Agree.  I just read the article and they acknowledge that blacks have always been a big market for them.  There’s a comment in there claiming recently people have said “it wasn’t the same experience” as it used to be but that they think the new CEO (a 36-year old black dude) is saving it.  He does seem to be very intelligent and hard-working.

 

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I’m black and have been to Red Lobster maybe 3 times in the last 25 years. No one I know eats at Red Lobster. It hasn’t been good since the 80’s. 

The size of the expensive lobster tail is only as large as my pointer finger and is tasteless. Customer service is mediocre at best. 
 

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56 minutes ago, TimHauck said:

Agree.  I just read the article and they acknowledge that blacks have always been a big market for them.  There’s a comment in there claiming recently people have said “it wasn’t the same experience” as it used to be but that they think the new CEO (a 36-year old black dude) is saving it.  He does seem to be very intelligent and hard-working.

 

I saw an interview with him on GMA (by Michael Strahan) and yes he said exact same thing. They are marketing to young black community and when asked about endless shrimp it was a hard no. 

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What is this weird obsession with black people? We’re really a small segment of society. 

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11 minutes ago, MikeMatt said:

I saw an interview with him on GMA (by Michael Strahan) and yes he said exact same thing. They are marketing to young black community and when asked about endless shrimp it was a hard no. 

Don’t add that racist BS to my quote 

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28 minutes ago, TimHauck said:

Agree.  I just read the article and they acknowledge that blacks have always been a big market for them.  There’s a comment in there claiming recently people have said “it wasn’t the same experience” as it used to be but that they think the new CEO (a 36-year old black dude) is saving it.  He does seem to be very intelligent and hard-working.

 

He's actually an idiot. Catering to a single race, especially a minority is a death sentence in the restaurant/hospitality business. 

They're done, pack it up now. 

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22 minutes ago, Maximum Overkill said:

He's actually an idiot. Catering to a single race, especially a minority is a death sentence in the restaurant/hospitality business. 

They're done, pack it up now. 

Who said he was only catering to a single race?

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Just now, TimHauck said:

Who said he was only catering to a single race?

Did you read the article? That's exactly what they're saying.

I haven't seen a Red Lobster in 20 years. Segregating it now certainly won't help the brand. 

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2 minutes ago, TimHauck said:

Who said he was only catering to a single race?

He did. CEO

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8 minutes ago, Maximum Overkill said:

Did you read the article? That's exactly what they're saying.

I haven't seen a Red Lobster in 20 years. Segregating it now certainly won't help the brand. 

Yes, he didn’t say they were ONLY catering to blacks.  But every time I’ve been in one it’s been over 50% blacks, they’re definitely their largest market so it would make sense to focus on them the most.

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3 hours ago, TimHauck said:

Yes, he didn’t say they were ONLY catering to blacks.  But every time I’ve been in one it’s been over 50% blacks, they’re definitely their largest market so it would make sense to focus on them the most.

possibly but not necessarily... 

If blacks were already their largest market (possibly by a wide margin) and the business was failing, doubling down on the same target market is not likely a winning strategy. 

If red lobster was booming in the 90's and early 00's (i have no idea), you might just have to take a look at what practices were working back then as well as what the demographics were back then, as it's possible it became a predominantly black establishment over time. But it is also possible that the better strategy is to rebrand as a restaurant for everyone. I understand they probably always intended to be a restaurant for everyone, but clearly that's not how it shook out. 

I have never even sat down to eat in a red lobster. I once ordered take out and it was a nightmare picking it up. Absolutely horrendous experience. They have a separate take out area and I was ignored by the 2 girls working it, only to have them immediately turn around when a black woman showed up to pick up her order. Only then did they finally ask me what I needed and they actually cut me off to take another take out order that had not been placed ahead of time. I wasn't in the mood to start an argument, and when they tried to skip me a 3rd time, the other customer put them in their place (peenie must be shocked that racism goes both ways 😆). ... only to be told that the order I had called in 30 minutes ago was not ready yet... it took another 30 minutes waiting.  But the one near me had been there forever and the parking lot was always packed that I can remember. When I first saw they were going out of business I figured they lost a lot of people to a similar place that opened up across the highway from them, I did not know it was a company wide bankruptcy issue. 

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3 hours ago, TimHauck said:

Yes, he didn’t say they were ONLY catering to blacks.  But every time I’ve been in one it’s been over 50% blacks, they’re definitely their largest market so it would make sense to focus on them the most.

