by Katie Kemple
 |
Red Lobster filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last week citing $1 billion in debt, according to court filings. The announcement comes after a disastrous 2023 endless shrimp promotion in which, for around $20, patrons could order as much shrimp as they wanted, prompting eating challenges by users of TikTok. But while it brought customers to stores, it also put the chain $11 million in the red. —Vox, May 26, 2024 |
Who knew Red Lobster could be undone
by its small cousin? TikTokers gone wild
eating 70 shrimp at a time. Everyone
desperate for a deal anywhere we can find
it. All-you-can-eat-shrimp a sort of shrink-
flation in reverse. As our dreams squeezed
shrimp size. Smaller houses. Apartments.
We don't own them. Freelance gig status.
No benefits. Red Lobster underestimated
how desperately the rest of us needed that
20-buck offer. We ate the chain out from
under her majestic claws. Loved her too hard.
Cracked her so humbly. She never saw it
coming. Like that time, we borrowed my
aunt's kayak, and her neighbor let us pull
their lobster trap. How it tasted within
the hour, boiled and full of ocean. How
we cracked it and shared bites between
the four of us. The best deal ever. I wore
those lobster leggings. The seafood lover
in me, loving the serendipity. The trap,
the chain, in full view, we knew what we
were doing, the freedom of it. The feeling
we'd stepped outside of the capital, not
targets or markets. Not eating a commodity.
by its small cousin? TikTokers gone wild
eating 70 shrimp at a time. Everyone
desperate for a deal anywhere we can find
it. All-you-can-eat-shrimp a sort of shrink-
flation in reverse. As our dreams squeezed
shrimp size. Smaller houses. Apartments.
We don't own them. Freelance gig status.
No benefits. Red Lobster underestimated
how desperately the rest of us needed that
20-buck offer. We ate the chain out from
under her majestic claws. Loved her too hard.
Cracked her so humbly. She never saw it
coming. Like that time, we borrowed my
aunt's kayak, and her neighbor let us pull
their lobster trap. How it tasted within
the hour, boiled and full of ocean. How
we cracked it and shared bites between
the four of us. The best deal ever. I wore
those lobster leggings. The seafood lover
in me, loving the serendipity. The trap,
the chain, in full view, we knew what we
were doing, the freedom of it. The feeling
we'd stepped outside of the capital, not
targets or markets. Not eating a commodity.
Katie Kemple is a poet based in Southern California.