A Teenager Paid His Bill With Quarters, And The Restaurant Shamed Him On Facebook
Typically, people pay their bill at a restaurant in cash or with a credit card. If you have enough loose change though, you might as well use that to pay, right? Wrong, evidently, according to Beer 88 Restaurant in Lynchburg, Virginia. The “beer and burger society” shamed a teenage boy for paying his bill with quarters in a now-deleted post on Facebook, per WSET.
According to The Charlotte Observer, seventeen-year-old Cohen Naulty wanted to pick up the tab for his friends after dinner at Beer 88. He only had a twenty-dollar bill, though, so he paid the rest of the $45 tab in quarters - tips from working as a server at a different restaurant. ‘Tis a bold move, but hey, 40 quarters of those quarters ($10) were for a tip! The restaurant was less than pleased, though.
Beer 88's Facebook post included a photo of the giant pile of quarters beside the $20 bill and the tab. The caption read: “We’ll just caption this… ‘How NOT to pay at a restaurant’, cause that’s the nicest thing to say about this ridiculousness. #wearebeer88notcoinstar #anybodyneedchange #nohometraining #atleasttheyleftatip #workingwiththepublic.” Servers would obviously prefer not to be paid in all coins, but #HeDidPay ... and #HeTipped.
Others agreed that Beer 88 was a bit out of line. Per WSET, many people left comments saying the post was in poor taste because “money is money and a restaurant shouldn’t shame a customer.” Other users encouraged customers to arrive with only coins to pay their next bill at Beer 88.
Initially, the restaurant responded in the comment section with “welcome to social media” and “Obviously the SARCASM and HUMOR of this post is lost on most of y’all”, WSET reports. Some people defended the post, calling it “restaurant satire” and “proof that people get offended over minor things.” I guess that could go both ways, right?
Per WSET, after about an hour, Beer 88 posted on Facebook saying its earlier post was intended to be a joke, however paying in coins is annoying to people working in the restaurant and retail industries. Shortly thereafter, the Facebook page was deleted.
That evening, Cohen created a Facebook page called "The Quarter Boy" where his first post included a screenshot of Beer 88's original Facebook post, his explanation about what happened, and his reasoning for creating the account. "Though it was enough for the meal and a great tip, I was blasted on Facebook by the restaurant for paying in quarters. It was not a good day," Cohen wrote. "Then I had a great idea. I love paying for people's meals even if I have to scrape together my last quarters to do so." The rest of the post detailed Cohen's idea: he plans to find restaurants that don't mind being paid in quarters, and treat a patron at least once a week.
The post also contained a link to a Facebook fundraising page, called Turning a bad day around one meal at a time! "We will use 100% of the donations to pay for others meals and post videos of their reactions!" the page says. In two days, Cohen raised $3,061 of his $5000 goal.
Needless to say, people are on board with The Quarter Boy. Cohen has already covered two strangers' meals - all in quarters, of course.
Even if you don't agree with the whole pay-in-quarters concept, I think we can all take a cue from The Quarter Boy: be kind and help others, when you can!
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