Burger King ejected 25 low-income residents who were waiting for the Red Cross to arrive after their Minneapolis apartment caught fire and burned to the ground. An assistant manager explained that the fire had slowed foot traffic to “virtually nothing,” and that the crowd had to either wait somewhere else or deal with the police.
They were dealt yet another blow when the Assistant Manager received a call from the Manager of Burger King, telling staff to close the restaurant due to the traffic slowed to virtually nothing. Street traffic had been blocked off for a 1-block radius. When the Assistant Manager informed the Manager that the Red Cross was processing the residents that had been evacuated, according to my source, the manager told her to ask everyone to leave and if they didn’t comply, to call the police. The Red Cross worker ended up talking to the manager, and a rescue bus was called to the scene.
Why not dress up the assistant manager as the king and send him over to the displaced folk to apologize with a few free whoppers? They’re waiting at the Days Inn over on University Avenue.
Fire, Ice And Tears [MPLS Mirror]
(AP Photo/Douglas C. Pizac)
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Thats a shame. They really could have taken the opportunity to make themselves look like shining stars by offering those people free food and drinks while they waited and stuff. Instead they do the expected.. I’m sure the franchise owner is just thrilled and his managers decision.
A better punishment would be to force him to become an assistant manager at a Burger King. Oh…
As a Minnesotan, I have to ask: What ever happened to Minnesota Nice?
What a complete asshole! What happened to community service? Guess it never occured to her to fire up the grill and give each of them something to eat…
Terrible food, creepy, creepy TV ads and now this. Guess we won’t be eating there any time soon.
@ColdNorth:
Totally! I’m a Chicago and I love visiting MN for that fact; everyone is so nice you betcha.
They could totally have came out of this looking like rock stars… It’s so sad that in this world, it’s always the dollars. Who gives a rats s$$ about foot traffic! There’s a fire nearby! If I was them, I’d throw on some of that stuff they call coffee and start handing it out to Police, Fire, and most certainly, the displaced. Feats of strength like this would have been PR that BK couldn’t buy no matter the price. Instead, the AM chose the stupider of the 2 routes and tossed everyone out on their a$$! FOR SHAME!!!
BK’s customer service is so bad, I’m starting to think Comcast has been teaching classes!
let them eat cake!
No wonder Burger Kings are closing in a lot of areas. They could at least pretend to care.
Fail. Seriously, the manager could have turned that situation into a huge PR boon, far offsetting any temporary profits hit.
Agreed–BK could have done something above and beyond what they did. However, in light of free food, I think these people should be required to pay $.23 for a pack of bbq sauce like the rest of us. You never give those away for free.
BK made the local news here when they outright refused to give some ice to a child injured in a bicycle mishap. They wanted $1 or so for a cup and the kid had no money. A customer stepped in and paid for the cup so the kid could get a handful of ice.
Nice place.
@Groovnick: PERFECT!!
Say good bye to the king. I’ll never eat there again.
I am trying to figure out a way to blame the victims here so this thread is consistent with other consumerist threads.
Hmm…loitering? Loss of revenue to the restaurant? He just wanted to let his employees off a little early?
If the manager was there on the scene it would probably have been a different story. Many of these stores in low income areas are really at threat of closings, so the manager was probably under stress to keep costs down and every penny matters, especially in this economy, and that store employs a lot of people in that area I imagine (although not good $$).
Its easy for us to say “yeah, they should have” with our cozy lives, but when your job is on the line it can be different. They make less than a teacher does managing a BK. I’m sure the national HQ would have done it differently but the low paid mgrs on the front line sometimes make bad decisions.
Welcome to Corporationalism. Everything’s an SKU and everyone’s a tool.
Wow, did they ever miss out on great PR. Instead they shit in their own bed. Think of how quickly this BK will close down after the local community gets word.
I bet it was FREEZING out too.
ugh.
It’s sad when people don’t care about helping their fellow men/women.
I’m sure that all BK managers have MBA’s and are highly trained in spin doctoring.
This is just an instance of another idiot making another idiotic decision. Of course this idiot should now be demoted to fry-guy.
@sleze69: They shouldn’t have lived in a building that was flammable, they should have lived next to a McDonald’s, they should earn more money so they aren’t forced to live in low income housing, someone should have called and scheduled the Red Cross bus to be there at the beginning of the fire instead of after there was no place else to go…
OK, I’ll quit now.
Typical. No one gets fired as a shift manager at burger king because they were thinking “inside the box.” That’s the problem with big companies or even medium sized businesses — anytime I can deal with “some guy” it seems to be all good, anytime I have to deal with an employee it’s a struggle.
I would like to point out that the Burger King was right across the street from one of the buildings that was on fire. There were 3 fires in the same area. One fire which they put out, a second fire that started in the same place an hour later. That fire spread to a residental building which was across from the Burger King.
In such circumstances would you, as a manager require that your employees stay during a fire that has already spread? Or would you want your building evacuated?
From the article “The temperature was about -8 and not a good day for a fire, the firefighters, or those that the fire affected.”
They didn’t evacuate the apartment until the afternoon when they couldn’t get the fire next door under control and it spread. So it was still probably really freaking cold out.
I grew up in Mpls and there was sort of an unwritten rule in most of the north around there is you don’t leave people out in the cold no matter how inconvenient. I guess that has gone the way of corporate stupidity.
@ColdNorth: Somewhere around the 2000 season they changed into the Minnesota Wild.
@greenpepper:
My local chevron station did that to me when I had a car accident right out side their station. My mom came because I was shaken up when the airbags went off and my hand was all swolen up and looked like it was sliced open. They made her pay a dollar for a cup of ice. So its not just BK, its asshats who want profit for absolutely nothing. A few cents for the cup would have been ok, but come on…
But in BK’s defense they had no reason to stay open if there was no business, and they do reserve the right to refuse service. What if something would have happened on their premisses to one of the victims? If they weren’t customers then technically the have no right to just sit in a private business establishment and do nothing. Its not a public park.
