An IHOP restaurant in Maine got their whole staff together after a waitress asked a group of black teens to prepay for a meal.
According to KTLA, the eatery in Auburn closed its doors Thursday for employee training to educate employees on the proper way to deal with customers. The waiterss was also disciplined, according to IHOP spokeswoman Stephanie Peterson.
This all started over the weekend after a waitress at the restaurant asked a group of black teenagers to pay for their meal beforehand.
Someone in the restaurant saw the chaos going down and wrote about it on Facebook.
“I heard them order their food, and they were respectful and were not loud or rude etc. We paid and sat there for a few minutes and I heard an employee tell the table that they were going to need to pay upfront and that it was ‘a new generation thing,’ Avery Gagne, who is white, wrote in his post, which was shared thousands of times. “I called over the group and asked them if they were seriously being asked to pay upfront and they said yes. So my father, mother and I stood up and began to question why this was happening.”
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Avery said that he felt like the teens were being targeted because of their race because the waitress brought it up when trying to explain the situation.
“The woman took it upon herself to make this group of teens pay for their meal upfront because she considered them ‘high risk.’ I don’t care who has walked out on your establishment. That does not give you the right to determine who you believe is going to or not,” Gagne wrote. “My parents and I did not pay upfront for our meal, none of the tables around us prepaid for their meals. The fact that she stated ‘it’s not because of their color’ proves it all.”
The restaurant’s manager issued an apology for her employees actions.
“Everyone has been made aware of these inexcusable actions and reminded how we handle matters correctly in the future,” read the post on IHOP Auburn ME’sFacebook page. “We have rectified the situation and can guarantee this is not what we condone to go on within our restaurant.”
What’s interesting about this is that the manger told the Sun Journal newspaper, that the waitress’ actions weren’t racially motivated! He said the restauarant had been having issues with teens just walking out without paying.
