Posted on 11/14/2024 5:30:30 PM PST by nickcarraway
Most people (hopefully) wouldn't steal from a store or a home, so why do diners think it's fine to come home with a pilfered fork, glass, toilet paper, or shaker?
Restaurant customers are a notoriously thieving bunch. If it’s not nailed down, someone will try to take it and I’m not just talking about the patience they sometimes snatch from those who serve them. Their fingers are stickier than a laminated breakfast menu at a Waffle House.
A recent viral TikTok video of a woman proudly displaying all of the things she had lifted from restaurants amassed over four million views before it was wisely deleted. She had stolen enough plates and silverware to host a state dinner at the White House and I believe she is the sole reason I can never find a soup spoon when I’m at work. Maybe some customers see it as a challenge to walk out with a molcajete after ordering chips and guacamole, but it’s nothing more than brazen robbery.
Woman Who Threw a Burrito Bowl at Chipotle Staffer Was Just Sentenced to Working at a Fast Food Restaurant From ramekins to salt and pepper shakers to steak knives to chopstick rests, customers feel like it’s their right to take what they want from a restaurant. The price of an appetizer and entree does not include anything other than the food on the plate. The food goes home with the customer either in their belly or in their to-go box and everything else stays at the restaurant.
It's a condiment, not a keepsake
When I worked at a well-known hotel chain, we had individual servings of 100% pure maple syrup. They came in adorable little jars emblazoned with the hotel’s logo and an image of the Brooklyn Bridge. The jars rested at the end of the buffet line so guests could help themselves to one after having a waffle made for them. Those jars sold out like hotcakes, except they weren’t actually for sale. Throughout the shift, they had to be continuously restocked to make up for all of the jars that ended up in purses and bags as souvenirs from Brooklyn. Eventually, the syrup bottles became something we gave out as needed. Once, a woman asked me for another jar of syrup. I looked at the unopened jar sitting in front of her and said, “When you finish that one, I’d be happy to bring you another.” Hey, I owned stock in that hotel chain and food costs really mattered to me.
Want Bread? Extra Lemon Wedges? Drink Refills? You Should Pay for Them
People often justify their theft saying it’s free advertising for the restaurant. Is it though? Taking a cactus-shaped Margarita glass that doesn’t even have the restaurant’s name on it and then storing that glass inside a cabinet at one’s home where no one except the person who stole it will ever see it, isn’t really a great advertising strategy. It’s just shoplifting. Unless the menu says “comes in a keepsake glass,” it’s pretty assured that the glass should not go inside a bag when the server isn’t looking.
If a diner feels they simply must have the ceramic creamer that came with their coffee or the wooden mallet that came with the crab, they might consider buying those at the same place the restaurant did. It’s called a restaurant supply store and they sell all the things customers want to steal from restaurants. They’re usually much more affordable than buying them at Williams-Sonoma, but admittedly not as cheap as stealing them.
Tea and TP aren't free
Customers take plenty of other things from restaurants too. Toilet paper is a hot commodity. If there are a few extra rolls of it on a shelf over the sink in the bathroom, those aren’t the same thing as the complimentary mints at the host stand. They aren’t there for the taking. Splenda and Sugar in the Raw packets are not on the table to restock a pocketbook. “All-you-can-eat” doesn’t mean it’s okay to cram a baggie full of rolls for the road.
Ordering one glass of iced tea that has unlimited refills and then sharing that glass of tea is also stealing. The same goes for couples who ask for one cup of coffee after dinner and leave the cup in front of one of them even though they both take turns drinking out of it. The server knows what’s happening and they don’t like it. It’s pure thievery and customers like that may as well throw the sugar caddy into their backpack while they’re at it.
Don't steal the server's pen
The one thing that’s okay to take from a restaurant is a pen, but only if it has the name of the restaurant on it. That’s an indication that it was provided by the establishment for the server to use. Any other pen was probably paid for by the server and anyone who tries to take it deserves to be chased down until it’s retrieved.
It costs a lot to go out to eat in a restaurant these days and it’s getting more expensive all the time. Inflation is a big part of it, but any time a customer steals something from the restaurant, it means prices can go up even higher. Stop stealing from restaurants. I’m not an economist or anything, but I feel like our country could avoid a possible recession if customers would only stop taking every copper mug their Moscow Mule came in.
Oh, we all know who does this.
How else would I have gotten my lobster tank? Cmon!
Who are these “many people” who steel from restaurants. I know many restaurant owners & managers and have not heard of this.
https://www.lightspeedhq.com/blog/restaurant-fraud-theft/
What is restaurant theft?
Restaurant theft occurs when someone intentionally steals from your restaurant. These activities can range from employees stealing food inventory or undercharging friends to swiping proprietary recipes or pocketing cash payments.
According to statistics:
95% of businesses encounter problems with employee theft.
75% of employees say they’ve stolen from their employers at least once.
More than half (55%) of all embezzlement cases occur at small businesses with fewer than 100 employees.
Internal employee theft accounts for 75% of restaurant inventory losses and 4% of restaurant sales.
Employee theft in the restaurant industry costs businesses $3 to $6 billion annually.
Its ok, please steal those twist salt and pepper grinders that are the most disgusting things in the restaurant, next to the rest rooms.
We’ve got a few fast food joints who had to get rid of their serve yourself soda machines. I was glad to see that. Freeloaders come in with 44 oz cups from 7-11 and fill them up. Those days are over.
Are molcajetes brought to the table, or do these people sneak into the kitchen to steal stuff?
The Bear opened my eyes to just how hard it is to work in a restaurant and to keep it afloat.
Some of the real high end chefs that have appeared on the show have gone out of business.
Although, the chef that cooks without electricity or gas is still in business. Niklas Ekstedt
It’s them again, Yogi.
Many restaurants around college towns hide their condiments and plasticware during the time students are checking into their dorms, because they’re known to clean out the racks in order to stock their dorm rooms.
The REAL THEFT is not tipping.
(well, that’s what they think)
𝘞𝘩𝘰 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦 “𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦” 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘴. 𝘐 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘸𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘴 & 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴.
The worst I’ve ever heard of was people stealing a mug from Denny’s on occasion.
“Oh, we all know who does this.”
You knew my mom? How do you like that?
I worked in Food & Beverage at a five-star resort and the things I saw!
Women who were married to high finance men whose names you’d know were the worst. After finishing eating at a buffet, they’d go back and load up their purses with bagels, etc.
It could get to where they’ll have to require payment up front. Which would be unfortunate, but may be the only way to stay in business given the reduced margins of profit from inflation due to ‘dine and dash’
I did that once as a teenager from a pizza place and feel guilty about taking the mug to this day. Restaurant has been gone for nearly 50 years so I doubt anyone actually misses it now.
It’s like collecting souvenirs. They have insurance.
I mean who hasn’t slipped a salt shaker in their back pocket or a cash register in the back of the owner’s truck and driven it home?
We should focus on important things. Like high taxes or property taxes. That’s robbery, basically.
Hmm. Does the person you’re talking about’s name rhyme with fillary mintton
A German restaurant owner chased me down in Berchtesgaden to accuse me of stealing the “salz und pfeffer” shakers. My language skills were not adequate to communicate my denial but he eventually seemed to understand. Since I was a serving US Army officer, I sure didn’t want to get in that kind of host country kerfuffle. This happened in the late 70s but is still a clear memory. I don’t remember the shakers being particularly special or notable, however.
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