If you constantly find yourself craving a
vat of snow crab with a side of coconut shrimp — and permission to wear a bib as a grown
adult — you might not be able to get your fix at your local Joe's Crab Shack much longer. These are the real reasons Joe's Crab Shack
is disappearing across the country. Trans fats are cheap, easy, and resilient,
so they're a no-brainer for restaurants trying to cut costs or food manufacturers looking
to extend shelf life. They can also be disastrous for your health. Joe's Crab Shack vowed to stop cooking with
trans fats in 2007, but got busted in 2014 for continuing to use them. Health experts condemned the company. In the cites, counties, and states that had
banned the use of artificial trans fat, Joe's used real butter. In other places, it continued to use trans
fats despite clearly having a viable alternative. According to Consumerist, the Center for Science
in the Public Interest called out Joe's Crab Shack in 2014 for using trans fats in the
"Joe's Pasta-laya," crab cake dinner and steam pots. Michael F. Jacobson, executive director of
the center, warned consumers, "Until the company fixes the problem and switches
to a healthier substitute, eat at Joe's at your own risk—an increased risk of heart
disease and premature death." It's possible these headlines were part of
what deterred customers from continuing to eat at Joe's Crab Shack. It's never a good sign when your staff is
so unhappy, they get the legal system involved. That's exactly what happened at a Joe's Crab
Shack location in San Francisco in 2014, when nine disgruntled former Joe's Crab Shack workers
sued the chain for not following labor laws. Among employees' claims were accusations that
the management refused to grant proper breaks, manipulated their timesheets to avoid paying
overtime, and didn't reimburse them for the cost of uniforms. Allegedly, some of the workers were terminated
when they tried to voice their concern about the labor law violations. This unfortunate PR might not have sat well
with folks who were deciding what seafood chain to choose for a night out, making it
another possible factor in Joe's decline. To boost morale, retain more employees, and
increase pay for front-house staff, Joe's Crab Shack started experimenting with a no-tip
policy in the summer of 2015. The staff's hourly pay went up, and so did
the menu prices, with items costing 12 to 15 percent more. The chain instigated the no-gratuity-necessary
test at 18 restaurants. The plan went over well for a while. "Officials say tipping is old-fashioned and
inspires and sparks an overly competitive environment among servers." Then it soured. In May of 2016, the restaurant announced it
would reinstate tipping. Apparently, the clientele at the no-tip locations
spoke with their wallets. The amount of diners at the no-tipping outposts
declined 8 to 10 percent. A customer survey revealed that 60 percent
of Joe's patrons felt like the promise of a tip was incentive for great service. Patrons also indicated that they didn't trust
the upper level management at Joe's Crab Shack to fairly compensate servers. One might argue that the entire experiment
left a permanent bad taste in customers' mouths. For years, one of the hallmarks of casual
dining chain restaurants was random, obscure paraphernalia on the walls. Now they're making a massive effort to declutter
in hopes of competing with the simpler aesthetics of fast casual chains. Perhaps the revamps are also necessary because
historical prints and knick-knacks on walls and tables open the potential for something
seriously offensive to slip through the cracks. While dining at a Joe's Crab Shack in Roseville,
Minnesota, in March of 2016, two patrons discovered a photo embedded into the table that depicted
a group of people witnessing the lynching of an African American man. The title was "Hanging at Groesbeck, Texas,
on April 12th, 1895." A caption at the top read, "All I said was
that I didn't like the gumbo." The customers, an African American couple,
were understandably very upset and the Minneapolis NAACP demanded Joe's corporate office issue
an apology. The customers spoke at a press conference
in the restaurant parking lot soon after dining there. "When I looked at, it was clear to me that
was a lynching." The restaurant immediately removed the photo
and showed remorse, but it's still disturbing that someone had approved that decor in the
first place. When the story broke, others reported seeing
the same photo at other Joe's locations. In 2013, Joe's Crab Shack's parent company
at the time, Ignite Restaurant Group, borrowed a lot of funds and spent $55 million to acquire
Macaroni Grill. The purchase included over 200 restaurants
in the U.S. and overseas. Just as Ignite bought the chain, the trend
toward fast casual dining really started to take off, and its clientele began to wane. Ignite Restaurant Group ultimately ended up
selling Macaroni Grill two years later for just $7.3 million, only about 13 percent of
what it originally paid for the chain. In March of 2017, Ignite Restaurant Group
was delisted from the Nasdaq Stock Exchange. In May of that year, Ignite reported quarterly
drops in performance at Joe's Crab Shack and its other major chain, Brick House Tavern,
with 14.3 percent and 12.6 percent declines in same-store sales, respectively. Ignite Restaurant Group announced it was looking
for a buyer and considering bankruptcy protection. The company's Securities and Exchange Commission
filing noted, "The sales declines are primarily due to decreased
guest traffic. […] We have deployed many different operational
strategies, but so far none have had a meaningful impact on sales or guest traffic." In June of 2017, Ignite Restaurant Group filed
for bankruptcy, citing debt of $197 million and assets of only $153 million. Ignite's revenue had decreased 8.5 percent
between 2015 and 2016. According to Jon Berke, middle markets editor
for Debtwire, the purchase of Macaroni Grill was really the beginning of the end for Ignite
and Joe's Crab Shack. He told the Houston Chronicle, "Honestly, it seems to me the first sign of
