Gastromomy shrinkflation

Sustainable, healthy and
environmentally friendly

 Most people are mislead to believe that restaurants operate one step above bankruptcy. In the case of chains not even close they're under incredible pressure from private equity companies to increase profit margins annually.

Many who were struggling a little because the quality went down prior to, made a lot more during covid. Overhead was down, less staff, basically a kitchen and staff that got the items packed for delivery.

I'm not talking about food court junk fast food or fast food, but mid range restaurants.

Red lobster is one example. I have a special place in my heart for them. In my university town we had a good one. On Tuesdays it was all you can eat. Everything on the menu. It was fresh, the waiter came regularly and I stayed away from anything deep fried or their dessert.

When a film student friend took me the first time it sounded too good to be true. I also felt like a cheapskate. We were about to gorge ourselves in our sweatshirts and jeans. Well. Red lobster treated us like regular customers not students on a tight budget. Not only that, but when the waiter recommended the chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream, I declined "I can't move. I'm about to roll out of here". 

He laughed. Then said skip the Minestrone next time. It's a filler. To this day I remember the sizzling garlic shrimp; fresh garlic and herbs. I knew a student that worked there; they were treated really well and everything was spotless.

In the early 2000s private equities started to buy up franchises, department stores and red lobster. They made a deal with one Thai seafood distributor which was too expensive. Then sold it for real estate, convinced the public that they were losing billions on the all you can eat, (they didnt) declared bankruptcy, tried to get a bailout for it and due to public support, red lobster bought back its company and brought back the all you can eat promo. Internet is still wrong about it.

As I discovered myself the first time. There's only so much one can eat in one sitting. At least I never could. I'm giving my student days as an example. Unless it was a birthday restaurants (that we actually liked) were not within our budgets. Red lobster never lost money.

You could not take what you couldn't finish home

You were only brought one item at a time

Instead of not going at all. I basically paid for the main, and received several appetizers and (had I chosen it) dessert for free.

Red Lobster uses good ingredients. They had mass purchasing power, sourced from several big sea food companies to the point that they could dictate the price due to its very high bulk volume. They also buy a variety of lobster species that are good but not the high end expensive ones.

Tuesdays is so slow for the restaurant business that they make money on those days with all you can eat.

Why am I mentioning it now? Because the food prices for big chains haven't gone up that much, but greed and disdain for the customer have. Unless people complain about items removed from menus (management not waiters) or companies replacing ingredients at will, the customer is no longer king but a joke.