“That’s Just Trespassing, Babe”: Server Drags Customers Who Only Order Water at Restaurants
Published Aug. 31 2023, 11:54 a.m. ET
With the way that the economy is going, many people are finding the benefits of the few free things in society. Whether it’s redeeming a birthday reward or couponing until something becomes free, most of us don’t want to buy anything if we can avoid it.
For the most part, being frugal with your funds meant that luxuries like dining out at a restaurant aren’t a frequent option.
However, several folks have found a loophole in the rule by simply going to a restaurant and not ordering anything, thereby not having to cough up some cash.
Unfortunately, the crafty caveat doesn’t bode well with the people who work at the establishments that people don’t buy things from. One server took it upon herself to highlight the treacherous acts in a hilarious TikTok skit.
Keep reading for the full tea!
A server suggests customers who don’t buy anything at restaurants are “trespassing.”
One of my favorite sections of TikTok is hearing real service industry workers complain about how horrid their customers are. No matter how wild the story, the person telling it almost always receives responses from other past or current workers who had a similar experience.
As $yd, whose TikTok username is @poorandhungry, mentioned, one “universal experience” many food servers have is dealing with customers who don’t order anything off of the paid menu of the restaurant and instead order water so the servers technically can’t say they never ordered anything.
$yd had enough of restaurant customers’ foolery and decided to address it in a 53-second sketch in August 2023. In the sketch, the user played a server and a customer who wanted to sit in the restaurant for free. The “server” asks the “customer” if she would like to get started with anything, to which the customer replies, “A hot water with lemon.”
The server hands the customer their order and then asks if they would prefer to buy anything from the “paid menu.” The customer declines and says she’s good with her water and a book. This activated the server’s petty side, asking if the customer needed “more time to look at the menu” and then asking directly what she would order “since you’re in a business today.”
After the customer shared that they would not be ordering anything else other than their hot water with lemon, the server said she would give them about “15 minutes” before they had to leave if they were “not a paying customer” because, again, sis is in a business. She then suggested the customer go to a park across the street where she could read and drink water for free.
The customer quickly became offended by the server’s suggestion and obnoxiously asked, “So just because I’m not spending money and giving you money, I can’t sit here and read a book?”
The server replied enthusiastically, “Yeah, you nailed it!” and said that if the customer used the restaurant’s “resources” (like her table and hot water) and did not actually buy anything off of the menu, that was “just trespassing, babe.”
The TikTok user received plenty of “amens” from fellow servers.
Although I’ve never actually been a server, I have worked in the food service industry and can fully relate to the server in this situation. While I love a moment to myself and a book more than the next girl, I think doing so in a café or a library is also a great option.
Underneath $yd’s entertaining and relatable post, the user received several comments from other servers who fully agreed with her stance.
“If you want a nice climate-controlled place not to spend money, may I suggest the library?” one commenter asked. “You can even bring a hot water with lemon if it has a lid.”
“Me while being a server: ‘So yeah, the library is three blocks up and one to the right. And the park is down the hill along the river,'” another user quipped.
