The Granny Food Thief Strikes Again

By Steve DiGioia, Featured Contributor

 SOMETHING happened the other day that reminded me of this old lady, I’ll call her “Granny Food Thief”.

Many years ago, while working at another hotel, there was this sweet little old lady that would constantly crash the cocktail hours for the business events.  My property hosted many groups that, after their day-long meeting, would have a 1 hour farewell cocktail hour for the attendees.  They would network with their fellow associates and anyone else that was invited.  To prevent gate crashers, they organizers would even have a separate registration table where the attendees would need to submit their business card to be allowed to enter. Guess what this sweet little old granny would do?

See apparently had an unlimited supply of “official-looking” business cards of various professions that she would hand to the registration desk staff and then be allowed in. She’d work the room – but instead of networking with the other people – she was “food-working” with a pair of tongs and the plastic bag she kept in her oversized pocketbook.

In went some bacon-wrapped scallops, mini beef wellington and even tuna tartar. Then I saw her grab a handfull of bev-naps from the bar and wrap 3 pieces of cheesecake and shove them in her “thief-bag”.  I was waiting for her to ask “Where’s the “cheesy-poofs”.  Did she have a colostomy bag hiding under her coat to poor the fruit punch into? Probably…

Anyway, what was I supposed to do, throw her out?  My soft side got the best of me and I allowed her to continue raiding the buffet until she was so weighed-down she had to leave or she would explode.

Does this fall under the heading of customer service?