Caf’s sign scolding students displays customer service problem

Those who frequent the Caf or the Spartan Restaurant to you Freshmen not yet in the know, are probably aware of a new display demonstrating what wasteful little punks we are.

In the name of sustainability, some genius in UNCG’s Dining Services decided that everyday there would be a table in front of the conveyor belt where you leave your dishes. On that table are full plates of food that are pulled off the conveyor belt and weighed. That weight is posted on a sign that says, and I paraphrase, that the Caf is all you can eat not all you can waste making the powers that be at Dining Services sound like a doting mother preparing to give you the “starving kids in Ethiopia would kill to have this meal” speech.

The scolding from Dining Services is symptomatic of a greater problem with the Caf that most people are already aware of: The Caf has little to no clue about customer service. Aside from the ladies who swipe the cards at the entrance, a good part of the rest of the staff acts like my presence is an inconvenience to them. Now, I’ve worked retail for many years and I have had my days in which I wished everyone would go somewhere else, preferably to Hell. But, for the sake of these customers coming back and not getting a complaint against me, I put on my best face and try to be as pleasant as I can.

Having this waste table is like having a Golden Corral waitress telling you to finish your meal because they have enacted a “no waste policy.” If that were to happen, as with any restaurant that tries to boss you around, you’d never go back there again, you’d stiff the waitress and you’d probably ask to speak to the corporate office.

I don’t mind that they are trying to save food anyway that they can, but what Dining Services fails to realize is that this is the peril of having an all you can eat restaurant; people sometimes take more than they can eat.

If Dining Services really wants to stop waste and control our portions, then they should have the Caf start charging for individual products like K&W Cafeteria or even the EUC food court does. You could control portions and make less food. You see, when people have to pay per plate, it’s pretty easy for the individual to eat what they need as opposed to what they think they can shovel down. Or, if you still want to keep the buffet line, then do what the Golden Corral waitress would actually do if you had a full plate and were fuller than the grotesquely obese man in Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life: offer us a to-go box.

If you don’t want us to waste food, then make it easier for us to take our meals home if we took too much. We might throw it out anyway, but at least it would be one less plate for Dining Services to chastise us with.