Internet divided on hotel buffet: How much food should you put in your bag?
It"s a moment every parent knows well - when limited budgets take precedence over basic human decency.
Steven watched in amazement as the exhausted parents carefully filled their bags with tiny milk cartons before heading out for a day of fun at a nearby theme park.
With a start, the US man realised the couple were stealing the milk to “satisfy their little monsters for the entire day for free!”
“The parents were completely abusing the system,” he wrote on Quora.
If you"ve ever travelled with kids this story will be familiar to you.
The moment when your limited budget takes over from basic human decency and you find yourself loading Tupperware containers from home at the hotel buffet each morning.
So how much is too much to take?
On this juicy topic, the internet seemed pretty divided.
Sabre Norris gives great food buffet advice on "The Ellen Show"
What"s wrong with taking a few muffins?
Some savvy travellers thought it was completely fine to grab a few extras from the breakfast buffet.
They even began sharing stories of their own.
My wife always picks up a muffin or two when we go out for buffets, especially when we are on vacations,” one commenter wrote.
“Most of the time, I tell her it"s wrong and she shouldn"t be doing that, and sometimes I do actually ask the staff if we can take it (to which they always say yes!).
“It’s really funny how I ask for the same muffin she picked up from the buffet when I start to feel hungry after few hours or so.”
That’s husbands for you!
Another intrepid traveller shared a story about a surprise 12-hour layover in Singapore where the free breakfast buffet seemed to be the only thing stopping an actual riot from breaking out.
“Some people had breakfast two times within the allotted time,” he said.
“Some stealthily packed a few snacks for lunch, so that they need not buy.”
It"s your money - so why not?
Thankfully, most seemed to agree that it was fine to take a few extras as “you paid for it with your money”.
“At the end of the day there"s nothing wrong with taking something you paid for yourself,” one mum said.
“I think the people who run the hotels anticipate that customers will take a banana, an orange, or a cup of yogurt, or all of them back to their rooms or their cars,” another added.
“You"re paying a hundred dollars a night or whatever for the room, you can justify taking an English muffin or a container of chocolate milk that probably costs the hotel less than 15 cents apiece.
“You have my permission.”
But do the killjoys have a point?
But, of course, there were some that really weren"t OK with that.
“You will be called greedy and stingy,” one commenter provocatively wrote.
“It is not fair to the other people who are waiting for the nice food.”
“If you are taking enough to feed another person or another meal portion - that"s unethical and making the hotel lose a potential business,” another added.
“Taking large amounts can be equated to theft in the eyes of the law in most places.”
If you are thinking those against the practice sound like complete killjoys – then this commenter might make you think differently.
They made the valid point that taking extra food from the buffet means that staffs aren’t able to take said food away if it has been sitting out for too long.
“So taking food back with you to consume later may pose a risk if you chose to take a food that may spoil easily,” they wrote.
“If you are taking liquids like milk and yoghurt and you don"t have proper refrigeration you may get some problems.”
So maybe just choose wisely next time.
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