If you’ve ever wanted to buy a lobster tank and industrial freezer, now is the time.
Equipment from more than 50 Red Lobster restaurants across the United States were up for auction Tuesday, a liquidator said, as the embattled seafood chain’s website listed dozens of locations as temporarily closed.
The auction site includes grainy images of freezers, ovens, blenders and other items. A photo of a tank with live lobsters appeared in the listing for the Red Lobster in Redding, California, along with photos of a bar with bottles of whiskey and a refrigerator full of wine and beer.
Auctions were due to end on Thursday and items were to be picked up on Friday, according to liquidator TAGeX Brands. Whoever wins the bid for a particular restaurant will receive everything in it (not including perishables or alcohol, the auction site noted).
Red Lobster did not respond to inquiries Tuesday morning.
Red Lobster, based in Orlando, Florida, opened its first location in 1968 and now has restaurants throughout the United States, as well as others in Asia and Latin America. Its decor was inspired by Bar Harbor, a coastal town in Maine.
Red Lobster is still an American institution, but it has been losing money for a while. Last year, its decision to dramatically expand an all-you-can-eat shrimp promotion contributed to an $11 million quarterly operating loss.
Bloomberg News reported last month that Red Lobster was looking to restructure its debt and considering filing for bankruptcy. The company did not comment for that article.
For many American families, Red Lobster has long been an aspirational dining option and, for some, an introduction to seafood. In the late 1960s and 1970s, its logo advertised the restaurant as a cocktail lounge with an oyster bar.
Red Lobster has also seeped into American popular culture, including in Adam Sandler’s 1996 comedy “Happy Gilmore” and Beyoncé’s 2016 song “Formation,” in which she sang about taking a romantic partner to the restaurant.
General Mills purchased the chain in 1970. It was later owned by Darden Restaurants, a subsidiary of General Mills, and was purchased by Golden Gate Capital, a private equity firm, in 2014.
Red Lobster’s largest shareholder since 2020 has been Thai Union Group, a seafood conglomerate based in Thailand. That company announced in January that it had decided to abandon its investment in Red Lobster. He later said he had written down his $530 million stake.
Thai Union said in its January announcement that Red Lobster had been hit by the coronavirus pandemic, higher interest rates, rising labor and material costs and “sustained industry headwinds.” He said in a brief email on Tuesday that he was still in the process of “exiting his minority investment” and had no further comment.
Another major shareholder in Red Lobster is the Seafood Alliance, an association of international seafood companies based in Belgium, according to Thai Union. Seafood Alliance did not immediately respond to an inquiry.
Victor Mather contributed reporting.