Bloomin' Brands Inc. (NASDAQ: BLMN) is the parent company of a diverse group of restaurants, including Outback Steakhouse, Carrabba's Italian Grill, Bonefish Grill, and Fleming's Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar. I'll comment on the relevance of that later, but right now, growth is slowing to a crawl, and inflation is taking a bite out of the company's earnings.   That's the takeaway from the company's second-quarter earnings report released on August 6, 2024. The company delivered revenue of $1.12 billion, which was only a slight miss from the $1.13 billion that analysts expected and down a bit more from the $1.15 billion reported in the same quarter in 2023.  The drop in earnings was more pronounced. The 51 cents earnings per share (EPS) missed analysts' expectations by 12%, and the loss was an even more significant 31% drop year-over-year. Additionally, the company's adjusted operating margin of 5.7% was down from the prior quarter's 7.8%. The same trend was in place with the restaurant-level operating margin, which fell to 14.3% from 16.4%.   The company competes in the consumer discretionary ...