Tim Hortons bans complaining customer for life

That's a season's total and a meal's total for Oliver Miller, in that order.

The Cracker Barrel credo is that if you can open the door, you can get served, eat an hour-long meal and dick around in the general store and it's all good. Pissed me off on nights when I had to close, but it's good policy.

 

Screw that. People who work in restaurants have lives too. They schedule that life around getting off that job at a certain time, and a customer who demands to be served at 8:59 is adding at least 30 minutes to that, maybe an hour.

 

If the place says it's open until 9 p.m., it's open until 9 p.m. If they have a sign that says the kitchen closes at 8 p.m., that's one thing. Otherwise, why the hell would you assume that "open" isn't really "open"? And what would you do at a restaurant that won't serve you? Pee and buy a couple of Peppermint Patties?

 

Dunno. But you have to cut if off somewhere, and most restaurants consider it a security hazard to have customers in the store after the official closing time.

 

If the sign says it's open until 9, why would you assume you can eat until 9:45?

If the grocery store closes at 9, you don't get to shop until 9:45. Why should it be any different at a restaurant?

And I did exactly that when I worked in retail; had people who wanted to come in a minute or two before closing time, and I told them no. They weren't gonna be done shopping by closing time, and I had better things to do than hang around an extra 15 minutes waiting to close.

People who work in the service industry aren't your bitches. They're, you know, people. Your precious time isn't any more important than theirs.

 

He was sent a "No trespassing letter" so presumably he can be charged if he shows up for burnt decaf

 

So if I go to a restaurant that closes at 9 and get there at 8:30, I should assume that it's off limits? Then why the hell are the doors open?

It doesn't have anything to do with making them my bitches. It has to do with the concept of living up to your store hours. If they make it clear that they stop serving at 8, then that's that. But I'll be damned if I'm going to be made to feel like an insensitive asshole because I want service when the place is open for business, just because I missed an arbitrary and unpublicized deadline.

 

Are you going to complain if they throw you out the door at exactly 9 p.m., whether you are done or not?

 

No, but considering I've never been to a restaurant that chases everyone at closing time, it doesn't really come up that much. Probably what happens when you go places where customers are treated like something a shade above necessary evils.

 

In my experience, it's the ones with the lazy employees who will let you stay. Most restaurants I've worked at have a policy of kicking people out right at closing time (again, security reasons), but most employees won't follow through with it.

 

The only place I've been that does that is Starbucks, and my understanding is that it's not a hard and fast rule. They won't serve you, but they'll let you finish your food.

The only other food-related hard deadline I can think of is last call and bar close, when you have to have finished your drink. But that's a state alcohol law, not something a restaurant or a manager instituted on their own.

 

I understand that the owner sent him that.

What chance would he have of actually getting it enforced?