 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. “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 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,” he 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.” |
  Recent Posts
 |
 |
|
© 2012 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
| Advertise with us | About us | Help | Advertising Practices
When I'm on the road or about to get into a week or two of backpacking I am a squirrel. At the pancake house I'll tip good but I can't buy those little sealed pats of butter or jam in the store so in my pack they go. How many times have you run through a drive thru set on clocking time and they forgot to through in the ketchup for the fries? No worries, got a spare packet or two in the glove box. Who hasn't tried to eat tacos while driving and not trashed their clothes? Tacos are the suckiest driving food but oh so good. No problem- those extra napkins make for a good bib. When you sometimes live out of fast food restaurants they become a second home and if something there that's not nailed down is going to server a purpose – I'll take it to go. Bye Ma, thanks for the viddles!
Nah. the worst driving food is a platter of fajitas with a side of beans and rice. Navigating the turnpike while trying to load your tortilla with vittles can be quite the challenge. Not to mentioned the chips and salsa.
I never answer surveys (if you think, or would have others think that you need one to understand human behavior, then you really just need to have your head smacked). However, if I were to answer it, I would take the first option. I DO NOT STOCK UP FOR A MONTH, just enough to get me through those occasions when I'm too rushed to take any, or when the caddies are empty. It's all factored into the price you pay, therefore I should have a few extra to blow my nose without having to pay for Kleenex. They charge you for it, and you pay for it, so take what you think you deserve for what you paid, but not more. You don't want to be the cause of rising prices from taking too much all of the time, but DON'T YOU CALL ME A THIEF WHEN STARBUCKS CHARGES $5 FOR SWEETENED COFFEE! Don't go digging for dirt on your readers, and maybe we won't call you who have the balls to call yourselves "journalists" the cowards, sanctimonious muckrakers, liars, and buzzards which you are!
Also, this article must have been written by a Baby Boomer, which is the one generation (and the biggest in world history) which was not addressed. How dare you boomer babies apply the term "entitlement" to Gen X and Gen Y – neither is the generation which had half of its members living in Hippie communes, roaming the countryside trying to find their drug-addled selves, and later searching truckloads of arrogantly useless self-help books for their "inner child"! Shut up and die already, Boomer babies!
I don't condone theft but there is a perfectly reasonable justification for taking as many ketchup packets as you can – to get as many out of circulation as possible. According to the National Condiment Researcuh Council Annual Report, "[k]etchup is now the leading cause of childhood stupidity in America." Remove as many ketchup packets as you can and maybe they won't be there for some unsuspecting child. But that applies only to ketchup. :)
The funny thing is that is it usually people with money who does this! The poor people dont' usually steal!
When I was young (and, as my son says, the dinosaurs roamed the earth), I had an Aunt who lived in NYC and worked at Gimbels department store (I'm dating myself). One day, an REA Express truck pulled up in front of my parents' house in PA, and delivered 3 suitcases from our Aunt. They contained: packets and packets of condiments that she had swiped from the employee cafeteria, men's & ladies' "unmentionables" (in sizes that none of us could wear), 7 watches, soap samples, and so many other things. It was a combination of Christmas, Halloween and Treasure Hunt for my brothers & me.
I think that my mom threw out the pepper packets, because we could not tell how old they were. Salt, of course, has no expiration date (unless it's flavoured), though I have been at food shows where merchants have actually asked "How long does this salt hold?"
We really never asked how she got the watches.
I can't even lie. As a college student, I most definitely take condiments from restaurants for later use. I especially take condiments from the dining halls on my campus (in my eyes, I'm already paying for them, so why not?). For restaurants outside of my campus though, my rationale is that when I graduate and am working a salary job and can actually afford to buy food then I'll stop taking condiments. Until then, imma keep enjoying my freebie packets of hot sauce from the 24/7 Taco Bell
If you're at a restaurant, you are paying for the meal that you consume AT the restaurant, or the leftovers you take home from that meal. Cramming enough Splenda in your pocket for the rest of the week is just stealing. They do have that in grocery stores, you know. Like it? Buy it.
The only time I'll really take anything for later is not so much at restaurants, but at hotel breakfasts. I don't typically eat early in the morning, but like to have something a little later. So, I may take a bagel or yogurt with me – especially if I'm travelling for business and know that I won't have another way to get anything to eat until lunchtime.
So, you think I'm not entitled to a napkin if I get a meal at a restaurant to-go? Sometimes the bins are allowed to run empty, so why shouldn't I take enough so there will be some at my desk the next time the bins are empty? By the way, who do you think you are to be telling people what they should buy (especially when they already bought it for what they paid)? How much is too much will always be subjective, therefore this piece of trash article should never have been published as it serves only the purpose of promoting hypcrisy! If you had somebody observing how much toilet paper people use in the restaurant restroom stalls, it would hardly be much worse!
I voted for the 'yes, I take them because I'm paying at the restaurant'. And why shouldn't I? These days, you can't get a cup of coffee for under $4.50 and the food is marked up, so it's not like the restaurant is going to lose out on profits. I used to work in catering, and there is over 100% markup in the food that is sold to consumers. So I don't feel at all guilty of taking what is already being paid for 100 times over. Though, people who don't eat or drink at restaurants or cafes, and think they are entitled to go pilfering the sugar or condiments, those people are scummy scabs, and that is when it becomes theft.
You're just rationalizing your own theft Shanneene – lots of restaurants go under, so pretending they're all making huge profits and can afford to pay for your personal condiment needs is just lying to yourself.
There is something much, much worse than theft, which is hypocrisy – and that is something which you try, but can only fail to rationalize.
A lot of eateries deserve to go under, and you shouldn't be harassing those who know better than to help them cover the impact of unrealistic loan debt, poor customer service, or the serving of bad/overpriced food.
I only take the few extra napkins because I think it would be unsanitary to put back for others to use. I do ask for extra cream because I like to drink some, after I drink coffee. it is only a thimble full
My husband likes to take stuff and stockpile it. I hate the way it ends up unused, taking up space in the fridge and glove compartment and other places he stashes stuff. I end up having to throw it out after a suitable time. At one time he had 6 plastic bags full of paper napkins from public places. His parents complained throughout the 1950s about how poor they were, so I guess he learned it even though they were successful later.
I take every packet of ketchup I can get from McDonalds...even though I only want a single honey mustard for my fries, they want to charge you for that so in anger I take as much of the free ketchup as they'll give me. It's petty....sometimes I'm petty....
I don't take extras from restaurants, but I know which restaurants always send gobs with take out. Not that it is the deciding factor in where I order food, but I like to take the extras to work, for those days that last night's leftovers need a little boost to be palatable.
I remember back some 20 years going to a restaurant in Florida with my wife. There was absolutely nothing on the table–no salt and pepper shakers, no sugar-nothing. We asked the waitress and she informed me that elderly women will take just about anything that will fit in their purse and that includes silverware. They used to put out those small lobster forks and would lose about 30 a week. To me, it's just plain theft. If the people that do this are so hard up then what are they doing in a restaurant anyway? Eat at home and save $$$.
Only in Florida can a restaurant get away with poor service just because of petty pilfering. If you can't sell enough fish frys in Florida to weather what the (heheeee) Greatest Generation does at restaurants, then you should change your format to something other than fish frys or move out of Florida!
The only time I do this is when I defininately know that because it was handled by me ie..lil jelly packs they put right on the toast.
Me, and I'd assume a lot of people, take extra packets from restaurants (example, Taco Bell) to use at home when the restaurant fails to give you said items when going through the drive-thru. Taco Bell is notoriously bad about doling out sauce packets in their drive-thru, even when specifically asked, so I have zero problem having a few dozen at home to use when they screw up.
I only take what they put on my table and I don't use at the time because I understand that if it's not used they will throw it away. Mostly just napkins. I leave the little creamer cups if I didn't use them because they are not open and can be reused.
No, I don't take stuff intentionally, for use at home. What happens is, as I am going out of a restaurant or coffee shop that has napkins or condiments in self-serve bins is that I will grab some to use with whatever I have bought. Sometimes, I don't grab enough and other times I may have grabbed one or two more than I need. I will use them at work or at home later, if I have them around, but I don't go out of my way to take them intentionally. I think that is stealing if you intentionally grab a handful of condiments with the intent of takinging them for later use. I am not too poor or "thrifty" to need to take condiment packets or napkins from someone else. If I have an extra or two I will use them so they don't go to waste.
I tend to swipe Raw Sugar packets from Panera Bread. Goes great with unsweetended ice tea or water, don't mix. When you sip with a straw, is like tasting candy.
"I'm a snnnnaaaake in your garden."
i do, but mainly because i know they will be thrown away once 'touched'.... cant be put back... so instead of throwing them away, im at least using them.
Actually, if the packet's closed, it hasn't been touched and it is normally put back out. If it's a napkin, that's a different story, but condiments are generally considered untouched until opened.
"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"
What an absolutely ridiculous thing to say – and the kind of thing "old" people say about "young" people generation after generation. How many millions of people were born during this time? Born in 1967, I was never told I was "perfect", have never felt as if I were, and I don't freaking ever take extra packets of anything, or feel entitled for anything. I would like to slap Mr Doyle in his fat, generalizing face.
You, my dearie, have got to be kidding....
yous is the most entitled and self-entitled generation to ever walk this Earth.
Uninformed Elder Stooge,
I don't believe Under 50 was referring to the generation as a whole, but just as herself as an individual. As a whole of the generation, I completely agree with you. My generation is the most self-entitled, self-serving generation that I have ever seen, but that does come down to how they were raised and what they were given as they grew up.
I, like Under 50, was never told I was perfect, told to appreciate what I had, the value of hard work and doing things yourself. My parents work in the construction and dairy industries, neither have a college degree. I paid my own way through college and worked my rear off to make into to medical school, all because my parents told me I could do anything if I worked for it, not that I deserved it. I do resent that I get lumped into the same sentiment of self-entitlement and laziness of these generations just because I was born in that time frame. My parents taught me my work ethic, my humanity, and my caring and selflessness towards others and I plan on teaching those same values to my children. I have more practical skills with automobiles and construction/home maintenance than quite a few people even know existed, all because I asked to be taught it so I could work at it own my own and not think that it was someone else's job to do.
I'm not attacking you, I'm just tired of the thought that all of us are bad apples. Not all of us are self-entitled brats, there are some of us who do appreciate what we have and work hard for it.
Oh please. Even my father (born in 1960) believes his generation – the baby boomers – are easily the most selfish generation to ever walk this earth. The older generation loves using the money and resources of future generations to support their big Buicks and Social Security checks. Give us a break. We'll be paying for your debts.
Oh, Stooooooge!!!! Wasn't your generation with half of you living in hippie communes? Wasn't it you great generation of self-obsessed, loud and whiney Boomers who bummed all over the countryside stoned, looking to "find yourselves", stopping occasionally to call home for more of Dad's money? Talk about self-entitled! Wasn't it you who threw all caution or consequential responsibility to the wind as you engaged in unprotected, orgyliscious sex during your so-named "revolution"? My generation has to worry about AIDS and worse on account of you! Didin't you later slaughter billions of rainforest trees to make all those useless "self-help" books, in which you went searching for your "inner child"? Did it ever get the ass-kicking which it deserved?
i was born gen x and think our entire generation (especially in the US and other well off countries) feels too entitled. everyones feels like the world owes them something, some kids and people my age throw away golden opportunities that others would kill for because they think theyre better than that. theres nothing wrong with dreaming big but there is a difference between dreaming big and dreaming unrealistically.
i feel like a lot of this is because of the MTV generation with idiotic shows like my sweet 16 that exposes impressionable teenagers to spoiled behavior that is tolerated by their parents and the viewing public.
i do tend to take extra napkins when i get takeout or take extra splenda from starbucks when i get coffee but i dont want to run out of napkins if im eating or have my coffee too bitter so i guess thats my excuse.
If restaurant owners want to get rid of this problem then go back to filling ketchup bottles, sugar dispensers and creamers instead of polluting the environment with wastefullly packaged condiments.
Couldn't have said it better myself. In the long run, it will hopefully reduce the cost to the public as well and everybody wins!
YES!
Agreed 100%: if they can't afford to put the single-use packets out at whatever rate they are consumed, then they shouldn't put the single-use packets out! If they put out bottles, and refill the bottles from a larger jug, they'll not only save money, they'll divert a heck of a lot of packaging trash from landfills in the long run also.
I guess all of you forgot to read the part about people taking what was in front of them. This included bottles of condiments this less about the packets than about taking huge gobs of packets or anything not nailed down. Give yourself a fail and subtract two internets.
I'll ask for a few ketchups at the drive-thru (or taco sauces) and the worker inevitably hands me a huge pile. I hate that.
When life hands you lemonade, you complain about no glasses and napkins don't you. Way to be part of the problem and not the solution, because for every solution you got a problem. Bring your own and stop asking if they give you more save reuse, reduce. Better yet buy your own and stop asking so now you have nothing to hate, but yourself.
I'll save extra plasticware that is delivered or if we accidentally grab too many napkins or condiments and they'll end up getting thrown away when I leave, I'll take those with me instead of wasting them. I do not take extra with the intention of taking them out of the restaurant, but I have two young children who are old enough to get their own things but still young enough that they overestimate how much is needed.
Nope don't do it. Usually the stuff in the packets are loaded with corn syrup and the bottom of the barrel junk.
Much like the food that you happily paid for and ate.
I haven't paid for Splenda for YEARS
me either! My dad was a depression child...he would bring toilet paper and window cleaner home from the power plants he worked at! But was mortified when I told him how I waited for the big and bulky trash clean up and go to the richer neighborhoods to see if there was anything good in their pile of trash.
That's because he just stole the things he took he wasn't recycling. He took things that were for use at his work, not extra.
If it is a take-out, I will take only what I know that I will be will be using. The staff very often will try to give you more. I occassionally take the plastic table wear that I have used and know must be thrown away due to health laws. If I want to know where I have been, while traveling, I will often take one sugar packet. That is expected advertising.
I take what I'm going to use, and most of the time when it's given to me spotaneously, they give too much. I don't want the plasticware and all of that. Chinese restaurants are the worse. I MIGHT use part of one packet of soy sauce, they're throw in ten, plus the same with Chinese mustard, which I never use.
As to eating in house, I never take anything extra.
The Depression era people, them I understand. Not the ones that empty the sugar packets, but the ones that doggy bag everything on their plate, including the extra rolls. If you know anything at all about that time, you'd know that wiht 25% unemployment and other horrible economic conditions, doing without wasn't a short term thing. And yes, they save everything, reuse everything, like washing ziplock bags until the writing wears off. On one hand it's crazy making if you have a close relationship with one of them. On the other hand, we didn't live through that experience which I'm sure was traumatic as hell.
I understand Granny but I don't understand the young ones. They didn't go through that. They've pretty much had everything handed to them in spades, so why act like they're deprived when they're most obviously not?
We reuse zip lock bags in our house too, but not because we are poor. We do it because the Earth has limited resources and everyone should do their part. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle isn't just a trendy phrase. It's a way of life to sustain life.
Save yourself the time and get off your high horse. Those same plastic bags are still going to end up at the garbage dump. Plastic is not a renewable/ biodegradable resource so stop patting yourself on the back
Actually that was his point about reusing them. Even if it did come across as self righteous drivel. He is talking about cutting back and not increasing the amount of nonrecyclables by reusing them which is more time consuming but less resource intensive than reycycling.
Sweet. Not a bad idea.
Why is it crazy? It is only your perception and most Americans WASTE WASTE WASTE. If more people saved items and reused items, there wouldn't be so much need for material waste. These items are not finite for the most part, and you can certainly save money. And that is a big generalization, many of us, who are in fact education grew up POOR and definitely always finished everything on the plate, used leftovers, recycled compost, etc. I think it is a bigger issue of people being disconnected from the land and having everything at their convenience, they don't understand what into producing these items.
A lot of young people (myself included) grew up with parents with those old sentiments. My great-grandmother is notorious for stockpiling canned goods and non-perishables, she not only lived through the Depression but the Fuel Crisis in the 70's left her and my grandmother broke and homeless. They passed that onto my and my mother, and, I shamlessly take a few (between one and three) packets from these places if they give it to me, but if it's on the table, one's the limit. Restaurants have to make money too...
Regardless, a lot of young people act from the experiences of their parents, and, honestly, it's not a bad idea. Just don't over-do it.
A lot of young people (myself included) grew up with parents with those old sentiments. My great-grandmother is notorious for stockpiling canned goods and non-perishables, she not only lived through the Depression but the Fuel Crisis in the 70's left her and my grandmother broke and homeless. They passed that onto my and my mother, and, I shamelessly take a few (between one and three) packets from these places if they give it to me, but if it's on the table, one's the limit. Restaurants have to make money too...
Regardless, a lot of young people act from the experiences of their parents, and, honestly, it's not a bad idea. Just don't over-do it.
I rewash my baggies. I use dish soap and bleach and let dry. And, it is not because I am poor. I find it wasteful to throw away a baggie after one use. I also wash plastic throw away plates and glasses, lol, so much for saving on labor.
We are still perilously close to the trough of the biggest recession since the Great Depression, and times have never been so uncertain. General unemployment may have peaked at around 10%, but there are large groups of people in sectors which approached the 25% mark quite recently, and it can all go bad again very, very quickly. The Y generation has lived it's full existence with all of the information and testament on everything literally at their fingertips, and much of it does not inspire confidence in their future – therefore I do understand their drive to be prepared through any petty means available.
I swipe the peppermints that they always seem to have at the front of restaurants, not because my parents taught me to (they didn't), but because I like to eat spicy food. Peppermint makes your mouth stop burning. Water doesn't really work, and sometimes I want to enjoy food without my mouth feeling like it's on fire for the rest of the evening.
Why is CNN "moderating" my comment? It's about peppermints making my mouth burn. It's not taboo.
Right because Europeans are perfect and sooooo much better than everyone else.
Wow. Someone has issues.
AND...
They have AWESOME accents. Just saying.
They have gutteral accents, which the pollyennas mistake as "passionate", but they may just as easily be fueled by repressed rage, or bitter envy.
I gave up almost all fast food years ago, learned to cook, and found it much cheaper and better tasting to eat at home. BUT, when I occasionally go to Wendy's for a burger or baked potato, I always ask for extra Honey mustard and I have no idea why.
I take extra flavored coffee creamers from Chic-Fil-A because I love them and screw everyone else. Tragedy of the commons. If it makes a difference to the self-righteous d-bags, I always use them within a few days; I don't have some disturbingly huge cache of coffee creamers.
Do you have the same sense of entitlement at the bank, too? It's there for you to use in the restaurant, not to steal. But you've already said, "Screw everybody else." I feel your pain, man.
No, i don't take stuff, and I won't let my kids take more than one piece of candy at restaurants and halloween either! RUDE! All you have to do is turn it around and ask yourself how you would feel if someone did it to you. Why is this so hard to understand... and I am gen X! This behavior is a result of families with no empathy, bad values and morals, not a generational thing.
This causes restaurants to raise prices because of greedy people who always have to take more than they need. This can also be used as a metaphor to explain why socialized medicine will never work because Americans are too greedy. In Europe, when people go to a restaurant they take only as much napkins, ketchup, sugar, etc. as they need and no more.
the whole concept of one napkin with my big mac is silly. when in europe i ask for more with my meal (they dont leave the dispensers out) and usually get a dirty look. outside of fast food I havent noticed a whole lot of difference between europe and US table set-ups
In many fast food restaurants, they toss handfuls in your bag. I often throw them away afterwards.
I agree. Everytime I go to McDonalds I have to pay for my extra McChicken Sauce packets (maybe only in Canada), but I love my french fries dipped in it. I get home, no sauce half the time but a dozen packets of ketchup. What the heck??
I take more soy sauce packets than I need that day because you can't find that brand anywhere else, and it's my favorite. I've looked and I only found a 5 gallon container of it... which I am considering buying though. I don't use a lot of sauces generally, so what I don't use on duck sauce, I make up on my soy. When I have unused napkins, I don't throw them out, but put them in my car, but I don't grab too many on purpose.
If the waitstaff gives me more napkins that I can use, I'll usually take the rest home. They're not going to give those napkins to another table - they'll just get thrown away otherwise, and I can use them at another time.
I have taken ketchup packets when they have put more than we used either on the tray or in the take-out bag. I also use the extra napkins. I don't go out of my way to take these items, but when I find I have extras (usually 1 or 2) then I will take them if I think I have a use for them. With two little ones, having extra napkins in my vehicle comes in very handy!
Now you must admit that Whataburger ketchup only works with Whataburger fries, so there is no sense in hoarding those packets for other uses!
I just LOVE Whataburger...a #2 with cheese and fries, plus a Big Dr Pepper. Ain't Nothin' Better.
Oohh that dang Whataburger ketchup... why is it SO good??! I have always have to ask for extra from there
less than $10 to make... taste just like whataburger....
Ingredients
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
2 tablespoons white vinegar
5 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon molasses
1 tablespoon corn syrup
1 1/4 cups water
Directions
Mix together the tomato paste, white vinegar, brown sugar, garlic powder, onion powder, allspice, salt, molasses, corn syrup, and water in a saucepan over low heat; simmer gently until you get the consistency of ketchup, 45 minutes to 1 hour. Taste and adjust salt if necessary before serving.
I'm totally lost... What's a Whataburger?
It drives me nuts to walk or drive away from fast food places & find packets of ketchup at the bottom of the bag – usually an obscene # of them, too. I don't even like ketchup – so why don't they have a policy to just ask if you want them?
Veering off the ketchup subject, I knew a girl who pocketed toilet paper rolls from establishments – she had an endless supply and she never thought this was stealing. Needless to say, she was not allowed in my apt.
I don't go out of my way to take extras. I do however keep any extras that arrive in my take out. I usually end up using most of them. SO, I don't have a big drawer full of mustard somewhere. Every so often I'll throw out everything just because it may be getting a bit old.
I do take all the soaps and shampoo's from the hotels though, hehe.
I used to operate a small plane around the islands and we placed 18 lifejackets in the back of the plane. After the first day 14 were gone. The passengers, all islanders, felt that the lifejackets were 'paid for' and they wanted them for their boats. Sugar packets? Big deal.
I only pinch silverware.
Are you people that destitute that you cant afford a regular thing of ketchup or sugar from the grocery store?? Cmon really.
I don't mind about the theft of sachets. I don't take them myself, but I understand the hoarding instincts of those who do. But I do draw the line at glass salt and pepper shakers and silverware. When I was a waitress I was amazed at the number of customers in a nice restaurant who stole knives and forks, salt and pepper shakers, napkins...even dinner plates and stemware. I don't see how that's anything but theft, but you'd see well dressed, respectable looking women slip all sorts of tableware in their purses, even though you knew they couldn't sell any of it and they didn't need that basic metal fork or diner-style salt shaker at all.
What about those people, like some of my relatives, who use 1/2 packet of something and insist on bringing the other 1/2 packet home, where rather than being used, it languishes in a kitchen drawer or cabinet with 100s of similarly 1/2-used packets? This psychology is beyond me!
Nancy, I know what you mean! My father is guilty of this practice and he'll usually leave the 1/2 packets of sweet n' low in pockets, on tables, counter tops... my mom usually finds the ones left in pockets as she's moving wet laundry from the washer to the drier and finds the saccharin-based goo all over cleaned garments.. I, too, do not comprehend this practice of bringing 1/2 of used packets home from a restaurant! :)
That only works with, like, huge packets of stevia, because you've got to admit, it you use the entire thing, your tongue comes out of the deal still tasting like you dived face-first into a highly concentrated sugar avalanche. But that's only if you already have it at home...