That's racist. Everyone likes seafood, not just the darks. 

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40 minutes ago, WhiteWonder said:

possibly but not necessarily... 

If blacks were already their largest market (possibly by a wide margin) and the business was failing, doubling down on the same target market is not likely a winning strategy. 

If red lobster was booming in the 90's and early 00's (i have no idea), you might just have to take a look at what practices were working back then as well as what the demographics were back then, as it's possible it became a predominantly black establishment over time. But it is also possible that the better strategy is to rebrand as a restaurant for everyone.

I’m no Red Lobster expert but here’s a rare well researched CNN article with some background on what went wrong previously:

https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/03/food/red-lobster-seafood-restaurant-bankruptcy/index.html

It seems a lot of their troubles can be traced back to first being sold to private equity, and then being sold to their largest supplier (it was their idea for permanent endless shrimp).  So I’d doubt blacks stopped eating there at a higher rate than any other group, in which case it would make sense to spend effort trying to get them back specifically.  But I didn’t get the impression from the article that they didn’t want to be a place for everyone anyway.

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8 minutes ago, TimHauck said:

I’m no Red Lobster expert but here’s a rare well researched CNN article with some background on what went wrong previously:

https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/03/food/red-lobster-seafood-restaurant-bankruptcy/index.html

It seems a lot of their troubles can be traced back to first being sold to private equity, and then being sold to their largest supplier (it was their idea for permanent endless shrimp).  So I’d doubt blacks stopped eating there at a higher rate than any other group, in which case it would make sense to spend effort trying to get them back specifically.  But I didn’t get the impression from the article that they didn’t want to be a place for everyone anyway.

Well I literally said, which you left out of your quote of me, that they probably always intended to be a restaurant for everyone. 

I am confused by your statement bolded in red. Why would it make sense to specifically try to get back black customers if they did not stop eating there at a higher rate than other groups? 

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9 minutes ago, WhiteWonder said:

Well I literally said, which you left out of your quote of me, that they probably always intended to be a restaurant for everyone. 

I am confused by your statement bolded in red. Why would it make sense to specifically try to get back black customers if they did not stop eating there at a higher rate than other groups? 

Correct me if I’m wrong here but your comment about trying to be a restaurant for everyone was specific to in the past. By saying they’re “doubling down on the same target market” now, I thought you were implying that you think the new strategy isn’t really to be a restaurant for everyone.  I know I mentioned they didn’t say they were catering ONLY to blacks but maybe focusing on them the most, so maybe that’s what you were saying.

You also said “If blacks were already their largest market (possibly by a wide margin) and the business was failing, doubling down on the same target market is not likely a winning strategy.”

My point in response to that was to say I don’t think they did anything to drive away blacks specifically.  So I do think that trying to get back the customers that were their largest market to begin with, probably is a winning strategy (if they do it right of course).

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6 hours ago, TimHauck said:

Link?  And people staying at their tables for a little while longer than they used to isn’t really “misbehaving.”

I guess you did have another stupid question. 

 

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4 minutes ago, TimHauck said:

Correct me if I’m wrong here but your comment about trying to be a restaurant for everyone was specific to in the past. By saying they’re “doubling down on the same target market” now, I thought you were implying that you think the new strategy isn’t really to be a restaurant for everyone.  I know I mentioned they didn’t say they were catering ONLY to blacks but maybe focusing on them the most, so maybe that’s what you were saying.

You also said “If blacks were already their largest market (possibly by a wide margin) and the business was failing, doubling down on the same target market is not likely a winning strategy.”

My point in response to that was to say I don’t think they did anything to drive away blacks specifically.  So I do think that trying to get back the customers that were their largest market to begin with, probably is a winning strategy (if they do it right of course).

My point (and I don't know for sure because I also am not a Red Lobster expert) is that I would GUESS they always intended to be a restaurant for everyone as opposed to ever having a business plan where they catered to Senior Citizens, for example.... but that the black community became their largest demographic on it's own, naturally. 

So what confused me about your previous post, and this post is that if you don't think they drove away blacks specifically, then why would they need to specifically focus on getting them back?  Either they were doing well and then did something to drive away their biggest demographic so that it does make sense to bring them back or they just had poor business practices in general and focusing specifically on bringing back black people wouldn't really make a difference....

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Just noticed the watermelon image in the thread title. Nice touch.

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Just what are they going to do to attract black customers? Take the Lobsters out of the tank and put them on a stage where they recite poems about how much money they have and many bitches they have clawed? 

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