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Endless Waste

Though I have only been there twice in my life, the news of Red Lobster has been interesting to follow. The chain came undone by way of all you can eat shrimp it seems. Closer home a Chinese buffet with a large assortment of sea food decided to become a sushi establishment but that did not work out. The customer wants a certain unsustainable amount of food for a price that does not work. If the establishment has no value proposition for the customer other than $X per pound of said food then chances are there is no way to save it one that X is not viable for the business. 

I was intrigued by the Chinese buffet going the sushi way and did not see how the existing clientele would find that a fair swap - they were coming for the unlimited crab legs, shrimp, mussel and crawfish. How was sushi ever going to compete with that. Red Lobster decided to throw in the towel, not swap out the endless shrimp with endless something that was a lot cheaper and had no appeal to the customer. But you do have to wonder about the marketing geniuses at Red Lobster who made the decision to make the endless shrimp a year round fixture instead of a promotional deal to draw people in. A short-lived promotion like that could work only when coupled with a menu that people get attached to and want to return for. That is the problem no one bothered to solve it seems. 

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