Volume 4

Check Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself

I am going to kick things off with a joke. Are you ready? The customer is always right. That’s it. That’s the joke. I have heard that saying since before I started working in the food and beverage industry. Even prior to my first restaurant job at Hotel Hershey I didn’t believe in that ethos. How could that make sense? It always just sounded like something an entitled person rattled off when they didn’t get their way. Turns out, many years later, I was one hundred percent correct. I’m not sure who coined that phrase or if establishments still use that to hold over the heads of their under-appreciated employees, but if you have worked longer than a month in any customer service industry you know it to be absolute bullshit. I’m sure a couple people reading this are clutching their pearls and gasping at the honesty, and if you are one of those people, I assure you that there are establishments where the servers/bartenders barter with one another to avoid taking your order.

I fully understand that the bartender and customer have a symbiotic relationship. Bartenders would not have jobs if people didn’t come in, it’s that simple. Bulls Head wouldn’t have won a multitude of awards, weathered the COVID storm, and continued to grow if it were not for our faithful locals who frequent the establishment. The problem is, and I think this goes for most industries, people think you owe them something more. Customers come in with an attitude that what you have is not enough for them and you need to do more to satisfy their childish wants. The irony of these moments is tied in with the thing I love most about the restaurant industry and that is that we are one of the more welcoming industries to work in. I have worked with convicts, addicts, multiple members of the LGBTQ+ community, and every other marginalized group you could think of. As long as you come in and do your job, no one is judging you for “your story.” That generally transfers over to how we feel about consumers, as well. That being said, respect is earned, not given. If you think that because you frequent a store or a restaurant that you are entitled to more, well, now you’re on the shitlist.

Entitlement is rampant in our society, period. We have developed this expectation that we deserve more from others, even if we give nothing in return. It’s not limited to patrons that think because they took up a table for three hours (and spent ten dollars) that they shouldn’t have to stand in line for their next drink. Entitlement is at all levels. I hear horror stories from beer and spirits reps about buyers getting angry that they don’t qualify for certain allocated products because they don’t support the brand. Why do you think you deserve a specialty product for doing less than another account? Even as recently as this week I was told about accounts getting sassy with beer wholesalers because their trucks wouldn’t be delivering on Monday. Who the hell do you think you are that your two keg order is worth someone driving a large truck on ice/snow covered roads?

Do you remember those nights in your mid-twenties when you had four too many drinks at some random person’s house, and you find yourself standing in the bathroom, fingers gripping the side of the sink, a fluorescent bulb sputtering above you while you stare into a toothpaste spattered mirror wondering what the hell you’re doing with your life? I think more people need to do that when they’re sober. Take a good hard look in the mirror and do some self-reflection. Maybe yelling at the 17 year old cashier at Kohl’s over expired coupons was a deeper seated issue within yourself? Maybe you’re just not a great person?? Maybe the bartender you called an idiot because he wouldn’t go back to the kitchen and fry a single rock shrimp for you “to try” isn’t an idiot at all, maybe you just want to get your own way as some weird power flex. One of my favorite demographics of entitlement are the people who think that your establishment should offer what they want at that moment, regardless of the style of restaurant/bar. Case in point, you go to a local brewery who has an exceptional food menu but they don’t have a burger, and you want a burger, so you complain to management like a man-child who didn’t win a Nobel Peace Prize. It doesn’t matter if there is a Red Robin and a Wendy’s up the street, you want a burger here and now.

I don’t want this post to come off as some middle finger to customers. It should come as a more of a wake-up call to the “want” vs “need” crowd. I can’t tell someone how to live their lives and Lord knows I don’t take kindly to someone telling me how to live mine. I will however tell you that if you want to be welcomed with open arms by your peers, your local haunts, or really any social circle, approaching people in a more humanist manner will get you a lot further than being whiny with false expectations. If you are past the age of forty and the idea of giving yourself life lectures in a stranger’s bathroom mirror after too many is way out of consideration, whether your vice be something you can pour or roll up, I advise you to do so, go outside (when it’s a shade warmer), put on some John Prine or Willie Nelson, and do some soul searching. Your friends, your co-workers, and all service workers will appreciate it.