Author: fuzzypuppy1234
Date: 06/08/2007, 12:17 am
It is certainly NOT theft. Some people merely consider it impolite.

When I've paid $15-$30 for the breakfast buffet, damn straight I'm going to slip something into my purse for Lunch.

fuzzythinking:

If you pay $100 for a great meal in a posh restaurant do you then say damn straight i'm going to slip something into my purse? Not talking about doggie bags but say taking an extra piece from the cheese plate, etc.

I find your rationale for stealing to be appalling.

On the issue of kids who eat very little at breakfast and then are hungry in an hour, I think I would just ask the owner if it was ok to take a little extra. Most people know that little kids don't eat much at a siting and have high metabolisms. I don't think it would be a problem, but I would definitely ask anyway.

I wouldn't do it myself, feels like cheating to me regardless of written or unwritten rules. More importantly, why would I deny myself a fabulous meal somewhere else later in the day for a stale croissant?

Tacky, tacky, tacky.

Well, I believe Rick Steves is a self-declared pothead, so he's probably always hungier than the average person:)

And yes, years ago when I was performing in dinner theaters here in the USA, the old ladies who got bussed in to the Sunday matinee performances had those aluminum foil-lined purses so they could shovel extra food from the buffet into them. I thought I'd about die one day when I saw one lady scooping chipped beef into her purse - eeeeuuuwwww!

At any rate, I think it shows a complete lack of manners and decorum to take extra food from a breakfast buffet.

If the buffet is truly unlimited, and you don;t eat much at breakfast - it is permisable to take a roll or piece of fruit for a snack later.

But - I don't care what Rick Steves says. (And he has to be the most irritating man on the face of the earth; I hate when he charges up 5 flight of stairs to a tiny attic with a metal cot and talks about what a great room it is. I gave that up after summer camp.)

But to take a whole pack of food - rolls, ham, cheese, fruit, yogurt etc with you - after you've stuffed your face with everything in sight - is simply piggish. How is this any different from taking whole trays of the food out into the street and selling it and using the money to buy lunch?

And no - you can;t do this openly. If for some reason you decide that you can't afford to pay for a sandwich for lunch you need to take this food surrepticiously (and bring your own plastic bag with you - don;t steal a cloth napkin as well).

I agree about taking stuff from buffets (shouldn't), but consider this. I can't stand to eat as soon as I get up. I like to have a few cups of coffee and then have just cereal or croissant.

OTOH, I've seen people having cereal, muffins, croissants, fruit, juice, eggs, meat, toast, etc. -- all at the buffet.

I just don't see how it could be wrong to take an apple with me! Once in a great while, I will because I know I will be hungry as soon as I leave the hotel, and I just don't feel it's wrong. I would NEVER haul out a load of food!

>>>>I agree about taking stuff from buffets (shouldn't), but consider this. I can't stand to eat as soon as I get up. I like to have a few cups of coffee and then have just cereal or croissant.<<<<

The same with me, and I even skip the cereal and croissant part. On the other hand breakfast is my husband´s Dinner of the Day. He eats massive amounts of porridge, eggs, bacon, salads, cold cuts and bread, fruits, coffee and juice, youghurt. A good hotel breakfast takes more than an hour from him while mine is done in less than ten minutes.

But the breakfast is normally included in the room price, so neither of us pays anything extra. And I am not deprived of anything. It is there if I want it. Besides, I would not want to carry food in my handbag and eat some half dead lettuce.

And when it is lunch time we sit in some restaurant/food stall/whatever, and he takes just a coffee or a beer, and I take lunch. And when evening comes we both eat.

Mea culpa.

I am afraid that I was at least one of those who suggested packing a lunch from the cruise ship breakfast buffet in Oslo.

I would never do this in a B+B, hostel, or hotel. It is petty larceny, and rude to the owner who carefully lays out enough for the registered guests.

But on a ship where the food is almost falling overboard I think I would snatch a herring or two for later in the day.

>>>>But on a ship where the food is almost falling overboard I think I would snatch a herring or two for later in the day. <<<<

Well, no. In the Nordic countries hotel breakfasts are usually just like cruise ship breakfasts, the breakfast buffet table is something like ten meters long, and the breakfast would last at least three hours if you tasted everything. But the rule applies: You eat your food in the breakfast room and you don´t carry it around.

Basic rule of life: If you feel like you need to hide it, it's probably not "right."

I run a small B&B, and if one of our guests asks if it's possible to take some baguette or a banana at the end of breakfast, we are ALWAYS HAPPY to provide. Likewise, if someone mentions that they're going off for a hike, or planning a picnic later in the day, we nearly INSIST that they take one of our leftover baguettes with them, and/or a piece of fruit.

We don't serve day-old breads at our breakfast table, and we don't freeze and reheat unused portions. So the guest might as well take what they might want. But they should definitely talk to me first!!!

