Woman buys meals for 20 homeless people at Taco Bell, employees then make them leave

[Tanuki]

https://www.actionnewsjax.com/news/trending-now/woman-buys-20-homeless-people-taco-bell-meals-employees-then-tell-them-to-leave-restaurant/986288007

"Shannon Gridley was driving Tuesday when she saw three people beneath an overpass. She stopped and asked if they were hungry, WHAS reported. 
She ended up inviting about 20 people to get dinner for at a Taco Bell.

The group walked in around 7:30 p.m. and ordered. Gridley said they were told they could not use the bathroom. Five people in the group who had gotten their food were told they could not sit and eat it. 

Gridley asked to talk to a manager but no one showed. Rather, they were told to leave the restaurant even as some of the people in the group were still ordering. 

"It is dehumanizing. They wouldn’t even let them in the bathroom to wash their hands before they eat,” Gridley told WHAS. "It was purely because they're homeless that they were being discriminated against.”

The restaurant staff is expected to undergo re-training, officials said.

“Taco Bell is committed to creating a space that’s welcoming and safe for all people, while maintaining an environment free of discrimination or harassment,” Taco Bell officials told WHAS. “The franchise organization that owns and operates this location is looking into the matter and will be proactively retraining its team members on its policies. Knowing that homelessness is an unfortunate issue in this area especially, the franchisee looks forward to connecting with local organizations to see how they can help and work better together in the future.”

[Me.]

1. I Wonder HOw True That Statement REally Is

The owners of Taco Bell are supporting the re-election of the traitor in the WH

https://www.bet.com/style/living/2019/08/22/companies-that-support-donald-trump-2020-re-election.html

[elleng]

2. If they don't do the right thing, they'll feel it (imo,)

and be sorry.

[DarthDem]

3. Despicable

But not lost in the store's cowardly actions is the wonderful kindness of this woman. Bless her.

[Skittles]

5. very nice indeed

[Joe941]

4. I might upset some but I understand why they were asked to leave...

If you are running a business you have to enforce some standards (kinda like no shoes no shirt no service) or people will not want to come to your establishment. I think what the woman did was very nice.

[Sapient Donkey]

11. I don't really understand it. I mean, assuming they were all getting meals and eating

they were paying customers even if they were not the ones paying. Now, unless they were behaving in a way that was unacceptable, then they shouldn't have kicked them even if they technically have every right to. Not only is it heartless, but it's also just bad PR and bad for business. Exactly why the employee that did this thought it was a good idea is beyond me. I am willing to bet Taco Bell comes out and apologizes for this and the manager or other staff who was in charge will be fired.

So unless they can demonstrate that they stayed beyond a reasonable amount of time, or that they were causing real issues (not imagined or perceived issues) then whoever made this decision made a bad choice that will likely not turn our well for them. I'm willing to hold off judgement either way until more information comes out. We'll see.

**Looks like Taco Bell did come out against it. I wonder if the person who made that decision still has a job. I know if I owned that store I wouldn't want someone with that lack of common sense working for me. Although, unless the manager is a total asshole who pushed that culture down on the employee. Then the blame obviously goes to the higher up.

[eShirl]

15. Then the manager should have had the guts to come out and tell the customers him/herself.

Instead of hiding like a Trumpster PAB.

[DFW]

6. I have never been to a Taco Bell, but I heard from someone who had a nasty experience there

He went in to one of those places for a snack. His bill came to $1.59, and he had a $2 bill and a $50 bill on him. Not wanting to break the $50, he paid with the $2 bill. The young employee (I don't know if American-born or not) wasn't familiar with a $2 bill and went to ask the manager. The manager was a younger American guy and came out and said, look, we don't want any trouble, pay with real money or he's going to have to call the police. The customer said that is real money, what's the problem? So the manager called the police and a cop came in. The manager said ths customer was trying to pay with a $2 bill. The cop looked at it and scrutinized it, and finally said it looked good to him. The manager then said, "but there is no such thing as a $2 bill!" The cop just looked at him, laughed, and said, "of course there is such a thing as a $2 bill!" (i.e. how can you run a retail establishment and not know that?).

