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Olive Garden apologizes to Kiwanis Club
WBRC ^ | Christie Hutchins

Posted on 10/13/2011 9:57:15 AM PDT by raccoonradio

Olive Garden apologizes for refusing to allow 80-year-old Marti Warren bring an American flag into their restaurant during her Kiwanis Club award banquet last week.

Olive Garden issued this statement: "We are very sorry for any misunderstanding about this issue. We do not have a policy at Olive Garden concerning bringing the American flag into our restaurants. Some members of our team were misinformed about company policy by our corporate office. As a company, we take responsibility for that and we regret it. We take pride in how we communicate to our restaurants and we are correcting this so it doesn't happen again. Like all Americans, we have nothing but the utmost respect and admiration for the American flag and everything it symbolizes, and we welcome anyone who wishes to bring the flag into our restaurants. In fact, we periodically provide American flag collar pins to our employees to wear while serving guests."

Marti Warren says the vice president of the company contacted her today and will be coming to Oxford to personally apologize to all the Golden K Kiwanis Club members


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: apology; flag; kiwanis; oldglory; olvegarden; oops
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1 posted on 10/13/2011 9:57:21 AM PDT by raccoonradio
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To: raccoonradio

...And we don’t to lose a lot of customers...


2 posted on 10/13/2011 9:58:35 AM PDT by raccoonradio
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To: raccoonradio

Good thing they apologized. My wife and I go there often, and we were about to tell them to shove it up their Smelly Obama had they kept up this flag silliness.


3 posted on 10/13/2011 10:00:35 AM PDT by Da Coyote
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To: raccoonradio
Marti Warren says the vice president of the company contacted her today and will be coming to Oxford to personally apologize to all the Golden K Kiwanis Club members

How about a public reprimand or firing of the Manager who took it upon himself to change company policy and piss off customers?

4 posted on 10/13/2011 10:02:18 AM PDT by Bloody Sam Roberts (Attacking Wall Street because you're jobless is like burning down Whole Foods because you're hungry.)
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To: raccoonradio; Da Coyote

Why take it out on the corporation and other branches?

That puts corporations like this at the mercy of any single idiot leftist manager who claims to be offended.

Besides, plenty of reasons to hate Olive Garden for their obnoxious product.


5 posted on 10/13/2011 10:03:42 AM PDT by sam_paine (X .................................)
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To: raccoonradio
"Some members of our team were misinformed about company policy by our corporate office."

So then either someone at corporate "communicated" it wrong, or someone down the chain was too stupid to understand what corporate dictated. Sounds to me like there should be some job openings if that's actually the case.

6 posted on 10/13/2011 10:04:48 AM PDT by Slump Tester (What if I'm pregnant Teddy? Errr-ahh -Calm down Mary Jo, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it)
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To: Bloody Sam Roberts

I would imagine that has already happened, or is in the process of happening. Olive Garden depends on middle America for ALL their money.


7 posted on 10/13/2011 10:05:01 AM PDT by McGavin999 (Please don't be a Freeploader, help to keep the lights on.)
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To: raccoonradio

Firing the manager would save a lot of their customer base. That said, I already had them on my “no go” list because they use nasty canned chicken that tastes like ick in their soup.


8 posted on 10/13/2011 10:05:52 AM PDT by bgill (There, happy now?)
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To: raccoonradio

I appreciate this apology, it was the right thing to do. I will continue my patronage.


9 posted on 10/13/2011 10:07:02 AM PDT by Paradox (The rich SHOULD be paying more taxes, and they WOULD, if they could make more money.)
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To: Slump Tester

or someone down the chain was too stupid to understand what corporate dictated.

Or, that some-one was a Democrat, like minded, as in Obama ?


10 posted on 10/13/2011 10:08:09 AM PDT by buck61
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To: raccoonradio

The apology sounds plausible; I’ll give ‘em a pass on this one - this time. But I still ain’t paying $14 for a plate of spaghetti.


11 posted on 10/13/2011 10:08:21 AM PDT by hsrazorback1 (Seek truth.)
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To: sam_paine

Hmmm, guess our standards must be low...but da wife and I both like the soup and salad.

Perhaps their QC is not constant throughout the realm.

:-)


12 posted on 10/13/2011 10:08:43 AM PDT by Da Coyote
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To: raccoonradio

Too late.

Not that i would eat at that craphole anyways.

I’d rather eat at Applebee’s, and that ain’t gonna happen any time soon as well.


13 posted on 10/13/2011 10:08:54 AM PDT by mowowie
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To: raccoonradio

The next time we are in the Olive Garden lets wear an American flag.


14 posted on 10/13/2011 10:10:47 AM PDT by Parley Baer
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To: raccoonradio

In fairness, and I’m a professional Event Manager who plans catered events, there is a minimum of space allowed between tables with chairs. That is for the servers and customer safety.

Did the customer plan this ahead of time? Are we taking a tabletop flag or something 3x5 blocking the aisle?

Olive Garden, to my knowledge, does not have private banquet space. If the event organizers required/wanted their items displayed, perhaps they should booked a facility with banquet space.

I’ve had to be the bad guy and deny props when customers have shown up with unannouced items that require specific space. If I allowed it, and it blocked egress, and someone was ingured in an emergency situation, everyone would be crying foul as well.

I think more information is needed to assess what happened here. I’ve banged my head on the desk more then once when dealing with little old ladies who think they can do whatever they want.


15 posted on 10/13/2011 10:11:08 AM PDT by mom4melody
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To: raccoonradio
In fact, we periodically provide American flag collar pins to our employees to wear while serving guests."

Be careful there - you might offend someone...

And they would be a Democrat.

16 posted on 10/13/2011 10:12:26 AM PDT by grobdriver (Proud Member, Party Of No! No Socialism - No Fascism - Nobama - No Way!)
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To: raccoonradio

It’s about time


17 posted on 10/13/2011 10:15:19 AM PDT by therightliveswithus
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To: grobdriver
Be careful there - you might offend someone...

And they would be a Democrat.

Or a muslim.

18 posted on 10/13/2011 10:17:05 AM PDT by null and void (Day 995 of America's holiday from reality...)
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To: sam_paine
Why take it out on the corporation and other branches?

Because the fault lies not with the branch but in the root:

"Some members of our team were misinformed about company policy by our corporate office."
It might be instructive to learn how the "policy" was miscommunicated before we accept the apology.
19 posted on 10/13/2011 10:21:55 AM PDT by NonValueAdded (So much stress was put on Bush's Fault that it finally let go, magnitude 6)
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To: raccoonradio

One more reason to hate the Olive Garden (besides the crummy food.)


20 posted on 10/13/2011 10:24:27 AM PDT by Palladin (Fast and Furious = Obama's Waterloo.)
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