As with many other Red Lobster restaurants that have shuttered in recent months, this closure has been called “unexpected” by patrons.
Author’s Note
This article is based on corporate postings and accredited media reports. Linked information within this article is attributed to the following outlets: ScrapeHero.com, Facebook.com, and LowCountryWeekend.com.
Introduction
Since the last quarter of 2022, I have written extensively for NewsBreak about the Red Lobster seafood chain. Most of these articles have detailed recent store closures, which appear to have become regular occurrences during this period.
According to ScrapeHero.com: There are 667 Red Lobster stores in the United States as of January 18, 2023. The state with the most number of Red Lobster locations in the U.S. is Florida, with 60 stores, which is about 9% of all Red Lobster stores in the U.S.
Now comes word, however, of yet another closure that will decrease that count yet again.
Let us explore further.
Red Lobster, 2023
According to a February 2nd report from LowCountryWeekend.com, entitled “Red Lobster Announces West Ashley Location Closure,” this latest closing — this one in South Carolina — approaches a dozen largely unexpected shutterings since the last quarter of 2022.
The report states the restaurant is closing its doors for good, and includes the full statement of the company as for its reasons.
The formal company statement, in full, is as follows: We regularly review our restaurant portfolios as part of the normal course of business, and as a result, we have concluded that this location is no longer right for Red Lobster. Therefore, we made the difficult decision to close our restaurant at 2080 Sam Rittenburg Boulevard. The management team and our team members at the Charleston location were given the chance to relocate to other Red Lobster restaurants.
In closing this location, we hope to redeploy and add resources to other locations where we can continue in our growth, whether it’s by developing our people in a new way or providing more innovative food choices to our guests. To this end, we have another Red Lobster restaurant nearby in North Charleston and we invite our loyal guests to dine-in or order To Go from that location.
It should be noted, as I have discussed in prior NewsBreak articles, that new locations have also opened in the new year but they have yet to balance the closings. As to the above statement, it is nearly identical to their wording regarding other recent closures. Social media responses have largely expressed surprise at this Red Lobster closing, as they have done regarding others.
Conclusion
The ongoing closures of individual Red Lobster restaurants throughout the country is a developing story. As of now, there is nothing to substantiate that these closures represent anything more than the entity’s normal course of location reviews.
In the event of pertinent updates to these matters I will share them here on NewsBreak.
Thank you for reading.
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