1% tip? Not quite…

Just FYI –

Someone sure went to great lengths to really trick everyone… a bit strange, don’t you think? But they got national media attention… not bad.

The psychology of petty pilfering

This article is really random, but I enjoyed reading it because it’s something I never really gave a lot of thought to. I can’t say that I’m one of those who swipes sugar packets or crams individually wrapped condiments in my purse when I can… the only time I wind up keeping anything from a restaurant is when I have extra napkins or sauces from take-out or delivery. I mean, who doesn’t keep the occassional extra Chick-Fil-A sauce?

This article makes this restaurant swiping trend seem much more common than I would have thought, though. I was shocked to read that this little habit can actually affect a restaurant’s bottom line! However, I do recall witnessing this activity quite a bit when I worked at a restaurant.

Sometimes patrons would take off with the actual bottles from the table. Yes, they would swipe the BBQ sauce, the ketchup bottle, the BBQ dry rub. I would be shocked when I would approach the empty table after the customers left, only to see the condiment caddy competely bare. There were a few people who would grab a handful of toothpicks on their way out, and there were a select few who wouldn’t want to pay for BBQ sauce, so they would ask for a to-go container (or two or three…) so they could fill it themselves at the table as opposed to actually paying for a bottled product. There was even a woman who, while waiting for her takeout order, took the entire bowl of mints at the hostess stand and dumped them all in her purse. She kindly left the empty bowl for me to refill.

Anyways, the article was pretty interesting, so I just had to share. What are your thoughts on this? If you want to read some funny responses, just go to the actual CNN page and read the comments section — pretty entertaining!

Why your grandma swipes sugar packets

If you build it, they will come. And if you put it on the table, chances are someone is going to take it.

This includes, but is certainly not limited to, condiment sachets, paper napkins, individual coffee creamers, cracker packets, and just about anything else “not wrapped for individual sale” that can easily be stuffed into purses and/or pockets without a single qualm.

Whether it’s your best friend, grandma, crazy uncle or maybe even yourself doing the lifting, evidence of the petty pilfering can be found in drawers and car glove boxes across the nation – each with their own little cache of restaurant and sugar caddy bounty.

Diane Merrits of Orlando, Florida, says she saves money this way. She hasn’t had to buy coffee creamer in years, takes extra ketchup packets at fast food restaurants and saves all the leftover condiments sachets when she orders delivery. She even washes and reuses plastic tableware because “it is good for the environment and better than wasting money.”

“It’s easy for some people to say – to rationalize – taking these items is not going to have an impact. ‘No one is going to feel it if I take five Sweet N’Lows,’” says Kristene Doyle, psychologist and the Associate Executive Director of the Albert Ellis Institute.

For those people, it’s the restaurant’s way of paying it forward.

“Although there is an unwritten understanding that condiments and small spices or ingredients for making the food served at restaurants more flavorful are there for limited use, some people choose to see this as an unpaid bonus of having come to the restaurant,” agrees Patricia Farrell, clinical psychologist and author of “How to Be Your Own Therapist.”

Farrell adds some of the caddy swipers might say to themselves, “It’s there for me, isn’t it? Why shouldn’t I take it? If they only wanted me to have a little bit, why didn’t they just put out a little bit?” – an example of what psychologists call attribution of responsibility.

“In other words, the person taking all of this stuff isn’t responsible; it’s the establishment’s problem. They should have been more careful and it wouldn’t have happened,” Farrell explains.

While every freebie opportunist has their own personal reasons for the habit, there are a couple non-pathological, generational factors as well: the current age of entitlement, and what has been identified as a Depression-era mindset.

Entitlement issues are especially prevalent in Generation X and Y (roughly defined as anyone born between 1964 and the mid-1990s), says Doyle.

“They’re used to being told they’re perfect; they deserve what they want; they get what they want. It’s the ‘if it’s there, I want it’ mentality,” Doyle explains.

On the other hand, the generation that experienced tough economic times, rationing and salvaging during the Depression and even up into World War II, learned to save, plan for possible need and prepare to be as resourceful as possible.

“From the Depression, it was ‘we don’t have a lot, we might not have any in the future, I will gather it, hoard and reduce anxiety to ensure I’ll be OK,’” says Doyle.

And while it’s easy to label younger people with a sense of entitlement and the older generation with the belief they “need” these items, clinical psychologist Noel Goldberg adds that age isn’t always a defining factor.

“If you grew up with parents from the Great Depression, or grandparents from the Great Depression, they can pass on this learned behavior just like folks who have to ‘clean their plate’ when they eat,” she clarifies. Same goes for people who grew up with tough socioeconomic backgrounds.

In very severe cases of this behavior, deeper psychological reasons like kleptomania, hoarding or obsessive-compulsive disorder could be afoot.

Those with kleptomania will experience “an increasing tension or an irresistible urge prior to engaging in the behavior, followed by a feeling of pleasure, gratification, or relief during the behavior. It may also involve shame or guilt following the behavior,” says Marla Deibler, clinical psychologist and the Director of The Center for Emotional Health of Greater Philadelphia.

Hoarding, on the other hand, tends to be distorted belief about the value of items, adds Doyle. “People that are real hoarders have this excessive attachment to items that typically aren’t valuable.”

Goldberg further explains that for those with obsessive-compulsive tendencies, the anxiety relates to lack of control, so by hoarding, counting or keeping items, they somehow feel they are in more control over some type of anxiety.

Regardless of the reason, restaurant owners feel (and accommodate for) the expected pinch.

“As a restaurant operator, it is amazing to me how much of a negative financial impact every sugar packet, ketchup packet that leaves the building unaccounted for affects our bottom line,” says Nick Pihakis, CEO of Jim ‘N Nick’s Bar-B-Q.

