LZ Granderson Commentary: It hurts to lose Red Lobster, but money is tight

[LiberalElite]

http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/31/opinion/granderson-red-lobster/index.html?hpt=hp_c2


(CNN) -- I grew up a poor kid in Detroit.

Government cheese sandwiches, occasional nights without electricity, long-distance telephone calls reserved for emergencies only.

Yet despite our struggles, my family never lost hope that life would get better for us. We never lost faith in the American dream.

And as trivial as it may seem, a lot of that had to do with Red Lobster.

[JI7]

1. he makes some good points but there was a boycott

plus there are cheaper places that have better food. with the internet people have more ways of finding alternative places to go out to .

[Lifelong Protester]

2. That was a good column.

And as I think of the declining middle class, and of course the folks who lost their unemployment benefits this last weekend (not that they even have enough money to consider going out) I have to wonder at the economic 'geniuses' behind all this squeezing of the middle class.

Hello??? Who is going to spend money on your 'goods' if we have no money to spend?

[MADem]

3. RED LOBSTER is NOT going anywhere! It's a grave misapprehension.

The restaurant arm is splitting off from the parent chain, is all.

There's another thread on DU about this. The misapprehension was corrected there:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/111645850

All that said, the points the author makes about incomes shrinking and the "middle class dream" are entirely apropos. People don't go to restaurants as much anymore, in their church clothes or otherwise. It is expensive to take a whole family out on a tight budget.