Yes, I will take the leftover napkins and condiment packs. These items will be thrown away at a fast food restaurant or bussed at a sit down restaurant because they have been "used" or handled by someone other than a restaurant employee. Frankly, I shudder to think that these items will be returned to stock. You don't know what the patron has done to the packages or napkins. Wouldn't you want them thrown out and not used?
Taking extra sugar packets just because they are there for the taking is just wrong and not necessary.
A box of Splenda costs about six bucks at the supermarket, so when you pay $50 or more for dinner and tip, without any alcohol, then you are entitled to swipe some. Look at how much they've made on you already. They also don't pay anywhere near what you pay for the same product, with all their corporate bulk purchasing privileges.
If you can't afford to eat out, then don't; if you don't want to pay the extra cost for food at a restaurant (which covers employee's salaries, rent, utilities, food costs) then just eat at home. You feel a sense of entitlement because you are paying for a service you knew the cost of before you walked in (they're making all this money off me, waaaaaaah!), but what you are doing is theft, plain and simple.
WOW! The pop psychology in this article is amazing!
Old people took free stuff because of the depression, but young people do it out of a sense of entitlement. Except for those young people who learned the survival behavior from their great-grandparents, of course.
Then, there are the kleptomaniacs (who can't help themselves) and those who suffer from "attribution of responsibility."
Finally, there are the hoarders and the obsessive-compulsive personalities.
So why, then, does grandma swipe sugar packets?
You missed one. The article also quotes Patricia Farrell, author of “How to Be Your Own Therapist.”
Yeah, this article is basically a bunch of bunk. I you are going into a restaurant and stuffing handfuls of ketchup packets in your pants to take home, then your stealing. If you are in the restaurant eating a burger and fries and you estimate wrong and have an extra ketchup packet or two left over, those are leftovers. If you make a roll of paper towels out of the napkin dispenser, then your are stealing. If you are with your kid at the restaurant and take a generous portion of napkins for the eventual spill that almost always comes and you somehow have extras to pocket, that is just good luck. Probably the restaurants for whatever weird health reasons would not want you to put these items back even when sealed. And if it is a real problem for the restaurants, then just do what most of them do now: McDonald's has the cup and ketchup spout; Subway keeps the napkins behind the counter; it's not rocket science. If fact, I can't believe I have wasted this much time reading the article and commenting on it. Five minutes of life I'll never get back.
And I apologize for the poor use of prepositions and I do know that it is suppose to be "you're" for "you are" and "yours" for something that you own. Sorry.
Hold your breath for 5 minutes. Normal people want their air back.
Best. Response. Ever.
Robert – The reason grandma does it is really simple. She has Alzheimer or other dementia and is reliving her childhood during the depression. She was probably poor or at least lived on a very limited budget or experience food rationing during WW II. This is quite common amongst people who have experienced prolong periods of food deprivation. Many ex-POW do the same thing; they hoard food. Until you have been poor and hungry, you do not understand what some people have lived through. Go to the library and read about how people were able to survive the Great Depression.
Dear c s, please learn about Alzheimer's pathology before you start spouting. Neural degradation is not the same as regression - grandma isn't reliving her childhood. With dementia, and Alzheimer's in particular, she is losing the ability to make sound judgment, control impulse, and conform to social rules.
i know people that always ask for extra condiments but never use them. i think its a mental issue. i had a friend that had literally many hundreds of ketchup packets in his car yet at the drive thru he asked for extra ketchup. i razzed him about it for the next 5 minutes but he just told me to shut up and mind my own business.
when i went to his apartment he had his entire end table covered in duck sauce packets in fact there was no open space anywhere to set anything down.
These are the people who fear being "without" what they need. My mother also gathers things and takes them home. She grew up poor on a farm with 11 people in her family. At times she went without shoes and many times there was no food either. Even now, having married a doctor and living comfortably in their retirement, she acts like she has nothing and will hoard every penny she can by saving money any way she can. Some people are obsessive about hoarding material items, but others have experienced lack of some kind in their childhood and are trying to prevent it from happening again.
Yes , Because if i do not take the ones given they will be in the trash as soon as the bus boy or girl comes and cleans the table ! I have seen it to many times !
Very true.
First off – entitlement generation is crap. Every generation claims it about the next. If you want to see entitlement then ask a senior citizen to give up their SS Check. Yes, I know they did put some money in...but they're also the benefactors of 3 decades of passing SS increases w/o tax increases to pay for them.
Second off – if you're spending money eating out then you aren't serious about saving money in the first place and those extra ketchup packets aren't offsetting the cost of your fast food/eat out diet. Needless to say the medical costs...
I remember when I was at university students taking extra catsup and taking it home and making "tomato" soup from it. Pretty nasty stuff. But if you're hungry...
The financial impact of guests pocketing condiments is a drop in the ocean compared to the waste that is an unavoidable part of running a restaurant – especially a chain. The minimum wage waitstaff delivers far more creamer packets than are necessary for a single cup of coffee to ensure they don't have to make another run to the kitchen for the odd occasional guest who wants 6 creamers for their coffee. The minimum wage bus-staff throws out everything on the table rather than saving their employer $0.002 per unit by sifting through creamer packets to pick out the unused ones. There is a huge amount of waste in the restaurant industry; it's called "overhead", and it's unavoidable. (And that's just a small component of the waste on the restaurant floor; don't even look in the kitchen if you don't want to be horrified.) I won't fault the waiter or the busboy; they're predictably minimizing their own workload. But I also won't weep for the restaurant owner's condiment budget.
We were poverty stricken students in Pittsburgh and would always grab a few extra packets at McDonalds or wherever, sugar for tea, catsups, mayonnaises, jellies, whatever, just to get by. And I worked pt-time as a waiteress and took a few artificial sweeteners from that restaurant as well.
I suppose we just continued as we are still poverty stricken even in our senior years. Never take handfuls, just a few extras.......
I take packets of condiments just to annoy the self-righteous posters on this thread.
Annoyance fail.
Only at Taco Bell, when they short me on sauce. I don't take all of it, but I will walk in there and grab a big handful of it if they scrooge me at the drive-through.
Agree. Scrouged me on sauce at drive thru. I parked, walked in and grabbed a handful of the hot sauce, therefore having more than needed. Too bad!
You all do realize that the people who are so frugal to take the little sweetner packages are keeping a lot of people at splenda in a job dont you LOL ? The resturant is charging for it , anyone who thinks that they are not is just kidding themselves.
Yes, Mary, you're right: the restaurant is charging us for it. And therein lies the problem: those of us who don't pilfer pay for those who do.
Good point , but I am willing to bet that if everyone just quit pilfering the condiments the price still wouldnt go down!
Don't try to slide a few cookies into your purse from the Chinese buffet or you'll have half a dozen waiters chase you across the parking lot. A friend from work found that out the hard way!
The food industry, including restaurants, has done some not-so-petty pilfering from our healthcare system for years. Extremely few have noticed that big elephant in the room. My brother-in-law loved eating at a certain BBQ franchise, and he ended up needing coronary bypass surgery at 40 years old.
He must have been a really big pig.
You can be a big pig too!
Really?! You're going to blame his coronary bypass on a BBQ restaurant. No one forced him to eat there every day. This is what's wrong with America. No one takes personal responsibility for their actions and has to blame their problems on everyone else. It's not a BBQ restaurant or McD's or anywhere else that makes people fat. It's the people who eat those foods in excess and don't exercise. I've got a few more pounds than I like right now – is it the fault of the restaurants that cooked the food I like to eat? NO! It's mine because I've eaten too much of it, had a few extra beers, and haven't run as much as I used to.
America – take responsibility for your actions and stop laying blame on the industries that you frequent a little bit too much.
Here here, Jeremy. I couldn't have said it better myself!
Apparently, taking responsibility hasn't helped too much with changing your behavior. Duly noted.
YES!!
So,your brother-in law is a fat slob with no self control. Yeah, blame it on the restaurant.
It's true though that restaurants (and prepared-food companies) load up the servings with extra salt and fat, thereby making the food both more "delicious" to our childish tastes and more fattening/unhealthy. That tweaking of our natural senses does promote overeating, making it more difficult to stop. Once hunger is satisfied people continue eating becaue of "appetite" - or what my husband calls "sport eating." Once I learned the difference - becoming aware of when the hunger pangs were satiated and I was eating because of "deliciousness," I was able to cut down and sotp earlier; I had a rationale. But a lot of people - men in particular - are still big kids who eat innocently for the sheer joy of it. And so I do in a sense "blame" those who put the food in front of them. I'm able to sit down to a plate of green beans and make a meal out of them, forego the sauces and seasonings... without the ketchup, we would probably eat far fewer french fries. Without the "secret sauce" a hamburger would be just as filling and nutritious but we might leave some over. To lose weight, just try eating foods plain - even fast foods. Ask for a hamburger plain, no sauce, no ketchup. You'll get the nutrition and your hunger pangs will cease, but you won't be tempted to keep eating past the point of satiety.
The restaurant isn't responsible for your brother-in-law's inability to take care of himself.
It's well-known in modern medicine that most medical conditions have a combination of influences including genetic, nutritional, environmental, and lifestyle choices. Anything that contributes to illness is called a "contributing factor". Excess fat and sodium in one's diet can be a contributing factor to coronary disease. Some single restaurant meals have been tested to be so far off the scale of U.S. RDA upper daily limits that they should be outlawed (or at least labeled as such).
Maybe your relative should refrain from eating out all together and cook his own meals. Just an idea.
How about instead of outlawing something, people learn self control and take responsibility for their own health? There are choices we make every day that can help or hurt us, and WE decide what to do.
Really, we need to outlaw things because you're too much of a glutton to not stuff your mouth with things you know are bad for you?
Allowing the restaurant industry to get away with what they get away with on a regular basis isn't all that much different than letting the corner drug dealer peddle his illicit wares. When you knowingly sell a product that contains substances in a quantity known to cause harm to human health, there should be consequences. In either case, the consumer is often ignorant of the potential harm until it has already occurred.
Hee. My gramma swiped the silver sugar bowl. Sometime in the 1920's, on a dare. So this was before the Depression and I guess she has no excuse, LOL! Family story is it was at the Lenox in Boston. Anyhow, my uncle currently has it and it's on my side of the inheritance list so I guess I'm getting ill-gotten gains soon. I have no idea whether there was still sugar in it or not when she swiped it.
I've been guilty of taking a waiter or busboy home a few times.
Oh but who could blame you. They are so cute and helpful!
I have often wondered about drive thrus where they give you WAY TOO many condiments.... I have often thought that costs could be cut by making a rule about how many to give out at a time.
I don't find it necessary to take stuff from a restaurant table. What am I gonna do with a little sugar, salt, creamer envelope in my shirt pocket for several hours?
After having my cup of coffee, usually straight, who needs anything else...?
When I was in college, my room mate would steal huge amounts of ketchup packets from Wendy's. When he had no other food in the house, he'd make "tomato soup" from them and eat it.
He rarely had money for food, but he always had money for beer and smokes.
My dad was in college during the depression. While there he held down three jobs, one of which was a restaurant job.
He often old the story that people would order hot water and make tomato soup by pouring ketchup into the water.
Sounds like your roommate was an addict.
It never occurs to me to take anything that I didn't pay for. I realized while reading this that I don't even consider swiping anything like Splenda. Maybe I should....who knew? :)
Nah.....I will just keep doing the next right thing, as that is an easier, softer way for me to live.
What's worse than swiping condiments is the fact that where I work people waste so much food, people throw away 3/4's of an expensive rib-eye and sirloin steaks, I mean it is ridiculous. You'd think if someone bought a $30 steak they would at least take it home.
What, for the dog? It would be far better if smaller portions were offered (for a commensurately smaller price). If the smallest piece of beef I could find at a restaurant were that big, I wouldn't order anything, I'd leave. I only eat meat about twice a year so taking it home would be just as wasteful as leaving it at the restaurant, since I'd never eat the leftovers. Offer smaller portions and there will be less waste.
Smaller portions are offered. It is just people order huge steaks thinking they can eat it. Besides at least feeding the dog is better than feeding the trash can. And very few people only eat meat twice a year.
TexanGal – To the guy who buys a $30 steak, it is like you buying $1 hamburger at McDonalds. He probably eats at a restaurant almost every day and is on expense account. So it really cost him nothing. His company deducts the cost of the meal from its profits. If he brought it home, he would just put it in a refrigerator stuff full of left overs until his servant cleaned it out at the end of the week. You and him live in different worlds.
The only time I've ever taken packets, is when on vacation and the hotel didn't have my preference–I would never use these things to stock my home!
What in the world is wrong with taking a few extra sugar packets? No restaurant has even gone bankrupt over this.....
Some restaurant condiments (like jelly etc.) come in single serve packets that aren't usually available in retail stores (at least not in anything other than industrial size quantities). Some of these items might be taken by people who would be happy to buy their own if they were sold in grocery stores.
Condiment rules:
If you take condiments home to use with leftover food, you must use them with food from the same establishment. Therefore, you must have a system for ensuring this happens. In the case where the packets are only labeled with a generic brand like "Heinz", one option is to put them in separate bins. Each bin would be marked with the restaurant name where its contents came from. Another option is to combine all like condiments together in their own bin, such as ketchup, mustard, etc., and then use a computer spreadsheet set up to keep track of how many packets in a bin came from each specific establishment. When you take home food from a particular establishment and use a condiment on it, then you decrement the count of that condiment from that establishment. If you go below zero and have to "borrow" the condiment from another establishment in the same bin, someone here must be able to come up with an algorithm to fairly re-balance that condiment, because it's too difficult for my brain right now.
What's the difference, ethically speaking, between a 350 pound person eating enough food at a buffet as 5-10 regular meals, and a petite person with an appetite like a bird smuggling out a dessert from that buffet that she couldn't finish along with a sugar packet or two? Should they be traveling together and become stranded in freak blizzard in the mountains for weeks, the heavier person could realistically survive off his fat stores, whereas the petite person would surely die without the extra sustenance she put in her purse.
lol
My God! I've been doing it all wrong!
Seriously?
Well, you know, anal personality types (and I fit in that category in some ways) need something to keep themselves busy. Fortunately, I've been somewhat successful in redirecting those traits into more productive pursuits.
That's a very primitive system! I RFID tag all my condiments as I receive them, which are then automatically scanned and entered into a database as I enter my house. The system then assesses my condiment usage patterns and based on my usage patterns predicts how much of each type of condiment I should take from each individual restaurant. Then, using my phone's GPS, the system knows what restaurant I'm near at any point in time, and messages me on how many packets of each type of condiment I should take. This solves the issue of "borrowing" condiments from another establishment's supply.
J/K, that was just seriously nuts.
Kat, all of us here at the Restaurant Industry Association are very impressed with your system and would like to have you come join our team. If we could adopt your RFID technology to tag our condiment packets, we could more easily prevent customer misuse. Any customer trying to exit an establishment with an excess number of packets (based on the quantity and type of food they've purchased) could be detected and then intercepted by restaurant personnel (which is a polite way of saying: tackled in the parking lot).
The losses that accrue from the wanton abuse of condiment privileges by unscrupulous customers are staggering and a national disgrace. With your help, we can turn this alarming trend around for the benefit of our industry and our non-pilfering customers. Thanks for your consideration and have a nice day.
They've already started to crack down at most fast food places. Not long ago if french fries was part of your order, a handful of ketchup would be in the bag – no question. Now, you must ask for it and then they want to know exactly how many packets you want.
Ewww. What is the ketchup for? Fries are much better if eaten plain.
Put a little mayo on those fries and you'll never eat them plain again.
Another thing I guess they didn't mention but I'd be interested to see what the response is: How many of you take a handful of complimentary mints instead of just one that they sometimes keep in a bowl at the host station? I will admit I'm guilty of pilfering a handful of those at every opportunity! :-P
I never take ANY mints. I don't like sweets, they spoil the meal.
Charlotte ... you have a very high horse.
well she DOES get the sugar bowl.....
EWW, Patrick ... NEVER pilfer the mints .. .people put their hands in their after using the bathroom and many people do not wash .... you are eating a mint with a hint of e coli or worse!
Where do you eat that the mints aren't wrapped? ew
chinese restaurants...duh
You wouldn't take any mints at all if you realized that a lot of people don't wash their hands after using the restroom at a restaurant. Then they take a mint on the way out. Yum.
I don't normally take the mints unless they are of a particular type or a brand I haven't tried before. But I'll sometimes take two or three, especially if there isn't anyone standing right over the bowl glaring at me.
I worked in fast food for a bit and we were told if they left stuff like that on the tables to throw them away since we couldn't put it back because it was unhygienic. We wished people would take them so we wouldn't feel bad about throwing it away and wasting it.
Good lord, my grandmother used to embarrass the h*ll out of us going out to eat by bringing sandwich baggies in her purse (ones she had used previously and washed out, mind you) and taking home leftovers. By leftovers I mean the butter we didn't use at a pancake breakfast, or bones from steaks for her dog, buffet leftovers on her plate, etc. I guess raising 8 kids and living through the Depression just never left her.
Washing and resuing sanwich baggies? That's one I've not heard before. Bless her heart.
If you experience poverty during the Great Depression, it never leaves you. You cannot stand to see waste.
You don't have my reason in the poll: I paid for it. The price of salt & ketchup was included with my fries. Is it theft if I use the salt on my ice cream instead? No. How many times have I bought a bottle of ketchup to keep in the hotel fridge because the local whatever ALWAYS forgets to include ketchup, or I keep a bottle of soy sauce because the cheapskate Chinese restaurant only provides 2 tiny packets of soy for an entire family dinner? They know you don't want to hold up the huge drive-through line checking for ketchup. Do they deliberately short you a straw and sugar? You people saying that taking one extra is theft need to get a life. Is the restaurant committing theft by deception?
Check reason #1.
No you didn't pay for it. You paid for your meal those extras are at the restaurants expense to help make their customers more comfortable. When they figure out their profits they figure that a particular percentage of people will use so much condiments. If you just go and take it to bring it home, you are no longer using these to enhance your experience at the restaurant, you are just misusing their generousness. Causing them to tighten their rules and making everyone else suffer.
Companies wouldn't have to nickle and dime us so much, if people stopped trying to abuse the system and get freebees when they are not meant to be freebees.
Oh, ok. The consumer's abuse of corporate generosity is driving prices up. Got it. I read the part of the story where the restaurant manager compliains that 1% of his expenses go toward condiments to enhance my dining experience. Gee whiz, I don't have my calculator but I thing roughly 100% of what they charge me goes to the restaurant to enhance their payday experience. Let's just call it even, mmmkay?
Todd, by that reasoning, you strictly didn't pay for the carrying bag and food packaging either... they're provided as a convenience to the customers. Nor are you paying for friendly service. I know, all ridiculous arguments, however all flow logically from your premise.
I can't say that I have never taken any Sweet and Low, but it would only be about 5 total in 30 years. And yes, my parents grew up in the depression and I am sixth out of seven children. Even so, I think it is wrong to take extras that are not used in the restaurant. I was brought up in the church and that makes me more aware of right and wrong. My parents never would have done that. Luckily, I have a husband who is probably the most honest person on earth. He would not even let us use someone else's pass to go to Waterworld because he said it is stealing. My parents did not have an extremely hard time because everyone was able to keep their jobs and my grandmother worked which was unusual for women with children in the 30's. My mother worked and paid her way to college that way.
Growing up in a family of seven children was a challenge.My father lost his job once or twice and I mostly had hand me downs for clothes. It seems like a lot of the money had already been spent on older siblings. Still I was shocked when, as a teacher, we had taken our students to another town to perform. This included a trip to a restaurant. Most of the kids hadn't been to too many restaurants and this was a treat. The other teacher thought it was perfectly alright for the kids to empty all the bread baskets and the dozen or so cracker packages that were on the table. She had grown up much poorer than I. Also, I have trouble spending money on myself sometimes because I feel that the money is going to run out. Even though my husband has a decent income, I am always thinking that we can't spend that much. That's more because of my family situation when I was growing up. I hope you find all this interesting.
Hey another consideration to the why it takes place is this; I worked in West Africa in the oil field some yrs ago and we had company picnics etc. And let me tell you what, the locals would take everything by the end of the picnic, even the tables if you did not watch them. So, grow up a in third world country (think depression era 24/7 by 365), then immigrate to the USA and anything that is left out to "use as needed" is needed and used, first come first serve.
Here's the rub too, they were not raised to think this is wrong so be careful about judging them as it is a cultural norm for them. Some of the folks I worked with had local college degrees and did not see it as stealing, they thought of us as stupid for leaving it out if we did not expect them to take it. They also laughed and thought we were silly to try and tell them should not take more than they needed.
Your experience is very interesting. I have an coworker from Nigeria and we found a bunch of our company toilet paper and paper towels in his apartment after being invited over after a Christmas party
I will keep what they give me in a to go bag or on a tray, but I will often leave what I don't use. Disposable items I may keep and re-use out of economy or ecology, but only those they would throw away anyway...like the chopsticks at a Chinese buffet.
For those items that you don't use, I hope you are taking them back to the bins because if you simply leave it on the table, chances are the kid who busses or cleans the tables is just going to throw them away. So you may as well use them or take them.
I have in the past but my wife prefers I do not so I am reformed. In the past I was specific in that I took 3-6 packets of Splenda or another artifical sweetner while on the road because friends and family do not always stock it and I am a coffee dog (always up for a cup, so they say) but I stay away from processed sugar. (Much better to use man made unatural sweetners than natural sweetners that put on the weight......or so it seems in my head.....and the gas stations and restaurants make plenty of profits so it just made sense. It also saved the environment cause I did not have to go to a store to buy it, just pick it up as I'm passin thru.....I am sure it also contributed to world peace.....but in the end it was about "happy wife, happy life", and so I am reformed....for now ;-)
Keep up the good effort. Maybe that's a positive thing about living in the U.S. There is enough ketchup, really and you can afford to buy it. Well, they always give you too much, too. Just break down and buy the Splenda. It won't kill you and small businesses need to save money, too.
I've seen people at Wendy's (when they had it out) grab HANDFULLS of plastic utensils. My parents were depression era and had so many packets of sugar and plastic stuff when we cleared out the house. Also the people at All You can eat buffets – I've seen old people put soup in thermoses they had brought (they did NOT look poor), a normal looking woman grab a dozen cookies and stick in her purse, or my dad wrap a piece of fried chicken and put in his pocket. These to me are flat out theft.
My mother will wrap up anything left over on her plate to take home from a buffet. Her reasoning is "They have to throw it away, anyway!" I understand where she's coming from. I hate to accidentally take to much to finish and have them throw it away.
The only problem is that I also understand where the buffet is coming from. If they let everyone take leftovers home, then most people would go back after they are full, load up a huge plate of food and take home another meal. That's definitely stealing.
Manager at one of my favorite restaurants quit putting out Splenda. Said that when she put it out people were cleaning out the whole supply to take with them.
Now.. sweet and low they didn't.
Sounds like there should be a splenda ad in there somewhere!!
There is a Splenda ad, just check out the pic at the top of the article.
Maybe if they didn't put so much out to start with. You go to a diner and there is this dish just stuffed with real and fake sugar packets or a jam/jelly thing stuffed. Maybe if the sugar was in a pouring container or if the waitress asked the person how many sugar packets they wanted, then the stealing would be slowed. You drive through Taco Bell and ask for sauce and they grab a big handful and throw it in, typically more than you will use.
