Purple Lobster is perhaps taking an outdated web page from its playbook to win again customers’ hearts.
The seafood restaurant chain is reportedly contemplating the return of infinite shrimp, the all-you-can-eat deal that was one among Purple Lobster’s most iconic promotions.
Though the promotion dates back decades, it was initially supplied just for restricted instances—that’s, till earlier proprietor Thai Group made it a permanent menu fixture in June 2023.
Many argue that charging simply $20 for purchasers to eat limitless quantities of shrimp contributed to the seafood chain’s monetary woes and its eventual Chapter 11 chapter in Might 2024.
In line with chapter submitting on the time, the year-round infinite shrimp promotion had price the corporate $11 million.
The promotion was finally dropped from the menu, Purple Lobster CEO Damola Adamolekun instructed Right this moment later that yr, “as a result of I understand how to do math.”
Now, virtually two years into Adamolekun’s campaign to realize the “Biggest comeback within the historical past of the restaurant trade,” the promotion is perhaps coming again in spite of everything.
In line with Bloomberg, the restaurant chain is seeking to convey again infinite shrimp as a limited-time providing that would arrive as early as this month.
Purple Lobster has but to make any official bulletins on the matter.
Reached for remark, a spokesperson instructed Quick Firm: “Whereas we don’t have something to announce right now, we’re grateful for the passion and encourage visitors to maintain sharing their suggestions with us.”
The spokesperson added, “Infinite Shrimp has lengthy been a Purple Lobster visitor favourite and one among our hottest promotions for 20 years. We’re all the time listening to what our visitors are asking for.”
Previous to the information breaking, many individuals speculated on the promo’s return through on-line boards. On Reddit, one consumer claiming to be a Purple Lobster worker wrote within the r/redlobster subreddit group: “It’s positively coming again per administration simply can’t verify when . . . have to make extra employment preparations for when it hits.”
Did infinite shrimp actually bankrupt Purple Lobster?
Whereas hypothesis on the providing’s return continues, many are utilizing the second to spotlight how complicated Purple Lobster’s chapter actually was—arguing that infinite shrimp alone can’t shoulder the blame.
The chain had confronted struggles lengthy earlier than the promotion was made everlasting, and plenty of consultants have pointed to difficulties surrounding management turnover, elevated labor prices and inflation, and a 2014 actual property deal that proved to be pricey in the long run.
Others are additionally underscoring personal fairness’s position within the firm’s failures. “Purple Lobster went bankrupt due to personal fairness, not shrimp,” one consumer posted on X.
That sentiment has been shared for years. “[The] greatest cause Purple Lobster went beneath is fairly easy,” James Surowiecki wrote for Quick Firm in 2024. “Its homeowners sank it.”
