Best Free Stuff?

Sorry guys… I just had issue with it. My family owned a restaurant in a popular beach resort area here in Ontario. Campers would come in for meals and take condiments especially the peanut butter and jam packets. It didn't seem like much at first but it added up. Theft is theft and it can have an effect. How would you feel if every time someone came to your house they took a dollar or two out of your wallet?

When you take things it eventually effects all of us because business owners don't just absorb the cost – they put prices up.

And let me say this… running a restaurant is a tough gig. It takes a lot to even turn a profit, especially if you are a small Mom and Pop place.

http://www.trailcooking.com/node/642

Honey: Starbuck's (real honey), fried chicken places, other fast food such as fish shops – though some are flavored corn syrup.

Butter and its imitators: fried chicken and fish shops, other fast food, continental breakfasts, diners.

Ketchup & mustard: Your favorite fast food place, grocery store delis.

Salsa/picante sauce: Fast food that offers burritos and convenience stores, sometimes you can find 4-8 packs of tubs at grocery stores.

Ranch tubs: Fast food and Hidden Valley Dressing® in 4 packs at the grocery store.

Parmesan Cheese & Red Pepper Flakes: Costco and Sams Club food courts, any pizza joint.

Jam packets or tubs: Fast food, continental breakfasts at motels, diners.

Soy Sauce & sesame seeds: your favorite Chinese place or full service grocery store deli.

BBQ Sauce: fast food.

Salt and pepper packets: most places.

Mayonnaise and relish packets: Convenience stores that sell fried foods, deli's in grocery stores, truck stops, sandwich shops.

Arby's® is great for Horsey sauce, their BBQ sauce, etc.

Many McDonalds® and KFC® have moist towelettes in packets.

Papa John's®: will sell you tubs of cheese sauce, garlic sauce, marinara sauce for minimal cost.

Simple rule for ethical behavior. The packets and such at restaurants are there for you to have, not to take. Meaning if you are not going to use it there it is then stealing. Just like tyvek envelopes also. +1 on Minimus.

There's nothing like an ethics question to kick a thread into overdrive. How about this…

Whenever I get salsa/mayo/ketchup etc from McDonalds it's always behind the counter and I have to ask for it. If I was trying to make it look like I was asking for it for use with my current meal but then taking it home, I can see how this could be considered stealing.

However, I find that the people working at McD's really don't care so I don't make any attempt to pretend it's for my current meal. Last time I 'acquired' some salsa from McD's I went in there and ordered 2 pies and asked for some salsa. I don't think the person at the counter was under the impression that the salsa was for my apple pie, yet they happily gave it to me.

Obviously my food choice doesn't always contrast so radically with my condiment request, but I still never make an attempt to imply the condiments are for my current meal. If I ask the person for something and they give it to me, I don't see how that could be stealing.

While I purchase most of what I need/use from Minimus or Packitgourmet there are times I am pressed. If I am a PAYING customer of a place I have no qualms asking politely if I can have a couple extra of what I need. For example my favorite salsa is McDonalds and you cannot buy it.
The packets are incredibly cheap overall, pennies literally on most. Most companies will give a few cheerfully if you ask.
As for experience I can say this after having been a Barista for 9 years….is that those who ask are not the wasters.

Tongue in cheek photo I took last week while out hiking in the Smokies of our free lunch that Kirk and I split. Free=tasty.

McDonalds makes "salsa"? Huh.

Technically it is labeled picante sauce ;-). They carry it for their breakfast burritos. Though personally those burritos taste better when you put packets of strawberry preserves on them.

As far as the available "free stuff" in various food establishments is concerned maybe we should view it from the perspective of how we load our packs.

Take only what is proper and needed, use what you take and avoid "the weight";-) of unneeded extras.

+1 and more for Sarah.

>>Most companies will give a few cheerfully if you ask.<<

Ask and ye shall receive! :-)

Party On,

Newton

Ok, as the original poster… A few thoughts. I think we can extrapolate all we want about what a thousand people would do to ruin an industry…Common sense folks. Ask. Be honest. The joke of liberate / acquire etc… was tongue in cheek. Condiments are generally provided as complimentary and are so cheap that if one patronizes an establishment, pays $7.50 for a happy grease special… an extra packet is considered negligible. I have NEVER had someone working at one of these establishments say, "Thanks for your order… Now sir. Most Americans use only one oil packet on their sandwich… And I see you want two." Let's get real and lighten up. This was never intended to be a theft reporting page…. I think we sometimes take ourselves too seriously. But… HYOH. On with the good condiment ideas!

Laurie,
Call it whatever you want. You'll fail to make me feel bad about it. I bet the number of extras taken by backpacker's pails to the amount of unused extras thrown in the garbage. If you want to talk ethics, why don't we talk about how many heart attack related deaths fast food has assisted. If you want to feel better about it, next time you're at McDonalds think about all the morbidly obese kids they caused and righteously take that 3rd unneeded mustard packet. I don't consider myself a thief for taking an extra complementary condiment packet from a big fast food chain. Emptying out the whole condiment basket is just rude, but thievery I think not.

