Early into the new year, Chili’s and Reb Lobster announced that they would be filing for bankruptcy and as a result shutting down locations, Chili’s stated almost all if not all would be indefinitely closed. While Chili’s has not provided an exact reason for why they have had to file for bankruptcy, Red Lobster has stated it is due to losing 11 million dollars from their ‘all you can eat shrimp’ deal. This is not the first time Red Lobster has had to file bankruptcy following an all-you-can-eat deal, being that they once did due to an ‘all you can eat crab’ idea.
In the case of Chili’s, they have been slowly closing locations since the beginning of 2024, with the expectation to finish the progressive closings across America by the end of the year. Some patrons are rather sad to hear the news because the businesses are known for affordable deals for reasonably priced food. While Chili’s is likely not to recover from this, as it seems they aren’t concerned with doing so, Reb Lobster seeks someone to buy out the business to save it even though it will likely experience many changes following new ownership.
One major consequence of the businesses’ financial losses is the losses of their shareholders, many of whom are rather openly upset with how much of their investments they are actively losing. Despite this many are saying an opportunity for other businesses will open with them being able to ‘take the place’ of Chili’s and Reb Lobster in the industry, opening up new options to both consumers and shareholders. While this may excite some, following the struggles for restaurants in 2020 can make this very unlikely as in-person dining decreases globally.
For the time being what will happen is very unclear, being that it is due to progress through the rest of 2024 possibly even expanding over into early 2025. With it unclear if the businesses will be able to bounce back from these major losses and shutdowns, many who work there are concerned about the uncertainty of when they will lose their jobs. Consumers have decided to make the best of a short time by going to the businesses more frequently before they are possibly gone forever.
