It wasn’t just the endless shrimp — Red Lobster’s corporate owners drove it into bankruptcy

On the surface, the story of Red Lobster’s bankruptcy is about one of the seven deadly sins: gluttony.

The most eye-catching manifestation of that sin, as my colleague Marisa Gerber reported, was the chain’s experience with its $20 all-you-can eat shrimp promotion, which attracted families that parked themselves in the restaurants for hours at a time, consuming mass quantities. ---More...

People Are Learning Red Lobster Didn’t Go Bankrupt Because Of Endless Shrimp, They Were Attacked By Wall Street For Their Land

Here’s the full story

“The only reason Red Lobster's going into bankruptcy is because a hedge fund wanted them to go into bankruptcy.”

“The media will never stop covering for hedge funds while making it seem like every problem is the fault of the American people.

Like, I'd be willing to bet you think Red Lobster went into bankruptcy because of endless shrimp. You know, the endless shrimp promotion they had. Because that's what the media's told you. They've been telling you repeatedly that the reason Red Lobster went into bankruptcy was that they had the endless shrimp combo and the greedy American people just took advantage of it.

That's not what happened.

No, what happened was a hedge fund bought Red Lobster and as a condition of the sale, they made therm split up their land and their restaurants.

Because up until that point, Red Lobster actually owned all of the land that their restaurants were located on.

And then once they made them split that up, the hedge funds made the leases on that land so expensive that the Red Lobsters couldn't possibly continue to operate.

So Red Lobster had to keep trying new and new things to try to make enough money to pay these leases. And it was never enough to be able to afford what the hedge fund wanted to charge them.

So now they're going into bankruptcy. But the media is not talking about that and the American people were the problem.

That Red Lobster made terrible marketing decisions and the American people took advantage of it. But make no mistake, the only reason Red Lobster's going into bankruptcy is because a hedge fund wanted them to go into

bankruptcy.

They wanted to put Red Lobster out of business so they could take the land that the Red Lobsters were on. Because Red Lobster has some amazing locations across the United States. And now the hedge fund is going to be able to sell off all the little pieces of Red

Lobster, completely shutting them down and just have the land all to themselves.

And look, I don't like that hedge funds are allowed to do that. Investors are allowed to f*ck over another company. But what shouldn't be happening is the media being complicit and trying to hide that fact.

It's not just the hedge funds, it's not just the government, it's also the media.

Absolutely f*cking nobody is on our side. Absolutely nobody is giving us the true facts except for each other.”