If this is a fast-food trend, it’s one that deserves stern disapproval from both a human and a business perspective. A few weeks ago, an Arby’s employee reportedly refused to serve police officers food. Now after a Whataburger employee reportedly told two cops that the restaurant wouldn’t serve them, the company has apologized and says that the employee who refused the cops has been fired.
Now, discriminating against a category of paying customers is bad enough. Discriminating against your local law enforcement officers is even worse. From a business point of view, though, why would a 24-hour fast-food restaurant with a drive-thru window ever want to turn away business from cops, who work late shifts in their vehicles?
The cops, who were off the government clock but working private security while wearing their uniforms, say that the employee didn’t elaborate, or even say, “Ha ha! Just kidding.” They told a local Fox affiliate (warning: auto-play video) that he didn’t say anything else at all, so they simply left and went to Dairy Queen.
This all went down late last night, and Whataburger corporate issued an apology around lunchtime today. They posted it to their Facebook page for all fans to see:
We were appalled to hear of an employee refusing service to two officers, as we have proudly served first responders across our system for decades. As soon as we heard of this isolated incident, we began our own internal investigation overnight. The employee that refused service is no longer employed with Whataburger. We’ve also invited the officers back today so we can apologize in person and make this right.
Even before the company issued an official apology, the officers told FOX 4 that they weren’t going to stop eating at Whataburger, and that they figured the problem was with one employee.
Lewisville Whataburger employee fired for not serving officers [FOX 4] (Warning: auto-play video at that link)
by Laura Northrup via Consumerist