So how many dollar dollars are you willing to spend?
I have little sympathy for the OP. Just stick your hand out and say: Fork over the cash.
I’m pretty sure the social paradigm is that everyone pays for their own stuff.
It’s been mentioned, but the trick is to not offer in the first place unless you’re willing to pay for the occasional extravagant order, even if it is a crummy place like BK. Some people like imported swiss on their shit burger.
I will buy lunch for my crew on occasion, but I don’t ask, I just arrive with a bag of food, enough for all, if I have to stay within a budget. Or, I’ll ask people to pony up ahead of time, saying I’m making a burger run, you want to gimme your money and I’ll grab your lunch for you? If I’m using petty cash, I just buy a few pizzas. Then I never ask because there will be someone who only eats goat cheese with olives and macaroni on their pizza. You eat what I bring, or you don’t have to eat. Problem solved.
If you offer, expect someone to take advantage of that offer. If you don’t want that to happen, seriously, don’t offer. You want to be the nice guy? Just bring the bag of greaseballs in. It will be eaten I can promise that.
I’m unclear on what the OP meant. The OP sounds to me, that he offered to buy food, and is complaining that people wanted a hamburg, fries, and a drink instead of just a dollar menu item.
Yeah if someone offers to make a food run and says “it’s on me”, I’ll try not to order anything expensive. If they don’t offer to pay (which is much more common IME) I assume i’m paying for my own food and order what I want/can afford.
To clarify it is clear the one doing the run is paying and it is made clear the offer is to pick up a cheap burger or combo for everyone, if someone wants to order the Lobster burger and pay for it well no problem. The problem is when everyone hears someone else is paying and suddenly they have a hankering to try all those gourmet burgers they have heard about.
My sister once had a freakout when she took a pizza order for a social gathering, her treat. And no two people could agree on what they wanted as topping(and a vegetarian!), plus the pizza place had apparently ripped her off pretty good(talking her into buying plain cheese and adding toppings charged individually when we realized she paid close to fifty bucks for three pizzas) she came in cursing and demanding money.
Like I said, someone will take advantage. That’s humans for ya. Don’t offer.
And pizza is the same thing. Don’t even bother taking orders. People are precious little eaters let me tell you. If you pick for them, just watch and see if those pizzas don’t magically disappear somehow. Even the vegetarian with the big sighs and rolly eyes will mutter and grumble and pull the pieces of pepperoni off if they’re hungry enough.
Mmm. BK Chef’s Choice.
Lobster burgers are only 6 dollars now? All right!
Seriously, I don’t get it. I haven’t been to BK in years, but I’d be really surprised if you can get out of there with a combo that doesn’t cost six bucks or thereabouts. If you want the dollar menu, then say that: I’m going to buy a dollar hamburg for everyone. Oh, and no fries and no drink.
I’ve never had this problem, but I only ever do it for my friends. In our case, either they’ll all pony up the cash, or the person doing the run will pay. Because the odds are that there will be a time when someone will buy the runner’s food.
But we were a close group, so things like that could happen.
[slight hijack]
Ahhhh, the vegetarian pizza dilemma! There was a place I used to work that would kick in for pizza every so often. Usually on Fridays. During Lent, I’d request that all or part of a pizza be vegetarian toppings. NOBODY else ever said the same, namely, “Oh, hey, that’s right, it’s Lent, no meat!”
Boy, when the pizza came through the door, I had to be first in line, or by the time I got up to the pizza table, all veg slices would be GONE.
[/slight hijack]
~VOW
See, if you said to me “I’m making a run to restaurant X, do you want anything?” I would presume I could order what I want. I’m not being a dick, I would just order what I normally ordered, which tends not to be the cheapest possible thing. If you’re treating and you want to impose limitations, why not say “I’m going to go make a run to get some cheap hamburgers, who wants a Whopper?” And if some tool then says “Hey I want <something much more expensive>”, say “That’s cool but I’ll need a little cash since that will be like $10.” Anyone but the worst sort of moocher (hopefully not a friend!) would either change their mind or pony up some money.
Honestly though, if a few bucks to buy a friend what they want is a big deal, I wouldn’t offer to treat, I’d offer to make the run and have people toss in cash. Back when my group of friends was all fresh out of college and fairly broke, we just basically split things out individually. We’d even buy our own drinks, and offer to split cases if people wanted to share a kind of beer.
Well, if you’re trying to make a nice gesture, putting the vegetarian in a situation where they have to choose between going hungry for a long period and picking meat out of food isn’t really going to win you friends.
I get not polling the whole group, but if someone has food restrictions (be it kosher, vegetarian, halal, food allergies, whatever) it’s usually not that hard to get them something. You know, grab a cheese pizza with the others. The meat eaters will still eat it, believe me (the vegetarians are usually lucky to get a shot at the vegetarian pizza!).
I used to be vegetarian, and I’d usually plan for this because I got burned enough by being “treated” to food I couldn’t eat, so I tended to carry a protein bar or something. (The worst case I had was that the ‘treat’ was cheapass baloney sandwiches on white bread with a choice of ketchup or mustard. I was invited to pick the meat out. I left to buy my own lunch.)
The great thing is, I don’t have to feed anybody. Precious eaters don’t have to eat what I provide, can bring their own food, or buy their own stuff. My workplace goal isn’t to make friends. If someone decides they’re not my BFF for not providing something special for them, when I didn’t have to provide anything at all, I’m not losing sleep at night. Perpetual complainers are nobody’s friend.
Yea, I agree with this. It seems odd to me to offer to pay for everyone’s food, but if your going to make the offer, it seems kinda silly to bitch about it when people take you up on it. Especially at a place like BK, where the difference between expensive and cheap items are a couple dollars. If you can’t afford it, don’t offer.
My rule of thumb if I’m treating my employees to pizza is to order the appropriate amount of pizzas split 50/50 between pepperoni and cheese. I learned long ago that asking people what pizza they want just won’t work. Most people who don’t eat meat or who don’t like pepperoni or are trying to cut a little out of calories or fat will be fine with cheese pizza. Most people who would prefer some fancier toppings will be fine with pepperoni.
You’ll have a serious problem trying to make everyone happy once you open the floor up to specific topping requests.
One time when I was working for the State and was the guy placing the pizza order for some ancient woman’s retirement, I did poll people on what they wanted. Most people indicated some “healthy” pizza option (as healthy as pizza can be considering it’s heavy on white flour and cheese)–white pizzas, garden pizzas, etc.
So I complied and (this was a big office with probably 40+ people eating) we had several white pies brought in, garden pizzas (at the local place I was ordering from that just means pizza w/a wide range of veggies on it and etc) and while no one had asked for unhealthy options I also ordered two pepperoni and one all meat pizza. I figured almost no one would touch the all meat, but just thought I’d throw it in because what the hell.
When I picked the pizzas up and dropped them off in the break room and then went off for a little while as people started eating I came back to see 100% of the all meat pizza gone and only 1 slice of pepperoni left. The garden pizzas and white pizzas were mostly untouched. That’s when I learned that when polled individually people will indicate they want a healthy option but when the time at the trough comes that goes out the window.
It pains me to see Americans see a $6 burger as especially expensive, in Kangarooland, it’s average (>,<)
It’s not expensive here, either, unless you’re poor or very frugal.
Or you have offered to buy a whole sackful of them.