Stocking Up On Ketchup

[Cara_Serrano]

Does anyone else see the bigger problem of being wasteful with food, whether the item is free or not?

I don’t think it’s the cost of something that determines if it’s a sin to waste it. Good stewardship should be the responsibility of all Christians, even those who eat at McDonald’s.

 

[jmcrae]

Wow, one napkin never cut it for me.

In our case, they weren’t those sissy little dispenser napkins - they were fairly large, and nicely absorbent.

 

[CB_Catholic]

Oh boy try telling my parents it’s stealing.I go to their house and they have little ketchup packets, mustard packets, little creamer containers & jelly packets in their fridge, salt & pepper packets in a kitchen drawer and Burger King napkins in their napkin holder.

My mom gets a senior coffee cup at Burger King, fills it with diet coke at the self serve area, drinks it with her meal and then goes back and fills it with coffee afterward. Trust me I’ve tried explaining it’s wrong she looks at me like I’m nuts.

There’s a popular gourmet burger place my mom loves. They have a self serve bar with all kinds of toppings you can put on your burger, she tops her burger and then makes a salad with the toppings and uses the vinegar they have for the fries as dressing.

And no my parents are not poor or even close to it. They have always been this way and it is quite embarressing I have to say.

We had a problem with my Grandmother, who had Alzheimer’s. While she was still able, we would take her out to eat, and then have to inspect her purse for what she was trying to pilfer from the table. She was very clever at it, and we had to watch her like a hawk. You wouldn’t believe what we would find in that purse.

 

[Charybdis]

Let’s take a different look at it: imagine that you are the manager of this fast food place. Someone comes in and empties the ketchup bin that had a bunch of packets. Let’s not stop there, they take all of the mayo packets and the mustard packets as well.

When you come out and see that all of it was gone and taken by one person, how would you feel? That is costing you and the restaurant money by having to refill all those bins with condiments.

I’ll tell you what I would do in a heartbeat, pull all of those bins behind the counter and instruct my workers to give them out upon request.

Intent is the key thing here. If you go in to the restaurant with the specific intent to take a whole bunch of condiment packets, then that is wrong. Yes, they are free, but the presumption is that you are only going to take what you need while you are eating there…

 

[jmcrae]

Let’s take a different look at it: imagine that you are the manager of this fast food place. Someone comes in and empties the ketchup bin that had a bunch of packets. Let’s not stop there, they take all of the mayo packets and the mustard packets as well.

When you come out and see that all of it was gone and taken by one person, how would you feel? That is costing you and the restaurant money by having to refill all those bins with condiments.

I’ll tell you what I would do in a heartbeat, pull all of those bins behind the counter and instruct my workers to give them out upon request.

Intent is the key thing here. If you go in to the restaurant with the specific intent to take a whole bunch of condiment packets, then that is wrong. Yes, they are free, but the presumption is that you are only going to take what you need while you are eating there…

A lot of places around here have set it up so that you dispense your own condiments out of a dispenser into a little paper cup. I bet this, too, cuts down on costs - I don’t know many people who would be willing to try to stash open paper cups of condiments in their purses or pockets.

 

[ruslan]

Is it wrong for people who take lots of ketchup packets from fast food restaurants then take them home and fill up their ketchup bottles to save money?

Same goes for people who stock up on toilet paper and paper towels and public bathrooms to take home

After all, the ketchup and stuff is given away free, right, so its not stealing, right?

What you could you do is bring a 30 gallon garbage sack with you to the fast food place and have the employees fill it up with ketchup, toilet paper and paper towels while you’re eating and then you could just take it home with you. I am sure they wouldn’t mind. :banghead:

 

[ruslan]

What you could you do is bring a 30 gallon garbage sack with you to the fast food place and have the employees fill it up with ketchup, toilet paper and paper towels while you’re eating and then you could just take it home with you. I am sure they wouldn’t mind. :banghead:

Let me tidy this up a bit…

What you could do is bring a 30 gallon garbage sack with you to the fast food place and have the employees fill it up with ketchup, toilet paper and paper towels while you’re eating and then you could just take it home with you. I am sure they wouldn’t mind. :banghead:

 

[Neil_Anthony]

What you could you do is bring a 30 gallon garbage sack with you to the fast food place and have the employees fill it up with ketchup, toilet paper and paper towels while you’re eating and then you could just take it home with you. I am sure they wouldn’t mind. :banghead:

that’s funny!

 

[Joe_5859]

Is it wrong for people who take lots of ketchup packets from fast food restaurants then take them home and fill up their ketchup bottles to save money?

Same goes for people who stock up on toilet paper and paper towels and public bathrooms to take home

After all, the ketchup and stuff is given away free, right, so its not stealing, right?

I have to hand it to you, Neil. You have a knack for taking the most mundane, every-day scenarios, and turning them into vexing moral dillemas!

I must admit, though, I’ve never heard of people stocking up on toilet paper from public restrooms! Who would want to use that toilet paper? I’ve always viewed it as somewhat penitential in nature. Soft it is not!

If you feel bad about that, go through the drive through. At McDonalds when you go through the drive trough they give you like 20 ketchups and a bunch of napkins. And it wouldn’t be stealing because they give it to you. Right? please tell me if I am wrong in saying this.

