How do put my customers at ease when this keeps happening?

Last year I opened up a restaurant and the targeted clientele mainly consists of college students, skateboarders, artists, etc. This has worked out rather well especially being open late. In the past few months we started to have uniformed cops eat here. They tend to be rude to staff and don't tip well. Even worse, the other customers have been coming here less now that cops eat here. At first we tried providing poor quality and service to the cops to bore them away from here but one of them noticed we provided better service to "the stoners at the other table". We want to get rid of them and stop them from coming without facing retaliation. We want our customers feeling safe without feeling intimidated by other customers. Any suggestions?

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Comments ( 5 ) Sort: best | oldest
  • Put a giant picture of George Floyd behind the counter

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  • I know literally nothing about running a restaurant nor the laws about when you can discriminate against certain customers, so this isn’t advice just what I personally would consider doing.

    I might offer student discounts to customers who show a valid student ID. Some fast food chains such as Pizza Hut do this. It might make those customers less likely to leave. Yes it could hurt revenue since then they’re paying less but A.) you have the police eating there now and B.) you could advertise the discount on social media to attract more customers.

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  • say blm everytime a cop walks in

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  • Tbf the other comments are right. Put up a picture of Floyd or something like that. It'll send the cops right off, and it probably won't upset the stoners.

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  • Call them out on being rude to staff. If they want 'better treatment' from you, then you ask them 'why are you being so rude to our staff?'

    Only a fair question. It's not unreasonable to ask them to be nice. They can either change up their attitude, or stop coming, if your service is not pleasing them.

    If they start drama or get violent over you asking them to be polite, you can call the cops on them. Now that would be a funny twist of fate. The restaurant staff calling the police to help remove a pair of rowdy cops from your establishment.

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