Sometimes I get extra condiments handed to me at the drive thru, which I keep for the next time. I didn't ask for extras, but the employee is sometimes rushed and just grabs a handful. I generally try to use only what I need because I look at it this way: Those things aren't free. The product inside them is a cost, the container they're in is a cost, the shipping package holding the condiments is a cost, and so is the transportation to get them from the manufacturer to their final destination. They're inexpensive because they're small and don't contain a lot of product and are shipped in bulk, so restaurants indeed have factored them into the cost of the food somehow. If however people start taking more of them, then that can have an impact on the price of the food itself. An item for .89 becomes .99 (partly because most things are priced to end in 9 which is a psychological ploy to make you think it's cheaper...but that's a discussion for another article) because the restaurant now has to cover the extra cost of condiment packets that walk out of the restaurant not for it's true intended purpose, which is for the food the customer is ordering.
I take extra ketchups and mayos and put them in my drawer at work for when they get stingy at the drive thru and dont give me any ketchup or not enough. I also take a handful of pepper since pepper is hard to come by, they NEVER give you pepper unless you ask and I always forget. The stash has saved me many times from eating dry unseasoned food.
I use their condiments only with their food, it doesnt matter if I take extra in advance for the occasions that I forget to ask, the same amount is still being used. I dont take extra for home use.
also, if I know I have a lot of ketchup left at work I wont ask for any, nothing is wasted
As long as you are using if for their product in the future, that makes sense. Many a times I have gotten food, forgotten the condiment, and didn't have an enjoyable product experience.
"an enjoyable product experience"...Really?
Really CNN, don't waste our time with these pathetic questions on your quick vote. Ask questions like lets see.....Are politicians crimminals?
This is The Eatocracy Blog. It's about food. If you want politics and news about criminology, you clicked on the wrong link. My suggestion is you just move along young man before I haul you in.
@Keith_ Please don't be one of those "Oh Please CNN" people. If you don't think the news article is newsworthy why the heck are you reading it and commenting on it? Do you just love being snarky? Being snarky is a cliche on these sounding boards and I'm sick of reading about how bored you are with CNN content. Go elsewhere or shut up!
How is a question about crooked politicians to which everyone already knows the answer less of a waste of time than a question about ketchup packets to which the answer is in doubt? Who needs a survey to tell them politicians are criminals?
Next burning question on Keith's Big Survey: "Is the sky blue?"
The answer to that is too obvious- no poll needed.
I only take extra condiments if I'm taking home part of the meal I ordered. I take enough to have with the rest of the leftovers and that's it. I don't consider it stealing at all.
No, that's not stealing. It's what is required to finish your meal...later, at your home. The issue is the people that hoard/pocket/steal way more than what they know they can use for that meal.
I like to try and take the sweet things behind the counter home with me all the time.
But they call me a creepy old man bordering on pedophilia and get restraining orders.
LOL! I go to one restaurant FREQUENTLY. I take the salsa bowl & sometimes the bowl the beans come in. But I always take them back the next time I go & I wash them. One time I dropped my to go box in front of the owner. *embarrass!* she had the waiter put 2 bowls of salsa in my replacement box.
So if I have to take a few extra packets of something – not knowing how much sweetener my tea might need, or how much sauce I'll want on my dish – should I then make an effort to return any extras to the restaurant ?
The cost of these items is *already* built into the price of the food ! Don't be fooled.
No, LaLa, what you're doing is not theft and is fine. You didn't take extras intentionally. You legitimately thought you might need 3, so you took 3. After a while, if you frequent that establishment, you may determine you only need 2, so at that point, you only take 2. And if once in a while you take 3 because you forget (or don't remember), no biggie. Most likely you'll save it, and use it another time when you only get 1 and need more. I think this article is referring to the losers that take 10-15 sugar packets, knowing full well they only need a few at the most. Then the cost of all of our meals goes up, and there is no sugar for you and me who legitimately needs it, thanks to Captain Fat who took all 15 remaining. These types of people are scum and frankly, don't belong in our country. They take advantage of what is basically hospitality from the restaurant. And yes, you are right, we pay for it in our meals, so we should take what we need, and if you think you need 1 extra (but don't wind up needing it), then take it, and that's ok. But don't stock your pantry with 20 ketchups.
Matt, you just implied that the people who steal condiments are illegal immigrants ... at least that's what I'm reading from your choice of words. This is ridiculous. I know plenty of Born in the USA Americans who steal condiments at restaurants. The problem isn't where you come from, often it's how you were raised. And in America there are plenty of citizens who were raised to think they're entitled to whatever they want, and if you can get it for free (i.e. steal it) and justify it somehow or, better yet, blame it on someone else (the restaurant, illegal immigrants, etc.), then hey, it's all good, right? The truth is, intentionally taking more than you need without paying for it is stealing, plain and simple. If you think you might need those extra packets of Sweet-n-Low in the future, go to the store and buy yourself a box and take some with you, don't steal it from the restaurant where you happen to be having lunch.
There needs to be a distinction here between two types of people who take these things.
First, there's the guy who just picks up 5, thinking he'll use them all, only ends up using 3, and pockets the other two. This I've never had a problem with.
Then there's the person who goes for the sole purpose of taking them. I worked in a deli for about a year, there was always this one customer who would bring a bag and empty out the entire condiment rack (this was not a small rack). After doing this a few times we approached her, and she just went nuts, saying how they were hers and she demanded to see my manager. Luckily, my manager threw her out on her ass and everyone was happy.
Moral of the story, don't be an ass, just take a few.
Amen! Exactly! If I go through the driveway, and they give me 2 BBQ sauces, and I only use 1, I'll usually keep the extra and use it later when they don't give me any or not enough. I've never had an issue with that. Nor do I have an issue with people who take 2 or 3, thinking they might need it, then only use 1. In those 2 scenarios there is nothing intentional that has occurred. However, if someone were to go through the drive through and say "I need 4 BBQ sauces please" and then pocket the extra 3 for their own supply, knowing they only need 1, then that is theft, and it is wrong. People can look at that any way they want, but in the end, they are thieves, plain and simple, and I think most people know that deep down. So the moral is, don't be a thief or a loser, and do the right thing. And if you are a loser thief, you'll get what's coming to you you piece of human garbage.
Or if you need 10 hot sauce packets per taco... Literally, my boyfriend does, and he uses every single one of them. We can never go through drive through, since who would believe someone needs 30 hot sauces, unless you've seen my boyfriend eat tacos.
There are several reasons I don't take extras of the wet wipes, or condiment packets, or seasonings – eventually it will catch up to raise the price of a meal. All of us are paying for the greed, or impulsiveness, or 'thrift' of a few.
Another reason is that I was brought up to take only what I need of anything. Any extras could be shared with those who need them more than me.
A third reason is that the contents of the packages in restaurants are of a lower quality than I would typically buy for my home. I like to be more discerning, than 'it's there, so I'm taking it'.
I'm sure that most of what's taken ends up barely used and wasted anyway – I'm often ashamed of what pigs many Americans act like. They don't recycle, they don't bother to properly dispose of their waste, and they take well more than their fair share.
Exactly, Jim! Well put. Most people are pigs. These are the same people that don't wash their hands in a public restroom, or, only rinse quickly without using soap or scrubbing. At least wash your hands in public so people don't think you're disgusting, but no...they don't care. Which means they are pigs. They almost NEVER use any of their hoarded condiment packs, even those who think they "need" it. You dont' need it because you don't even use it. Then there are the "thrifty" ones. Let me be clear – theft and thrift are 2 different things, and if you're resorting to taking extra condiment pouches, then 'theft' would be the word that applies, not thrift. Thrift means you BUY a bottle of ketchup at the grocery store (not get it for free), and only use tiny amounts so as not to waste it and have to BUY more bottles sooner. That is theft. Taking extra packets which you are not entitled to is theft. And by the way, if the ketchup you use at your house is in little packets that you clearly stole, and not a bottle that you paid for honestly, then I'm going to think you are a loser thief. And like Jim says, you can pay for the ketchup at a grocery store and be an honest person, or you can steal it and be a piece of crap, and then guess what? Your fast food prices will go up and you're paying much more in the end than if you would have just bought the ketchup. Why are you paying a lot more? Because you eat their 5 times per week. Of course, all of this logic that Jim and I just shared is probably lost on you because you are obese and stupid and more worried about where you are going to get your next cheeseburger from. Again, pigs. Shame on yourselves. (Almost) All of you.
I guess it depends on how you understand this headline
Its one thing to take all the condiments they give you,like ketchup or whatever happens to be already brought out to you.
Its another thing to stock your pantry.I figure if its something they would throw out,like condiments they brought to you for your meal and you didnt use them,thats ok.If you're emptying the stock and making someone have to do that job all over again,thats bs.
At the store I work at Ill let people take a handful of condiments or enough for using with some other meals,but when they start stocking their pockets with everything its just too much.
i only take an extra packet of sugar when I get coffee to go, b/c I sometimes need to add some. Otherwise, no. I have friends who take a handful of sweetener packets...I don't think that's right. It costs the restaurant, and ultmiately, that cost gets passed on to teh consumer anyway.
I occasionally will take a packet or two of equal when I buy coffee at Dunkin Donuts. The reason is ill put three packets into an extra large coffee and often times the three packets of equal are not enough. That cup of extra large coffee at Dunkin Donuts costs $2.65. I'll bet that cup of coffee, in the great scheme of things, doesn't cost the Dunkin Donuts shop I buy this cup of coffee at, much more that the cost of four or five equal packets.
Here, you exhibit the rationalizing qualities that the article identifies. If you really thought the coffee was too expensive, you'd shop somewhere else. You do realize that the majority of that coffee's price goes to pay the employees and keep the lights on, right? Or, is it then okay because it's a big, faceless corporation, and not a mom-and-pop?
WTF?
If you're gonna pay almost three bucks for a coffee,you're also paying for enough sweetener and whatever else to make it taste right.
I dont think hes "rationalizing" if he just wants his coffee to taste right.
I have a secret thing for cool sugar packets and I tend to collect them from coffeeshops around the world, but otherwise I do not steal condiments very often. I was raised by depression-era parents and we definitely lived frugally and were taught to use everything and not waste, but we were also taught not to steal OR to feel entitled to anything so, put that in your theory pipe and smoke it. People take packets of stuff for so many reasons, from being frugal to being a hoarder to just plain being too cheap to buy it for themselves and keep at home. Or, sometimes they are poor and on them I place no judgement.
At a restaurant I where I used to work, we had to stop keeping matches and mints by the front door, because homeless folks would dart in and fill their pockets, then run. You feel so sorry for someone that would steal such small things, but it cost the (small) restaurant hundreds of dollars a year that they couldn't afford, and they had to get rid of it.
My friends jewish grandfather would steel chairs, towels, ice cream, basketballs you name it from the community center. He said that it came with his membership, stereotypical behavior is amusing.
What a cool grandpa!
Talk about stealing and waste! Have you ever seen a table of inconsiderate buffoons at a buffet?? I see people take PLATES of food and not eat it, only to go back and take more. Then they help themselves to the condiments, napkins, and many times the WRAPPED food items that can be thrown in a purse! Once I saw a woman with a LARGE purse take a loaded plate of foil wrapped Asian chicken pieces and dump them in her purse when she thought no one was looking!
When you go to a buffet, take SMALL QUANTITIES of things until you decide if you like them or not–not load your plate with something and THEN decide you want something else!
As a former restaurant owner and worker, I can tell you from experience that people taking condiments absolutely does not cut into the profit margin all that much. Most decent restaurants would rather you come in and buy food from them and take a couple of extra sugar packets on your way out than not come in at all. It's also a bad idea to try to charge people for condiments because they will just go somewhere else that doesn't.
If restaurant owners really think that condiments are cutting into the profit margin too much they should change their menu and serve pizza only, because pizza is the most profitable food you can make. I've sold just about every kind of food you can think of, and pizza costs the least to make, sells the best, and makes the most profit even when you sell it for a reasonable price. I used to spend about $250.00 to $300.00 a day for ingredients and would make anywhere from $2,500.00 to $3,000.00 a day gross. After I would add in the cost of store rent, utilities, all expenses related to the employees, such as worker's compensation., etc. the profit margin would still be more than 100%. In other words, you spend $1.00 you make at least $1.00 in profit, sometimes more. Then if they want to make even more money, close the store and open a catering service. My wife and I did that for awhile and all I sold was pizza by the slice out of a truck at construction sites and the profit margin soared.
My point is that if you run your business the right way you can make a lot of money. And the cost of condiments isn't all that much. You can make up for that by selling fountain drinks, which have an utterly ridiculous mark up. Just two boxes of syrup for a Coke machine can make enough profit to pay for all of your condiments for a month. And you will sell all the drinks from those two boxes in a day or two. IF you have plenty of customers, that is... So don't make your customers mad, sell them good products **that they want** at a **reasonable price**, and they will come back.
You sound normal. Thank you.
I appreciate your experience in the business, I have a similar background. However, fixed costs like the ones you describe can vary widely based on the restaurant concept. Yes, you're right that a well-run restaurant should cover its costs in other places, but I, like you I'm sure, have seen and marveled at the psychology that makes people feel that everything from toilet paper rolls to hand soap and silverware are up for grabs. Interesting article.
Personally I think this is way overblown and is yet another classic example of how CNN doesn't do very good research before they post an article. For example, I will reference two quotes from the article. The first is " 'No one is going to feel it if I take five Sweet N’Lows,'” says Kristene Doyle. " and the second is "petty pilfering". The second one is far more accurate of a statement than the first in my opinion. As I previously posted in reply to Mark below, I said that used to pay $11.00 for 2000 packets of Sweet N’ Low. That comes out to 0.0055¢ each. (And that is at the higher cost of low buying power. Any decent restaurant supply company is going to give you better prices for buying higher quantities.) So if someone did take five packets of Sweet N’ Low when they left my restaurant, how much would it have cost me? Yes, that's right folks... A whole 2.2¢. It costs me more than that to have a waitress serve my customers. Is that "petty pilfering" too? That is part of the cost of doing business. You have to spend money to make money.
If I know it's going to be trashed, I take the little jellies and ketchup packets and other things in a food place. In a hotel, I ALWAYS take the shampoos and other things because at the end of the year for the holidays, I donate them to a battered woman's shelter. I have a few people who travel picking them up for me as well. My girlfriend and I make up decorated shoe boxes and put all kinds of things in there for the women at the shelter.
More power to you. Businesses buy everything from creamer packets to single serving shampoo bottles in bulk – they are not losing out, they account for the fact that customers take these freebies. And the homeless could certainly use them more than any of us.
I have a drawer full of splenda and I am not ashamed.
So basically you are robbing Peter to pay Paul. You want to brag about your acts of altruism when you are basically stealing from person A to make yourself feel better about giving it away to B. In other words you want to help people out but God forbid out of your own pocket. You sir are the reason I loathe the human race.
II never take condiments or sugar unless I need them – not for any moral reason but because I know I won't use them and I will end up with a refrigerator full of ketchup packets which I subsequently have throw away.
On the other hand I always take more take-out napkins than I need, just because I am perpetually afraid of having a spill and being unable to clean it up. There are fewer more irritating First World Problems than driving down the street looking at a big glob of ketchup slowly sinking into the passenger seat upholstery because you didn't take enough napkins to deal with spills. I swear, it goes like this 1) world hunger, 2) lingering condiment spills on auto interiors, 3) racism. Life is a drag.
Everyone takes too many napkins. It's due to the poor designs of most napkin holders which make it nearly impossible to take only one at a time.
I actually find extra packets of condiments annoying, so stealing/keeping them is not an option for me. Every once in awhile I'll keep an extra sauce included in a fast food meal, but only if I really love that sauce and the fast food place has a policy about not giving out any sauces unless you buy chicken nuggets. (Ridiculous, in my opinion.) Even then, after so long, I toss it. I have enough things I keep around for no reason than that it was given to me for free. (Samples coming out of my ears)
That said, I had a coworker once who loved McDonald's fancy ketchup. He hated any other kind of ketchup, and would collect as many of the little packets as he could. He didn't especially like McDonald's food, either, so would sometimes go and buy a meal to get a couple handfuls of ketchup packets, then come back to the office and give the meal away.
People who indulge in this behavior are thieves. It's stealing, plain and simple.
You can't steal something if it is given away for FREE.
So if my generation takes an extra pile of napkins, it's a "sense of entitlement," but if grandma does it, it is "spend-thrift learned from a childhood born of suffering and want."
Double-standard, much?
When I was in Scandanavia, I had to pay extra for the ketchup packets at some fast food restaurants. From what I remember it was a minor cost (~15 cents/packet) but it made me think about how many packets I really needed.
In the states I don't consciously think about how much I am taking when I eat. If there are extra napkins or packets at the end, I'll take them home. I don't take 3 handfuls expecting to take some home with me nor do I go back at the end and grab extra ones to take home.
I think that if all these people were to eat less OUTSIDE they would save more money. It's ridiculous that they pay 10 or 20 dollars for breakast and steal a few sugar or ketchup packets and "gain" 20 cents...
I thought the same thing! One woman in the story saved condiments when she ordered food to her home – save the $3-5 tip and buy salt, pepper, and ketchup from the grocery store.
I agree with your point, but people don't actually gain as much as you think. In the article it says " 'No one is going to feel it if I take five Sweet N’Lows,'” says Kristene Doyle. " So I will use that as an example. I used to pay $11.00 for 2000 packets of Sweet N’ Low. That comes out to 0.0055¢ each. If someone took 37 of them, that comes to 20.35¢. (36 is 19.80¢.) Someone would have to take 182 of them, which I personally think would be rare, to make the total "loss" to the restaurant equal $1.00.
Actually, $11.00 for 2000 packets of Splenda is $0.0055 or 0.55 cents each (just over 1/2 penny per packet).
It being two days after the fact I kind of doubt you'll even see this, but I gotta ask anyway... Are you absolutely sure you are a Math Whiz? We essentially said the same thing, except I quoted the price I used to pay for Sweet N' Low and you're talking about Splenda. I hope you don't actually think that makes any difference in the math. 37 packets cost 20.35¢, and 36 cost 19.80¢, which is as close to the 20¢ Mark mentioned...
oh my 66, how i love thee! lmao! i was trying really hard to correct you by just repeating you, but no cigar....
Seriously? Gen X and Y have a problem with feeling like they are owed something? The entitlement attitude didn't skip the Boomers...they invented it! Take a look at how our Boomer leaders are wrecking this country and tell me that this generation missed that issue...
I hoard napkins from restaurants.
What an incredible waste of electrons!
Never mind about the right/wrong of it. If you fill you pockets with condiments from the table, you look like someone who grew up on welfare with parents who were probably criminals and didn't teach you any better: strictly low class. Which is why I always snicker when snobby, over perfumed, jewel encrusted "ladies" do it. It's like they're advertising to the whole world "Hi! My mom was a prostitute, and this is how I was raised, and now you know how I got my money."
Wow what a stereotypical totally off the mark comment about poor people! I grew up on welfare, my parents were not criminals or lazy!!! Nor did they pass on to me lazy work habits that prevent me from getting a job. I make a yearly six figure income and work harder than anyone in my office. If I didn't I wouldn't continue to get large bonuses each year! You took a page right out Newt’s racists narrow minded handbook and stupidly continue to repeat it.
I'll asume you learned to steal all on your own (noting your comment below on your pilfering).
Sooooo.... would this include the stuff in a hotel room that you paid for? 'Cuz I'm all about snagging the sample shampoo, soap, and coffee. I figure I paid for it with the room, especially if it's a half-used bar of soap but even if it's unused and wrapped.
I definitely take all of the shampoo, soap, etc when leaving a hotel room. However, what about this scenario: You stay 4 nights in a hotel room. Do you hide the shampoo, soap, etc from the night before so the housekeeping replaces them each day?
Do I gather up the hotel freebies as my own everyday even I don't use them? Absolutely. Especially at a good hotel chain since those are usually higher quality products. Do I take towels? Of course not. It's pretty clear they'll charge you from those if they can reasonably determine they disappeared during your stay. If it's a consummable and it doesn't have a price tag on it, it's mine. Paid for in the room charge.
"Do you hide the shampoo, soap, etc from the night before so the housekeeping replaces them each day?"
No, I don't think I've ever done that. Generally, if you have to hide something, that's an indication that it's wrong and you know it, else you wouldn't hide it.
Hotels buy those little sample toiletries hoping that you'll take them. That is why they have their logo printed on them. Each time you use that soap, you see the logo and hopefully think about your good experience at the hotel. When your guests use the little shampoo, they see the logo, and if it's a good shampoo, possibly consider staying at that hotel in the future.
As crazy as that sounds, it's a conscious marketing decision. And it works. You'd be surprised how people, possibly even yourself, make the decision on where to stay. I, myself, really appreciate the little details. So if I remember that at Hotel Classy I was given a lotion that made my skin very soft and my experience there was wonderful besides, and later I have the choice between Hotel Classy and Hotel Alright, I might be willing to shell out the extra money and stay at Hotel Classy just because of that.
It's different with restaurant condiments. They usually aren't branded. They are an extra expense for the restaurant, seen as a necessity. When you take sugar from Dennys, that sugar isn't going to encourage you to go back for another meal. It's not a deliberate marketing effort on the restaurant's part.
It's more like taking the towels from the hotel. They are there for your use, but not to take home. Same with condiments – there for you to use, but not intended to be taken home.
We went to the Ale House once with my grandmother.. My sister ordered nachos and they came in small crockpot disk, probably the same thing they serve their soup in.. Anyway, my sister only ate a few bites of it and when we were all putting out food in togo containers, she was just staring at the crockput full of refried beans and salsa and covered in cheese trying to figure out the best way to take it home.. My grandmother solved the problem for her by putting the entire crockput in a plastic bag and into her purse.. I think she also took the salt and pepper containers where were Coronita bottles with plastic caps with holes in them.. My sister still has the pot and salt and pepper shakers.. There were also one time that my family and I were going camping and rather than buy condiments, we would grab a hand full of them from the rest stop along the turnpike in Florida.. But that was sort of a last resort..
I never take extra of anything, like the butter or jelly that's on the table, but if I'm given soy sauce at a restaurant or extra napkins that will be thrown away once I leave, I take those things to not be wasteful. I look at it like taking the remainder of your food if you haven't eaten it all. If you left it there, it would be thrown away because they can't serve it to other people, so why not take what's been given to you and put it to use. It's just less wasteful!
I agree some restaurants don't have napkin dispensers on the table so they bring you a stack with your meal. I take them because I know they are only going to toss them because they can't use them again. Some restaurants also give you way too many ketchup, salt & pepper packets so I have no choice but to put them in my kitchen "junk" drawer. I only take what was given to me in excess. I don't deliberately swipe the salt & pepper shakers or the silverware, that's stealing. I think the writer of this article made some serious assumptions about how condiments end up in people’s kitchen "junk" drawers. It’s not always from stealing, sometimes it just from going one too many times through the drive-thru.
Justify you're behavior all you like, but you're still a thief.
I did more when I was younger, I'm in my lower 30s now and personally don't feel I have a reason to take things. In the past – a cute little salt and pepper shaker, raw sugar, tea sachets. Now, I don't take anything unless the waiter gives it to me but I just don't use it during that sitting – like an extra tea sachet.
I drink coffee at starbucks and i would like it with milk and sweetner as i am a diabetic i do not use sugar but the sweetners they have i do not like they leave a yucky after taste so i drink bitter coffee. i do not complain saying that they do not supply me my brand of sweetner so what if some one swipes a few packets of that and this when there are people like me who are not using anything by choice let those folks take a few packets to make their life easier, let it be even in that sense.
If it is a real problem for restaurants they would do something about it. Ingenuity being the key to a solution.
Exactly. Companies are so fixated on the bottom line, if this were a major issue, the restaurant would have resolved it.