“Our table condiments account for about 1% of our total supply cost. I know this sounds unbelievable, but that equates to about $900,000 on an annual basis. As crazy as it may sound, we continue to stock our tables, for our guests, with these bits of convenience or opportunity, however you look at it.”

Like Pihakis, usually the business owner takes this standard of practice into account when budgeting and pricing items that are purchased.

As for the psychological takeaway, Deibler says, “The question is, where is the line drawn? Stealing a cracker, a pack of sugar, a salt shaker, a plate, or something larger and of more value? You decide.”

Boners story getting big (…no pun intended)

Just went to the Huffington Post and guess what showed up on their homepage??

Here is the social media fail of the year… and we’re only 10 days in

I read this article about Boners BBQ in Atlanta and my jaw dropped to the floor. I don’t think I’ve ever read an article about a company’s customer service quite like this. Absolutely appalling.

Believe me, I worked at the same restaurant off and on for more than seven years, and this is absolutely the worst story I’ve ever heard. There is no excuse for the way this BBQ joint acted. You can click the link above to take you to the article on UnMarketing.com, or you can read the pasted article below:

Wow. All I have to say is that I will never eat at this restaurant after reading that.

Worst restaurant patron EVER

Ever worked at a restaurant? Ever had to serve a table that treats you like crap and then doesn’t tip? I feel like a lot of us have been there. What can I say… people suck. But this story was ridiculous!

Apparently this woman, Victoria Liss, waited on a man at Bimbo’s Cantina in Seattle (yes, that is a real restaurant apparently). This guy, Andrew Meyer, finished his meal and left his waitress this lovely parting gift:

Yup, that says what you think it says. “P.S. You could stand to loose a few pounds.”

Not only is this guy a mean bully, he’s an idiot too. You pay with a credit card that is in your name and leave this nasty message on it? You think that maybe people would eventually find out that you were the one who wrote this?

Plus, you spelled “lose” wrong, dumbass. Maybe you should check out this post from a couple weeks ago to brush up on your third grade grammar.

Now Andrew Meyer has a group of haters because this waitress posted a picture of the receipt on Facebook. If you have absolutely nothing else going on in your life right now, you could look at the original posting that started it all… the comments are actually pretty funny.

Karma’s a bitch, my friend.

Chow down child-free?

Today on my way to work I heard a news story about a restaurant in Pennsylvania that is planning on banning children. I really didn’t think anything of it, until I saw that this ban was apparently a big deal for some people, and many online news sites were writing articles about it.

This restaurant, called McDain’s, is apparently “upscale casual” and relatively small — the owner, Mike Vuick, says that there are only about 68 seats in the establishment. But during his nine years of running this restaurant, Vuick thinks that kids have gotten louder and more disruptive… so he doesn’t want them in the restaurant anymore.

Vuick insists that the majority of the feedback has been positive; some patrons are livid because they think they are being discriminated against. I’m curious what people think about this ban… look at the results of an online MSNBC poll:

So obviously you can see how I voted. But I thought it was interesting that the majority of readers thought that a ban on children depends on the place… and a whopping 46% thought that a ban was completely acceptable.

I probably would have thought that a ban on kids was completely unfair had I not worked at a restaurant through high school and college (and right after graduation while looking for a full-time job). Working in a restaurant, you truly see everything. And I mean everything.

A couple months ago, when I was workikng as a hostess, I saw a family change their baby’s dirty diaper on the table, right before their food came out. Not only did they not sanitize the table afterwards, but they left the dirty diaper on the bench next to them during their entire meal. Absolutely disgusting. There is a changing table in the restroom – how hard is it to walk ten yards to go use it?? And if a restaurant cannot break health codes, why does a family think that they can?

I also witnessed dozens of families that would basically pretend that their kids didn’t exist once they sat at a table. Toddler screaming and crying and throwing a tantrum? Not their problem. Children throwing french fries at each other? They don’t care. These parents would escape to their own world during that hour-long meal, and their children apparently weren’t their problem anymore. And of course, when they left, there was probably only a 10-15% tip on the table… and the server usually had to spend quite a while cleaning up an absolute mess. These families thought it was completely okay to leave the table looking like a bomb went off.

I felt bad for servers that had families like these in their sections… they actually lost money because their other tables would request to be moved. Some tables would not tip as much because they were so pissed about the whiny kid in the table next to them (though that really isn’t the server’s fault…).

But of course no one who worked at the restaurant could ever say anything to these out-of-control children. These parents seem to believe that their kids (and only their kids) are God’s gift to the world… and no one can tell them otherwise. There were times that little boys would be running around the restaurant, nearly knocking over trays and completely disrupting other families’ meals. I’ve seen kids use steak knifes to swordfight in the aisles, and I’ve witnessed kids hitting and punching each other next to complete strangers’ tables. The parents don’t do anything.

I understand, parents, that you want a night off and you’re tired of constantly watching your kids. That’s when you suck it up and pay for a babysitter. Or go to a McDonald’s and let them play in that “playplace” thing…

Let’s make this clear: complete strangers and restaurant employees do not want to babysit for you. And we don’t think it’s cute when your precious little girl is spitting across the table. Or when your toddler is throwing handfuls of food across the aisle. Or when your children are screaming at the top of their lungs.

I love kids, don’t get me wrong. But you have to draw the line when their behavior is out of control. So as long as parents continue to turn a blind eye to their wild children and fail to instill manners in them, restaurants have the right to ban kids. These parents need to learn how to actually “parent,” so maybe this will be a wakeup call.