She says, 'Y'all fat, and y'all eat too much'

You can smell the lawsuit cookin' on this one... discrimination, discrimination, discrimination

from JoeUser Forums

Gotta love the story behind this headline:

She says, 'Y'all fat, and y'all eat too much'

The basics of the story come down to this info:

HOUMA, La. - A 6-foot-3, 265-pound man says a restaurant overcharged him for his trips to the buffet line, then banned him and a relative because they're hearty eaters. A spokesman for the restaurant denies the claim.

Ricky Labit, a disabled offshore worker, said he had been a regular for eight months at the Manchuria Restaurant in Houma, eating there as often as three times a week.

On his most recent visit, he said, a waitress gave him and his wife's cousin, 44-year-old Michael Borrelli, a bill for $46.40, roughly double the buffet price for two adults.

{ snip }

Labit and Borrelli said they felt discriminated against because of their size. "I was stunned, that somebody would say something like that. I ain't that fat, I only weigh 277," Borrelli said, adding that a waitress told him he looked like he a had a "baby in the belly."

Houma accountant Thomas Campo said the men were charged an extra $10 each on Dec. 21 because they made a habit of dining exclusively on the more expensive seafood dishes, including crab legs and frog legs.

'We don't discriminate'

"We have a lot of big people there," said Campo, who spoke for owner Li Shang, whose English is limited. "We don't discriminate."

Labit denied ever being told he would be asked to pay more than the standard adult price.

... more at linked article.

I have to apologize for snickering at the story, but I just find this too funny not to laugh.

"Y'all fat, and y'all eat too much". That is funny, I tell you what.

Unfortunately the eaters in this case are likely to laugh all the way to the bank over a discrimination lawsuit here. If the restaurant hasn't made it clear that they reserve the right to charge extra for heavy eaters, then they are going to be slammed pretty hard for this event, and probably deservedly so.

Reminds me a bit of the Simpsons episode where Homer goes to the all you can eat seafood buffet and gets chased away...

business
15,074 views 11 replies
Reply #1 from JoeUser Forums Top

What a hilarious line!  Totally inappropriate, and you're right, it's going to cost that restaurant plenty... but still worth a guilty chuckle. ;~D

 

I had a friend from Samoa.  When we went to buffets his goal was to see how many plates he could fill before they just stopped refilling the buffet table.  ;~D

Reply #2 from JoeUser Forums Top
If the restaurant hasn't made it clear that they reserve the right to charge extra for heavy eaters, then they are going to be slammed pretty hard for this event, and probably deservedly so.
End of quote


Well, if they charge extra for heavy eaters, they shouldn't be allowed to advertise AYCE!

Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #3 from JoeUser Forums Top
Our local AYCE Chinese Buffet has a sign that notifies customers that if they eat primarily sushi, they will be charged a higher price......if they have a sign anywhere, he will have to pay up or eat elsewhere.
Reply #4 from JoeUser Forums Top

Our local AYCE Chinese Buffet has a sign that notifies customers that if they eat primarily sushi

ours does not, but then my son and I do not abuse it (I cant say no one does).  We start out with a plate of Sushi and Sashimi, but then go to the other stuff.

Course he is about 125 dripping wet, and I tip in at 175, so they are not going to go broke on us.

Reply #5 from JoeUser Forums Top
If they have a clearly stated policy, I have no problem with that. I can take my business elsewhere if need be.
Reply #6 from JoeUser Forums Top
I worked a buffet in high school. Most buffets run on an honor system believe it or not. The people who own the restaurant put out a variety of food and the patron pays to eat only his/her share at one sitting. The place I worked didn't care how much you ate in one sitting. Ten plates? Good, hope you enjoyed it! Would you like some coffee to top it off?

The problem comes when you get people with different versions of honor. For example, at the place I worked a couple customers would come and sit literally all day.....eat lunch, read, do crossword puzzles, whatever. Nibbling and getting coffee refills until supper. Then eat again at supper (which was a higher price because the items changed). One customer did it just about every Saturday in the winter.

Here's my issue with it. First, it screams entitlement. "I paid my $7 I should get to eat all day if I want."

Really?

I don't agree with that. I think if the roles were reversed the $7 a day diner wouldn't think it was right that someone was taking advantage of his/her services and being belligerent about it when confronted with the issue.

IMO, its a moral issue more than a legal one.
Reply #7 from JoeUser Forums Top
Tova,

Nobody is claiming these guys stayed over all day. They simply ate too much of the "good stuff".

If you can't afford to run an all you can eat buffet, you shouldn't advertise it as such. Limit the numbers of trips, or separate the buffets and charge a premium for the buffet with the "good stuff". But unless you have a STATED policy that you will charge extra for consuming certain items, you shouldn't jack the price up because someone ate the food you didn't want them to.
Reply #8 from JoeUser Forums Top
I think this was discrimination. There are some small people who can also put away a lot of food. Some people will eat more, some people will eat less. That's the cost of doing business. If you don't want to operate that way, then you should just have people order from a menu instead of having a buffet.
Reply #9 from JoeUser Forums Top

I think Gideon and Loca have hit it on the head here.  This all smacks of discrimination against customers that are 'too fat' and eat too much of the expensive foods on the buffet.

As I mentioned in the original materials, and Gideon notes in his replies, if there's a notice that consuming the expensive foods will incur a higher charge than most people would have no issue with that.  On the other hand, making a chosen few pay more than others do for the same food is stupid and discriminatory.  It's not like these places offer discounts to the people that come in and eat just a tiny plate of food.  Buffets work by averaging the food costs among all of the customers with people that eat less paying more of their shares into profits while people that eat more counter that by eating more food.

I expect that the proprietor here may have had reasonable intentions (not wanting to lose her shirt on offering a buffet that most people would not mind paying for) but how she and/or her employees dealt with the customers here was just plain bad and discriminatory.

Reply #10 from JoeUser Forums Top
I ain't that fat, I only weigh 277,"





I love buffets. Even when I was only 155, I could knock back 5 overflowing plates easy.
Reply #11 from JoeUser Forums Top

I love buffets. Even when I was only 155, I could knock back 5 overflowing plates easy.

hehehe, I do plenty of damage to buffets myself, though I don't go nuts and I most certainly don't waste food.  I get what I want to eat, eat what I took, and go back up for seconds if there's something I'd like more of.

I will say that I absolutely smack the bottom line at a place like CiCi's pizza buffet.  Used to be a bargain for me, but they've raised the prices for their beverages, and they come closer to breaking even I guess.  Still, I do my best to enjoy myself without being a total pig and normally I'd say I'm at least breakin' even eating there.  Much the same as another pizza buffet I like a lot (in my area).  Then again, I can either buy a medium or large pizza there and feed two people or hit the buffet and pay the same price for myself and my wife (who likes to eat too).  The amount of food we take is the same either way, and the price we pay is the same in both cases.