Red Lobster Shopped By?

Does anyone know who does Red Lobster?

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I don't believe they are shopped. I asked a few years ago and manager told me that they just use the survey cards and receipt survey phone # results.
I googled and found only this from someone in 2006:
The one time I mystery shopped a Red Lobster I was given $25 for two people. No lobster that day!

I know they are part of the Darden restaurant group:

Darden Restaurants, Inc., (NYSE: DRI) headquartered in Orlando, Fla., is the world’s largest company-owned and operated full-service restaurant company with almost $6.7 billion in annual sales and approximately 180,000 employees. The Company owns and operates more than 1,700 restaurants including Red Lobster, Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, The Capital Grille, Bahama Breeze and Seasons 52.

I also googled and found this list of ms companies.......if you scroll down, you will see one that has Red Lobster listed. Starts w/an M but again,,,,,,,don't know how old this info is.
[www.savingxpert.com]

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/29/2008 11:09PM by bugspost.

Of all the companies listed by that 'M' company, only one of those restaurants do they still shop in my area (or that I have ever seen them shop in my area in the years I have been signed up with them) and that shop now pays by sending you a gift card for your next visit rather than paying you a reimbursement for your meal.

Yep Flash, They shop that one here w/gc too. But they also shop two others in my area but they are not Darden restaurants. At least, the other two are reimbursement.
I don't get why they went the gc route w/the other one. Just imagine the client wants to get all the revenue. Another MS company actually shops the same restaurant and pays a fee+reimbursement but haven't seen them post in WASH. I know they have in CALIF.

Many of those Darden co's are shopped, though. But I guess for the prices they charge at RL they ain't selling service. (Their fish is pretty low end, too, as fish grades go.)

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“Lying in bed would be an altogether perfect and supreme experience if only one had a colored pencil long enough to draw on the ceiling."
~Gilbert K. Chesterton

I agree.......Red Lobster has never impressed me much w/their seafood.

What? You are kidding. Have you tried their shrimp?

Angelique, my husband sells fresh seafood to high end restaurants and groceries. He has worked in that industry since he was 15. I know a lot about fish quality. While you may like the taste of the shrimp at RL, they are not using high quality fish at those price points. This I know for a fact.

I'm definitely not a fish expert. Wish I knew more. Maybe that's why I'm not normally impressed with seafood at RL and other restaurants. Is price point the determining criteria?

Yes, Red Lobster is shopped occasionally.

Since only one location in NYC seems to be shopped every few months, both lunch and dinner, I would say it is likely a franchise only shop. I previously did it.

Same situation with Outback...I only saw it shopped once and it was an upstate NY location. And it was shopped by the same company doing Red Lobster.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/30/2008 02:01PM by Arch Stanton.

Roughly, price is not the only thing, but it is a HUGE part of it. Sometimes there is no fish caught and sometimes a glut, so prices are artificially high or low on a temporary basis, but in general price is the indicator of the quality of the fish when it went on auction. And the rough restaurant formula is 3 times the price per pound. If they pay $11 bucks a pound, you are going to pay
approximately $33 bucks for your fish dinner, if the quality of the fish is high. And you aren't getting a pound of fish, yea? The lower the "grade" the lower the price. Then some chains like RL can add the volume purchase discount.

Look, I like the shrimp in every bite fettucine alfredo enough to eat it once every few years with a discount coupon, but I am not kidding myself into thinking I am eating "good" shrimp.

I do like the Lobster pizza though........

I know, Dee. Chain stores never have the highest quality of any food, and rarely service. That's how they keep their prices down.

Bugs--the page with the list is copyrighted 2008, but we don't know when it was last updated. We have a RL in my county, and the MSP that does the cake shop hasn't shopped them in at least the past 6 months. But I wouldn't do it for a GC anyway.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/01/2009 03:39AM by sneakers.

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