What I'm surprised nobody is talking about are the times you go through drive-thru, open up your bag, and you have two handfuls of ketchup packets and a handful of napkins for your small french fries.
I don't do my grocery shopping at fast food restaurants, but if they give me more packets than I need, I take them home because I've been told by several establishments that they aren't allowed to reuse them. I do try to keep an extra straw or two in the car because half the time they forget to give you one.
I agree. All I take regularly, will occasionally take 1-2 packets of sugar if blood sugar is low – I'm a diabetic- but if fast food restaurants give to many napkins I take because I know they will be thrown out (actually I'm suppose to when I bus my tray.) I never take the jelly, butter, etc., which is supposed to be thrown out, because I'm sure it has been used or passed over more than once.
I do the same thing but find I don't use them once I have them at home. I've tried to give condiments back at restaurants (ones I didn't use and/or didn't ask for), but I've watched them throw them away once I gve them back. I think it has to do with food safety policies, but such a waste! I hate to see waste.
Someone making a good living over analyzing a minor issue. But then, doesn't everyon have to have something to do?
Ok. RARELY have I taken something from a restaurant. I took a cloth napkin to preserve the party gift given at a banquet because it was fragile. I have taken a Splenda or two when I am out of it at home. Rationalization? Yes of course. Ok, it's wrong...
Im kind of bent on this opinion. Its stealing if I take a couple extra sugar packets home, but its not stealing if I open those extra sugar packets and throw them in my coffee/tea. Either way, the extra sugar packets are not there for someone else to consume in the future.
The restaurant knows this. Althought he article points out how much 1% of annual costs can equal in condiments, they don't point out, of that 1%, how much is lost due to people taking extra. Furthermore, the loss of these items is factored in to the business' total operating cost and well known in advance. If it were such a problem, there wouldn't be condiment islands.
Some restaraunts in my area are already not putting out sweetners unless the customer asks for them and then they only hand out a few. The condiments on the tables or placed out on counters are for people to use with the meals they have purchased at that particular visit. They are not intended for people to take for "future" meals or just because you don't have any at home. If I have a meal to-go, I may take 1 extra sweetner in case I find my coffee is not quite sweet enough, but I was raised that if you are taking more than you KNOW you need, you are stealing.
So if I fill up a water bottle at a public drinking fountain (for future consumption), instead of just taking a few sips (what I need at the moment), I am stealing? Someone else is paying the water bill, not me.
I don't really think most reasonable people would consider taking a couple sugar/ketchup packets stealing (assuming you just bought something from the restaurant) but that doesn't necessarily make it right. The restaurant put them there as a convenience for their patrons; if you are taking them because you are planning on using them with your purchased item, great, but if you are taking them for future use or just to have it is inconsiderate and wrong... you would be a part of the entitlement society and a small example of a much larger problem.
If you are filling your water bottle to drink on your walk, great. If you are filling it to take home and water your flower, shame on you. Clearly not a big cost to others, but if a million people did it a day, the costs add up and someone has to pay for it.
Anytime you take something it is stealing, period. It doesn't matter how small or insignificant you think it is. I remember a time going into restaurants and having full bottles of ketchup, mustard, etc available to use with my meal. Slowly these conveniences are disappearing because of theft like this. I've seen mothers fill their babies bottles at StarBucks. I've seen TP swiped from bathrooms. If you want something like TP, condiments, etc all you have to do is ask. Grab a manager and say "I really could use this TP, or this small bag of ketchup packets, is it ok to take these?". If they say yes, it's not steeling.
So if I take a few sips at a water fountain and move on, am I stealing? I mean, Im not paying the water bill at the mall? Somebody else is.
Or on the way out of a restaurant I take a mint, Im stealing? The restaurant paid for the mints, not me. Apparently I am by your definition.
Don't be ridiculous...the water is there for YOUR convenience; the mints were placed there by the restaurant for YOU. No need to make stupid comments. The person in the original article is a thief...period!
Monroe, I was being sarcastic. Sorry, though it was pretty obvious.
Anyway, the same argument can be made for sugar and ketchup packets. They are a convenience placed there for you the consumer to use. The restaurant knows that providing "conveniences" is the same as operating at a loss.
Besides, I am responding to Jay's ridiulous statement of "Anytime you take something it is stealing, period. It doesn't matter how small or insignificant you think it is."
By his definition, ANY amount that is taken, is stealing. Not just a handful like in the article, but ANY amount.
It's called common sense, which is a dying thing these days. Let me help you on this because I really do care and I don't want to be derogatory. It comes down to thinking of others more than yourself. It's about developing this mindset throughout your entire life and it starts with small steps. If there are mints out, you could use the common sense approach. "Hmm .. They obviously want me to take a mint or two but probably not a handful". You could also develop an attitude of selflessness in other small ways as well.
I hope you didn't just steal your employer's time writing that instead of working.
I hope your not responding to me. Self-employed, stealing my own time.
I do not see the option of, "I take extra packets because they're delicious and I want to use them on other food, and they're not available to purchase." I would think that was the main reason. Chinese mustard and duck sauce? I've tried homemade, I've tried buying the various brands available – nothing tastes as good as the packets. Taco bell sauce? The store-bought version is just not the same, and they lack the new varieties. I would think they benefit from my becoming more and more addicted to their condiments, as it means I'll be back!
Also, as someone who uses a ridiculous amount of condiments on their food (especially where hot sauce and salsa is involved), I dread the dirty look customers or workers give when I grab my handful of packets to eat with me food. Yes. Some of us do need this to enjoy the food. Get over it.
So if my generation takes an extra pile of napkins, it's a "sense of entitlement," but if grandma does it, it is "spend-thrift learned from a childhood born of suffering and want."
What. The. Freak. Ever.
So if I fill up my water jug at a water fountain instead of just taking a few sips and moving on, am I stealing? I mean, Im not paying the water bill at the mall? Somebody else is.
Nope. Only if you're one of the annoying people who hogs the fountain to fill up their giant refillable water bottle.
so then it's stealing? What is the max size water container I can fill up before it is not considered stealing?
Funny you should mention this. On the ilovebacon website today there is a picture of a guy filling a gallon milk jug at the soda dispenser at a fast food restaurant. Sort of funny
always good to have a pole that doesnt have SOMETIMES, Taking something once every 6 months isnt a YES
poll
Yes it is, bspurloc.
Good point. I put myself in the "no, but I don't have a problem with people who do". There are a thousand things that I don't take extra of, and when it's sugar or something, it's rare enough to be once a year.
The only time I'll take extra packets of condiments is when I'm traveling. I like cream and sugar in my coffee and the coffee maker set-ups only leave you one cream and one sugar per cup of coffee. If I'm staying a few days, I'll request and receive extra from the hotel, but if I'm just staying the night I'll be sure to grab a little at a restaurant so I'll be prepared in the a.m. By the way, it helps to leave a nice little tip each day you're in a hotel – it comes back to you in excellent service or, in my case, tons of extra cream and sugar, even extra packs of coffee.
About twice a year I clean out my kitchen drawers, and if I have extra packets of sugar or ketchup, napkins, or even plasticware, I take them to various franchise places and restock their condiment bars. I just hate throwing these things away, and it is just my way of trying to help them keep their costs under control. All these extra's came from take out, and since I don't need them, and I don't want to feel guilty about "stealing them" I return them.
I also help a local coffee shop that uses the little pitchers of milk and half and half – when my milk is about to go out of date I take it up there and refill their pitchers so that someone can get some use out of it before it goes bad. It cracks me up to see the look on the waitresses face when she brings me a pitcher and I use it, and then when she picks it up it is fuller than it was when she brought it. That look of amazement makes the extra effort on my part worth it!
If everyone had this helpful attitude we could bring the prices of food way down, and possibly even free up some food to be sent to starving children in Africa and victims of tsunamis and such!
This is quite gross. I don't want your about-to-expire milk mixed in with their good milk. Stop doing this.
I only lift "Sporks" from Fast Food places. Those little gems are a God send when prying out my dentures at night time.
The restaurants should take it upon themselves to limit the amount of condiments customers want and hand them out as requested. People will always take more when the opportunity is present.
Can you tell the same restaurants that when going through the drive-thru I dont need 50 ketchup packets and a handful of napkins that will just get thrown away?
Many restaurants do not have the condiments on the tables anymore, but they usually give you more that enough packets of ketchup, mayonnaise, relish, etc. with your food or when you ask for them.
I have tried returning the unused ones to the counter but they throw them away for "hygiene reasons" (really??) Therefore, if they give me more than I need, I take them with me.
At work, I take the plastic utensils back home every day and put them in the dishwasher; they will eventually crystalize and break but at least I would have used them 8 to 10 times before picking another one from the box in the break room.
Ha, and they say journalism is dead! When we can get profound, cutting edge investigative reporting like this, what is there to complain about?
Thanks, Newk! This is a useless arrticle. I see more and more why my late parents frowned upon one of my older siblings becoming a clinical psychologist, a field perceived as "no better than a fortune teller or con artists and who someone paid after they told their problems and had them repeated back.."! Like some here, I offer back extra packets, going a step further by asking for the specific amount of packets. I keep extras that are with the order. As for salt, I hate it, and enough natural or processed sugar and salt s already in most food.
I hate it when people like this writer say that generation x and y have a me mentality. I am part of that generation and I have never thought, nor wanted the world to be handed to me. I work for what I get, and I wouldn't have it any other way. This generation is in the middle of tough economic times, I graduate college in 2 years and the job market sucks, so what am I doing about it, I'm building up my resume, I am studying about my personal finances, and I'm preparing to take care of myself. No we haven't had a great depression, but we've known war since we were kids. So let's maybe step back and think before we make crass generalizations about an entire GENERATION of people.
Honestly, it's just lazy writing and makes it sound like you have some basis of knowledge by alluding to something "everybody knows".
Tyler, how has that war you've "always known" effected your generation directly?
Was your food rationed or were you denied rubber goods during your "known" time of war (WWII)?
Did you go to work everyday thru riots protesting the war (Vietnam)?
Did people spit on you and treat you like trash when you came back from fighting for the rights of your country (again Vietnam)?
No you didn't. None of those or even remotely similar things happen to your generation. Since the Vietnam war, nothing has caused sweeping changes as previous wars did. Don't kid yourself, kid.
Honestly I would never try to parallel what people had to go through in the Vietnam era to today, in that sense. The point I was trying to make is that a lot of people think the x and y generation are all just lazy, looking for a handout, and haven't had to deal with anything in the world. The Vietnam era was a dark time for this country I respect anyone who went through it. But my generation has had it's own things to deal with as well, two big things that come to mind are the financial situation of the country, and the 9/11 attacks. The x and y generations and any other person in this country, for that matter the world, has seen things radically change in the past 10-15 years. I just hate being lumped in with the people who do fall into the stereotype of x and y, and I imagine there are others like me who feel the same way.
I used to think I was different than those who take towels from hotels, and whole packages of supplies from the office. Now I realize that my taking those little packets of jam and an occasional pen or paper is just the exact same thing, theft, no excuses. My solution has been to buy my own, and to take only recycled printer paper, which tends to jam the office printer, so is discarded otherwise. I do take some sugar with my coffee, used instead on my oatmeal, but accept that it is just cheap, and enjoy the convenience, Lord forgive me, a sinner.
In Europe you're charged for packets of ketchup, mayo, etc. and you're asked whether you want it when purchasing your meal. I think the typical charge is around .25 Euro, but they're much larger packets than we have here – probably equal to at least two or maybe three of our packets. When purchasing coffee or tea, they bring you the creamer and/or sugar packets. A few places might have creamer/sweetener packets on the table, but most bring it to you or have a larger container of it on the table.
The only time I keep those sorts of items is when I do take-out or order in. If I don't end up using them with the meal I've ordered, then I keep what was added into the bag so that I'm not wasting, but I wouldn't take anything from a restaurant if I went in for a sit-down meal. The one-time exception that happened was when I was in Portugal and they put a wrapped cinnamon stick with my coffee. I had never seen this before and took it to show people back home this neat idea of having a cinnamon stick individually wrapped to put into your coffee.
Very conscientious Mary, you live up to your name. I am not quite that compulsive about it, accepting my faults, and would pick up unique items also. I brought back today a little block that my son had brought home from pre-k, might keep it if it were a Lego. (-& you are a lovely person.
It is wrong to steal cars from innocent law students, too.
Right?
Or is that acceptable practice to all, suddenly? And trending today is going after granny that takes a few sugar packets? Oh...ok. Values? Or thuggery disguised as if you actually have morals?
So – I rest my case right there where YOU left it in Louisville, Kentucky – with your Joe Bubba Clooney gang that thought it wise to steal a car.
But, it is not.
wth are you talking about?
GeeEmCee- what the hell are you talking about?
What in the world are you babbling about? If your car got stolen call the police. Ranting about it on CNN isn't going to get it back.
I never take extra from a restaurant because restaurants are putting more than what I need into my to go bag anyway. Although, I choose not to waste what they put into the bag either. I've had restaurants (without asking for it) put 10 ketchup packets and 30 napkins into my bag for a single lunch. It's ridiculous, but I won't just throw it away when I get home. In fact, one restaurant that I like to eat at, always sends me home with dozens of extra napkins....I don't need paper towels for spills or napkins for dinner.....EVER! LOL!
1% of the cost is for condiments, maybe 0.25% of the cost is for theft of condiments. I think a lot of situations that we take extra are wrong, but I really don't care. The only part that bothers me is when someone goes overboard with this and the next customer has no condiments to use, that's annoying. If we're talking about stealing their plates etc, okay now we've moved up to a level that I think we all understand is wrong. Chances are the customers who nit-pick and complain and try to get free food for problems that aren't really the restaurant's fault cost you more than this the ketchup packet bonnie and clide. I've jaywalked, do you want to call the FBI. I thought there'd be something more interesting in here about why grandma swipes the sugar packets... why else would there be an article on the front page about it. I guess it really was as simple as I thought before I saw the article. I guess we all have quotas to meet.
Well if you look at the poll, 25% of the people answered that they steal extra condiments. If each of those people takes twice as many condiment packets as the normal person, then they would account for about .29% of their costs. If each of those people takes three times as many as the normal person (this is probably more accurate), it accounts for about .38% of their costs. This is about $337,500 annually using the numbers given by the article.
It's a bit of a vicious cycle. People steal "free" condiments because they feel that they're entitled to them. The restaurant has to raise their prices to account for this loss in revenue. The fact that the restaurant is now charging you extra for the condiments you may or may not take just gives you some justification, so you don't feel bad next time you do it.
Whenever I get my coffee in the morning I always take extra packets of splenda (two more than I know I am going to need). I use it in my cup of coffee I drink later in the day at work because they only ever have regular sugar which for health reason I can't have. I don't think of myself as entitled to the Splenda... and I am not hording it for some future Splenda shortage...
Not a big deal. If you need it, take it. If you take and have a whole empire of goods at home, then you dont need it and should not take it.
Are you kidding me ! This is the only burning issue you can write about? The packets are there to be used, taken, whatever. You pay for your meal the cost are calculated in at some point. Give me a break !
Joe, you may have noticed that there are a whole lot of other stories on this site that you can choose to read if you're not interested in this one. It may not be a burning issue, but it's not like it's the only one on CNN today. Go read something else.
We have a cafeteria in our building and there's a counter with condiments (forks, knives, napkins, ketchup, etc.) It really ticks me off when I see people go over there and take 20 plastic forks or open the napkin dispenser and take a 4 inch stack of napkins. That's just plain theft, pure and simple. And it makes prices go up.
It's not theft if it's free
"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." If she used common sense, she would save even more money by ditching the restaurants completely and instead cook at home.
right!
I go to Taco Bell once a week. When I do, I enjoy a lot of their sauces on my food. If I go and order 3 Tacos I would like to put 3 packs of sauce on each taco, so I go through the drive thru and tell them I would like EXTRA SAUCE. When I get home I have 4 packs of sauce in the bag. SO, to remedy this problem, once or twice a year I will go inside and order my food. When I get it, I go to the Soda/Condiment island and FILL MY BAG with Sauce Packets. Problem Solved for another 6 months.
Truly insightful.
What you're doing is stealing. There's no question about it. You can try to justify it to make yourself feel better, but it's still stealing.
How can you steal something that is free of charge? You could say that one is abusing the priviledge of free sauce packets. But, in the end... it's free, or incurred in the cost of your taco.
Just take a little extra along with what we ordered; it is stealing, but we have our faults and accept that. The Taco Bell sauce is great on fried eggs, by the way, and no other BBQ sauce will do, having a sugary taste. As far as Taco Bell goes, I could justify anything because the former president and co-founder destroyed my family and resulted in the loss of my daughter when he hooked up long-term with my 26 year old wife.
The main page survey question seems flawed.
It doesn't differentiate taking ketchup packets with your hamburger to go, from simply taking ketchup packets.
You silly boy...they're talking about taking more than you need for the meal you just purchased. It makes no difference if they put the ketchup in your bag at the drive-thru or you put it in your bag at the condiment counter.
I'll keep the extra stuff at the drive-thru, but otherwise, no.
Me too. While I might get a lot of extras at the drive-in this time, the next time I might get none. So, I keep the extras for such times.
I'm a cheap bastard, so of course I help myself to some extra condiments and napkins. I'm 35, so I don't think The Depression had anything to do with it.
I clicked "other." There's no choice for "No. I think this behavior is pathetic."
I voted other because there wasn't a choice for "I only take what I need for that purchase."
Voting other is similar to what I heard a cop tell someone he was ticketing. The driver said, " I was just keeping up with traffic. Lots of people were speeding." The cop replied, "When you go fishing, you don't catch all the fish, do you?"
This is a ridiculous article....I'm in the restaurant industry....the industry knows a certain percentage of people are going to take a certain amount of extra condiments....so they CERTAINLY build that into the price of your meal. YOU ALL ARE PAYING FOR PEOPLE TAKING THE CONDIMENTS!
Not to mention they didn't even use a picture of real sugar packets, which makes the article even more dumb.
The only time I take anything with me when I leave a restaurant is the rare occasion a packet of something is delivered to the table on my plate and I don't use it for whatever reason (a packet of saltines, a wet-nap, etc). They have to throw those away when they go back to the kitchen, so I don't feel bad taking it with me. Beyond that, I consider taking anything with me stealing. There are people in my office that treat the utensil/napkin supplies at the local Wendy's like their own personal convenience store and it annoys me to no end. These are people that are being paid well for their jobs ... there's absolutely no reason they can't drop ninety-nine cents for a box of plasticware at the grocery.
What makes you think they "have to" throw those away? With a sealed packed, there's certainly no reason they can't use it again, unless you've put it on your plate and it's coated in sauce or something (and why would you?). Having worked in a restaurant, I can tell you that anything that's sealed, as long as there's no chance it's spoiled (like some creamers) will be saved and used again. By your logic, any sugar packets on the table when you're there have to be thrown away, since the next customer couldn't possibly use anything that had been on your table.
Did you ever hear of Sams Club, BJ's, Costco? People who own business buy from these clubs and make many times more on return. They buy in bulk and sell individual things for 2-3x more than what they paid for the whole box, thus making profits.
I don't understand your point? Are you saying that because a business buys things and sells them for a profit it's ok for people to take them?
Yes, but Sams, Costo, etc. Does not carry special sauce packets from various restaurants like Taco Bell, Chick-Fil-A, etc. When I go to one of these places and ask for extra sauce, and they give me 4 packs, sure, Im going to go inside and take what I want from the condiment island. Its there for us to help ourselves.
Next weeks topic is "Do you use more than your fair share of Oxygen!".......................................
I vote we should ban sports because when people get out of breathe they consume 2 – 3 times more oxygen then someone at rest...
Agreed they act like it grows on trees!
I have been passing gass like nuts. I hope this isn't a problem for you breathers. :)
Kudos-A shame it went above most on this list.
Tip wrote "Agreed they act like it grows on trees!"
I can honestly say that I have met several people that are a complete waste of oxygen.
Or do you use more than your share of squares of toilet paper in a public restroom? How many of us waste toilet tissue if not at home??
I use both sides of mine,it's getting really expensive.
Won't somebody PLEASE think of the children!!!
maybe it's just me, but I ddn't really include napkins in this, but I do take napkins so I guess I'm guilty. At restaurants that put them out, I usually ask for an extra one (which I use). If they bring me 3 or 4, I usually take the extras because I figure they can't re-use them. I DO, however, take a few extra napkins when I go to Dunkin Donuts, just because I like to have them with me for non-donut emergencies... I guess that counts.
I always use 2 napkins, one for my hands and one for my bald head. I dont take more though, not a needed item on the list of things to take that should be taken on the taken list of takennesss.
I'll take with me any items that are left over. If I go to a fast food place and took napkins, ketchup, salt etc and didn't use all of it I'll take it home and put napkins in the car. I won't put these items back for other people to take that's disgusting and throwing them away is wasteful.
I agree with Helen. Don't take more than what you think you will need. The small bit you don't use, reuse it. When I helped cleaned out my grandmother's house there were more than 100 straws, sugar packets, salt and pepper packets, and other various items that came from restaurants. I wondered why because my grandmothers was not hurting for money.
Do you think that your grandmother was simply not being wasteful? I was taught to not waste. I try to never take more than I know I will use, but if I am given more than I need, I bring the extra home instead of tossing them into the garbage.
As someone else mentioned, they like to give you a new straw with every refill. I just reuse my current straw. However, if I left the unopened straws on the table, they will simply throw them away (and never re-use them with the next customer). So, I take them home in the hopes that I would, eventually, use them.
Question..Am I a bad person because I never throw my trash away at a fast-food restaurant but instead leave it on the table? The reason I do that is because there is nothing more discusting that sitting down at a dirty table that has'nt been wiped down after the last diner. To my way of reckoning, I am paying for a clean table to eat from. Just something to consider.
OK, napkins I can see, but how is it disgusting to leave the salt packets? How is that different than the sugar packets on your table? Heck, some restaurants have one salt shaker that sits on a table and is used by all sorts of different people, and that's not even sealed in any way!
All sorts of people have touched the salt packets and ketchup packets, whether taking out their own, or 10 different employees when dispensing them. I just don't get what's so disgusting.
Josh, same to you as I asked above–why do you think they'll throw the straw away? If it hasn't gotten wet, chances are they won't. Many places are franchises and very cost conscious. If you've ever worked in a restaurant, I'm surprised you've never had a penny-pinching boss who made you save anything sealed back off the table, but believe me, it happens a lot.
I've heard a lot of people saying "well, if I get extra or take extra, that's just gonna be thrown away". I think that's just an internal rationalization for taking it home, or a lack of understanding in the restaurant business. Sure, there are definitely places where a lazy busboy will throw that stuff away, but I'm sure in at least 75% of the places you go, if you asked the boss he'd say he wanted the stuff saved.
I don't see a problem with this if you have one or two packets left on the table that were set down for you. Now if your grabbing them out of the dispenser bins just to load up then thats a problem.
It depends on the item. If they bring me a plastic cup with a removable lid that contains tartar sauce or ketchup, you BET I take it. Or if they bring me rolls and butter in a basket, I sure DO wrap it up.
WHY? Because otherwise it ends up in the trash. Once a restaurant brings anything edible to your table that is exposed or is not sealed, they BY LAW cannot serve it to someone else. They relinquished control of it and can no longer guarantee how it was handled. So it all gets scooped up and thrown away. That's a sin.
But sugar packets and napkins? No way. Ever wonder why a hamburg costs $10?? Because the restaurant has to recoup the lost money spent on those items that people steal to stock their own cupboards.
"Ever wonder why a hamburg costs $10?? Because the restaurant has to recoup the lost money spent on those items that people steal to stock their own cupboards."
