Posted on 08/30/2019 11:36:18 PM PDT by Morgana
LITTLE FALLS - Many restaurants promise fast service. But, according to one local customer, a Herkimer County restaurant promotes speed eating, with a 30-minute time limit for dine-in customers.
"In 60+ years I've never been thrown out of a public restaurant until yesterday. The local Little Falls, NY, McDonald's has a new policy to evict customers after 30 minutes. 3 of us having coffee and lunch following Sunday Mass were asked to leave the restaurant after 34 minutes. Another table of 4 women were also evicted. The dining room was essentially cleared," said Jane Malin in a public Facebook post on Monday, adding "Not only was it insulting and embarrassing, it was ridiculous."
The Facebook post quickly drew hundreds of reactions, comments and nearly 1,000 shares as of Monday afternoon. Some offered explanations for the policy, such as diners staying too long and taking advantage of free wifi; others called it horrible customer service.
Malin didn't want to be interviewed on camera. She says the employee who 'evicted' her was very polite, and she asked the worker to convey her displeasure to management.
A spokesperson for Tom Clark, who owns and operates several area McDonald's restaurants, says he does not own or operate the Little Falls restaurant, and does not employ such a policy in his restaurants.
A public relations firm out of Pennsylvania sent a statement, which they attributed to the owner/operator of the Little Falls McDonald's. It did not address our questions, which included whether or not the policy was enforced when the restaurant wasn't full, and how it is enforced; do employees note the time every party sits and watch a running clock to make sure 30 minutes are not exceeded?
(Excerpt) Read more at wktv.com ...
If you look over this....they’d have to hire some kid to stand there with a stop-watch, and count minutes on each table. Whoever made this decision...is not long for the business-world, and had better look for another occupation. The only acceptable reason to run something like this is that you have an enormous crowd who shows up in the AM, and sits there for an hour chatting with associates.
I’ve eaten at probably forty McDonalds over the past decade and never seen big crowds in the AM.
I’m not a marketing expert, but a policy of “Scram, you old coots!” doesn’t seem like the ideal way to curry customer favor.
you just check the timestamp on the receipt. You can scroll back through all the orders and see when each one was placed.
Eat elsewhere. Boycott idiotic places like this.
I’ve noticed the fast food places with WiFi eventually cap all the places where you can plug in a charger . They clearly don’t want people hogging the seats with plugs so they take them all away.
Once you establish this policy....all you will do is chase out customers to local coffee shops and Starbucks. If I were Burger King....I’d seize on this and have an ad (’We don’t chase out customers’).
I have seen it done during overnight hours to keep the drunks and teens away. One place had something like a $2.00 per hour minimum. Just google Denny’s Fights and see why some places have this policy.
So somebody finally read the policy manual and took it seriously. Time for comprehensive customer service reform. If something like that.
My late, beloved mom-in-law loved lingering over a meal. A lunch enjoyed with her could take two hours. Mickey D’s was a frequent venue. She wouldn’t have set foot in some place that had a time linit.
Of course, the seniors accused McD’s of , wait for it, Racism !
Maybe they don’t want anymore ‘thug’ seniors hanging out?
(I know, ‘cause I am one)
:^)
Simple policy updates: 1) 30 minute limit on tables where there is no adult present (18+ years), and 2) Enforce a 30 minute limit for all ages between 10pm-6am.
My father is like that, and it drives me crazy.
Yes, I believe in enjoying a meal at a leisurely pace and not wolfing down your food, the art of conversation, and social time with those you love.
But turning a breakfast or lunch into a 2 hour affair is really ridiculous. It's also unfair to the business that is providing you with the meal. We were at a diner where other customers were waiting, and there we were, hanging out at a table an hour and half after our food was served. It's a meal - not an overnight Motel 6.
There was a story (urban legend?) circulating years ago that McDonald’s was engineered via color scheme, seat design, and leg room to be comfortable for merely 20 minutes.
OTOH, the local McD’s hosts a senior bingo event on Wednesday mornings for 2 hours.
“Please limit wifi use to 60 minutes”—sign at a McDonald’s, N Reading MA.
But they don’t throw you out. When I go it’s breakfast just before work and I’m out of there in 30-40 minutes.I see workers eating there; retired folks, families, sometimes high schoolers.No time limit needed. Affordable and half decent.
I visit friends in Ohio at a Steak n Shake or Chik Fil A (one retired, one self employed but semi retired).We have stayed there for 2-3 hours to eat and talk, no problem. Even if place kinda busy.Most people in and out in reasonable amount of time and they can have their “turnover” in table seating.
Together with friends at a “99” in MA (kind of like Applebees) celebrating a birthday. 2 hour dinner, no problem, even at 6 on a Saturday night.They still have turnover at other tables.Of course we’re regular customers.
I completely agree with you! Utterly ridiculous that a meal be stretched into a two hour ordeal. Restaurants typically operate on very thin margins to begin with. Tables are money. Anyone that loves to “linger” that long needs to find a better hobby.
I know of about 4 McDonald’s in my area that enforce such a policy (and it’s based off of the receipt time.) Enforcement isn’t spotty, but fairly consistent and often put into place to have the local squatter community move on.
Instead, the senior army meets at various donut shops around the area, when they aren’t having fun tweaking the noses of local Starbucks over ‘well, if it’s a small, why not just call it a small?’
Charge em rent!!!! /sarc
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.