A downtown Seattle Starbucks employee was fired for taking an expired sandwich out of the trash and eating it .
Posted on 08/29/2013 10:30:57 AM PDT by YourAdHere
A downtown Seattle Starbucks employee was fired for taking an expired sandwich out of the trash and eating it, according to The Stranger.
Coulson Loptmann, a 21-year-old part-time barista, said he grabbed a plastic-wrapped sausage sandwich out of the trash can in the midst of a seven-hour shift on Monday. According to Loptmann, the sandwich was one of a few being thrown out because of its impending expiration.
Loptmann’s store manager found about Loptmann’s actions and contacted Starbucks’ human resources department.
The Stranger learned that Loptmann’s manager terminated him on spot because his actions reportedly go against Starbucks’ policies.
Zack Hutson, a company spokesman, said employees are not allowed to consume “marked-out” products because of the health risk of eating potentially spoiled products. However, Hutson added that a violation like this would not warrant a termination unless it was “the culmination of broader, ongoing performance issues.”
Loptmann, who is currently receiving food stamps, claims he had a great relationship with his employees and supervisors. He reportedly was hired in 2012 and has seen his shifts diminish to no more than 30 hours per week.
A downtown Seattle Starbucks employee was fired for taking an expired sandwich out of the trash and eating it .
I think a reprimand would have been sufficient. Seems like someone has power/authority issues.
Let ‘im eat foo stams. Stealing from trash? That’s a new idea, only an anonymous Internet poster could invent!
Give him a free phone, that’ll make it all better...
Remember what the woman said: “Bawma giveya free foams!”
Jerry Seinfeld: So let me get this straight. You find yourself in the kitchen. You see an éclair in the receptacle... and you think to yourself: “What the hell, I’ll just eat some trash.”
George Louis Costanza: No, no, no. It was not trash.
Jerry Seinfeld: Was it in the trash?
George Louis Costanza: Yes.
Jerry Seinfeld: Then it was trash.
George Louis Costanza: It wasn’t down in. It was sort of on top.
Jerry Seinfeld: But it was in the cylinder.
George Louis Costanza: Above the rim.
Jerry Seinfeld: Adjacent to refuse is refuse.
George Louis Costanza: It was on a magazine, and it still had the doily on.
Jerry Seinfeld: Was it eaten?
George Louis Costanza: One little bite.
Jerry Seinfeld: Well, that’s garbage.
George Louis Costanza: But I know who took the bite. It was her aunt.
Jerry Seinfeld: You, my friend, have crossed the line that divides man and bum. You are now a bum.
Note to self: Read the article before posting an opinion.
Rule #1, You are not at work to make friends and forge relationships. Do that on your own time. Time spent doing so is time you are not focused on the customer who is paying your wages.
There was a time when working in a restaurant you could eat and drink your heart out. The cost of doing business and having low wage employees.
The police however are entitled to do whatever they want with said expired sandwich discovered in your trash, regardless of your stinkin policies.
“Expired or not, in the trash or not, it wasn’t the employee’s, and it was theft.”
I represented a guy who was charged with Theft for taking scrap aluminum out of the trash at his employer’s place of business and scrapping it. The jury was out for less than five minutes before entering a verdict of NOT GUILTY, which under the law is absolutely and unqestionably the correct verdict.
An item in the trash is abandoned property, and the former owner no longer has any right to it whatsoever.
I suppose it depends where the trash is. If it was put outside, then it's public.
In any event, since the merchandise was no longer able to be sold and generate revenue, I hardly think it reasonable to characterize it as theft.
Doing so strikes me as similar to the idiotic "zero tolerance" policies in schools that cause kids to be suspended for chewing a poptart in the shape of a gun.
Better just to have employees sign a waiver of liability that if they eat discarded expired food and get sick, that they waive any liability claims against Starbucks.
I never order from a menu. I either ask the waiter or waitress to order me what they like best in steaks, pasta, or fish, etc......or even better yet, ask the waiter to ask the chef to make whatever inspires him or her? You're guaranteed a fantastic meal.
I was the bar manager at a country club for 10 years. We had meals automatically deducted from our paychecks according to the number of hrs worked. They just assumed we were eating there so we did. We ate whatever was served at the banquets and if it was just a regular shift with no parties the chef or linemen would cook us whatever we wanted.
way over priced! And their coffee is crap!
That is a waste. My Church works with a local Panera to take expired breads to the Catholic Charity for distribution. Yes, they are day old but still very edible.
Spot on!
When I lived in So Cal still I knew a guy that would go to dumpsters behind grocery stores and collect pastries, vegetables and bread that was discarded then pass the goods out to the homeless.
You would be shocked at what stores throw away because of expiration dates or a wilted leaf on a vegetable.
Now the stores are required to padlock their dumpsters, same goes with restaurants and all because of fear of lawsuits.
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