Red Lobster’s “Endless Shrimp” promo is back due to fan demand.
Former servers say the promotion was a stressful nightmare that forced employees to quit.
A former executive said the bottomless deal was once used to drive traffic, but lost its magic.
The return of Red Lobster’s “Endless Shrimp” promotion has seafood lovers salivating, but it could leave a bad taste in the mouths of kitchens and wait staff, former servers told Business Insider.
“This is the time when most employees leave,” said Saul Eugene, who worked at the chain in 2019 and 2020. During the promotion, Eugene said that diners would “sit there for two and a half hours eating shrimp,” turning the standard order into a “big 22-course meal without the bill.”
The result for employees: more work for less pay — complaints took to social media after Red Lobster announced a limited recall of its all-you-can-eat Shrimpfest on Monday.
“You make less money for double the work,” Eugene said, calling the experience “hell for servers.”
Ryan Spalding, who worked at Red Lobster in the late 2000s, said customers would “game the system,” ordering refill after refill, staying at tables late and trying to take food home against the rules. He said the specials — then $20 — often attracted people who wouldn’t tip and would try to share a meal, not the repeat customers the chain or its employees wanted.
In fact, when Red Lobster became a permanent part of the menu several years ago, the chain said it lost $11 million in three months.
CEO Damola Admolekun, who is leading Red Lobster’s comeback after its bankruptcy, testified last year to Business Insider that he had “no plans” to revisit the promotion.
Admolekun said this week that customer clamor for shrimp, shrimp, and more shrimp led him to reverse course and bring it back for an unspecified limited time. Available only to dine-in patrons, restaurants charge between $24.99 and $29.99 for an unlimited number of five dishes.
Red Lobster representatives did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider about employee reaction to the promotion.
A former senior communications executive at the company told Business Insider that the promotion lost what made it powerful: its rarity. The “endless fly” was “iconic” because it comes once a year, creating anticipation and excitement. She said that over time, the company is leaning more towards it to drive traffic.
“It became a one-trick pony,” she said. “As soon as business starts to falter, or they need to get the number of guests really, really fast and get some revenue to the restaurants, they turn on ‘Endless Shrimp.'”
That tension between what customers want and what employees are asked to tolerate is always baked into the contract.
“If you’re prioritizing your guests, they’ll always love ‘endless shrimp,'” the former executive said of her experience with the promotion. “If you’re prioritizing your employees, you’ll never ‘jump endlessly’.”
Damola Admolekun, CEO of Red Lobster, says he hears from customers who want a shrimp deal.Paula Lobo/American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. via Getty Images
Former servers said the downsides were obvious. Eugene said his tip percentage dropped “about 3 or 4 percent” during the endless shrimp season, even though the work was more demanding.
“You’re already being hard on your labor, then you’re also getting a lower tip percentage,” he said. “It’s depressing, and it’s so depressing, it’s forcing people to quit. The ones who stay are the ones who should be there to pay their bills, and they’re just screwed left and right — like, it’s about as far from a worker-friendly policy as you can be.”
Because the deal encouraged volume, it changed the restaurant’s rhythm. Instead of tables being turned over by new customers ordering whole meals, servers were starting plate after plate of shrimp for the same guests.
On a corporate level, however, the Endless Shrimp was seen as a traffic driver – even if it stopped working as intended.
A former Red Lobster executive said the promotion was originally designed to get people in the door, but not necessarily to order shrimp. Marketing “shouted from the rooftops” about “endless shrimp,” but inside the restaurant, it was barely highlighted, instead skewing diners toward higher-margin items, she said.
Now, she said, the deal is “big and bold” on the menu and marketing, she said — which could encourage customers to trade up from pricier dishes like lobster.
He noted that the promotion was brought back just before the normal end of the company’s fiscal year, which ends in May, and in the middle of its Lobsterfest promotion, during which it brings in 70% of its revenue.
Many chains offer “bottomless” promotions. Behind-the-scenes decisions made Red Lobster unprofitable, she said. After seafood producer Thai Union acquired the chain in October 2016, Red Lobster was required to buy shrimp from its parent company at above-market prices, eliminating its ability to negotiate prices. At the same time, the company increased the size of its shrimp, although promotion was always built around volume.
“The combination of having to buy from a supplier who is also your boss, and thus taking more money than you should have, with the desire to increase the size of the shrimp for a promotion that wasn’t really about size, was really a lethal combination,” she said.
Business Insider reported in May 2024 that Red Lobster’s then-CEO, Jonathan Tibus, questioned the company’s procurement processes, including those of its owner, Thai Union, and said the promotion strained the supply chain and caused millions of dollars in losses.
“Endless flies” became shorthand for addition—and for a business model that didn’t work.
Its revival may give a short-term bump. For people who once worked on the floor, it’s just a bad memory.
“I feel bad for all the employees there,” said Eugene, a former server.
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