This is not stealing, because they gave it to you. What it is,is a waste of the restaurant’s resources and the fault is management’s for not training their personnel to be reasonable in their distribution of the items. Nobody needs 10 packets of ketchup for a single order of fries. These kids at the drive-through just grab the stuff by the handfuls and throw it in the bag. Same with the sauces when you get take-out Chinese food. We have baskets full of these condiments at work, and somebody eventually just throws them out and we start all over again. What a waste!

The way I look it at, the times they hand out far more condiments and sauces than is necessary balances out with the times they forget to include them at all!

 

[Holly3278]

If a person mistakenly takes more than they need, it would be OK, since as far as I know once it’s delivered to the table, it can’t be re-used even if it’s not been opened. Scooping handfuls into a purse from the bin at McDonalds, methinks, is stealing.

I agree with this. One should not take more than they need. Of course it is still possible to mistakenly take too much and in that case, it’s ok to keep what you didn’t use because it can’t be used by the restaurant once it’s been touched but to intentionally take too much is stealing.

 

[TobyLue]

I remember many years ago when my oldest bro joined the military, during chow he said that the instructors would tell the recruits when they got in line “take all you want, just make sure that you eat all you take”. I would use that line with my boy scouts whenever we would go camping. They would all serve themselves small portions, and if they wanted some more they would come back for seconds. Something similar should apply to these fast food restaurants. Take all the condiments you want, just make sure you use all of them at your table. Take two or three packets of ketchup, and if you find you need some more, get up and go grab one more or two if you are sure you will use those. It may seem insignificant to some to take a couple extra for use at home, but think about it. How many millions of those packets are taken from the fast food restaurants. They have to be replaced and cost $$. Guess who they pass that expense to? Once you leave the restaurant you should not take any extras for your kitchen. Thats stealing… How would you like it when people come to visit you and use your bathroom. They see the toliet tissue and decided to take the whole roll home with them. Or if they are sitting at table, use your salt and decided to empty the salt & or pepper into a plastic baggie to take home?
Use what you need, leave the rest for others.

 

[esieffe]

Oh boy try telling my parents it’s stealing.I go to their house and they have little ketchup packets, mustard packets, little creamer containers & jelly packets in their fridge, salt & pepper packets in a kitchen drawer and Burger King napkins in their napkin holder.

My mom gets a senior coffee cup at Burger King, fills it with diet coke at the self serve area, drinks it with her meal and then goes back and fills it with coffee afterward. Trust me I’ve tried explaining it’s wrong she looks at me like I’m nuts.

There’s a popular gourmet burger place my mom loves. They have a self serve bar with all kinds of toppings you can put on your burger, she tops her burger and then makes a salad with the toppings and uses the vinegar they have for the fries as dressing.

And no my parents are not poor or even close to it. They have always been this way and it is quite embarressing I have to say.

I have a friend whose apartment used to come with gas included with rent, due to the age of the building and no way to tell who is using how much natural gas. During the winter, he would turn down the heat, open the oven door and turn it on. He did not feel this was stealing as it came with the rent, however no one from the complex ever told him this was ok of course.

 

[FrankLJ]

I agree with this. One should not take more than they need. Of course it is still possible to mistakenly take too much and in that case, it’s ok to keep what you didn’t use because it can’t be used by the restaurant once it’s been touched but to intentionally take too much is stealing.

You explain it very well. To take what’s not yours is stealing. To accept what is given you is not stealing. To take what is given you under conditions ( in this case, that you will only take what you need to use a purchased item) you are stealing if you evade the conditions. If you abide by the conditions, you are not. And in any case, if you ask, and are just given, then there are no conditions, and so, no stealing. I think I can grasp this.

 

[m134e5]

Is it wrong for people who take lots of ketchup packets from fast food restaurants then take them home and fill up their ketchup bottles to save money?

Same goes for people who stock up on toilet paper and paper towels and public bathrooms to take home

After all, the ketchup and stuff is given away free, right, so its not stealing, right?

I’m not sure it makes a person immoral…but it does make them cheap! If you’re like me and use ketchup or other condiments that come in packets at restaurants very infrequently, it’s OK to grab a handful- once (If I bought a bottle of ketchup, it would last 20 years).

 

[pensmama87]

I doubt they would give it to you. In my fast-food days, we were told to give out a maximum of three ketchups per food item, and one napkin for each food/drink item ordered. (So, if they ordered a burger, fries, and a drink, you could give them up to three napkins, and up to six ketchups. If they had little kids with them, you could give more than that, but ordinarily, that was the rule.)

This is similar to what I was trained to do, though some managers were way stingier than others.

(As an aside, if you’re nice to the drive-thru people, you might get extra sauces. I tended to stick to the company line hard when people were rude…which was often…but if someone asked nicely, sure, I’d throw two extra packets in there. Manners go a long way! )

I tend to keep any extras that I get to pack in lunches, etc. But I only take enough that I can expect to need, and with kids in tow I’m not getting up every time I need another packet. So sometimes there’s 1-2 leftover. It wouldn’t be right to put them back, and leaving them on the table means they get thrown out (same goes for napkins.) I figure I might as well use them.