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How Long Do You Leave Your Food Unattended?

 
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I noticed this at the food court in a local mall. It seems a bit odd to begin with, but 30 minutes? I can't imagine leaving my food unattended other than maybe to get a straw or a napkin, but that would be 30 seconds. 30 minutes seems like an awfully long time.

 
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It does. I wouldn't feel comfortable leaving my food unattended to go the restroom!

 
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Jeanne Boyarsky wrote:It does. I wouldn't feel comfortable leaving my food unattended to go the restroom!


Ditto.
 
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When I was at the beer festival last week, there were lots of half full glasses left standing for ages. I left them for over an hour before collecting them and discarding them as abandoned. The notice refers to meals abandoned, not simply left unattended.

And round here there are places where you don't leave drinks unattended for even a second.
 
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When we have a busy night in the club where I work, I always feel the temperature of the glass before deciding whether I should collect it.

Food is a different matter. If I see unattended food lying around, I get rid of it immediately.
 
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Ah, let's spice this food story up a bit. Have ever secretly eaten somebody's unattended food?
To make my own confession, I have. When I was a kid, that was.
 
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Jan de Boer wrote:Ah, let's spice this food story up a bit. Have ever secretly eaten somebody's unattended food?
To make my own confession, I have. When I was a kid, that was.



Me, too. I've stolen French Fries. A long time ago.

Fun fact: I managed the Radio Shack at Lansdowne about 20 years ago. The sign has nothing to do with me, though. My French Fry stealing days were long before that.. ;)
 
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Sure, sometimes I would nick one bite from one of my housemates' plate, just to taste if it was any good. Never from people I don't know though.
 
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I can tell you from experience, people do this if they want to drink or smoke
 
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Jan de Boer wrote:Ah, let's spice this food story up a bit. Have ever secretly eaten somebody's unattended food?
To make my own confession, I have. When I was a kid, that was.



My parents were very very strict when my brothers and I were kids about us touching things. When we were in someone else's home, or outside in a shop, we were never allowed to touch things. I think they set this rule because we were pretty poor and they were simply worried that we might break something and they will have to pay for it. Therefore, I could never eat someone else's unattended food, as I would not touch it without permission first.

I did however take a banana from a colleagues desk once without his permission - I was in on a Sunday doing some work, it was late evening, and I was feeling rather unwell. I had no food in the fridge, so when I saw the banana on his desk I took it. I left a note telling him I took it and left 50p, which is a lot more than the cost of a single banana.
The next day I saw him at work, and I apologised for taking the banana without his permission, and he said that's ok. Now the thing is I had gone through a phase at work where I was very stressed, and for 6 months or so I used to comfort eat at my desk - a large 100g bar of chocolate, biscuits, cookies etc - and this guy would often, when walking past my desk, ask me if he could have some, and I would always say he could, therefore, I was just surprised that he didn't say to me "You didn't have to pay me, here, take your 50p back" considering all those times he had eaten my food!

 
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Ahmed Bin S wrote:I did however take a banana from a colleagues desk once without his permission - I was in on a Sunday doing some work, it was late evening, and I was feeling rather unwell. I had no food in the fridge, so when I saw the banana on his desk I took it. I left a note telling him I took it and left 50p, which is a lot more than the cost of a single banana.


Ahmed got me thinking. Have you ever had someone steal food from you and what did you do about it?

Years ago, I worked in a team that had staggered start times between 6:30am and 9:30am. Our team had a donut fund and every Friday the earliest guy would buy donuts on his way in. This worked fine for 6 months, and then suddenly there wasn't enough donuts to go around. Every Friday this happened. Team members accused each other of double dipping. We all began to distrust each other. But, it wasn't us. We eventually figured out a guy from another team was helping himself to the donuts when we weren't looking.

We tried to be polite. We sent floor wide emails asking the person taking our donuts to stop (or to help chip in a few dollars). That didn't work. We put a sign beside the box telling him to not touch - the donuts were ours. That didn't work. Finally, we came up with our master stroke. We took the last donut, a white sugar coated beauty, rubbed off the sugar with a damp paper towel, and covered that little guy in salt.

The donut disappeared like normal, but it was the last one that was ever taken. We never said anything to him and he never said anything to us.
 
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Chris Barrett wrote:. . . rubbed off the sugar with a damp paper towel, and covered that little guy in salt. . . .

There are other things you could have done which would make salt look tame!
 
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Chris Barrett wrote:
We tried to be polite. We sent floor wide emails asking the person taking our donuts to stop (or to help chip in a few dollars). That didn't work. We put a sign beside the box telling him to not touch - the donuts were ours. That didn't work. Finally, we came up with our master stroke. We took the last donut, a white sugar coated beauty, rubbed off the sugar with a damp paper towel, and covered that little guy in salt.



Doughnut Wars!

I wonder what it is about people and free food. I mean, I am sure this person could have afforded their own doughnut, but when people see free food, they seem to not be able to control themselves. In my last company we used to get free breakfast each Friday morning - croissants, doughnuts, sandwiches, biscuits etc. As soon as the email used to be sent that breakfast is ready there used to be a mad rush, and people would be stuffing their plates to the brim, and eventually the lady from HR had to send an email that people are only allowed to take one croissant because they would all finish before everyone got a chance. I actually said one day as I walked into the "cafe" to get my breakfast that why is it that the contractors are always the first ones here when surely they should only be taking food once the permanent staff have taken theirs!
 
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