Futurist Paul Saffo was eating at a buffet style restaurant recently, and spotted a curious policy. The eatery will charge you $2.00 extra for any left over food. Is this a move against rising food prices, or more of an ethical rule to encourage less waste?
Saffo’s thoughts:
How brilliant — and how depressing, for this bit of motherly haiku neatly captured the the unhappy present of American consumerism and also what our collective future holds. Waste is so built into our culture that people think nothing of taking more than they can possibly eat, and could not care less if it is thrown out. It reminded me of otherwise socially aware acquaintances who refuse to eat leftovers, and thus quite happily toss astonishing amounts of good food into the trash.
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“it’s just a wafer thin mint”
September 2nd, 2008 at 4:59 pm
I’ve seen that kind of policies before. Of course, it was an awfully cheap place, so it was kinda understandable.
September 2nd, 2008 at 5:45 pm
Sounds like a dare to me!
September 3rd, 2008 at 12:08 pm
This is really common in Brazil on Japanese buffets.
September 4th, 2008 at 4:52 pm
Yes this also used to be a common policy at buffet restaurants in Singapore. Don’t see this any more though…
September 5th, 2008 at 4:41 am