I would be stunned and aggravated if I saw someone simply taking items without asking. It's just plain rude.

Isn't it funny how we would be delighted to give someone something freely, if asked, yet we're irritated if someone takes the same item without asking. Just part of our Western culture, I think...maybe it's different in some other culture, somewhere else on the planet.

Is there a country, maybe an island or something, where people can just freely help themselves to the fruit from anyone's orchard ?

What I don't understand is that these people (mainly yanks it would seem) pay thousands of dollars to come here, further thousands to stay and tour here and won't pay a couple of bob for a freshly made sandwich at lunchtime, preferring instead to snaffle and carry around a few bits of food from breakfast?

How can that help you enjoy your holiday?

Yours

Baffled of London.

Oh, no. It's definitely not just Yanks. Sorry.

To answer the actual question ... I stayed at several hotels in Norway where, for a reasonable fee, I was able to pack a lunch to take with me from the breakfast buffet. Except for one instance (where there was a small sign), this was not advertised. However, when I asked the hostess I was informed of the policy.

They provided a box, utensils, and napkins -- and then placed my traveling feast into a plastic bag. It came in very handy on those days when I'd planned to be out hiking or traveling in situations where I might not have had access to restaurants.

Since there has been some discussion about what is or isn't theft, I tried a 'google' search and came up with this, from the Sussex police information centre (yes, I know Sussex is in the UK, not Norway, but I had to start somewhere.)

"The Theft Act 1968 Section1 (1) states that a person is guilty of theft if: he dishonestly appropriates property belonging to another with the intention of permanently depriving the other of it."

This doesn't help resolve the dispute much, since whether the property in question (breakfast items taken from breakfast room) was/is honestly appropriated in that circumstance, is at the heart of the dispute in the first place.

On the one hand, Dukey points out that breakfast items, like the soap in the bathroom of one's room, are consumable. Given that one cannot eat breakfast or anything else - leaving aside indigestion, etc. - in any fashion other than permanently, the definition of theft could not, at least according to the Sussex police department, strictly be said to apply.

On the other hand, given that the hospitality industry is a 'service' industry, one could argue that the discussion of goods - consumable or otherwise - isn't really relevant. In this view, breakfast is more like the electricity supplied to one's room. One can use the electricity to power the lights in the room, and even one's own personal equipment (say a hairdryer or computer) - but only within the precincts of the room during the time one has rented it for one's use. The definition of included service would not likely be ruled to apply to porting the service outside of the place it was meant to be used, say by running an extension cord out the window so that one could use hotel electricity to run the computer while one was in one's car, for example.

All of this analysis is making me hungry. I think I'll have another slice of toast. Fortunately, I am at home...;)

Dear Baffled of London: I don't believe it is cheapness so much as convenience.

My husband brings home his sandwiches from his school cafeteria when he doesn't finish them at lunch. Sometimes has them a day or two later. There's no accounting for tastes.

<What I don't understand is that these people (mainly yanks it would seem)>

and audere est farce what do you base this baseless inuendo on? Nothing - that's what - or maybe you can site something, anything besides anectdotial evidence in your mind?

I've seen many Brits in my day who do the same - even more i would think. Most of the characters on Coronation Street would certainly raid the buffet - Battersby-Browns, etc. and i believe they represent typical brits.

I once picked up three young Brits in Athens and drove up thru the old Yugoslavia to Venice and i was appalled that they were shoplifiting every store en route - never paying for anything. They said the old commie stores were an easy target.

Americans i know would have never done this.

So i think you statement is baseless and prejudicial and i think you owe us Yanks (remember to capitalize the Y in Yanks as a proper noun - i would expect much more out of a public school matirculator).

I usually just have coffee and a plain yoghurt. I sometimes take a piece of fruit "to go" -- not in my bag, but quite openly, in my hand. Nobody bats an eye. I think you can take a little "desset" with you, but not a whole other meal. Just use commonsense and don't be a pig.
Jess
Jess/

"Coronation Street would certainly raid the buffet - Battersby-Browns, etc. and i believe they represent typical brits" LOL, LOL.

As true as The Waltons or The Clampets represent Americans LOL

Not everyone who takes something from the buffet is stealing for a free lunch. When we're traveling in Germany, where the breakfast is almost always included, my husband often has to have long phone calls with clients during breakfast hours. So he stays in the room for privacy and out of consideration to other guests (would all of you really prefer that he talk to his clients on the cell phone for half an hour down in the breakfast room?). So I go down and have breakfast and then take a roll and a yogurt back up to the room with me for him, maybe a small bottle of juice as well. Yes, the hotel staff know what I'm doing...we are regular guests at several German hotels.

If you see someone with a roll in their hand as they leave the breakfast room, don't automatically assume they're stealing for a later snack.