"customers" news and stories

On those days where you are simply so frustrated you want to throw something, all you need to do is hop on a plane and fly to the Philippines. There is a restaurant just outside of Manila where, for a small fee, you can hurl plates at a wall to relieve stress. The wall is covered in writing with common aggravations, like "ex-boyfriend", "boss" and "perennially complaining customers." According to the owners of the restaurant, the three most popular targets are "boss", "wine, women and gambling" and "loan sharks." A plate costs about $0.30 and, for a mere $25 more, patrons can toss an old TV set at the wall, too. It's a small price to pay for the privilege of smashing up someone else's stuff, rather than your own.

[Image via Reuters]

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The singleton's hatred of Valentine's Day is only outweighed by that of chefs, apparently. As the Guardian discovered, chefs do not look forward to what is one of the busiest nights of the year. Special menus cause irritation, as do heart-shaped cutters and moulds for shaping the food. Some chefs and restaurant staff expressed equal exasperation over the doe-eyed couples and the couples for whom the honeymoon has long been over, though Sally Clarke, who runs Clarke's, in London, said she enjoyed seeing the looks of delight on the faces of customers who find a pink ring box passed over the table at the end of the evening.

The chefs and staff would probably feel more warmly towards the holiday in future if they had to suffer through one with no customers, since the only thing worse than a customer who is so lovestruck they neglect to tip, is a customer who doesn't come at all.

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Frank Bruni, a New York Times restaurant critic, just spent a week working as a waiter in a restaurant to see how the other half lives. Though he still experienced the difficulties and irritations of the job after only a few days, he was at an excellent restaurant and he got to leave after only a week. Maki Itoh, whose food blog is the oft-mentioned i was just really very hungry, has written her own account of what it is like to work in a restaurant. She worked as a host in one of New York's most popular sushi restaurants back in 1998 and covers more than a week's worth of celebrities, regulars and why the job isn't as easy as it looks.

And for a truly entertaining, ongoing account of waiting tables, be sure to check out Waiter Rant, the blog of an anonymous waiter, who tells tales of everything from tipping, both good and bad, to the people who sniff rubber wine corks. He is also nominated as the Best American Blog in the 2006 Bloggies.

1. Customers not putting their carriage in the corral: Seriously. Talk about lazy. Instead of taking another 9 or 10 steps to put the carriage where it belongs, they just leave it in the middle of a parking space. This is so irritating. Things like theft and violence and embezzlement seem minor in compared to this.

2. Customers who leave their carriage in an aisle: What's up with that? I've seen people leave their carriage at the end of an aisle (not even inside the aisle, but at the end) and walk down an aisle to get an item, and other shoppers have to move it out of the way. I've always been tempted to push their cart to the other end of the store and watch their expression when they come back and find it gone.