How about they crack down on 'these people' instead of passing on the 'savings' to the rest of us... I also don't believe that to be true, as far as why it costs $10 for a burger... they charge $10 because they can get away with it.
I agree 100%. You took the works out of my mouth.
Key word being "sealed". I keep reading all of these people saying they take home the sealed stuff because it will be thrown away. You're right in saying they only have to throw away anything unsealed and edible, like rolls.
My very first night bussing tables I did exactly what you're describing – trashed everything that came off the table (minus the obvious diswasher bound items). Owner catches me doing that mid-way thru my shift and gives me hell. From then on, unopened crackers, whole rolls, unopened straws, reasonably clean napkins, etc. – all re-used. 1/2 eaten butter pats went to the kitchen for the baker to grease pans. 1/2 eaten cups of things like tartar sauce were refilled.
While I believe that there are places with better standards, I also believe that my experience is not unique or an isolated instance.
Restaurant profit margins (that means what's left over after figuring all expenses) is 4-6%. That means on a dollar, the business makes around a nickel. The costs are calculated to the penny to keep them in the black, and in a small restaurant especially, every penny that gets wasted or stolen is coming directly out of the owner's pocket. In order to stay profitable, the business has to raise prices for everyone to cover the costs of those who feel entitled to take what they want. It's really no different than shoplifting.
I guess there are a lot of people who weren't taught by their parents that ALL stealing is wrong.
If what you're saying is true, then only a financial idiot would own a restaurant.
The other side to this story is that when you get an order to go, they throw in a bunch of ketchup or taco sauce, or soy sauce, or whatever. It's more than I can use, but I throw it in a drawer and hold on to it. It comes in handy sometimes for camping or picnicking.
i use to love having breakfast at grams, she used to but out a bowl full of single use jellys. made me laugh every time.
Stealing sugar packets is a gateway crime. The next thing you know, they're robbing banks – and museums for the painting of a woman on the beach.
If more restaurants would have these people arrested and prosecuted (the video surveillance tapes coudl be used to prove it), we could bring this unprecedented crime wave to a halt... before Congress steps in and legislates mandatory sentencing.
Really dude, is it that serious?
WOW! Your really thought this through! ha!
I'm gonna go on a limb here and say that mike_t is being SARCASTIC. People, really? I think he's joking.
Reel them in Mike!!! You got them hook, line, and sinker.
That is unless you found said hook, line, and sinker on the shore of that lake and picked them up and used them for yourself that is.
Nits breed lice. This is how New York cleaned up it's subway act – catch and punish the small wrongdoers, and this helps halt the large wrongdoers.
Stealing is stealing. Why is that difficult to understand?
Exactly.
Agreed. Eating a few grapes at the store is also stealing. They're not out there for you to "sample" – those are meant for purchase. Unless the store has sample trays set up, if you eat grapes, or any other produce, you are stealing. The worst offenders I see with it? Moms. I've seen countless moms come in, feed their kid a few pieces from everything they can pry loose, wander to the deli counter, ask for "samples" then open boxes of cookies, or swipe donuts from the bakery and let the kids eat it without paying. That's stealing.
I am not destitute.
"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" Or as a local radio guy puts it – the everyone gets a cupcake!!!
I was born in 1965- please don't lump me in with gen-x group.
Get used to it. You would have graduated HS in the 1980s, you're gen-x.
Yep, you're Gen X, just like me. But I don't recall us being told we were perfect, or special – that's usually a charge that's leveled at the Millenials. Gen X is more known for slightly disrespecting authority – we can't effect change at the level of the Boomers or Millenials because we're not as big, so we generally take "authority" with a grain of salt.
The problem is you can't reason with the younger generation of people who think the world owes them a job and get upset when they aren't hired. They don't seem to associate hard work with success; for them it's all about going through the motions and expecting that nothing bad will happen in life. I'm 27 and I see this from people all the time, even people who are internet savvy and could easily pull up whatever information they wanted.
Gen-X / Gen-Y don't associate work with success because they never had to do anything in school to get passed to the next grade. Ingrained conclusion: I can do as much or as little as I want, and I will still get the same benefits as everyone else. WE, the older generation, TAUGHT them this. But at least they feel good about themselves.... Or do they?
I'm 23 and I feel the same way. I was raised in a well off home and am quite intelligent. I have good manners only because I went to a catholic primary school, when I got to public HS it was so easy I never even did my HW and still had a great GPA. I thought I was THAT awesome, when I got to college, that illusion crashed, hard. There are several things I should have done differently and I know now that there is little use blaming the past (be it my fault or not) but there was certain things I don't want my children (if I have any) to go through. Namely, I wish school wasn't about getting the bottom 10% a diploma, if you weren't in danger of failing, you were ignored. You were told you were fine and would succeed, as if it were providence. I wish that they would have found some way to incentivize hard work. It's probably also the parents' responsibility to do that, it definitely is if the schools aren't. Lesson learned
Whatever. I'm Gen X and I've worked for every darn thing I've gotten. No one has handed me anything. My parents, on the other hand, had been given over $100,000 in inheritances by the time they were my age. I've been told my entire life long not to expect a dime when they're dead (and I wouldn't because I'VE WORKED FOR EVERY DARN THING I'VE GOTTEN) because they intend to spend every last dime of their money. I'm sick of baby boomers who actually are the ones who have had EVERYTHING their entire lives handed to them on a silver platter tell ME (someone who hasn't had ANYTHING even a college education handed to me) that I feel ENTITLED to anything. Bite me. You've robbed this entire country of having a decent life after raping and stealing everything for yourselves and call US entitled. Hope it lets you sleep better at night. Our generation is the FIRST in HISTORY to have a crappier standard of living than our parents despite working LONGER hours. Yup, we're ENTITLED.
You got from grandma swiping sugar packets to you can't reason with the younger generation???
"Stealing" from any business raises the costs for all the customers. That is us paying for the stealing.
I know a senior citizen millionaire who steals the new wrapped rolls of toilet paper from ladies; room as she leaves the lavatory. I doubt she has bought toilet paper in 70 years.
She is older than beloved Betty White, but not as agile now.
Ive been taking Equals and napkins from Starbucks for yrs and will keep doing it. Try and stop me.
So you are an admitted thief?
And I suppose you can't figure out why that cup of coffee costs $10?
And all these people who think it's the restraunts fault that they steal would probably complain to the manager if their piferred kectup squirted on their shirt when they squeezed it. They would say it was the restraunts responsibility for having sub standard packets.
Get a grip. it's wrong and everyone should know it.
It is NOT stealing. Are you delusional? YOU PAY the restaurant owner's employees, not him. Everytime we go out to eat, WE foot the owner's payroll. The waitstaff, the busboys, the food runners, the bartender...all get less than minimum wage,and we pay an additional 20% and up of the bill to these poor hardworkers. I don't begrudge the workers, and tip well because they have to live too, but what other business owner (aside from those sleazy rich hotel owners) have YOU pay their employees?! And you wanna complain about some condiments? What about the mustard I don't touch, and the salt I don't touch (the sodium on the food alone is through the roof) and what about when I say hold the lettuce and tomatoes, and hold the mayo...do they take that off the price of the entree? Nope. If I drink my coffee black, doesn't that save on his dairy bill? The cost stays the same. Nitpicky tards. If I need a few sugar packets, they're coming with me. I paid for them 100 times over. Puhlease.
You are truly screwed up in the head. If the owner had to pay the waitstaff more, the labor cost would go up by 20 %. The price of your meal would go up, and you would complain about the price going up. My guess is you're uncommonly cheap, don't tip well, and steal lots of little packets. Most business owners are not wealthy and small independent restraunt especially owners work very long hours at what would amount to very small hourly wages. The fat cats you refer to are a very ,very slim minority in the industry.
I think he makes a good point and makes the case for pilfering these items very well. If you think about it, the wage laws concerning tipping is screwed up. Employers have to make sure their employees actually make minimum wage (through compensation if tips aren't up to snuff) but we don't take advantage of that. We tip our waiters and take some of the cost off the owner. I don't disagree with the system, I just find it peculiar that this one industry works like that but none other.
Aside from that, the part about them not taking the cost off the entree if you don't want certain condiments or even sides that're 'added in to the price' of the entree is definitely an important point. It's not to say 'well I didn't use cream with my coffee so I'm entitled to more sugar' but it's worth noting that the industry doesn't delude itself into thinking it's 'fair' by returning some of your money for not getting lettuce/onion/cheese/whatever so why should we pay them for a few napkins that don't cost them anything?
You could actually make a case that they're stealing from us when they charge full price even if we don't get EVERYTHING they offer for our entree. Hell, if I turn away the side (again with that example) I don't expect them to give me a small refund. I just don't expect them to give me s$*t for taking a few napkins for my glove box. Consequently, I won't take napkins if I know I have enough, just to avoid being greedy and I know that it does cost SOMETHING, even if it's not much
Knowckitoff, I could not have said it better myself. Nowadays they charge if you get your food to go so I agree with you that there is nothing wrong with a few sugar and or ketsup packets. Charge it to the game.
THIS is news?
42% think it's wrong? If you have ever had french fries, a steak, a hamburger, etc. at a restaurant you've taken their condiments.
taking condiments to apply to the food you just purchased is one thing. The article speaks about those who take extra to bring home with them to use at another time...
At a period in my life when I was unemployed and scraping by, I would hit the condiments after making a small purchase. This is how I made it for a while. I was not mentally unbalanced. I was broke. I am gainfully employed now and I no longer do this. But to imply kleptomania or something like that for anyone who takes some ketchup is unreasonable.
I'm pretty sure you don't need mustard to survive, bro.
You've obviously never been so broke as to count ANYTHING with calories as survival food. Lucky you!
Awesome Doug. Had me laughing.
No, not mustard. Ketchup on the other hand makes a nice soup. My family was beyond poverty and I remember many ketchup packet meals when I was a child. Entitled? No, just embittered.
Splenda,...really?? http://www.truthaboutsplenda.com/
Let restaurants offer to sell larger quantities. "These packets are for use in our restaurant only. If you would like to purchase some to take home, we'd be happy to sell them to you at our cost. " That clearly indicates that they are not unrestricted freebies, but also accommodates customers who do want to have a few of those mini-packets to take home. If you try to buy them, unfortunately, you have to buy like a 1000 at a time in a warehouse store.
"it's factord into the cost" of items? So people who don't steal are paying for those who do? BULLSHIT
i take extra ketchup packs, my 32 ounce bottle of heinz, usually goes bad. I probably use it twice a month. I weened myself off NAVY gravy. when in doubt ketchup it.
How in the world does ketchup go bad? I have had the same bottle for years. It is like Twinkies, it never goes bad.
I take home extra napkins and ketchup from the drive through window because they usually stuff a half inch thick wad of napkind and a dozen packets of ketchup in my bag before they hand it to me.
That's not pilfering. The business is giving it to you. All you are doing is not wasting what you are given. That is very different.
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.
-----------
Doyle, you are moronic. Gen X has never been told they are perfect. They were the first latchkey kids, they are in between boomers and the boomer kids. But, go ahead and rewrite history. You must be allowed to do that with your degree.
Swarm! Swarm! Swarm!
You still say HELLO!
Hello, Uncle Leo.
take what you need while enjoying your meal and beverage and knock off the crap already. it's not yours to steal.
oh brother. grandma is probably just getting a little bit of her stolen taxes back from the government. if these places were worried about their patrons taking too much, then they can offer extra during their orders. it's out for use. go after the president today, he's asking for another raise in the debt ceiling. focus your problems on that guy.
I am amazed at how some crazy people manage to get the president and government involved in every piece of news.
As to the first question, come on all you never's!! At 64 there are two words not in my vocabulary, always & never. And as for taking them home to use, you got to be kidding.
Time to call in the condiment police! Up against the wall, grandma! ;-)
It's no contest here. The Barb-B-Q joint is causing a loss of many millions of dollars from health insurance companies. All those Barb-B-Q ribs consumed add up to a lot of heart bypass operations.
Seriously? Operational costs are factored into any resturaunt budget. If you fail to charge a sustaining price then that is the resturaunt's fault for poor quality of food and/or service. Good food and friendly and effiecient service makes or breaks the resturaunt, not sugar packets and napkins.
The coffee shops spend a ton of much money on sugar & fat loaded junk that they have to throw away at the end of the day. I find it hard to believe they care if somebody takes a few extra Splendas.
One other thought. Dont make the packets "to go" in the dining area. Instruct your employees to dispense the sealed sachets only to drive through or take out customers( at a reasonable amount.)
I know our local Wendy's dining area has big containers that will "pump" out condiments in to serving size paper cups.
That's why I don't go to Wendy's anymore. Do you know what a mess pumped ketchup makes in your pockets?!
Two points: FIrst-I tried to put my ketchup packets back in the serving container once and they employee said they had to throw it away. I was surprised.
2nd point:
I only take two things...salt..to keep in the glovebox when they didn't salt my fries..and occasionally a straw..same reason..they didn't pack it at the drive-through. I'm fairly certain that the price of my dinner is funding this. I seriously doubt that McDonalds/BK are taking the hit. All businesses that are suffering loss take it out on the customer...the fat cats are not the ones who do without their profit. If Grandma/Grandpa needs extra napkins..tack it on my bill...I will pay more for my meal
Now, having said that...there is no excuse to steal plates/flatware/towels or whatever....I say the odd ketchup or soy sauce packet YES...anything more valuable ..absolutely not.
I can't imagine going to fast food so often that I'd have to keep extra salt in my glove box. Sorry to judge, but that just sounds excessive to me.
The last thing anyone needs is more salt or sugar in fast food.
Interesting way to reassign blame for your petty theft. Blame it on the Fat Cats. Amusing.
Or just do what they do in Europe. Pay over 8 bucks for a Whopper and then charge for additional ketchup!
I don't mind the condiments, but it really gets me when they take our pen. Yes, you (customers) paid for your food and service but it doesn't mean you can take our equipment.
It's important to remember that a lot of packets have expiration dates, like ketchup, mayo, etc. I worked in food service and the "use by" dates are usually only on the large cases they are shipped in. I wouldn't use any that are more than a month old, unless they are "dry", like sugar, salt, pepper, etc., even if kept in the fridge. Just FYI.
I'm finding it very difficult to masterbate to this story
That's because it doesn't involve children. Get lost!!!
Why don't you learn how to spell it if you are going to talk about it on a public forum!
I'm having quite the opposite experience.
Now Norbert...
There are other sites that can help you with that!
prolly cuz you can't find it. Borrow my torch and search for it.
Outside of wretched excess nothing wrong with it. Some people it helps them get by. But also, tolerance of it keeps regulars coming.
I'd say any restaraunt should tolerate, to a sane extent encourage it. Pennies do add up, but really, imagine a poor old man or woman that eat there once a week and that's their ONLY trip out, but then they take handfuls of salt packets and stuff. LET THEM, for the love of.... LET THEM with a smile on your face.
Compared to what they take and USE, what is THROWN AWAY!?
"Some people it helps them get by" ... But anyb ody who actually needs help getting by shouldn't be eating in restaurants.
Yes, the poor should just stay locked at in home and never have an enjoyable meal out. Why should they deserve a treat once a week? Let them eat tuna and catfood on crackers, damn them! Poor people don't deserve the occasional burger and fries because they're POOR! Jerk.
Just because the people are older, it doesn't make it right to steal. AND, the rest of us end up paying for it. Not cool. I'm not here to subsidize senior's night out.
Another thief rationalizing her petty theft.
I'm a different John. The first John inflicted a petty theft of forcing me to read his post. That's 2 seconds of my life I'll never get back. Following his logic, you should always take exactly what you think you'll minimally use, and never any more, because–as an earlier commenter pointed out–they won't restock packets that have been handled by customers. So, leave any behind that are not used or not completely used, and it's petty theft just the same. Wait, I've pilfered valuable moments from your life by writing this. And I enjoyed it!
That story is not the half of it; When I go through a drive through food place and ask for a pack of salt they shove a handful at me. Rather than keep going back & forth I drive away but save that salt 'til the next time I eat that food.
I have stopped buying coffee where "they" put the sugar in for me. It defeats the purpose of getting coffee when you drive away and can't drink the stuff.
are you high? Your post makes no sense
The post makes perfect sense, Norbert. Try reading it again, more slowly.
I don't think it's necessarily because I feel like the food establishment "owes" me anything just that some items are unique to that restaurant that I am unable to purchase at the grocery in single service packaging. Case in point are the hot sauces at Taco Bell and KFC. I don't even bother making tacos at home unless I have a few "extra" packets of TB Hot sauce on hand. However, on the other hand, McDonalds has the Newman's brand light Italian salad dressing, which I have been unsuccessful finding elsewhere, these however I buy, for $0.50 / each.
Are we replacing the correct term "theif or action stealing" with " petty pilfering". Does it make you FEEL better somehow using smooth illogical terms. Stealing is still WRONG. Go ahead and deceive yourself it it makes you FEEL better in the end it is SIN no matter what the value.
Hey, It's not theft if it is free!
I agree with Joe. The condiments are on the table for free use to go with the meal, at the table or on the go. Definition of stealing: TAKING WITHOUT PERMISSION OR LEGAL RIGHT AND WITHOUT INDENTING TO RETURN" They clearly gave us permission as their customer by pacing the condiments on the table and obviously do not want them back...
Joe, they aren't free. You're a thief. A petty thief, but still a thief.
You know you can burn in hell for that?!
Well if you're going to get all biblical with the 'sins', then remember that there are a lot of things that are sins according to that, like wearing cotton/wool blend clothing, cutting your hair, or doing manual labor on a holy day.
Since when the flip was taking that honey mustard packet that was going to be tossed anyway stealing?
Stealing is when you start shoving the condiment's area into your purse.
Having an extra salts that eventually become your salt shaker? That's not stealing. If you didn't sit in and take it then they give you like 5 ketchups in your bag in the drive through anyway.
Plus, once you touched it, or its been on your table, I feel as if people would think it was rude or gross to give it back to the restaurant. Like how they never wanna take back their crappy kids toys for whatever reason.
Traveling in England I purchased a pork pie at a small dinner, and was charged 5 cents for each package of mustard I requested. I was surprised, but paid the money. Would Americans tolerate this in our own country? If they did would the restaurants stop including the cost of pilfered condiments in the price of the entrees?
For the record, I don't take anything 'extra' home.
Americans would have no choice! If businesses start charging for those things the Americans will HAVE to pay! And don't talk about boycotts. Americans are too spoiled to participate in a boycott!
In 1995 I was charged 10 pfennig for each packet of ketchup from McDonald's in Germany. It surprised me but I still paid it.
When I was in college, I knew a lot of people who lived in the dorms who made a weekly or bi-weekly Wendy's run to swipe a to go bag topped off with forks and spoons so they could eat TV dinners, soups and Easymacs without needing to wash dishes in the bathroom sink.
In college, I had a roommate who was a manager at one of the dining halls. She explained that students paid a $60 fee each semester because the university pretty much EXPECTED us to steal silverware. Her advice: You paid for it; you might as well take it. Yes, a restaurant may pay $900,000 for condiments. But who is ultimately paying for them? You, the customer. The cost ALWAYS gets handed down to the customer.
That right there is called distrust. Distrust is not a good thing.
I would advise dining manager to budget the loss when pricing meals. Shame that others have to pay for it too but oh well..that is really how life is. You are going to find people that take advantage of the system in all areas of life. Those same kids taking home the flatware in college likely have parents that bring boxes of pens and packets of printing paper home from work. Be careful about the example that you set for your children...
I stole a paper clip once.
I take the individual coffee creams ... from the gas station. A couple days ago I bought a thing of creamer though bc I get tired of running out, so, in the end, they get their money from me. And last I heard, gas stations make money hand-over-fist. They ain't hurting, and whether ppl take packets or not, companies will still over-charge for everything. That's not entitlement or making excuses. It's just COLD HARD FACT. Boo-hoo, cry me a river, I'm taking the creamers.
If they don't want people to take them, then don't leave them out.
This, this, this. Condiments are a CDB (that's cost of doing business) for restaurants (fast food or otherwise). If you (a restaurant owner) don't like it, then either don't put out condiments (and distribute them through your cashiers/servers), or get out of the restaurant business.
UHHHHH .... it's called stealing. Just accept the fact that all you self rationalizing amoebas are stealing. Hey, I take stationary from my job and I don't rationalize it .... I STEAL IT. You petty ass americans can't take any responsibility .... GOD ... what would that be like? .... I KNOW .... it's because you weren't BREAST FED by your flat chested mom, THAT'S WHY you have to take all those condiments, you were deprived in your infancy.
Wrong. If your office finds out you've been taking supplies, they can fire you. If the restaurant finds out some people take extra napkins, oh well.
Hey man lighten up! It's not stealing if it is free!
If a penny worth of condiments is making a difference in your financial plan, you may want a different adviser. That said, cooking in will likely save more $$ and won't result in the next day squirts.
Two things I remember from childhood about my Grandmothers. Whenever we went to my Dad's Mom's house, there was an ample supply of Domino sugar packets with scenic New England pictures on one side (usually courtesy of Howard Johnson's). Then, my Mom's Mom once brought me home chicken wings wrapped in a napkin from a smorgasbord that the adults had gone to. God, I miss them both!
The quote from the article makes no sense in relation to the issue mentioned:
“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."
We are not interested in how much restaurants spend on condiments each year. If statistics are to be given, we would like to know how much of the $900,000 is pocketed by customers for their later use. Why not report the total condiment cost for all McDonald's outlets. That would be even more impressive?
I don't think that's a statistic that's going to be available, even if all the used condiment packets were counted in the dumpster along with current inventory. Some people might take their packets with them to use on leftover portions. I guess that could be the litmus test agreed upon by the anal types on this comment thread: if you use the packets on the food items you purchased from the same establishment, it's not theft. If you use the packets on any other food items, discard them unopened, or eat them plain (some people might have a ketchup craving) it is theft.
I haven't read any of the numerous comments here, so maybe I'm not the only one to say this and it's a really minor point but the picture to go with the headline should be sugar, not splenda.
People steal Splenda a lot more than they steal real sugar. That's probably why it's pictured.
And – how about those kleptomaniacs on Wall Street and their billion dollar bailouts?
That's a whooole lotta ketchup packets!
Got an entire cabinet filled with napkins and plastic cutlery. I over pay so much for the food that I take what's owed me to balance everything out, even though it still does not come anywhere near to the overpaying that I do for the food.
If you think that you're overpaying then don't go out. It's your problem, don't make it someone else's.
Survival of the fittest, buddy. I'm sure I have more $ in the bank then you'll ever have cause you are stupid.
I'm a multimillionaire nuclear rocket scientist–you couldn't compete with me in your wildest dreams!
Fredster, you, ma'am, are an idiot. If you were a multimillionaire nuclear rocket scientist you wouldn't be wasting your time on an 'eatocracy' forum. Also, nuclear scientists don't make much money anymore anyway unless you're involved in some illegal activities with dirty savage Iranians.
On another bright note, Bubba, a great way to save money at fast food restaurants is to keep a drink cup from each one. You can just walk right in and go to the drink machine and nobody will think anything of it. It works wonders and it's saved me over $1000 in a year since I have 2 cokes everyday!
You are who this article is about. You have psychological entitlement issues.
You know what saves the most money? Cooking your own freaking food. I come home exhausted just like everyone else but I cannot bring myself to pay a 1000% (or more) markup just to have someone else throw the ingredients together for me. The pile of money that I don't spend on fast food and restaurant junk means that I can afford to buy my own ketchup and sugar. What a concept, right?
Not everybody is as cheap as you are. Btw, eating out may be fun too. I can't understand the people who always eat at home to same a few freaking dollars. So booring.
