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Monday Morning Red Lobster announced that it was closing several restaurants immediately. Nobody even notified the employees as many showed up for work Monday. Thursday there were online auctions for the the entire contents of many of them. It seemed a strange way to do it. They could probably have gotten a lot more money selling individual items and having a little more notice. The conditions also contributed to there not being many bidders. The full amount had to be paid at the end of the auction, which is pretty standard but everything had to be removed from the location today. That would be difficult to organize on such short notice. The auction was supposed to end at 12:30 PM for the store in La Crosse Wisconsin. The Bid was $11,100 at 12:30 but they extended the bidding an additional 20 minutes and took 21 more bids ending at $15,000. This was one of the highest bids. Other restaurants contents sold for as low a $2,000. It seems strange that they didn't sell the restaurants as a package but maybe they lease the buildings.
I don't know how the auction was set up, but if they announced an ending time for bids, they could get sued.
One online auction that I have participated in were set up to run for a certain time but the time would be extended if another bid came in. They had a countdown timer but I never watched the auctions live. You could enter a bid at the maximum you would pay and they would enter the bids in the order they were received and if your bid was higher they would increase the previous bid by the minimum bid amount for that item. If they got another bid they would increase mine by the minimum amount again until my maximum was reached. Then they would send me a email saying I had been outbid and how much time was left. I always figured they would run it to my maximum but they seemed to do as they said. I bought several items. Some at the maximum bid and some lower. I even got a couple at the minimum bid.
There was another local restaurant that shut down a few years back. They had an online auction for items or groups of items and I think you could bid for three days. I think they brought in around $70,000 then the buyers had 2 weeks to pick up the items.
I don't know how the auction was set up, but if they announced an ending time for bids, they could get sued.
One online auction that I have participated in were set up to run for a certain time but the time would be extended if another bid came in. They had a countdown timer but I never watched the auctions live. You could enter a bid at the maximum you would pay and they would enter the bids in the order they were received and if your bid was higher they would increase the previous bid by the minimum bid amount for that item. If they got another bid they would increase mine by the minimum amount again until my maximum was reached. Then they would send me a email saying I had been outbid and how much time was left. I always figured they would run it to my maximum but they seemed to do as they said. I bought several items. Some at the maximum bid and some lower. I even got a couple at the minimum bid.
There was another local restaurant that shut down a few years back. They had an online auction for items or groups of items and I think you could bid for three days. I think they brought in around $70,000 then the buyers had 2 weeks to pick up the items.