Embarrassed as hell, the manager DID apologize and told the guy his $1.59 order was on the house. But how can Taco Bell even LET a guy become a manager of a place like that and not even know something as basic as circulating U.S. currency? If he had tried to pay with a $6 bill, I could understand, but the USA has been printing $2 bills for over a century and half. It's not like it was a revolutionary new piece of legal tender.

[IronLionZion]

7. DC DMV refused to believe New Mexico was a state and denied someone a license

It was newsworthy when that happened. The worker was an immigrant from an African country who spoke English as a third or fourth language.

And workers in many states refuse to believe that a DC drivers license could possibly exist. DC is a mythical place that we only hear about in the news every day but doesn't really exist.

[DFW]

13. Wasn't that a big headline a few years ago?

I seem to remember having read about that.

Of course, when I see the TV clips from the States with someone walking a beach in California on July 4 asking people if they know what July 4th is celebrating, and maybe one out of five people knew the answer, I guess that is not surprising.

[Joe941]

16. Haha. Funny story.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

8. Recently I have taken up buying

ten dollar gift cards for McDonald's and handing them out to people asking for food or money. Yeah, I know that McDonald's isn't the best possible food out there, but those begging in the streets need an immediate solution. A $10 card there will get them a meal. And the up side is that there are lots of McDonald's locations, so the person never needs to go very far to get something to eat.

As for the $2.00 bill.

Many years ago I persuade my manager to buy $2.00 bills for me to have in my cash drawer. In the several months I did this (it was not long before I left that particular job) I only had two people refuse the two dollar bill. Everyone else was a bit bemused, but took it.

This was in 1979, for what it's worth.

I love the two dollar bill. I'd first come across them on a trip to Australia, and thought they made a lot of sense.

Maybe I should go to my local bank and get a bunch of them and see what happens when I try to spend them in 2019.

[eggplant]

9. Anyone buying quick-serve gift cards to give out...

...be sure to check out https://www.cardcash.com/buy-gift-cards/discounted-restaurant-cards/

as well as for other types of cards. Sometimes they have crazy deals on gift cards. For small amounts it isn't worth the hassle (to me), but if you were going to buy ten or twenty $10 cards, the savings would add up.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

10. Thank you for that. I will look into it.

I've been going to a local McD's and just purchasing the cards. I should look into getting some kind of a discount.

I have also done volunteer work at my local homeless shelter. It is shocking to me just how hungry the homeless are. It's hard for those of us who have a home to understand just how draining it is to live on the street.

I've been fairly poor at various times in my life, and have gone a bit hungry on occasion, but I've never been homeless. Not even very close.

[JI7]

12. i come across the homeless a lot when driving. i don't really go out of my way to give anything

but if i'm stopped because of a red light or waiting for something and they come near my car asking for something i often give the food i take with me when i'm working. it's usually just a simple sandwhich , crackers fruit etc . just something to have while i'm at work. and they have always taken it. i think it's something crappy and they wouldn't be interested but they eagerly take it. i guess when you are hungry...........

also there is an assumption about how homeless people all look but if you saw many of these people just walking down the street you would never think they were homeless.

[DFW]

14. And it's not just the homeless

My wife was a social worker here in Germany for decades. She worked in what officially a "workshop" that accepted long-term unemployed people and tried to retrain them to get skills so they could get back into the workforce.

Sometimes, when she had the time, she would bake pastries, or buy an extra kilo or two of raw vegetables or fruit to take in. She said her charges would storm the plates and anything edible would be gone within minutes. They just couldn't afford enough to eat. Most were nicotine addicts, and cigarettes are expensive here. Their welfare money simply ran out towards the end of the month.

Many of them were fortunately on a specific welfare program where their rent was paid directly to their landlords by the government. Some of those who weren't spent their rent money on cigarettes and entertainment, and got kicked out of their apartments for not paying their rents, ending up in homeless shelters.

[pecosbob]

17. I'm the poor slob that has to clean up after them

I can vividly imagine what the restrooms would look like after they had all visited...I don't give anyone a hard time that doesn't have one coming but I have to enforce standards or pretty soon they're taking baths in my deep sink again.