I am sorry your family is boring. Mine is fun and I am a pretty good cook, never twice the same dinner in a week and rarely twice the same in a month. We save a lot of money and know what enters our mouths. We eat out on occasion and when we go on trips away from home. The rarity of the experience makes it even more fun. Plus we go to real restaurants that serve good, seasoned, food so no condiment packets to steal (not that I would want to anyway, I can afford my own ketchup and mustard).
I have a feeling that DaleDunderheart and RedHanded57 are on in the same.
DaleDunderheart:
Why don't you educate yourself about the issues, learn to actually read, and then come back and comment.
I grew up with a mother who put handfuls of sweet n' low packets in her purse, or mini pots of jam/honey, huge piles of paper napkins and sometimes when we went to a steak restaurant, she would put the steak knives in her purse. I was always horrified and embarrassed. I knew it was stealing. I would always ask her why she took so many 'sugar' packets and she said 'because they are there and very expensive in the market.' When I told her she was stealing, she would say it was 'different' and the way she was raised b/c of World War II and her family was so poor. But I told her stealing was stealing and it still comes between us (I am 45 and she is 75). I went to costco and bought her a huge box of splenda packets, but she keeps taking them from the local coffee shop 'just in case she runs out' OMG.
Puhleez! You should see what I steal when I go to church! I"ve got 45 hymnals, 5 gold candlesticks and a pipe organ that barely fits in my garage.
LOL
lmao.
That's nothing compared to what the preacher is probably stealing from you.
The rule should be only take what you need. I only ask for extra when I eat at arby's because the BBQ sauce does not cover a large beef sandwich. I never take more then needed.
Yes, but are you squeezing every drop possible out of those packets? If we all took our packets home and painstakingly scraped them out, then stored those drops in a tiny resealable container in the fridge, within several months we'd have a usable amount which would save us having to take one packet from the establishments we frequent. This could add up if it became a widespread practice. Why isn't everyone doing this??
I watched Chick fil A sweep everything left on the table in the trash; years ago. So, I do not leave those 2 packets of crackers, the sunflower seeds, packet of catsup, etc.
Do you want the creamer given to you was served to someone else a few hours ago? Same thing at McD, etc.
I don't eat out much anymore.
WHEN I drove a truck I would STOCK up on napkins for the truck, but because they would USED cleaning up spills. Or wiping faces and chin off from eating while driving down the road. Plus I did have paper towels in truck too. I hate going to McD's now and get NO napkins at all, so now I don't go to McD's. You buy their overpriced over salted, too greasy food and get no napkins to wipe your face of the grease and over flowing ketchup from the burger, Carl's is where I go. used all the napkins I need while I am inside dining and the employee's SPEAK ENGLISH. not spanglish. When they ask if you need ketchup they should ask how many do you need, so then you will say three, four, or two? but will probably actually use them in that meal, I know I do. Taking lots like that is just LOW. Maybe, lol? that is how the 1% got to be that way, being cheap, oh yeah, they did. Sending all the jobs to china and india for a1/10th what it costs here to pay employees that will WORK.
To save money? You're spending an extra $10 for a meal by eating out, but saving $1 of ketchup by swiping it. Penny wise pound foolish?
I don't think it even amounts to a dollar's worth of ketchup, actually. I'm with you. People are so stupid with their money it hurts to watch.
So true. So sad.
How about those who are extremely wasteful but do not take the items out of the eating places? I've seen groups of teens create a huge mess with coffee creamers, sugars, syrup, catsup, etc., make the mess all over their plates, cups or table itself and then walk out, leaving the mess. They claim: We paid for the meal so we can do what ever we want with it. I disagree and think they should have learned some manners when they were younger. (Secretly, I wished that none of them would ever be promoted beyond holding jobs that would require them to clean up such messes all day long.)
congrats on being with a pig person! Oink, oink...
"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’ me ntality,” Doyle explains"
Speak for yourself. I was born in '82 and grew up poor as s# *( (and I'm whi te, too! Amazing.).
And no, I don't steal sugar packets. I don't make enough money to eat out regularly, so the opportunity doesn't come up much. Though at least I'm in a better situation than my parents were.
"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"
Speak for yourself. I was born in '82 and grew up poor as s#*( (and I'm white, too! Amazing.).
And no, I don't steal sugar packets. I don't make enough money to eat out regularly, so the opportunity doesn't come up much. Though at least I'm in a better situation than my parents were.
By taking the sugar packets we're doing exactly what the Republicans want us to do! they put special chips that influence the minds of people to vote republican! thats why old people are predominately republican! stand up! stand up and fight!
In the U.S. there's a lot of wastage simply because people take more ketchup packets and paper napkins than what's required, and throw the unused ones away because you can't return them. I was at a McDonalds in Zurich where they were charging some petty amount – equivalent to 10 cents i think. So people think about how much they really need rather than grab a handful and waste. Restaurants and fast food chains should think about stopping this waste rather than losing sleep over a bunch of old ladies stealing a few packets of sugar...
Why isn't it Grandpa? Why Grandma? The media loves to portray everything as a "little Grandma." Give me a break. Let's have equal opportunity.
Thank you! Why do people always assume that it's Grandma doing all the crazy crap? MY Grandpa has fallen off multiple ROOFS and accidentally run HIMSELF over. YOU tell me that does not qualify as crazy.
Um, because Grandma carries a purse that she stuffs things in? If grandpa sported a purse, well surely that would make people uncomfortable.
I like to eat doody.
I EAT DOODY TOO!!!
I sometimes take an extra packet or two because the coffee sometimes needs extra, but don't know it until I leave. I'd hate to be stuck at work drinking bitter coffee. I worry that they notice and think I'm hoarding them.
hell yea! i will take all the splendas and then ask the waitress for more!!!!
Hal, if you knew what was in those packets you would not even touch them. not good !
I have no problem with taking a few packets of sugar or extra napkins or ketchup. However, there is a bigger issue here that was touched on by a few commenters, buffett line behavior. I cannot believe what I see at events that feature a buffett. Company parties, meetings etc. I often see people load up "take home plates" prior to others even coming to the buffett line. I have seen a person clean out a whole tray of shrimp from a buffett. Certain cultural groups are more prone to this than others. (I almost said "guilty of this" but I don't want to judge, just get feedback). I have seen huge arguments break out at meetings of the organization I am involved with over this issue. People strongly feel that this food is there for the taking in whatever amount that they want, and that they are entitiled to it in whatever amount. I understand depression mentality and had parents and grandparents that lived in the depression. They would never behave that way. Was I brought up differently? Could that be it? I think so.
I think I've observed the "cultural thing" you refer to, and it's not a given, so I won't add to any stereotypes except to speculate that you probably work in information technology with H1B visa holders.
How about the folks that refill their soda cups and walk out....now there's some money going out the door!
Yes... about 3 cents per glass...
Ed, shoplifting (in this case walk-ins with their own cups who buy nothing, refill and leave without paying) is factored in when the restaurants budget for the self-serve fountain refills. A business that doesn't factor in shoplifting doesn't stay in business very long.
And how does that make shoplifting okay? I am not sure I follow your logic.
Christine, it's not ok. Shoplifting is bad.
I take sugar packets because I don't want to buy a box of sugar. no option above for "I just steal it and thats fine by me "
You can't steal it if it is already free!
Many, if not most of the people that 'steal' the packets are the same people that go to Church on Sundays and the same people that will argue this is a 'Christian nation'! (BTW .... these packets may seem like they are free but we will all pay for it in the end with increased prices.)
Get a life.
Do you hate logic?
Oh my freakin'– AGAIN WITH THE BAGGING ON THE CHRISTIANS!!! How many times will this topic pop up in this discussion thread?!? Just STOP it, people!! There's no reason to hate!!
That's an incredibly generalized statement, Mike. Sure, there are some so-called Christians that do that. There are also some so-called Christians that camp out at funerals and chant "God hates fags". But, you see, THOSE lowly excuses for human beings AREN'T actually CHRISTIANS. Grabbing a pack of napkins for the road, okay, sure. I honestly don't see an issue with anyone doing that, Christian or not. Just don't pull your stupid excuses into this to prove a point, 'kay? Thanks.
As the owner of a breakfast/lunch cafe I know first-hand about the sticky-fingered people who think that taking sugars, napkins, and utensils in excess is okay. While I fully know and expect this to happen, it's a shame that that's the mentality of most people...not really caring about the next guy or the business owner. I'm not a chain..just a small mom and pop with one store, so I can say that it definitely hurts when people feel that it's okay to take WAY too much of something that we provide as a courtesy to ALL customers. Is it that hard to just take what you need and move along? There are so many places I go now that do not leave ANYTHING out...they do everything behind the counter and honestly I am thinking of going this route. I want the average customer to go to the restaurant store and see how cheap a box of Splenda packets is (hint: it ain't cheap). And don't get me started on all the people who order plain bagels, plain toast, etc...and then decide AFTER they pay and wait in line that they want a little bit of jelly, cream cheese, butter, etc. to put on their bagel...then make a stink when we have to charge for it. What, because you originally ordered a plain bagel and then changed your mind, the cream cheese should now be free? You didn't realize just a moment ago that you would want cream cheese AND jelly on your bagel? How about this, next time my food vendor shows up at my restaurant and says that my case of butter is free that day....then I will gladly give it for free to my customers. Ok, I know I am now venting but it's really frustrating seeing this day in and day out...and people wonder why there are more and more vacancies (esp for cafes and restaurants) in their neighborhoods and why prices keep going up and up at the cafes that still exist!! So yes, keep taking those sugar and jam packets...hope they are worth it when the price of a small coffee and bagel keeps skyrocketing...
Restaurants are HARDLY disappearing cause people take a few extra sugar packs at the restaurant. Give me a break.
I hate you Puckles.
CNN needs to check their accounts b/c I didn't write the above comment.
Get with reality. Restaurants are going out of business because of the economy, gas prices, etc. NOT because people take a few extra condiments. Educate yourself, and then maybe, just maybe you will be able to have an intelligent conversation. If you can't take the heat get your butt out of the kitchen – literally.
I'm TIRED of hearing about the "economy"... Things are GREAT!!! 91.5 EMPLOYMENT! Restaurants full! Shelves in the supermarket loaded with fresh food! Gas at the gas station! Jobs advertised in the classified section! WHAT MORE DO YOU PEOPLE WANT!
Amen Dale D.!
GROW UP!!!!!!
If you know it happens and do not like it then why don't you stop putting it out for everyone to take? Now there's an idea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Excuse us for trying to give a courtesy to our customers....based on the responses here and all the people that feel it's perfectly okay to take more than what they need, we are most certainly taking away all sugar packets, utensils, and salt and pepper packets. And to the person that said restaurants aren't going under just because of a few sugar packets....clearly I know that and you're not seeing the bigger picture which is that this is just one of the factors that are hurting restaurants (especially the small mom and pops which is what I am)....that and the idiots who hand me a credit card to make a $1 purchase!
I take extra because when I go through the drive thru They often forget to give them when I ask. Therefore I keep extras in my car.
I have asked for honey for an english muffin I am usually brought 3-4 packets. ! have seen what was not opened or used cleared from table and thrown away, so now I take it home and use it rather than see it wasted. Do I take plates, salt shakers, etc..? No, that is theft. I have tried to return extra (unopened) packets @ Wendys, McDonalds, Burger King, etc... only to be told they are not acceptable as returns for use by other customers and will be thrown out. Strange rules for businesses that complain about the bottom line. James in Connecticut
I think your right about condiments brought to your table especially for you. But I think the problem, if there is one, is with people grabbing handfuls of sugar/ketchup spoons and forks when they are set out in bins. I used to do this with the 'Raw' sugar packets at Starbucks.
Items in a restaurant that are served with the customers order, like crackers on the side of the soup dish, butter and jam packs that come on the plate with the toast, and similar items, have been served, and it is the health board, not the restaurants who demand it be discarded. Some places will keep and reserve, but face serious consequences if caught. Plastic utensils and plates are also discarded, and in many states, not even recycled, so taking them with you to use at your next picnic is a good thing, and reduces garbage removal costs if enough people do it. Taking anything out of the containers on the tables is theft, and increases restaurants operating costs. That's a bad thing, most restaurants, specially mom and pop places make minimal profit, and frequently the owner takes home less pay at the end of the month that the staff.
I work in a fast food venue such as Mcdonalds, Wendys, etc... I speak this with knowledge. Have you noticed the sugar, salt, and pepper shakers of old disappear from the tables? There is a reason. The world as we know is full of misbegottin cretins that do stupid things. (not EVERYONE, but at times sure seems like way too many). People were literally putting drugs, and other elements into these items and making people violently ill, or even causing death in some cases. Due to this, we were asked to remove them from the tables. To be extra safer fot those who dine at our restraunts, we wont accept unused packages for further customer use for the same reason.
Wow! That is crazy. I worked in fast food eons ago (80s). Not in the US. No problems with people poisoning the condiments. What is wrong with people these days? We had vinegar out for fries and we also cleaned the windows with it. Kind of strange, but eco.
The irony of this article to me is that restaurants that 'ration' end up giving me more than I would ever take on my own. If choosing for myself, I take what I think I need. If I'm wrong and have an extra ketchup packet, knowing that they will throw it out, I go ahead and take it to use later. But even with that, we're talking about taking like two packets and sometimes ending up with one left. Now, when they ask if I want ketchup and I say yes, they grab a big handful and throw them onto my tray. It makes me wonder if they're saving any money that way at all.
Why isn't being poor an option on the poll?
"Depression-era mindset" v. "entitlement mindset" doesn't make much of a difference to you if you're actually poor, taking these things home, and using them.
I was wondering the same thing.
If you are poor, you should eat home-cooked meals. A lot healthier and cheaper than eating out and stealing little packs of condiments.
A lot of working poor people work at hard jobs or more than one job and may be to exhausted to cook at home.
I like cats. They go woof.
Hahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!
I like cows.They got skinny feet.
I TAKE WHATEVER I CAN GET MY HANDS ON
I wish i did, nothing but regrets!
I occasionally take the two-packs of crackers from Target just to keep in my car in case I have stomach trouble and need something bland to eat. Or if I find straws individually wrapped in plastic just in case I need one when I am out, but I'd never fill my purse with packets of stuff.
Being 'kind of a thief' is like being 'kind of pregnant'. Just sayin.......
its a cost of doing business, like trucking companies factor in parking fines for double parked trucks. its the only way they can make deliveries.
You are right it is the cost of doing business. Your cost. All of this extra product ends up in the cost of your combo meal.
Yeah, 0.0.1 cent packets of sugar being stolen by the thousands warrant a $3 raise in the price of a BigMac for EVERYONE....
30,000 x 3 vs. 30,000 x 0.01 and tell me where that 'loss' is that the companies are crying about. And if they don't want people nicking extra stuff, how about keeping it BEHIND the counter...like with the soda/coffee/toys/fries/any thing else of true worth.
I dont have to steal this stuff. They pack about 10 packets in my take-out every time I order tea or french fries.
Hrm. I don't take them from restaurants. I only use whatever I need while I happen to be eating.
That said, I do horde extra packets, etc that are given to me through the drive-thru and I don't use when I eat. As far as I'm concerned, it's a gift.
It hurts the economy. A sugar substitute packet costs approximately $.02. If one million people (out of 300+ in the US) took one packet a day it would be 20k a day times 365 equals $7.3 million dollars a year. I am sure that more than 1 mil go out to eat a day and the ones that take the packets take more than one. This hurts the restaurant industry and the extra people they could employ. IMHO
Given that Americans spend over $110 billion on fast food a year, your $7 million doesn't really sound like all that much. That is 0.006% of the revenues. I don't think that's going to put them out of business.
As a paramedic, we very, very rarely get a chance to manage more than a few bites of a burger or fries in between calls. As such, I usually carry a very small supply of my favorite condiment packets and a rather larger supply of napkins (fast food sauces / grease do *not* really go well with the uniform), and those are mostly gotten from fast food places. If anyone were to sell small boxes of condiment packets, (hint hint to all you execs out there), i would happily purchase some, but i'm not going to go to the big box retailer and fork out the cash for a giant box of catsup packets, and I really don't think that maintaining my small supply of packets is going to bankrupt McDonalds or Yum! Foods (I keep like 5 packets or so in my backpack on the ambulance). Is cleaning out the restaraunt's bin a bad thing? Yeah, because it's not free, it's not fair to the employees, or to the other customers.
You are going to need a paramedic if you keep eating at those places. Bring celery sticks to work.
My husband and I use a lot of sugar and creamer in our coffee. After two cups of coffee each, the sugar container is usually empty and we have to ask for more sugar and creamer. I know people steal these, and I always feel guilty in asking for more in a restaurant, although they can see the empty packets of sugar and creamer on the table. McDonald's requires asking for the sugar and creamer over the counter. We usually have to ask for more after we taste our coffee. Although I do have to admit that I wonder how many people have handled the jellies that come with toast. If itn's not used, I'm sure the restaurant "recycles" it to the next person and I'm reluctant to even use it. Probably the same happens with the individual butter. It's amaziing to me that people steal towels from hotels, blankets, soap, shampoo, glasses and anything that is not nailed down.
Give me a break. Disgusting hog people! You are the reason this country is going straight to the hot place!
Maybe we should be more concerned about the amount of food these fast food restaurants throw out. Just the other day I was at Wendy's just as they switched from breakfast to the lunch menu and I was appalled as I watched the manager grab all the edible breakfast sandwiches and other side items and toss it all into the trash! We Americans do not know hunger...visit a third world country and you'll never waste again...
I used to work for a coffee shop years ago, and the owners tried very hard to donate what was left of our bakery items to local charities that give out food to the hungry. We tried a total of 5 different ones in our area before we gave up on it, because their people were extremely unreliable in picking up the food as promised; we'd have bags of baked goods around for a couple of days and eventually have to throw them out because the charities wouldn't pick them up as promised. It's really sad .. we finally called an end to it when a Health Department inspector marked us down to a B grade rating because we had 2 bags of muffins waiting for pickup.
what world do you live in where a wendy's has breakfast?
I worked at a grocery store that also sold ready made fried chicken and sides. Every day, multiple garbage bags of food were thrown out, so I asked my manager if we could donate them. He told me that the company had been sued because of supposed food poisoning from donated food, so it was against company policy to donate food. It still really upset me to throw out all that food...
Stealing is stealing. You know how expensive sweet and low is at the grocery store. If you would steal from restaurants than you would steal – period and you are a THIEF. 45% of the voters say it is wrong to steal more than you use from an innocent restaurant. You're engaging in class warfare i.e. you think cause the restaurant might be rich that entitles you to steal from it. You a THIEF – nothing but a low class thief.
If I go to a home where they serving used plastic knives and forks – I know they got NO CLASS and are LOW CLASS – lots of stolen ketchups, salts, creamers, etc.... LOW CLASS THIEVES.
IT'S FREE!! FREE!! You CANNOT Steal that which is FREE!
I don't steal what's laying there but if they bring condiment packets that I don't use, I take those. Do they throw those back in for the next guy or throw them out? I always figured they throw them away anyway just in case I'm a psycho and injected poison in it...don't know. PS...that is my mother's paranoia talking :D
I don't really buy the "poor business owner" bit. These costs are almost certainly a "cost of doing business" at this point and are passed on to the the consumer. I doubt these costs doubled or tripled over night, or come and go. So really the "victim" if we want to go that far is the next guy in line that doesn't stock up, because he's paying a freight he's not carrying. I don't partake of this behavior, but I've never seen it at some of the extremes described here in the comments. I will say that another unfortunate byproduct is when fast food joints restrict condiments at the drive thru. We hit the same McDonald's drive thru a few times a year, and my kids like BBQ sauce for their fries rather than ketchup. The initial reply is that they can't give those sauces unless chicken is ordered, and then they always relent but insist that if we want more than 2 we have to pay extra. That's a bit ridiculous.
I had to buy these supplies for customers and those things are not cheap. Therefore, I do not take them when I am in a restaurant unless I really am going to use them on the meal I just paid for. That's what they are there for, the meal that is being paid for at that time, not future meals that are being purchased elsewhere or being made at home.
Is it ok to take some ketchup packets from McDonalds even if I didn't buy anything? I bought french fries in the past but didn't take ketchup at that time.
ok, this is somewhat related to the article, but I'm wondering what about folks that clean out a hotel room (even down to the extra TP roll and kleenex boxes) when they check out – OR go to the hotel breakfast in the morning and pack their pockets with tea bags, oatmeal packets, etc. I can see grabbing the shampoos, etc., but once you eat breakfast don't grab the other stuff (which takes away from the hotel as well as the other guests) and take it wth you for later. I have maybe taken a banana or an apple for later in the day, but my fiance thinks it's amusing to fill his pockets with anything non-perishable into his cargo pants and empty them into his bag upon returning to the room. It's just plain embarassing. ugh
I had an amusing experience at a Comfort Inn last year. The hotel had a sign in the room that said (paraphrasing), "Due to the popular demand of our pillows, linens, towels, etc., we now offer these items for sale. If you take any of these items for your convenience, we'll be happy to add the charges to your room bill." So we have all these low class dirtbags who steal those awful hotel pillows and linens and the hotel can't really call them low class dirtbag thieves, so they pretend to offer these items for sale. LMAO.
nice! luckily my guy won't go THAT far, but geesh – I know hotels expect the smaller items to be nabbed, but more shame on those folks who snag those "big ticket items" from the hotels lol
You do realize what you don't take from the hotel room gets thrown out anyway, so why waste it? Its already incorporated into the cost of the room.
I usually even clean my hotel rooms before I leave =P just the way I was raised. Not vacuuming and stuff, obviously, but I clean up any messes I've made and fold all the dirty linens in a pile, consolidate any trash into 1 can, etc. No, I'm not OCD, just had a very conscientious grandmother growing up.
Kind of off-topic, but is it technically wrong if you take all of the little shampoos and lotions but then give it to the homeless? (Guilty face)
C'mon granny, it's stealing, you know it's stealing....I see this happening all the time (we live in S Florida, ground zero for geriatric pilfering...the vast majority of these geezers have plenty of money, don't need to steal, but they believe that they're somehow "entitled"...
I've been known to snag a full bottle of tabasco sauce from Chipotle on my way out with a burrito... Just can't help myself, I love the chipotle flavor!
BOO-YAH......gotta love chipote tabasco....Ha cha cha cha cha!
the green one? I LOVE THAT ONE. (and i've done that too)
I used to work at Chipotle, and though the company structure was actually kind of awesome, my manager was a sexual harassing asshole... so whenever I visited that particular Chipotle, I'd steal their tabascos... because they're delicious. And because I had some stupid woman grab my waist and tell me that "...if I gained any more weight, nobody would love me." HA!
Props to you! Now your boss will have to go without TABASCO in his LUNCH!! I'm willing to bet that you just made his life 10 times harder ;)
I do not take them because it feels like stealing to me. I was often embarrassed by my Grandmother as a kid. She always took sugars, creamers, jams...basically anything not nailed down. While on a weekend break in Las Vegas with my sister we stayed at the Luxor. I had noticed the excellent bar of milled soap and I wanted to try it. Imagine my surprise when I went to shower and the bathroom was stripped of all such things. I asked my sister where they were. She had dumped them in her bag. I was furious. First because I paid for the room, but mostly because it was so selfish. It is not something I ever allowed my children to do either.
I was taught not to waste. You realize your sister was simply going to continue to use (as in NOT WASTE) those items that would have been thrown in the trash and put into a landfill to further pollute our environment? You're okay with wasting things like that, but not okay with someone taking it to use instead of just letting it be thrown away? Y'ever think maybe you're wrong sometimes? Just sayin', use some logic.
