Dozens of Red Lobster Restaurants Are Auctioning Off Equipment

If you ever wanted to buy a lobster tank and an industrial freezer, now is the time.

Equipment from more than 50 Red Lobster restaurants across the United States was up for auction on Tuesday, a liquidator said, as the embattled seafood chain’s website listed dozens of locations as being temporarily closed.

The auction site includes grainy pictures 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, Calif., along with photos of a bar with whiskey bottles and a refrigerator stocked with wine and beer.

The auctions were scheduled to end on Thursday, and items must be picked up on Friday, according to the liquidator, TAGeX Brands. Whoever who wins the bid for a particular restaurant will receive everything inside it (not including perishable goods and alcohol, the auction site noted).

Red Lobster did not respond to inquiries Tuesday morning.

Red Lobster, based in Orlando, Fla., opened its first location in 1968 and now has restaurants across the United States, plus others in Asia and Latin America. Its décor 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 drastically 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 whether to file for bankruptcy. The company did not comment for that article.

For many American families, Red Lobster has long been an aspirational dining choice, and for some an introduction to seafood. In the late 1960s and ’70s, its logo advertised the