real trouble was when Macaroni Grill became part of the company." In August of 2017, Joe's Crab Shack's previous
owner from 1994 to 2006, Landry's, Inc., put in the highest bid in bankruptcy court to
acquire Ignite Restaurant Group's assets at $57 million. Right away, billionaire Landry's CEO and Houston
Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta said his company would likely reduce the number of Joe's Crab
Shack locations to just 60. Fertitta also discussed potentially transforming
some of the underperforming Joe's Crab Shacks into more popular concepts already under the
Landry's umbrella. Some of Landry's most popular establishments
include Rainforest Cafe, Bubba Gump Shrimp, and Morton's Grille. While Ignite was struggling to dig themselves
out of a hole, Landry's thrived despite changes in American dining trends, with revenue increasing
by $100 million from 2015 to 2017. Armed with the success of a booming business,
Fertitta maintained that Landry's could salvage the Joe's brand. But so far, that hasn't proven to be the case. Even before Joe's Crab Shack shifted back
to its previous owners, its rep suffered when locations in New Jersey, Virginia, Nebraska,
and New York abruptly ghosted loyal consumers and employees with sudden closures. It's possible the closings were a result of
landlords ending leases because of the bankruptcy proceedings. That would be well out of Joe's hands. Some say the Monmouth, New Jersey location
closed because it couldn't compete with nearby Red Lobster. It closed in July 2017 while the others shut
down in the first week of August, just before the final bankruptcy auction. When the Landry's, Inc. purchase became official,
the closing didn't stop. More than 40 additional restaurants suddenly
shut down later in August. In nearly all of these closures, many employees
were left confused and stressed after reporting to work and finding their restaurants closed. "I believe that we should have been given
notice at least 30 to 45 days if this was in the works so that we could have had time
to get our ducks in a row." The higher ups didn't warn or notify anyone
via email or phone, and apparently there were even customers who showed up with group reservations. Joe's obviously could not honor their bookings. Even as Landry's tried to salvage the brand's
name after bankruptcy, it's possible that disgruntled former employees and customers
swore off the chain when this all went down or even told their social circles. That easily could have lost Joe's Crab Shack
some clout and patrons. If you do a deep dive into the Joe's Crab
Shack website, you won't find much intel on where its seafood comes from. A report from PBS News revealed that 90 percent
of the seafood Americans eat is from international sources. Interestingly enough, according to Brian Marder,
owner of Marder Trawling in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, most of what the fishermen catch in his area
is exported to Europe. It's a safe bet, then, that Joe's isn't getting
fresh crab from local fishermen. In fact, 75 percent of the king crab eaten
in the U.S. comes from Russia. Without any concrete information from the
company, it's hard to know where it's coming from. "That man ate all our shrimp. And two plastic lobsters." As more Americans recognize the importance
of sourcing and buying local, it's more likely they'll opt for seafood restaurants that are
transparent about how they source their food. It helps fishermen who need local markets
to improve their bottom lines and maintain sustainable communities on the coasts. The lack of transparency around their food
and what they use to cook it could have been a contributor to less enthusiasm for the restaurant
and, in turn, its overall decline. Why eat at Joe's when you can eat at home,
with Netflix and a meal kit? In an effort to save money and eat healthier,
folks across the country are opting to cook at home rather than go out to eat. According to Bloomberg, the average American
dined in restaurants around 216 times in the year 2000. By 2017, that number had dropped to 185. Eating at home is more convenient than ever
with pre-chopped veggies and pre-washed lettuce in the produce section, or meal kit services
that deliver the exact amount of ingredients families need directly to their doors. Meal kits generated $5 billion in revenue
across the globe in 2015. To try to counteract the less-eating-out trend,
some restaurants are experimenting with their own meal kits. Several Chick-fil-A restaurants in Atlanta
are offering meal kits that people can pick up, then take home to prepare. But a big part of the allure of Joe's Crab
Shack is the ability to messily crack and eat crab at the table, so it seems implausible
that this would ever be an option for them. The popularity of meal kits and efforts to
save money by eating at home have no doubt caused Joe's Crab Shack traffic to suffer. While casual dining joints like Joe's Crab
Shack struggle to keep customers coming, fast food chains continue to perform well. Between 2013 and 2016, around 37 percent of
adults ate fast food on a given day, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Why would the average American diner opt for
White Castle over Joe's Crab Shack? Fast food is cheap and filling. It offers plenty of calories to keep someone
full without putting a huge hole in their wallet. It's also quicker. Often, hungry people would rather zip through
a drive-thru and eat in their car as soon as that sack of food is in their hands, than
settle into a booth to order from a menu. It's also possible that people often choose
where to eat based on convenience, not cravings. It's hard to foresee a world where anyone
would want crab served out of a drive-thru window, even if it was available. Joe's Crab Shack isn't just a quick meal. It's an experience, perhaps one that Americans
have become less and less interested in having since its heyday at the turn of the century. "We've got crab legs.” “Crab legs? Ahhhhh!" Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus, even more Mashed videos about your favorite
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