How many paper napkins is OK? When I'm at a cocktail party how many shrimp am I allowed? When I'm at the gas station how much air am I allowed to use from the free air compressor? Give me a break.

Call it pilfering or stealing… it is what it is. And, for the record, I wouldn't take my child to McDonald's or other such venue. So you are saying the pilfering is okay because McDonald's makes people obese… and that makes you feel righteous about taking something that you haven't paid for. Give me a break… free air and being at a cocktail party aren't even comparable and aren't forms of pilfering. Those condiments aren't free for the taking – they are there for people to use ON the meal they've purchased. Sugar coat it all you want and try to justify it but there is a question of ethics here. I bet you are one of the first to witch if prices go up. Why not just buy them from minimus.biz – oh wait, then you might have to pay for it.

McDonald's bad, but Froot Loops are OK?

Lord….

And for the record: McDonald's doesn't leave condiments out on the counter Laurie. It is BEHIND the counter and you must ask. If one is asking, it ain't stealing no matter how much you wish it was.

Here in the gool ol' USA, obesity causation aside…. Theft, is legally defined as "The illegal taking of another person's property without that person's freely-given consent."

Anything provided in a restaurant as condiments or packets etc which doesn't have an assigned purchase price and are freely provided to a customer without limit are not able to be stolen. Now, splitting hairs about what's morally ethical in terms of bankrupting businesses by ketchup packet larceny *(though unprosecutable) is seemingly a hot debate.

I think we can call this thread closed moderator and move on to less sinister topics…….. Like, how poor ketchup is weight to calorie ratio etc……. lol.

most McDonalds I have been in have the condiments sitting out by the napkins, spoons, etc. Who knows maybe it varies store to store

No direct personalities please. Let's keep it all fairly light-hearted.

Cheers
Roger Caffin
Online Community Monitor
Backpacking Light

>Those condiments aren't free for the taking – they are there for people to use ON the meal they've purchased.

I can certainly respect those who share this sentiment with Laurie.

I think as long as what you take is respectfully in the realm of what you could possibly use with a purchased meal (for example: a few mustard and ketchup packets with a purchase of hamburger and fries) then I don't see the huge problem. If I were to take 40 packets of each, some sugar, cream, and italian dressing for my hamburger, then yeah, that's a bit excessive.

Holy wow, I thought my political debate forum was hot.

Speaking of hot, Del Taco's "Inferno" sauce. I believe it's mainly a Cali chain though.

"If you want to feel better about it, next time you're at McDonalds think about all the morbidly obese kids they caused and righteously take that 3rd unneeded mustard packet."

More like think about all the morbidly obese kids their parents caused by bringing them there. Those morbidly obese kids probably sit at home in front of the TV with a bag of Doritos and a Big Gulp when they're not down at MacDonalds. Whose fault is that?

I'm curious as to how you define thievery. I used to think it meant taking something that isn't yours. Now, you've got me confused.

"And for the record: McDonald's doesn't leave condiments out on the counter Laurie. It is BEHIND the counter and you must ask."

I wonder how they came to end up behind the counter, instead of out front like they used to be?

"Holy wow, I thought my political debate forum was hot."

Stick around, Craig. This is just the annual Autumn Warmup for the winter "flaming season". It ranks up there with snowshoeing in popularity with BPLer's, both as a way of staying warm and as an antidote to cabin fever.

I know here at least in the NW the condiments are behind the counter for two big reasons – it controls mess and also speeds up things. The drive thru grabs from the same area that the counter clerk does.

Most fast food around here in store use refillable squeeze tubs for condiments instead of packets for the basics (ketchup, mustard, mayo).

You don't see the other condiments – bbq sauce, honey mustard, ranch, etc as they come in packets.

About the only places I see them on the counter is in C-stores with delis or in delis in grocery stores. That is more for ease for the place.

Say what you will – if you ask and they say yes, it isn't thievery nor is it stealing.

And for the record: Papa John's actually SELLS their condiments if you ask! It is an easy and cheap way to get cheese sauce in a tub.

"Say what you will – if you ask and they say yes, it isn't thievery nor is it stealing."

I don't go to McDonalds much anymore, but it was always kind of interesting when I would order an item, and there would be a 45-second wait. Then right as they started to hand it to me, they would ask if I wanted any particular packetized condiment for it. I would say, "sure." Then, instead of one packet, they would toss about four into the sack. Well, those extras would simply find their way into my food bag for the next backpack trip.

–B.G.–

On the whole the fast food industry is wreaking havoc on the environment. I can understand coming to the defense of a mom and pop restaurant, but a fast food chain? Lets draw a line between these two. Anyone who gives a crap about a fast food chain is too ignorant to argue with.

Shouldnt this thread be concerned with where condiments can be found for free, not ethics of it?

1) McDonald's has never made a single person obese.

2) "Anyone who gives a crap about a fast food chain is too ignorant to argue with". I care about fast food chains – there are a lot of good jobs there and the owner's of the corporations are millions of retirees, among others. Once again, I guess I'm just ignorant.

3) There is NO "free".

"Once again, I guess I'm just ignorant."

Whew! For a while there I thought I was the only one.