It looks like Red Lobster’s all-you-can-eat shrimp deal may have been a bit too generous. Called Ultimate Endless Shrimp, the longstanding promotion invited loyal customers to indulge in all the shrimp their heart desired for just $20. It was launched by the seafood chain’s parent company, Thai Union, as a way to boost sales in restaurants, especially amid the third and fourth quarters when business is particularly slow. For more than 18 years, Ultimate Endless Shrimp remained a guest-favorite deal at Red Lobster — so much so that the chain made it a permanent addition to its menu back in June.
That ultimately led to major problems, the company said in its third quarter earnings. More customers took advantage of the promo, which in turn led to Red Lobster’s $11 million loss in the third quarter of 2023. “On this promotion, we don’t earn a lot of money. At $22 we don’t. The idea was to bring some traffic,” Thai Union CFO Ludovic Garnier said in an earnings call earlier this month, per CNN.
