The Doggy Bag

[ThemThereEyes]

Seriously people sue for eating bad left overs? I am really amazed.

That reminds me of when cups of hot beverage started to come with the warning "caution, the beverage you are about to consume is hot," or whatever it states. I believe this came about after a woman sued McDonald's because she spilled the hot coffee on herself. Ridiculous.

 

[Gin&Tonics]

Everyone I know has always called it a 'Doggie bag'. Not sure why that is.

Some restaurants here are quite happy to bag up your leftovers for you. Others won't touch it with a barge-pole. Others will ONLY do it IF you sign a piece of paper first, saying that you won't sue.

Reason being, people go out for dinner. They order dinner. They eat dinner. They take the leftovers home. They leave it in their fridges for one...two...three days...a week...two weeks...then they take it out and eat it for a snack.

They get food-poisoning because they're stupid, and then they try and sue the restaurant.

Signing the paper means that the restaurant holds NO responsibility for the condition of the food, and any issues that may arise from it, the moment it walks out the door.

I remember it being called a doggy bag when I was a kid, at least by my very old fashioned parents, but nowadays people just ask for it to be "boxed up" or some such thing.

Shangas, what I find funny about that is that in the USA, which is widely thought of as the most excessively litigious country on earth, I have never encountered any restaurant that had the slightest compunction about boxing up leftovers for customers, and I've visited several states. Maybe they haven't discovered that racket yet!

 

[kaiser]

Generally, our servings are way smaller than American so I don't have that problem. And the more upscale the restaurant, the smaller the serving...

Good point Flicka, when I go to America on business I am really amazed at the size of the portions. I do see many people taking home the leftovers though. I think it is rather common in the USA, and less so here in Europe.

 

[Mario]

If you would ask the staff of a German restaurant to put the leftovers in a doggie bag they would simply stare you down and destroy you with a gaze of doom, terror and disgust.

 

[William Stratford]

I wonder if this is a particularly american thing, as I have never seen it here in England (and, indeed, raised to clear your plate means the occasion simply would not occur to me!). The exception is pizza, where the offer is made for leftover pizza to be boxed up to take away with.

 

[fortworthgal]

I haven't read this entire thread, but we always take our leftovers home. I'm pretty thrifty, and if I can get a workday lunch out of it, so much the better!

We frequently go to 4 and 5-star restaurants for my husband's business dinners. We've taken leftovers or desserts to go many times, as have other members of our party. I usually see quite a few patrons leaving with "doggy bags." In fact, most times I rarely even have to ask about it; usually the server will notice food left on the plate and offer to wrap it up for us, or ask if we'd like a dessert wrapped up to go. Heck, when they box our leftovers, they usually even throw in an extra loaf of bread. :lol:

I see no reason at all to be ashamed or afraid to ask, regardless of the establishment.

 

[nice hat dude!]

Seriously people sue for eating bad left overs? I am really amazed.[/Q

 

[nice hat dude!]

Seriously people sue for eating bad left overs? I am really amazed.[/Q

Sorry I should have read the entire thread first I was going to mention the McDonalds article but I see someone already has

 

[sheeplady]

Sorry I should have read the entire thread first I was going to mention the McDonalds article but I see someone already has

The McDonald's case is often cited, but the woman had 3rd degree burns. McDonalds kept their coffee hotter than other eating establishments and they were aware that if the coffee was exposed to flesh at the serving temperature it would require burns that require skin grafts. They knew that their cups were not adequate to hold the hot liquid. The woman had over $10,000 in medical injuries for burns, was hospitalized for months, something that could have been avoided if McDonalds had simply followed industry standards and lowered the temp on their coffee by at least 40 degrees- still too hot to consume right away.

McDonald's now serves coffee at 80 degrees, not 180 degrees like they used to. If you live in the U.S., most states do not allow landlords to set the water heater at above 120 degrees because above that temperature people will get burned, badly, if they use hot water straight from the tap. The jury would have never awarded the amount that they did to that lady if they had paid her medical expenses and lost wages from her hospital stay- about $20,000.

ETA: the cups already had, "caution, hot" before the lawsuit.

 

[nice hat dude!]

The McDonald's case is often cited, but the woman had 3rd degree burns. McDonalds kept their coffee hotter than other eating establishments and they were aware that if the coffee was exposed to flesh at the serving temperature it would require burns that require skin grafts. They knew that their cups were not adequate to hold the hot liquid. The woman had over $10,000 in medical injuries for burns, was hospitalized for months, something that could have been avoided if McDonalds had simply followed industry standards and lowered the temp on their coffee by at least 40 degrees- still too hot to consume right away.

McDonald's now serves coffee at 80 degrees, not 180 degrees like they used to. If you live in the U.S., most states do not allow landlords to set the water heater at above 120 degrees because above that temperature people will get burned, badly, if they use hot water straight from the tap. The jury would have never awarded the amount that they did to that lady if they had paid her medical expenses and lost wages from her hospital stay- about $20,000.

ETA: the cups already had, "caution, hot" before the lawsuit.

Not to say McDonalds wasn't responsible but did not the lady spill it on herself and if it was the bad cups didn't someone already hand her the cup,just think it's a little ridiculous that people think the should be able to blame others for their own actions...nuff said won't whine no more.

 

[Mr_D.]

Here is my thought in it. Ask, if they have take home container, then they must encourage it. If they didn't they would not spend money on the containers.

 

[Miss Sis]

'Doggie Bag' is a common term down in New Zealand, but I haven't seen anyone either there or here in the UK ask for one for a very long time. I think we might have asked to do so occasionally when I was a child.

As for French food, it's usually so good that there wouldn't be any left to take home. De-licious!

 

[sheeplady]

Not to say McDonalds wasn't responsible but did not the lady spill it on herself and if it was the bad cups didn't someone already hand her the cup,just think it's a little ridiculous that people think the should be able to blame others for their own actions...nuff said won't whine no more.

When the lady opened the top of the cup the cup bent and spilled, something which McDonalds knew was possible given the thinness of their cups combined with the lid thickness. They also knew that the coffee wouldn't be able to be drunk for at least 45-60 minutes due to the burning potential.

If they had just paid her medical bills, she would have went away quietly- she wasn't asking for anything other than the damage of the burn and her missed work time, and future medical expenses to take care of her skin grafts- about $20,000. She wasn't asking for emotional suffering in her lawsuit, however; the jury decided that McDonalds was very much at fault- so much so that even after the judge adjusted the numbers she walked away with a huge sum of money (more than 20 times what she asked for).

I don't have much respect for companies who hide from fault and do things they know could hurt people. If customers have to take responsibility for their actions, companies have to take responsibility for their actions too. No reasonable good company would face a customer who was hurt by their product and say "no, we're not responsible" when the company knew such damage could happen but kept it's bad business practices in place- business practices that were not vital to the success of the business.

 

[PrettySquareGal]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/14/w...t-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0