"Fat Girls" at Restaurant Understandably Outraged, Eatery Mortified

Way back when, I used to be a waiter. I'd have to keep track of receipts so I'd write something on them that described what the customer looked like, so I can get the right check to the right person.

I was smart enough to take pains to be as neutral as possible, so there'd be no chance the customer could see something to annoy them. Usually that would involve figuring out their first name, and using that.

The offending check at a California restaurant

If the names were unavailable, I'd say, "Woman with black sweater," or "man with blue tie"

Other people aren't that smart, apparently. At a restaurant called Chilly D's Sports Lounge in the Cameo Club Casino, in Stockton, Calif.,  an employee named Jeff wrote down on the check "Fat Girls" to describe the customers.

The so-called Fat Girls got the check, with the "Fat Girls" listed on it, and they, quite reasonably are outraged by the check.

A manager with a :"smirk" offered them a 25 percent discount, then a 50 percent discount, say the customers, but that didn't placate them.

Jeff has apparently been been fired. But now more than ever, a rogue employee like Jeff can really screw up the reputation of a business.

It's scary. It used to be in the dinosaur era before Twitter that the customers would have told a few of their friends about the bad experience and the restaurant would have lost a few sales.

Now this whole thing has gone viral, and the owners of the business are mortified. It sounds like they're sincere and are really feel horrible that the customers were treated this way. The put out the following message on Facebook:

"We are just as appalled at what happened to these ladies and this employee has been immediately terminated. We are a family run business and...

strive to make our customers feel welcomed and appreciated.

 My family is embarrassed and we are holding a full staff meeting to re-train all of our remaining employees so that this never happens again. In no manner do we want to be associated with this type of behavior and it is devastating that one persons behavior has reflected on our family's establishment.

 My hope is, that we can rectify the situation by taking immediate action with this employee and by extending our most sincere apologies to these ladies and anyone that has been affected by this situation. I completely understand why they were hurt by what was written on their receipt and that type of treatment isn't tolerated."

Of course, the owners can't win. The Facebook apology prompted a big flame war among people debating, rudely, whether more people should have been fired, whether the owners were sincere, whether the women deserved to be called fat. (Really!!) and on and on.

I don't know if any publicity is good publicity, but I'm sure the people who operate this restaurant just want this nightmare to be over.