At Red Lobster Restaurant Headquarters, one must imagine there is a button, inviting and pressable and in the exact color you would imagine. Pressing this button will make you incredibly popular, lead to a legion of reporters setting up cameras outside of your restaurants and delight your otherwise dwindling customer base. It will also cost you millions of dollars and, with some precedent, sometimes your job. This button is labeled “Endless Shrimp.” In the past, it has been responsible for both the greatest triumphs of the seafood brand as well as a 2024 bankruptcy, management clean sweep and some very irate creditors. The 2023 decision to make the ordinarily limited-time offer of Endless Shrimp available year-round caused a $11 million loss in a single quarter and sent a financially precarious company into a tailspin from which it might not ever recover. But here’s the thing: the CEO is reportedly planning this month to push the button.
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