Incident at Wendy's Left Me Speechless!

Sounds like even your husband brushed it off. You probably should too.

I've worked in several food places over the years and I can guarantee
you that servers have sampled the food in EVERY SINGLE place you have
ever gone to eat. Seriously, be glad if this is all they do. Without
condoning bad behavior in any way, I've seen things done in restaurant
kitchens that would make your skin crawl.

And, trust me, this is not the worse thing that can happen. I have
news for you -servers, cooks, busboys, bartenders graze all the time -
everywhere.

It's not as if she dropped the food on the floor and still served it.
Its not as if she bit the fries and then put them back. Its not as if
she spit in the food. She took two fries from the box and ate them. I
really fail to see the disgust in that.

And I can tell you - the places I worked at frowned upon grazing - but
it was never enforced. You know how many people in the food industry
smoke pot. Hella-munchies kick in during your shift and you eat!
Period.

Trust me - if you are disgusted by this - you should never, EVER, eat
out. I can tell you stories of things I saw with my own eyes that will
make you never eat out again.

I stopped eating at Wendy's when Dave Thomas died. The burgers started
tasting a little funny around then and Dave's body went missing.

"If this is how you train your employees to act..."

I doubt that they actually train their employees to eat customer's
food...

And, if you ever eat at a nice, 4-star restaurant, you better believe
they will taste your food before it is sent to you. It's standard
procedure for the chef to taste everything he/she sends out for
quality control purposes.

Overreact much?

I stopped eating at Wendy's after I saw a rat at their drive-thru
window. I even contacted Corporate and they said they were aware of
the issue and trying to resolve it. No apology, nothing. Very
disgusting.

because I have and I assure you this in not the most disgusting thing
that could happen.

I use to work at a mexican resturant and we would serve free chips and
salsa, so guess what we were snackin on alllll day long? Yup, you
guessed it. The chips, right outta the box and we also dipped them in
the salsa pitcher that we used to fill up costumers salsa dishes ( not
double dipping ) But I'm sure you would find that disgusting. Our
bartender would be garnishing drinks and drop the fruit on the nasty
floor or counter and still use it to garnish the drink.

I think people in the food industry just dont care anymore because its
kinda just getting back at all those really rude people who yell at
you for no reason.

Just remember this....whenever you go out to eat, be really, really,
really nice to your server.If you have an issue take it up with the
manager otherwise you may not even know what you are eating...

Um, I think you forgot to write what you were appalled at.

;-)

IF you think a manager has time to watch this stuff you lost your
mind. The manager is stuck over at carry out if there is only one on
usually coordinating. Even if there are more then one then they are
getting change helping with slowpoints etc. The only way anything is
going to get done is if you ask to see one and probably even then not
much cause it happens fifty times a day

AGES ago & I never saw anyone eat fries from a customer's order. I'm
certain we would have been fired on the spot if our manager had seen
us do that.

But there was tons of snackin' going on in the walk-in refrigerator
where all the salad bar fixin's were kept. I must admit, I noshed on
black olives & bacon bits with the rest of'em. We didn't get comp
meals, just a very small discount off the menu so it was hard to make
no money, be hungry, be surrounded by food & not give in to temptation
here & there. Lame excuse but, hey, we were teens.

I think partaking of a customer's order is definitely crossing the
line, though. Tacky.

Haha, are you serious? I worked for Hardee's years ago and I watched
one of the cooks drop a fried chicken patty on the floor. The customer
was waiting at the drive through and we were otherwise dead. He
dropped it back into the fryer for 10 seconds and then into the
waiting bun ready to be wrapped. It icked me out, but this, this is
extremely minor.

Dont every get at Hell's Kitchen, Chef Ramsey makes his cooks taste
everything before it goes out to make sure its up to par.

Just think how dirty her hands were from handling all the money then
popping a few fries in her mouth.Now thats appaling.

So between the exclamation point in the title of your letter, and the
huge build up in the introduction.....that was it? Does not appear ot
take much to to render you speechless.

