Apparently the home of the Whopper has a thing against pigs… or at least little piggies.
Just ask Jennifer Frederich.
The young mother recently made a pit stop at a Burger King restaurant in Missouri with her 6-month-old daughter, but shortly after she ordered her meal the manager of the Sunset Hills restaurant threatened to kick her out of the eatery because her baby wasn’t wearing shoes.
The manager noted that the fast-food restaurant has a strict “No Shoes, No Service” policy and demanded that Frederich find footwear for her child due to “health concerns.”
According to local news reports, Frederich told the manager that her daughter, Kaylin, was too young to even get her feet dirty; she couldn’t walk, couldn’t crawl, and her feet were “pretty much too small for shoes.”
Despite Frederich’s reasoning the Burger King manager persisted saying that the mother could place a take-out order, but couldn’t eat inside the restaurant unless the baby had shoes on. Frederich says the manager insisted that dining sans shoes would be in violation of the state health code. Never mind that her daughter was too young to even munch on a French fry.
“The guy was still saying, ‘that lady is still here with that baby without shoes’,” Frederich told local news reporters. “I just looked at him and I said, ‘that’s my daughter. She doesn’t own shoes. She’s only 6 months old’… she doesn’t walk. She’s not touching the ground. So there’s no reason for her to have shoes on.”
In an effort to placate the manager Frederich said she put socks on her baby and wolfed down her food in the restaurant while the manager threatened to call police.
Later that night Frederich wrote about her unfortunate dining experience on Facebook saying she felt obligated to spread the word about the restaurant’s policy.
“People had to know about this…if you’re going to go to Burger King get some shoes on your baby or go somewhere else,” she said. “I think they [Burger King managers] just need to understand, it’s a baby. They’re not going to be walking around in their dirty, nasty, feet. I feel like the policy was probably for grown adults who might walk in without shoes on. That’s understandable. But, baby’s don’t wear shoes.”
Needless to say, the responses she received were overwhelming. Not surprisingly big wigs from Burger King’s corporate office were among those who responded. According to reports, Burger King execs issued an apology to Frederich and invited her and her daughter back to the restaurant for “the royal treatment.”
If I were Frederich I would suggest blowing off Burger King in exchange for a more pig-friendly eatery.
What would you have done in Frederich’s case?
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