Oh, my lord, this article is IDIOTIC. First of all, as a sister of 2 other younger children, yes, when we leave a restaurant, I swipe a few, I repeat, A FEW, napkins for the road, because really, when you have a 3-month-old and a 5-year-old with ANYTHING that can be spilled, squirted, or squished in a car...
It WILL happen, make no mistake. But I don't take the entire pile, and I don't go out of my way to do it. Actually, the whole bit about "Where do you draw the line" drama is pretty hilarious.
That's what all thieves say.
(Gasp) HOW DID YOU KNOW I'M AN INFAMOUS INTERNATIONAL JEWEL THEIF?
What's preventing you from keeping a roll of your own paper towels in your car?
'Cause I'm about 12 YEARS OLD and don't have the ability to THINK AHEAD like that. I don't know.
You can't steal it if it is free!
well the state I live in they steal the pepper grinders, square plates and flat wear off the tables. They had to take the crackers off the tables because the idiots allowed their children to play with them and crush them. The places that have peanuts on the table have noticed the locals allow their children to suck on them and put them back in the bucket, so enjoy your next peanut out of a table bucket!
WE who work in the restaurants SEE you stealing the sugar and ketchup, and especially the little plastic containers of Knott's Berry Farm Jams.... we cannot keep those on the table past one or two sets of customers even if they are not eating toast or biscuits. They simply clean out the entire container (It holds 16 containers), they dump it in their purses or pockets in plain sight of us. We have a solution for those people. When we bring your food ,we add something special to it, just for you. Hint: It does NOT come out of a bottle. Think about that next time you start to STEAL from the table!
You're disgusting.
So a little bit of jam is worth "adding" something to someone's plate?
Rick, I believe your actions can be described as those of a sociopath. Instead of lowering yourself to the degrading acts of "contaminating" peoples food, perhaps you could educate yourself and find a vocation that does not lower you to the point of a psychological diagnosis. Just a thought. Also, please let the rest of us know where you work so that we can avoid the establishment
You're fired.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Geez chill out! You guys are so easy to rile up. I'm jerking your chain in case you aren't smart enough to figure that out.
Poking the bear is so easy here, he ALWAYS takes the bait. And, it's all OBAMA'S fault anyway, isn't it?
I'll be waiting for you out back when you get off.
Then stop putting the stuff in my to-go bag.
For years I worked traveling on the road as a salesman. I stayed at motels 5 days a week. In the room they would leave extra soap, sugar for morning coffee, shampoo, etc. By the time I arrived home after 5 days I would empty the stuff in a drawer.......after several years I did not have to buy soap or shampoo or sugar, etc for years. At the rate I was paying the motels I felt it was not a loss for them. Some of the stuff would be dog eared with age and nobody had used it and am sure the room service would throw them away and replace them with new samples......I did not feel guilty. The motels made a lot of money from me. Room rent....meals in their restaurant etc. I'm at peace with this.
Your conscience is telling you that was wrong.
I take them from fast food restaurants, but it's because I know at some point I will go through the drive thru and they will forget to give them to me. Also, if you go through a drive thru, those napkins are used to clean up the soda that spilled all over the side of the cup when they handed it through the window. This isn't a pyschological thing, it's just simple logic. Was it a slow news day?
I worked at McDonald's in high school and my boss would go into a rage if we gave more than the restricted allowance of ketchup packets are nugget sauces. So, the drive thru employee probably didn't really forget.
Interesting article. My mom pilfered when she was a single mom raising three girls in the 80's. I did so when I was struggling financially in college. We did it when times were tough but things are better now. I've have people come through my life who were petty thieves, kleptomaniacs, and hoarders. Thanks for clarifying the underlying anxieties that provoke these behaviors. I do hope the entitlement behaviors of the younger generations will eventually decline.
Occasionally I will take a few extra things if I see a need for them in the immediate future. I am not a person to have dozens of ketchup packets lying around...but I will sometimes take 2 or 3 more than I need.
99-percenters are getting ripped off right and left, and you want us to feel remorse for stealing ketchup packets?
You really think that any restaurant you've ever gone to is owned by someone that's NOT in the 99%? Do you hate the 1%, or just anybody that makes substantially more than you?
I don't do this, but my parents, Aunts and Uncles all do. They mainly grab the napkins and plastic tableware by the handfuls. I've seen this happen many times with other people at the Costco's food court. People would just grab hand fulls of napkins and walk of with them.
To gretchen : You don't seem that broke to me if you have to "fork over thousands of dollars in taxes". You may not have earned income but you have a substantial amount.
If you own a house, you still have to pay property taxes which almost always are a few thousand dollars a year, and could easily be the money she is talking about....
I just take what I think I might need, and with a toddler, that is a few extra napkins, straws, and ketchup... I keep the extras in the car and the next time through, if the car is topped up, I don't take extras.
On occasion. Example: I take my tea with milk or cream and if I'm traveling, I might take an extra creamer for my next cup, but generally speaking, no.
It is STANDARD restaurant common courtesy to offer condiments to their GUESTS, it contributes to providing a fine dining experience that you get when you eat out at a restaurant. Usually you can only find a few sugar packets on the table it's not like you have access to take the entire restaurant inventory. It's a fluctuating cost that a well experienced owner knows must be accounted for. There was no sudden "spike" in missing condiments it's been this way for years it is rediculous to think this will have impact on "meal price" now. Every situation is different and everyone should know where the line is drawn. e.g. don't forget that guests leave tip when they eat at a restaurant, if your bill is over 100.00 and you tipped the server 20.00, it would be nice if they added a few extra condiments to make sure that you have enough when you get home. If the restaurant is limiting you to one napkin only you could take that as bad restaurant hospitality. At most resturaunts it is the server that has access to ALL of the condiments so if a restaurant wants to have better inventory control I think the source of the problem lies within their own workers and not with an old lady taking a few extra packets from the table REGARDLESS of what she is using it for. What about someone who actually uses 20 sugar packets while they are at a restaurant opposed to a lady who might just use a couple and take a couple more. If everyone started being conservative with sugar packets the decrease in demand MIGHT increase the cost from manufacturers what about that factor? I would be more concerned about other things in life. In the end, who cares about restaurant condiments, they're still making a grip load of money.
A drop in demand will increase prices????
asdf: Restaurants making a "grip load of money"? Almost all family-run, independent restaurants (the majority of restaurants out there) are barely getting by. Labor costs are higher than in any other industry, and notoriously difficult to control. Kitchen equipment is extremely expensive, as is the other stuff (tables, chairs, flooring, etc.). Restaurants are also subject to more stringent safety codes than most other businesses, and that costs money. A lot of it. Half of all restaurants fail within a year of opening, and those that manage to stay open operate on a razor-thin margin. So the few cents saved on extra sugar packets, straws, and napkins, make a big difference. Try actually running a restaurant sometime. The hours are awful, the work is grueling, and the return isn't very good. Give some credit to those restauranteurs out there who want to follow their passion and make a living.
Some restaurants will do well and others will not, with so many restaraunts available it is always a risk when you invest in opening your own restaurant and yes the hours are very long and restaraunt work in my opinion is very hard work. If a restaurant is barely surviving it is because they are not doing much business hence the last thing they would worry about is saving a few sugar packets at that point. I do give credit to people who open restaurants but obviously we all know that not everyone can succeed especially in a restaurant business, my comments was more based torwards the average successful restaurant. You stated "Kitchen equipment is extremely expensive, as is the other stuff (tables, chairs, flooring, etc.). " I think those are the more important problems to consider if you're a restaurant owner, although sugar packets do make a marginal difference it is just so insignificant.
Many times having ordered fast food items, something was left out that I requested and I cannot return and ask for it. Items which are included with the sandwich price, like a dip or sauce. We Americans are always, always paying for things we do not receive. We are always paying for other people's needs with entitlement programs which are astonishing in their scope. More Americans would fall over in cardiac arrest if they knew just how much is being paid to people using street drugs and getting tattoos who unearned receive govt. payments and free medical care.
I get home with my Chinese take out and find all of this extra crap in the bag. I don't throw it away because it cost money. I didn't take (steal) it either. OH, this is a CNN article, not based on scientific research, nor reality.
exactly
Duck Sauce should be relabeled Yuck Sauce. It practically goes with nothing (unless you make homemade Krab Rangoon)....little packets go straight into the garbage. And the soy sauce packets? It's typically an off-brand made with hydrolyzed vegetable protein formula not my "go to" Kikkoman. Condiment packets are not good for an eternity and the next time you get take out, you're just going to get more of them. I don't have a single condiment packet in my house. I guess I am OCD in that I can't have them in my house. I never take more than I need. The only thing in my glove box is the vehicle manual and tire pressure gauge...not even a napkin.
It would be more like OCD if you kept the packets at home in individual ziplock bags organized by type of packet and date obtained.:)
OK, now about the neuroses of those who over-analyze why people take extra condiments. Is it really that big of a mystery that you have to psychoanalyze our motives? It's THERE, we MIGHT need it later, we PAY much more than the food we order is worth, and frankly, we don't lose one bit of sleep worrying about it technically being theft. Call it amoral if you like, but the bottom line is we're simply taking advantage of the catch-22 the restaurant management is in - they HAVE TO provide the condiments in order to have a level of service that is competitive, and for the same reason, they CAN'T afford to make a big deal out of us taking it. It's really that simple. Now, how about getting back to analyzing why serial killers kill?
Because of you, Chris. To be clear, I don't mean people who are like you in their views. I mean you specifically. Your existence seems to just drive people to kill. In the past it was the potential of your being that drove them, today it is your being alive, and in the future it will be your memory. Man, what the hell IS it about you anyway? :)
I often, but not always, grab several packets of non-sugar sweeteners or a few extra napkins when I buy something from a convenience store. I never do this at the same place over and over, and NEVER without buying something inside or without buying gas. I always buy something. One reason I have done this on and off for several years is that I am on a very limited income due to health problems, I have had no medical coverage for most of my adult life due to not ever being able to afford it except for one year when able to work full time after my husband's death. I personally know that many people simply never use the items that I use anyway,and that the store has a good profit margin built into its system. If there was any detrimental effect I could see, from many people doing the same thing, I would never do it. The only reason I do it is that it saves me a little money. I often tidy up a convenience store restroom or pick up a little trash in the store's parking lot on my way in or out as a way of paying them.
I have lived in the US all of my life. I have been watching this country give away our tax dollars to illegals and less-deserving people my whole life. I have seen relatives that deserved a good job they wanted, get passed over for people that were a different gender or skin color because of the affirmative action policies. I have seen my kids not be able to take college courses because all the funds are going to immigrants or minority kids, or because there is no class space available due to people who cannot speak English taking up the spaces in the classes. I have been paying taxes too long that were too high, and I even though I do not have any earned income nowadays I still have to fork over thousands each year for taxes and insurance because of bad laws, just to remain in my small house which badly needs repairs. So if I take some Splenda or Nutrasweet packets and napkins from two convenience stores per month to save myself four dollars a month, I am not getting anything back compared to what has legally been taken from me and my kids for decades by our nation's policies, but I am trying to help myself keep going. I cut corners in my life constantly in many other ways also by being frugal and going without.
Riiiiight. All these "woe is me" excuses make is all okay then. All you are doing is overly justifying because you know it is wrong. You are taking from someone who is probably working hard to make their OWN ends meet. You aren't taking it from the government you so dislike and pay into. The article is right. It is that whole entitlement attitude that allows people to justify their behaviors. It's called life. Mine hasn't been easy, but it makes me more apt NOT to steal because I understand how that can affect those stolen from. Condiments and napkins aren't a right or a necessity. They are extras. If you can't afford them, have some class and don't try to justify taking them from others because you feel you have a right to them.
the only reason ANYONE steals is to save themselves a little money-are you exempt from that rule for some reason?
It's not stealing, the price of packets is included in your bill. If you want to save money, eat at home.
I will usually take an extra 2 or 3 packets of equal to have in the car in case the coffee is not sweet enough for my wife or in case they forget to put it in. but i don't take more until the packtes in the car are depelted. I just don't want the grief as i drive away and her coffee is not the one that was made right (mine is black hard to mess up)
I usually steal a few sachets of red pepper, and Parmesan when I get a doggie bag for pizza. I don't feel the least bit bad about it, and I make no attempt to hide the behavior. I guess I don't worry about taking anything that I would expect a waitress to say go right ahead and take it. I never saw a need to take sugar packets but if I felt the urge I wouldn't hesitate. Should I bite into a spicy pepper that proved to be uncomfortable- I wouldn't feel bad about pocketing a dozen sugar packets to soothe my mouth.
If the resturant gives packets or items which we don't use up we take them home to use there. We feel it is a waste and an infection control issue and not right to throw them in the garbage or have the resturant throw them in the garbage because they have been on the table. I am talking about fast food places not fine resturants. I certainly do not want to use someone eles extra tea bags ,catsup packets, saltines or anything else someone might have handled. We certainly do not fill up because the items are on the table.
catsup...reminds me of the Simpsons episode where Mr. Burns found himself in the grocery for the first time and had the quite the quandry of deciding between catsup or ketchup.
I worked in a lot of restaurants when I was younger and some threw everything away that was on the table, even if it hadn't been opened (not silverware or cloth napkins, but condiments, etc.) I encouraged people to take them home because we threw them in the garbage if they didn't. We couldn't even save them for the homeless shelters. Same goes for the hotel niceties like soap, shampoo, etc. – many throw out whatever is left in the room for reasons of hygiene. PLUS, if you want to complain about low income seniors taking condiments home, then maybe the US should provide comprehensive medical coverage so that the low income seniors don't have to choose between food and prescriptions or necessary medical care. As one intelligent person said earlier – focus on the wealthier who steal more from our countries than all of the elderly and low income folks combined. Tell the big banks and their execs who paid out and received extravagant bonuses after taxpayer money bailed out their companies. THAT is theft in my world, as is getting paid thousands of dollars an hour for being a health insurance exec while turning down children and the elderly for necessary and lifesaving medical care. The US has it backwards. The rich are paying the lowest tax rates they have paid in history, most don't even end up paying income taxes because they hide their money. Ketchup packets are nothing in comparison.
I love that quote, "I save money that way." Yeah, but if a little kid saves money by stealing something, he gets dragged back to the store by selfsame granny, I'm guessing, to apologize. Nice lesson!
I don't take extra from the restaurant, but when I drive through somewhere or have food delivered, I keep the unused condiments for later. My only option would be to toss them in the trash, as the restaurants won't take them back.
It's different if the restaurant placed them in your bag for take out or delivery. You aren't taking handfuls to use because you don't feel like going to the store to buy your own ketchup or duck sauce.
I spent twenty-six years in the F&B industry as everything from General manager for Hardee's Restaurants to Food and Beverage Director for Marriott Hotels. I am here to tell you that the cost of those packets are already factored into the cost of your meal, even at a high rate of usage. Furthermore, the cost saved from people who do not use those condiments FAR EXCEED the cost of those that take extra. And if that were not enough, a restaurant pays but a fraction of these condiments that a consumer pays in a grocery store. For example: A box of 3000 sweet and low packets (yes that is three-thousand) costs an average sized chain restaurant about $23.00. Please do not fall for the hype that there is any type of crime going on here.
but the smaller the business, the more expensive it is to the owner. Small businesses have to watch every penny. And that isn't really the point, is it? It's about personal ethics and morals, taking something that isn't actually going to be used as part of your meal, to fill out your pantry. You don't justify behaviors by deciding "it's not really hurting anyone". That's a slippery slope.
I figured that you would respond to my post, considering that you have had something to say to most everyone who differs from your opinion. O.k., let me put it this way, say you go into a restaurant and order a meal that has a sealed container of yogurt. Would you give the yogurt back if you didn't eat it? Or would you take it home for future use? Don't get me wrong, I do not agree with people taking HANDFULS of condiments from a restaurant for future use. I am saying that taking a few extra packets and putting them in your car or in your pantry has no significant impact on food cost or operating supplies. As far as your "small business" model, a smart small business owner will hand condiments and napkins out upon request as a way of controlling his or her cost. Trust me when I tell you that the larger restaurants that place those items in public areas have already factored those costs into YOUR meal. People ARE NOT STEALING, they have already paid for those items, just like the yogurt.
yeah I have something to say because it's stealing. I grew up watching my parents do it and it was humiliating and shaming and even as a child I could figure out it was wrong to take stuff that wasn't part of the meal. The yogurt is NOT equivalent because a)it is part of your paid for meal, and b)they will throw it out anyway, like bread in the basket etc. I am not talking about those items. But people who load up their pockets with 16 jellies at the pancake house, that is NOT PART OF YOUR MEAL, no matter how you want to justify it.
You are OBVIOUSLY very unaware when it comes to restaurant operations. Furthermore, you do not pay attention. If you do not care to consider that yogurt will be placed back into stock (this is where the lack of awareness comes in) then consider packages of crackers that are given with a salad. You may receive four or five packages of crackers and you may not eat any of them at that time. EVEN IF THEY ARE ON YOUR TABLE, they will be put back into stock. However, they, JUST LIKE ALL OF THE CONDIMENTS, have been accounted for in the cost of your meal. I do not know if you have any understanding of the way that restaurants operate (it sure does not sound like you do) but maybe you should research these things BEFORE commenting. If your parents swiped massive amounts of condiments then that would be an issue. If they simply took a few packages that were available already, listen now or you will miss this again, THEY WERE ALREADY FACTORED INTO THE COST OF YOUR MEAL!!!!! You may want to give your parents a break. It sounds as though you may have issues regarding your childhood (and your parents). May I recommend counseling.
Bill you are so focused on the dollars and cents that you don't look at the morality. It isn't about what it costs the business, ultimately. It's about being greedy and entitled, and frankly trashy. Why would you restock your fridge with condiments from the diner? It's cheap and selfish to expect the owner to pay for your home-use ketchup
The crime is that I am so bored I am actually responding to these posts.
If I'm in a fast food place or a Starbucks I will take whatever ketchups, napkins, sweetners, etc that I anticipate using for that meal or beverage, but no more. If afterwards I have a ketchup, sweetner, napkin, etc left over I will save it for later use. Anything that the establishment puts in a take-out bag I will keep and use later. But swiping a handful of Splendas off a restaurant table and shoving them into my purse? NO.
I totally agree with you. I never shove a ton in my purse, but just take the anticipated need of the kids and I. If there are extras after we are done- they are sitting in my center console now. Am I a thief? lol
I steal Splenda by the handful because it is so overpriced in the store. There I said it. I have plenty of money to pay for it too!
since Starbucks is charging me 4.50 for a coffee, they owe me the Splenda packets for my house. yep thats the way it is. thank you.
No, they owe you one cup of coffee and nothing more.
If you think the price is too high, then take your business somewhere else. Taking condiments and napkins is no different than reaching into the cash register and taking a handful of change.
You are honest Momof2 and doing exactly what is intended. The correct way of looking at this is to do what I was taught. My parent's would say, what would happen if everyone did the wrong thing you are saying is no big deal? Well, the costs of these packets would go up exponentially and then prices for your food would go up.
I can't believe the rationalization that is going on here. Starbuck charges me 4.50 for my coffee , so they owe me the packets for my home? Really. If you don't want to pay 4.50 for your coffee go to McDonald's, Coffee is only .99. Just leave the packets alone.
How much did Splenda pay to be in the photo?
This broad gets it right. When the young folk steal sugar packets, it's 'cause they're selfish and feel entitled. When us old-timers do it, it's 'cause we're resourceful and thrifty.
Oh God...I do this, but with those little half-and-half cups they keep in a small container on each table. Mom, Dad, Grandpa and I would drink them straight out of the cup in the restaurant when I was a kid.
Then we started taking them home with us when I was sixteen because we realized that we probably looked REALLY weird drinking cream straight out of the little cups like they were a delicacy, when we had plates full of food in front of us. Now we swipe them from the containers on our table and drink them when we're going home.
Is it cheap of us? Yes. But you'll never know pleasure until you drink a cup of half-and-half and experience the epic taste.
you know what else you could do? Buy a whole bottle of creamer at the store, feel content that you didn't steal it, and indulge as much as you want
OR...
You could just keep doing what you're doing (it's a pretty cute tradition: My sister and my grandparents do that) and not have other people make you feel guilty about it.
Go to Sam's or Costco, they sell the little cups of creamer by the boxful.
You just brought back fond memories of my late grandfather, who would purposely embarass the heck out of me by throwing back coffee creamers like shots when we went to Denny's. Off topic, but thanks.
Sweet! He must have been awesome!
I take a few extra ketchup packets, and toss them into my take-out bag because experience has taught me that the next time, the restaurant will "forget" to put any ketchup packets in with my order. So my extra packets from one order, can be used on my next packet-less order.
why don't you just ask for them? In my area they don't give them out at all unless you ask, to avoid the waste
Because the individuals who pack the orders mess up A LOT!
In 1970- I made $500 a month, pre-tax [paid once a month]- after paying my rent, utilities, and transportation [bus & hitch-hiking] I had so little for food, that for 2 to 3 weeks of the month I lived on rice flavored with the ketchup packets I liberated from the neighborhood hamburger stand. Never want to go back to that, again. The aroma of the burgers was torture.
Okay, so you were a poor thief, but a thief nevertheless.
John- 2 things... [1] Are the fast food employees who throw a handful [6 to 10] of ketchup packets into your bag, when you say "Yes, I would like ketchup for my fries"- also stealing? How is that waste anything other than a cost of doing business... and [2] When I asked if it was ok to "liberate" those ketchup packets and was told it was... and bought my food from the stand in the week[s] before I was forced to eat only rice... does that absolve me? Your post shows how judgmental, cold, and uncaring a person you are. Your lack of empathy is staggering. May you never be in a position of being hungry- Judge not- lest ye be judged.
my grandmother used to fill her purse with zip lock baggies so when she went to the buffet, she could take home extra fried shrimp etc ...I considered it stealing as a child and I do now. If you are taking food that would be used for other customers (not items that would be thrown away anyway), then that's stealing, any way you cut it. It isn't part of your meal. You are taking it to "save yourself money", which should tell you something. That you should be BUYING IT YOURSELF.
btw "condiment sachets"?? Who calls it anything but a ketchup packet in this country?
You really need to get a life. I see you've commented judgmentally to several of the comments here - why don't you just go live by the psychotic morals you were taught and leave the rest of us alone? If they stop giving out free ketchup packages, I will stop taking them. Otherwise, I'll take what I think I might need, and I won't think twice about it. Having said that, I will admit that my spouse over-does it. I just take, as I said, what I think I might need. And as I said, I won't lose sleep over it.
So, when Nana Sockpuppet was outright stealing – as opposed to keeping extras – did you call her out on it? I mean, since you were such a precious and precocious little Master Sockpuppet back then. Or did you just store all of your outrage to share with the rest of us, knowing Nana can't get you anymore?
no because i was a little kid. And i was NOT raised to not steal, that's the point. My parents grabbed anything that wasn't nailed down. And guess what? As soon as I as old enough to brave getting beat I DID call my dad out. When he tried to make me stay in the movie theater bathroom until the next movie started when I was 12, I finally walked out of the theater knowing I was going to get beat when I got home. And I was berated for being a selfish kid the entire way home. So yeah, call me judgmental, whatever you want. I believe in honesty, and I believe in paying for what you take, and earning it. Sue me. Everyone that is so annoyed at my opinion is only feeling their own conscience telling them it isn't right. Look at the article. The 2 experts themselves are saying we try to justify our behavior, so the implication is that the psychologists would call it stealing too. Are you afraid to admit you engage in petty theft? Just admit it and you'll feel better llol
Wow. If that was MY dad...
