Slippery Parking Lot at Red Lobster

You state in your letter that the lot was intolerably icy on your way
inside. Why would you not turn around and get back into your car if
it was going to be that large a concern for you? It must have been
difficult enough to steer the car into a parking space, if conditions
were as bad as that.

Weather conditions can change in a matter of hours or even minutes and
cause a quick transformation from a parking lot to a skating rink.
Maybe you should order in on chilly nights.

i agree with you lisa. working at a hospital and actually did fall
twice for them not salting the parking lot is really inviting a
lawsuit. not saying you would sue or myself but there are plenty
people that would. maybe the manager didn't know but when u brought it
to his attention then he should've took more action to correct the
problem.

wow snow & Ice covered parking lots in Ohio during December? You've
got to be pulling my leg!!

C'mon, they can only do so much with mother nature. You're in the
northern end of the U.S. & it's winter time. Learn how to cope and
walk as carefully as you can on mother nature's frozen gifts. Couldn't
pay me enough to be out in that cold ass weather just to rid a parking
lot of ice & snow. If you can't cope move south where it doesn't snow,
then again you'd probably complain about it raining too much too.

That's a real liability-you'd think they would have been concerned.
Nothing happens until someone is seriously injured (ie. elderly or
someone unable to work due to a slipand fall-legitimatley) People are
responsible for their sidewalks due to liability so why would they be
so ignorant?????

I am not sure if this is a single store Red Lobster or one that is in
the parking lot of a mall. If it was the later, it might not be the
responsibility of the restaurant to take care of the parking lot.
Depending on how the lease reads, the landlord may be responsible for
the plowing of the parking lot.

With that being said, it was your decision to venture out in dangerous
conditions. If the city streets were as icy as the parking lot would
you be complaining to the city for not taking care of the streets.

Were the sidewalks in front of your house free from ice?

If we all move to warm weather, where would we all live? Not a valid
suggestion.

I used to work at movie theatre and the area within five feet of our
front entrance was our property, thus had to be salted and shovelled
as needed. The massive parking lot in front of the building why that
we were NOT allowed to salt or shovel as it was not our property. You
may need to look into this to see if what they salted was all they
were allowed to because they don't own the property.

The immediate reaction from management was to at once inspect and salt
the entire area. It was inconsiderate and downright negligent of this
branch manager to not say something to the effect, "Thank you for
bringing this to my attention, I will make sure the parking lot is
taken care of immediately so as to assure the safety of our customers
and staff." There could be a serious legal lawsuit for any company
that does not abide by safety measures. Unfortunately there are cases
of neglect and people have suffered severe injuries which could have
been avoided.
I am sure you have made a formal complaint to headquarters and they
see the need to reinforce and make customer safety a priority and
their number one issue.

Regards, Caroline from Michigan

I agree with the OP. Someone should have been out to salt. And, if
the parking lot is to be taken care of by a 3rd party, there's no
reason the manager couldn't convey this to the OP. A simple "we have
someone coming to take care of the situation" would have sufficed. It
would at least show that they cared. I personally don't believe that
"There is not much we can do" is an acceptable answer. It is
ultimately their responsibility to make sure the parking lot is safe
for people to use.

The restaurant itself doesn't plow or put salt/dirt on the ice.. a
seperate company does. And you let THAT decide if your returning? How
very sad........

Most of the Red Lobster Restaurants I've been to are usually on the
outskirts of large malls, if this is the case there, perhaps send a
copy of the letter to the mall's property management department as
well. I think they did what they could under the circumstances by at
least clearing and salting the access area.

As it's been well documented that most of the Northeast has
experienced snow/sleet/ice recently, my uneducated guess is that there
are many others who've experienced similar conditions.

I'm even willing to bet that some actually slipped, fell, and
sustained the gamut from mild embarrassment to severe injury.

It's a risk we all have to make.

Where I live, we have 24 hours after a storm to make sure our
property's sidewalks are sufficiently cleared and salted or we risk
getting fined

It does take some time to hire a crew to come out and salt it, as
others mentioned below. I hope they do come out and take care of it
and I hope you are ok.

Let us know if they respond to your letter.

My Grand Dad who has been gone for sometime and my Dad less than a
year are up there looking down wondering why the heck the guy did not
drop his wife under the portecache or at least at the front door?
Of course that does not address the ice issue but this method does
only expose the designated ice skater to the perils of nature.
BillR.

I'm going to guess on this one, that Red Lobster contracts out for its
parking lot stuff. I think putting salt on the sidewalk can be easy
enough, but to do the whole parking lot could be difficult. Having
said that. Being Ohio, in December, and the likelyhood of Red Lobster
contracting out the parking lot maintenance, maybe the people that do
the work, were busy w/ other places, and just had not gotten there
yet.

I have to say, isn't unusual for a parking lot to be so slippery you
can't even walk safely, but the roads are safe for driving? Unless it
got warm enough to thaw, then refreeze, but it hasn't gotten above 32
degrees in the Midwest since the snowfall, has it?

I have to say that I agree with you. It's a huge liability to have a
slippery parking lot and whoever owns the lot should have taken steps
to salt it. Red Lobster may not own the lot, they may lease from a
property management agency, and that could account for why the lot was
not salted and why there wasn't much they could do about it.

As a fellow Clevelander, I have to ask - DID YOU NOT KNOW IT SNOWS AND
GETS COLD HERE????

I mean what exactly do you think they can do? I'm sure they have a
plow with a salter on the back parked just outside for the very
purpose of clearing the lot. Seriously.

And PLEASE tell me that, "I feel that he could have done more to take
care of the situation" is not an insinuation that you believe they
should have comped your meal over this.

At the end of the day, anyone who lives here typically has the sense
that from approximately November until March that it's cold, snowy and
slippery. You did not, in fact, fall and as a fellow Clevelander, I'm
embarrassed that you 1) submitted this letter and 2) are now refusing
to frequent this establishment over this.

I hope I never have to wind up eating in the same establishment as
you.

Move to San Diego. Just remember to take a fire extinguisher with
you.

Or maybe you would consider the LA - San Francisco area, where you
just need a space rocket to quickly escape the mass destruction that
will ensue when the Big One hits.

Or perhaps you would consider Florida, where you simply run the risk
of having your house dozed over or up into the air by a hurricane.

Mother Nature is rather unattractive without her makeup.

They spread salt around the entrance. Sometimes there really isn't
much they can do other than that. It would be expensive to send a salt
truck out on the demand of individual customers.