On Sunday, the seafood chain mentioned in a assertion that it had filed for Chapter 11 chapter. Pink Lobster mentioned its eating places will “stay open and working as standard throughout the Chapter 11 course of.”
“Too unhealthy (sigh). I’ve some fond reminiscences from a very long time in the past of consuming at Pink Lobster,” Musk mentioned in an X publish on Monday.
The mercurial billionaire was responding to an X publish by podcaster and author Trung Phan, which detailed Pink Lobster’s monetary troubles.
Representatives for Musk and Pink Lobster did not instantly reply to requests for remark from BI despatched exterior common enterprise hours.
The seafood chain is finest recognized for its “Final Countless Shrimp” promotion, which it has been working for greater than 18 years. As a part of the deal, clients may gorge themselves with as a lot shrimp as they wished for simply $20.
Final summer season, the corporate determined to show the limited-time providing right into a everlasting menu merchandise. This meant that clients may get their shrimp repair day by day.
The transfer ended up backfiring spectacularly, with Pink Lobster reporting working losses of $11 million and $12.5 million within the third and fourth quarters of 2023 respectively.
In November, Ludovic Garnier, the chief monetary officer of Thai Union Group — a Pink Lobster investor — instructed buyers that the promotion was “one of many key causes for the losses we generated in Q3 2023.”
Pink Lobster ultimately raised the worth of its promotion to $22 after which $25.
“If something, the Countless Shrimp offers are most likely as a lot a logo of simply both desperation or poor administration or each,” the editor in chief of Restaurant Enterprise Journal Jonathan Maze instructed BI’s Emily Stewart.
Pink Lobster’s lurch towards chapter comes at a troublesome time for the meals and beverage trade, as firms battle to attract in clients amid a rising value of dwelling.
In July, McDonald’s CFO Ian Borden instructed buyers that clients had been ordering much less and and switching to value-menu gadgets to economize. This, he mentioned, was due to a “difficult macro atmosphere together with rising rates of interest and elevated prices.”
“The patron is worth weary. All people is combating for fewer shoppers or shoppers which are actually visiting much less steadily,” Borden mentioned in an earnings name final month.
Likewise for Starbucks, whose CEO Laxman Narasimhan who mentioned final month that the espresso chain’s efficiency “didn’t meet our expectations.“
“Many purchasers are being extra exacting about the place and the way they select to spend their cash, notably with stimulus financial savings largely spent,” Narasimhan mentioned.
