If you’ve ever wanted to buy a lobster tank and industrial freezer, now is the time.
Equipment at more than 50 Red Lobster restaurants in the United States will be auctioned on Tuesday, a liquidator said, as the troubled seafood chain’s website listed dozens of restaurants as temporarily closed.
The auction site has grainy pictures of freezers, ovens, blenders and other items. The listing for Red Lobster in Redding, Calif., showed a photo of a tank containing live lobsters, along with photos of a bar with whiskey bottles and a refrigerator filled with wine and beer.
Liquidator TAGeX Brands said the auction was due to end on Thursday and items had to be picked up on Friday. The auction website notes that whoever wins the bid for a particular restaurant will receive all items in the restaurant (excluding perishable goods and alcohol).
Red Lobster did not respond to inquiries Tuesday morning.
Headquartered in Orlando, Florida, Red Lobster opened its first location in 1968 and currently has restaurants throughout the United States as well as in Asia and Latin America. The decor is inspired by the coastal town of Bar Harbor, Maine.
Red Lobster is still an American institution, but it has been losing money for some time. Last year, the company decided to significantly expand its all-you-can-eat shrimp promotion, resulting in a quarterly operating loss of $11 million.
Bloomberg News reported last month that Red Lobster was looking to restructure its debt and consider whether to file for bankruptcy. The company did not comment for this article.
Red lobster has long been an ideal dining option for many American families and, for some, an introduction to seafood. In the late 1960s and 1970s, its sign promoted the restaurant as a cocktail lounge with an oyster bar.
Red Lobster has also permeated American pop culture, including in the 1996 Adam Sandler comedy “Happy Gilmore” and the 2016 Beyoncé song “Formation,” in which she sang It’s time to take your romantic partner to a restaurant.
General Mills acquired the chain in 1970. ) acquisition.
Since 2020, Red Lobster’s largest shareholder has been Thai Union Group. The company announced its decision to exit its investment in Red Lobster in January. The company later said it had written down $530 million of its stake.
Thai Union said in a January announcement that Red Lobster had been hurt by the coronavirus pandemic, rising interest rates, higher labor and material costs and “ongoing industry headwinds.” The company said in a brief email on Tuesday that it was still in the process of “exiting its minority investment” and had no further comment.
Red Lobster’s other major shareholder is Seafood Alliance, an international association of seafood businesses based in Belgium, according to Thai Alliance. The Seafood Alliance did not immediately respond to inquiries.
Victor Mather contributed reporting.