Even if this was the event of the century, what can they do about it
when you haven't provided at which location this occured?

You sounded so fired up, I thought you were going to tell us you saw
her pick her nose or spit on food or lick the utensil. Eating a couple
fries? It's called quality control and it happens everywhere.

Look at it this way, many fast food employees can't stand the food,
because they have worked around it so long. Or maybe they have seen
how it is prepared, or what really goes on back there.

If she was munchin' on the fries, then you know they were quality!!

This wouldn't bother me much if I saw it occur....certainly not enough
to write to Wendy's about it.

Look at it this way - these people are touching your food already. If
they ate two fries out of your fry carton - via picking them up and
eating them - how is that different from them touching your bun to put
the top of it on the burger and condiments?

Also....many people share food with others at eateries. How many times
has a friend you're eating with grabbed some of your fries and ate a
few? Is this much different from the employee eating two of your
fries?

I'd say, if anything, the employee's hands are probably cleaner than
your friend's. I see lots of people eating at places without washing
their hands first.

Ken L.,

While it doesn't look kosher how else is she to determine if they are
salted correctly?

BillR.

at least she didn't spit on the fries.

You're condemning an entire chain and all it's employees over a
relatively minor issue with one employee? Way to blow things out of
proportion!

Ok, I can understand how you might be annoyed with this. I would be
too. However, holding an entire organization responsible for the
actions of one employee is ridiculous. Short of reviewing, yet again,
the rules of the organization with the employees, Wendy's really can't
do anything to ensure this doesn't happen again. Refuse to eat at
Wendy's if you think this will make you feel better. But, as you've
stated yourself, other people in other restaurants do this too.

It mostly is stealing, either from the company or from the customer.


It isn't unsanitary unless the employee stuck her fingers in her
mouth; usually people stealing french fries don't do it casually
enough to have time for that.

This is a tad bit rude. I don't find it disgusting or appalling - my
guess is that is goes on quite a bit in fast food places. I worked in
a highly rated hotel kitchen, and things such as this were rare but a
little sampling even occurred there.

This isn't how Wendy's trains their employees to act, and I'm sure it
goes on in a lot of places. I like your husband's response.

Of all the things fast food workers are reported to do with their
customer's food, eating a little bit of it seems to be one of the
better acts.

As long as she didn't lick her fingers, then I really don't see too
much of a problem with this - only that she shouldn't have done it in
front of customers.

I've worked in the food industry for 7 years. There's no getting
around it - the workers steal food. Too many times to count I have
popped a cookie, taste of ice cream, hunk of bread or bagel into my
mouth while I was working. But I always took care to only touch what I
was eating, I didn't lick my fingers, and I didn't eat in front of
customers unless I was on my break.

It was only two fries. Not a handful. I don't see how that's cheating
the customer. Unless you're ridiculously OCD and count each fry in
your box?

Calm down and realize that food industry workers gotta eat too and
sometimes that means sneaking a fry.

make different rules too. (1979 here) I remember hating that burger
after a while. I like the filet o fish. I swear it was a lot bigger
back then too. I hardly eat it now, now that I know the lack of
nutritional value, lack of satiety and loads of fat for it!

Yes, if, while eating the fries her fingers came in contact with her
mouth then you have a point about it being unsanitary. Anyway, one
thing I learned a while back is that if you catch someone doing
something then much much more than likely it's neither the first time
they did it nor is it just an occasional thing -- they do it all the
time.

You know... I honestly don't think it's that huge a deal. Eating part
of the customer's order? It's not like they weren't getting a full
order of fries. Maybe she overfilled the container... otherwise I
don't see why she wouldn't have just grabbed some out of the fryer to
eat herself. Unsanitary? I can promise you her hands come into contact
with the food even when she's not eating it. Rude? Well, perhaps. But
she apparently didn't think anyone saw her, so she wasn't intending to
do it right in front of you when she was fixing to put together your
order.

Your husband had a sense of humor about it. Honestly, if I'd seen it,
I think my reaction would have been more like his. I do give you props
for not demanding freebies for this, though.