Yeah. You don't wanna know what I would have done if that were my dad. Must have been rough.
Actually, it's not my conscence (sp?) bothering me. It's the holier-than-thou attitude. I personally don't take anything from those places. Well, depends on 'take' – when the ketchup sachets are there, I reach and grab some out – I don't calculate the fry-to-ketchup ratio. What I take is what I take. Sometimes, it's too much, sometimes not enough. If there ARE extras, I keep them for another time. So, if that falls under YOUR definition of stealing, well, you might want to look back at that upbringing of yours, and chalk it up to judgmentalism.
Being surrounded by theives, and not becoming one, is A Good Thing. Unforunately, it's turned you into a bit like a reformed smoker/drinker/whatever – a bit of a zealot.
yes but nowhere did I say that taking condiments for the food you just bought is considered stealing, even if you "overestimate". This article is about people who knowingly take extra condiments, plasticware jelly whatever to restock their kitchen, not for the meal they just bought or even the leftovers. That is clearly not what I am referring to.
Why are the packets of condiments and sauces included in take-out and delivery bags included among the examples?
they aren't talking about the condiments they give you in the drive thru, they're talking about the condiments you swipe from the table or the counter knowing you aren't going to use them for that meal
I'm talking about this quote above "..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.” "
well they weren't saying that reusing the plasticware was stealing either, they were just giving you an idea about the extent of her obsession.
I'm never able to finish what they serve me at restaurants and almost always walk out with the leftovers packed "to go," so additional condiments get tossed in the bag to go with the leftovers and I see no difference between using them later and using them at the restaurant if I'd eaten everything there. Taking condiments if there aren't any leftovers packed seems a bit over the top, though.
I know it seems harmless, but kids learn from watching us. If we do it, then we are teaching them its okay to steal.
I know from experience. As a child I saw my mother do this, so I did it. Yikes! did I ever get a sound thrashing later.
You cant say do as I say not as I do, to that. Think about it.
I do not take extra, but; do not throw away any extras. I do not throw away unused napkins and hate taking the left overs, but that is preferable to putting them in the landfill. When I ask for salt or pepper, "just one or two please", I'm given a handful. The waste goes both ways.
That's true – often I will specifically ask for one butter or one creamer and they will bring several. In those cases when I didn't use the other butters or creamers I have seen the bussers throw it away many times. Also straws – many times the server will bring us new drinks with new straws which I imagine adds up for the owner and is bad for the environment – I try to remember to say not to bring another straw.
My husband uses those sugar packets to get food out of his teeth...remember that next time you want to swipe one.
What a classless turd your husband is. Hope you're happy with a preschool child for a husband.
Obviously, they are making the point that taking public condiment packets home with you is incredibly dirty because you have no idea who touched it or what they did with it. I mean, you seriously don't know if a baby stuck that creamer down his diaper or if some guy used the creamer plastic in place of a toothpick. You don't know if that ketchup packet you take home and store with your food, possibly open food, was taken out of the garbage by the people who own that restaurant so THEY could save money.
Saving money works both ways and you, the kleptomaniacs, could be the victims of the restaurants trying to save money...
Then why use the evil germy condiments at any restaurant at all?
It's called stealing, and "Thou shalt not steal"! Even if you're not a Christian and don't read the Holy Bible, stealing is illegal in all 50 states.
I'm always amused when Christians believe they are the only ones with "morals and values" simply because they read a book. Humans have known stealing, killing, etc. was bad long before the birth of JC.
Amen to that.
Also, another uncomfortable truth for christians is that these morals and ethics can be found in texts belonging to religions predating the earliest books of their bible.
Christianity, the most refined example of plagiarism in history
wh so defensive? Ang said it's illegal whether you are Christian or not, and why are you turning this into a discussion about the validity of Christianity? Can people not even talk about stealing ketchup packets without bringing their own little hang-ups into the conversation? I', sorry your religious daddy spanked you too much. Get over it.
Doesn't mean it's not a good rule to follow, whether you're a Christian or not...
Oh, wow, you guys...
Bagging on Christians? That's low.
@Hey You: when you've made your purchase, it's either bagging or a PAID sticker.
I took some packets of sugar once becuase they're jsut the right size for backpacking ... now I'm rethinking this.
Typical. Grandma walks away with 5 sugar packets (at a total value of less than a dollar) people get up in arms. A banker walks away with hundreds of millions of dollars after wrecking his company and destroying the lives of countless people and nobody cares.
Yeah, lets tazer grandma to death. Let Jon Corzine retire to France without so much as a slap on the wrist. Maybe you would care if he stole 5 million sugar packets?
I just don't understand how people are ready to throw the book at little people for petty things while they let people committing crimes of such enormous magnitude go free without so much as a second thought. Where are your priorities people? Cut the hand off of the thief who stole a loaf of bread but ignore the guy who went around shaking down every person on the street because it is his legal right! God help us when people are this blind.
Excellent point, DZZ!
First of all, nobody is prosecuting grandma, so calm the heck down. This is merely a discussion of ethics for the average person. Do you justify any small stealing you do by saying that the fat cats steal millions, so big deal? That's not how life works. Your entire reaction leads me to believe that they hit you in your morals. Because one thing has nothing to do with the other.
I have no problem with those in true need slipping a sugar, ketchup or otherwise into their pocket. Spend some time at a food kitchen, or on the street helping the homeless, then see just how unforgiving you really want to be. Oh, yea, Christmas is over, so we can stop caring?
When Mr. bigshot Buzzinesman slips the crockery or flatware in his pocket I see red – there is no need, just greed.
1% of the gross for most restaurants might well be close to the year's net profit, or a large chunk of it, anyway. Do you honestly think they run that much fatter? Theft of the flatware is a big issue, too – every fork is worth a hundred or more sugar packets, and believe me, flatware is a big issue for restaurants.
As for taking home what isn't yours, just because you like straight black coffee doesn't mean you can add the contents of the sugar and creme offerings to your pocket. Give me a break!
For Corzine, there is only one solution. Fire up Ol' Sparky, Florida, ya got another customer! If not, let's hope the French have a nice, sharp guillotine, and the cohones to apply it where needed (above OR below the waist).
I'm married to one of these cheap-os, Just greedy, in my view – glad I was raised better than that.
Feel morally superior to your spouse. Must be one great relationship being married to a loser.
Just be happy he/she only steals condiment packets or napkins. I had a girlfriend (before I got married) who used to steal salt and pepper shakers and even napkin holders from restaurant tables.
Funny we rarely see that kind of stuff on restaurant tables in high traffic restaurants. I'm sure there are more than a few of you out there.
Her reason for taking them? "They charge too much for this food, I don't have to eat here, and I need/like these things" WTF, if ripping off places you buy from is an excuse for continuing to go there because they charge too much, just stop going there! I'd bet the restaurant owners would be more than happy be without your business.
Raised better than that? You mean you were taught to look down on people for stupid, petty reasons?
I take a lot of napkins from restaurants and use them at home. I know why... becuase i'm cheap!
hahah at least you're honest
At least you had the intelligence to understand the story and the question.....about 3/4 of the people here don't, judging from their comments. They think the story is about taking home your un-eaten meat or something on your plate. Idiots!!!
There's a gray area people go into, though, with putting buffet food into zip loc bags in your purse. I once saw not one, but three older ladies steal (yes STEAL) one huge plate of seafood after another from a buffet restaurant. The only place all that food could have gone was into their huge purses.
You might consider that a gray area and OK because you pay to "eat all you can eat" at a buffet restaurant. To me, it's crossing the line from taking home what you paid for to just stealing.
I prefer the word frugal.
They like to toss in 12 or more napkins into my take out bag. I use only one or two. Am I suppose to throw away all the unused napkins? I don't think so. I save them for future use.
you ain't the only one! I pay a rare restaurant outing+tip.. I keep my napkin if it ain't ruined, for another use! Beat that! hehehehe
While I don't necessarily go out of my way to score freebies from restaurants... I always keep the extra I'm given. Especially ketchup. I like to keep them in my car because often it's forgotten, also do this with straws and napkins. Nothing is worse than going through a drive thru and not getting napkins or straws for your drink!
I don't see an issue with taking these things from restaurants though... it is to be expected. I worked at a fast food restaurant in high school and the owner was so cheap, we were only allowed to give out 1 napkin per burger ordered. Often customers would get frustrated (obviously), so they would come to the front counter and take a giant handful just out of spite.
If you truly don't want people to "steal" these items, then keep them in a glass case and start charging for them if you want to be a cheap pr1ck... otherwise, it's implied that they're ours to take. There's no "rule" saying anything different.
"I don't see an issue with taking these things from restaurants though... "
The issue is that it drives up the cost for everybody. What if every customer took all the salt, sugar, etc. packets off the table. If the cost of those items (which have to be replaced) is one dollar, then it means that if everybody did it, the meal price has to increase. Duh!!!!!!!
Do you know what drives up the cost? Printing money. AKA Quantitative Easing. I don't care how many sugar packets you "steal," at the push of a button the Federal Reserve can and does create trillions of dollars that drive up the cost of everything including food and energy.
But you're right. Lets taze grandma for taking those sugar packets. Clearly it is all her fault.
"What if every customer took all the salt, sugar, etc. packets off the table"
They don't, so who cares? There's always going to be bleeding hearts like you who would complain about someone stealing sugar packets.
Many people don't even bother using these items, so it balances out anyways. And if you're so concerned about the cost of eating out, maybe you should cook more and eat out less often?
I'd be more concerned about the rising cost of fuel than the cost of eating at a restaurant.
I actually have an issue with having items around I won't use quickly, such as those packets. When I order chinese, I ask for a few packets of condiments. I think my issue is that I just do not like clutter...
I often grab extra ketchup when I hit the drive thru – then I have it on hand and don't need to request it the next couple of trips. In the end, I don't end up necessarily using it for the company I took it from, but eventually I feel it evens out.
First of all any time you purchase food at a restaurant you are paying for the “free” ketchup packets and such. Second, Major food chains market the packets. Notice the Taco Bell, McDonalds, Hunts and Heinz on the packet. If the food chain did not want you to take “extra” then they would keep them behind the counter. Try to get the sauces for nuggets without buying them and you will pay a fee (except for the dispensed version).
And remember Boys and Girls, the customer is always right! A business owner NEEDS you to frequent their establishment. If that mean 1% of your supply cost then so be it!
By the way it was nice of Nick Pihakis to mention supply costs, Because that is not total cost.
There is a mark up. Typically food cost on average is one third of the total cost
$900,000.00 X 100 = $90,000,000.00 X 3 = $270,000,000.00
Looks like the free packet are paying off.
You are obviously someone who has never owned or managed a restaurant.
For starters, there is no "mark-up" on items being given away for free....
"If the food chain did not want you to take “extra” then they would keep them behind the counter."
Are you a business owner? Or are you making things up to justify your position? Your logic is flawed. Its just as reasonable to assume that they put condiments out as a convenience so that customers don't have to walk to the counter to ask – but that they don't intend you to be pig and take the whole supply off the table! Fool!
I guess I am different. If I do not need it, and won't use it right then, then I don't ask for it and will hand it back and say "I don't need this or I don't need this many"....
@Doodlebug, I'm with you. I've gone to counter, asked for X number of ketchup or sweetener packets, gotten X+ and have left what I don't need on the counter. Guess that makes us "different" together. :D
Our local McDonald's does keep the ketchup packets behind the counter. You have to beg if you need any, and then they will only give you one.
Exactly - these people are the reason that some restaurants don't give you anything at all, they put nothing out for easy access, and they may even charge you. Imagine going into a Chinese fast food restaurant, buying food, and getting one soy sauce packet, which is not even close to what you need. So, you ask for 2-3 more, and they charge you $0.15 each for them because of these greedy people. True story, honest.
It's ridiculous, but maybe it's just human nature to treat something as worth nothing if you don't have to pay for it. But then again, if you take a bunch of it, isn't it worth something and isn't that stealing? Kind of like the stealing-the-free-balloon argument (sorry, I watch Spongebob with my kids).
So, if they give free balloons at the grocery store, would you go in there and demand 50 free balloons for a kids birthday party simply because they are free? If you would, you are sick and should seek help...
No Craig, its not stealing. You can't steal something thats free. If I fill up my water jug at a drinking fountain instead of only stopping for a couple sips...am I stealing? I mean, Im not paying the water bill?
Back in the day it was ok to bang head over waitress and STEAL A PERSON. Fast forward to 2012 and people dare whine about sugar packets!!!
ummm...what?
hahahaha...i'm genuinely confused
Well, that really puts this discussion in perspective!
If packets of crackers are on the plate under my soup, they are there for my consumption whether I choose to consume them in the restaurant or not. Likewise the bread in the bread baskets. My understanding is that they are to be thrown out and not served to another for sanitary reasons. Waste not, want not and yes I am a grandmother who manages to always be clean and presentable and I can only hope that all these critics are never hungry. I save a great deal my not being wasteful and am, therefore, able to make modest donations to worthy charities.
You didn't read the story well or understand it. They refer to "condiments" or extra items on the table not part of your meal such as SUGAR PACKETS. These will be used by another customer if not by you. They are discussing people who might take ALL the splenda packets off the table (say, 20 of them) to take home.
Do you understand now?
Please be gentle with Grandma!
If wrapped crackers, sugars, or creamers are not consumed and/or not taken by the customer, they can be re-served.
they will eventually be consumed...none will go to waste
We do take sugar packets, but only if they're unique, and only 2. We collect them in a big, decorative glass container in our kitchen. It's something my husband has been doing since he was young, so now we have some pretty cool ones (both packets as well as wrapped cubes) from around the world. A lot of them are from restaurants and airlines that aren't around anymore. It's a fun reminder of where we've visited.
Yea but did it make you hot for your hubby? I mean, why else would a grown man steal packets, seriously, unless he was in for a little nooky when you got home! AM I RIGHT?
I collect cars. What is your address? I'd like to collect yours for my pretty garage.
Your comment makes no sense.
tom's comment made perfect sense.....
His comment makes sense but is apples to oranges. Show me a sugar packet that cost several thousand dollars and required financing, then we can call it stealing. Until then, you can't steal something that is free.
When I'm quite drunk I have an urge to steal. Sober, I'm the most honest person on earth.
yeah you might benefit from therapy
This is his response to past therapy.
I put other because I’m already paying the restaurant, because I grew up not having a lot, I’m not sure why, and because grandma did it.
Don't order more than you can eat. Don't take more than you can use. Period!
where's the "like" button??
your comment does not relate to the story...read again.
I don't steal sugar and the like from sit-down restaurants. But with take-out, you often don't know how many you need until you're already eating. So maybe I think I might use 3 ketchup packets, and I only end up using 2. I don't bring the unused one back to the McDonalds. But I think that's different than taking 20 ketchup packets.
My favorite part of the article is when they managed to slip in demonizing gen X and Y while fellating boomers for identical behavior.
LOL. He might have a point, though.
So sick of the boomers...die already!
Sorry sonny, I am going to hang around as long as I, and the medical profession can manage.
I will be sucking up as much of the 'free' medical and social benefits as I can get so that there wont be anything left for you when you get to be my age.
I, and my other boomers, will vote in programs that you will have to pay for but will probably not live to use. If you do live long enough, you will have to pay a co-pay in order to keep it funded so that others can use it too.
Keep up the good work, better yet keep working for my benefits. :)
We'll be keeping that selfish 'drain-the-kids-for-all-we-can' attitude in mind when your mind and health begin to go. There will be no love lost when your lifestyle catches up to you and we're asked if we approve pulling the plug. That same boomer entitlement that has left our nation in the sorry state we see it today will be your final downfall.
Don't think that history won't look with shame upon the Boomer generation of fools that sucked dry the amazing nation left behind by the Greatest Generation and left it in ruins for their children, like a compulsive gambler unrepentantly destroying the family fortune and leaving a prosperous, hopeful family destitute and struggling.
I noticed that too...X and Y steal because they are "entitled" and Silents (those who were babies/kids during the depression/WWII era) steal becaue they are "saving for hard times." Boomers are not mentioned.
I take two packets of splenda with each coffee I buy, and I take them home to use in my tea, since I don't actually put anything in my coffee! Not really stealing, since I can have it for my coffee at the shop – I think!
Sometimes it's the restaurant that piles on the condiments. You ask for some ketchup and they give you a fistful of packets. That does not foster a sense of value to the items. If they serve it to you then it is yours. If it is out on a self service counter that's a different story and wrong to take more than what you plan to use at the meal. As for the guy saying it's one percent of his 100 million dollar annual expense... he would do well to remind himself customers pay for 100% of that. Get old fashioned condiment bottles if you don't want it walking.
I"d much rather people take the "extras" than see them thrown away because they got wet or dirty sitting on the table. I never use all that stuff (sugar, butter pats, sweetener, creamer, crackers...) but it gets served to me nonetheless. I see it go into the rubbishe when tables are cleaned or plates taken away. At least the stuff gets refreshed if grandma clears it out. I've seen soiled or partially used sweetener packets in the packet holders in some coffee shops. Yuck!
1% doesn't really sound like a huge loss, especially if it will be sure included in the pricing of the food. If this restaurant spends a million a year in those packets... they are making close to 100 Million.
I don't really understand at the same time, why a restaurant doesn't switch to suggar shaker or ketchup bottles or other types of dispenser. This would be for sure more enviromentally friendly compared to these tons of unnecessary packing.
One of the reason I could imagine are sponsoring, where again the expense would not be at the restaurants side, but on the deliverer which accounts for the delivery as advertisment expense. At least part of the cost.
My two cents.
I think what he ment to say is...Satchel but that would be wrong too.
You are right, satchel would be wrong, but sachet would be and is correct.
I think the question is whether the items will be thrown in the garbage if left on the table or returned.. Then comes the question of whether you should take 1 or 10 ketchup packets when at the condiment table.. i think there's definitely a line you can cross perhaps taking 1 or 2 unused packets you think might be thrown away versus going back and grabbing 10 more packets on the way out..
If I order an iced tea at a restaurant, I prefer it unsweetened, and I don't add any sugar. But the sugar I don't use is included in the cost of the tea, so I'm already paying for it whether I use it in the tea or not. I don't see anything wrong in taking a sugar packet or two if I've already paid for its use—I'll just use it later for something else. And when I order something that doesn't usually involve adding extra sugar, I don't take any. Only take what you've already paid for.
Taking larger items—like salt and pepper shakers—is just wrong, though. Those cost the restaurant much more money than a few sugar packets.
So just so I'm clear, you find stealing OK as long as it is under a certain dollar amount? By your own logic, didn't you also pay for salt and pepper to season food you got?
The problem with that is determining what is what you have paid for. How can you say you've paid for 20 sugar packets or 1? If everyone buys a tea and everyone takes 20 sugar packets, that can eat into the profits of the establishment greatly. Here lies the problem. Each person's evaluation of the cost of the product and the condiments and extras that are associated with it can vary greatly. Because of this, many places refuse to leave things such as these out and instead charge for sauces and such.
No Jane, they cost you & me, the business passes on the cost to those who do pay, same as when a theif steals from stores, you and I pay for the increased cost of the products stolen.
Corporations as ALWAYS, pass on their loss to the consumer.
you missed the point...
CB you missed the point, dumb-dumb. If you are offered complimentary sugar packets for your iced tea, it's your right to take them and use them where and how you please. That's much different than stealing salt/pepper SHAKERS off of a table which are clearly meant to be re-used by other customers and not taken home.
You just defined yourself as a person with the "attribution of responsibility" as mentioned in the article. Congratulations and get help.
I'm already throwing away all kinds of mustard, ketchup, salt and pepper packets from drive-thrus. Why would I want more clutter? I don't add sugar to anything. I have salt and pepper shakers on my table and ketchup and mustard in the refrigerator. I don't need more. I hate it when I ask for "a couple of packets of salt and pepper" at some fast food place and they give me a whole handful.
copy that.
I love the small sesame breadsticks (wrapped) but can't eat them with a full dinner. But if they have a couple in the bread basket, in the pocket!
So we pay for you to take home breadsticks because you can't eat them all in one meal? Are you proud of that?
As my parents once said, and it still applys today, you can buy allot with mone, BUT, you can't buy class, I hope you get fat from you stealing food and making our food cost go up.
So Loretta, you're saying she should let the bread get tossed out and go to waste when they clear the table? I guess you're against the take-home boxes they give you when you can't finish your plate too, huh?
Taking bread off the table that MUST BE THROWN OUT when you leave is the same as taking the rest of your meal in a doggy bag. They cannot serve it to anyone else. Now, requesting extra bread that you have no intention of eating during your meal, and then putting it in your doggy bag, that is probably crossing the line.
guess you can't buy class...just lint covered breadsticks to stuff your face with at second dinner
At my ymca the oldies there are the biggest whiners when the free coffee machine is out of order. I suggested he bring coffee in a carrier and he acted asI just crapped in his hand. They are cheap, cheap, cheap, always putting their dirty hands in the bulk foods at sunflower market, helping themselves to grapes, and pretty much everyting else they can get their paws on.
I guess this is why I keep getting over-encumbered in Skyrim...
A better question would be: why does grandma drive 20 mph on the freeway, unwrap hard candies one by one in the movie theater, and smell like last week's kitty litter?
Or maybe, just MAYBE, is there an underlying conspiracy that the elderly are actually addicted to... (Dramatic music)
SPLENDA?????
sachet: 1. a small bag, case, or pad containing perfuming powder or the like, placed among handkerchiefs, lingerie, etc., **to **impart **a **pleasant **scent. i mean really. just think if they put ketchup in sachets! all of your underwear could smell like it belongs on a hamburger!! this *may* just be a brilliant idea!!!
Perhaps you should read the rest of the dictionary.com page for sachet that states: 1. a small sealed envelope, usually made of plastic or paper, for containing sugar, salt, shampoo, etc
Any other incorrect correction you would like to attempt to make?
Oh, snap! You just got SCHOOLED, son!!
i can't even finish the article. it's "packet", not sachet, for heaven's sake. before you use a word that you don't clearly don't know -or maybe even if you think you do know, but it's new to you – please please please look it up. you could go to websters' website or even wikipedia!! by the way, folks save condiment PACKETS because we're all broke and it's wasteful to throw it away. there. i answered your mystery in 15 words. properly-used ones, i might add.
"for heaven's sake. before you use a word that you don't clearly don't know" Sounds like you are having trouble with your words as well...maybe proof read before posting. Just sayin'
Touché
No need to flaunt your ignorance. Buy a dictionary or look it up on the internet: sachet: a small sealed envelope, usually made of plastic or paper, for containing SUGAR, SALT, shampoo, etc
Wow, Simone... Lighten up, will ya? Life is too short.
Wow Simone, perhaps YOU should follow your own advice and learn a definition of a word YOU are not familiar with.
From dictionary.com: 1. a small sealed envelope, usually made of plastic or paper, for containing sugar, salt, shampoo, etc
Oh, and by the way, websters.com takes you to dictionary.com which shows the above definition. Would you mind posting a picture of you removing your foot from your mouth?
Oh, and by the way, we are not all broke. But given your post, it doesn't shock me that you are.
I work in the flexible packaging industry and they are called sachets. You're pretty worked up about this – bad day?
Selling pirated Vietnamese condoms out of the trunk of your car does not put you in the "flexible packaging industry."
Sachet is also a correct term, and is used in Australia, among other places. Try traveling outside the US once in your life.
We in the US have secret rules about allowing lackwits out of our borders. This one may fail the exit test.
♫♫ Don't wanna be an American Idiot...♫♫
Sadly, the accuracy of the last statement is ruined by the fact that you don't know how to capitalize the first word of your sentences.