PS: If I cant spell, i’m a little hungover so forgive me.
I bet BK planned it… Remember their slogan “Feel the Fire”?
Without knowing what happened, it could have been that they were just hanging out and taking up space. We’re all picturing 9/11 burn victims, but there were basically displaced people, not ones with burns etc I’m guessing. It could also look as cold hearted as we are all assuming, but everyone here could be jumping to conclusions.
@jeffjohnvol: When your job is on the line, usually making creative decisions saves it. Pinching pennies at the cost of bad PR never saved anyone’s job.
Obviously, this wasn’t taken at this particular BK…
[img.photobucket.com]
Here’s the thing: Burger King is a business. They are not beholden to poor tax payers. If they’d all shown up at a doctor’s office, would we be any less/more sympathetic? How about an vet office? A day-care center?
I’m with Burger King here. Yeah, it sucks that people lost their homes, but that’s FEMA’s problem.
I do agree with HomerJay that they could have made it a photo opportunity and milked some press out of it. But that’s corporate: probably the store manager just sees a nasty bathroom s/he’s gotta clean.
@Tank: maybe if they would have had their money in credit unions and would have paid off their credit cards in full every month, they wouldn’t have to live in low income housing.
problem solved.
I wonder if Burger King of Minnesota is taking this seriously?
Whiners. Of course you should have to pay for a cup of ice. How are they supposed to tell real accident victims from the roving gangs of ice thieves who prey on small businesses, creating sob stories just to get more cool goodness at no cost?
Um, back on topic, that manager was a real jerk. He should have at least come in person to close his store up. Sounds like the assistant manager at least TRIED to point out that there was victim assistance going on there.
He wanted his building evacuated so he didn’t have to pay his employees to be there with no sales going on. JERK. Burger King corporate should reprimand him severely, and offer free meals to the affected families — that’s the only way they’re going to get an even slightly positive spin after this…
If a group of strangers knocked on your door and wanted come in for an indefinite period of time because their apartment was on fire, would you let them in?
@Maulleigh: I don’t think anyone disagrees here that Burger King and corporate America in general can be as heartless as they want. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t call them jerks when they do.
@Maulleigh: An apartment building burns down and FEMA (The “F” stands for “Federal”, ya know) should be called in? Ugh… I hate attitudes like that. Rather than advocate that people in the neighborhood–the same community–lend a hand, you’d rather see the federales swoop in.
I’m convinced that personal responsibility will someday be trendy again. Guess it’s not going to be 2008 though.
@Maulleigh: Okay…
1) It’s not FEMA’s problem when there’s an apartment building fire;
2) The victims’ income level has nothing to do with anything;
3) Refusing to help the Red Cross is a dick move;
4) Also a dick move: kicking a couple dozen people out into the middle of a Minnesota winter.
I’m kind of floored, here, because I didn’t expect anyone to seriously argue that what Burger King did was okay. Don’t want to give them free coffee? Hey, whatever. Threatening to call the cops on people who don’t have anywhere to go? I don’t care what standards supposedly apply to a business, that’s a failure of human decency.
@jeffjohnvol: Since you don’t know what happened, why make douchebag assumptions?
The Burger King in question, is in a low income area and it doesn’t tolerate people “simply hanging out.” The fact these people were allowed to stay for any length of time, meant it was an extraordinary circumstance.
These people were in distress, especially considering the dangerous weather. This picture from the StarTribune, gives you an idea of how miserable it was.
When’s the last time you experienced -8 degree weather?
[www.startribune.com]
I can guarantee that the if a bunch of suburban evacuees took shelter in their neighboring Burger King, this would not have happened.
@yourbffjill: Oh dude, yer killin’ me – I can’t believe I missed the most obvious one!
What a pity, could have been a PR moment. I was in a car accident with my dad when I was a kid. There was a small burger stand on the corner, and they were so friendly and were offering me everything. I was in shock and didn’t accept anything except some water.
It’s really funny reading the comments about BK and Chevron. The intelligence level must be sky-high when they are blaming the corporation, when both Chevron stations and BKs are franchises. I believe Kinderhook Industries’ is the owner of the MN BK, so everyone better not frequent ANY of Kinderhook’s businesses!
Please note just like almost every place – this is a perfect example of a “bad employee” – not a “bad business”.
@edrebber: Absolutely, especially if it’s cold outside. I’d offer ‘em coffee and something to eat as well. Of course, that’s how us Southerners are raised…
@Maulleigh: Figures… a troll siding with BK. Hey fat nerd, quit wishing you were really a girl and have the surgery already…. but for the record, you’ll never look like the avatar…
@coan_net: So, out of the blue, the manager telephones the assistant manager, and says, “Close the place down”? This is a perfect example of a bad business.
I love BK. They have great TendercrispsSandwiches.. As a matter of fact, I had it last night. Although, the coulple close to me don’t have horrible customer service, just bad.
Go after the franchise to go after the manager. Fire him and promote the assistant. Set an example and teach morals.. I wonder if anyone remembers what morals are
here’s one option to blaming the victims…they should have known a fire was a possiblity and had alternater residences available to them? please know I’m just kidding of course@sleze69:
@timsgm1418: alternate…geez can’t type today
@SaveMeJeebus:
I always ask for packets of the buffalo sauce (their buffalo sauce is awesome!) when I get up to the drivethru pickup window. The attendant is always so busy & wants to get me out of there that they always just give them to me without charge.
As for the article, I agree that the manager could have made this into a great PR opportunity ..giving free food to displaced people in need of it. But went in the complete opposite direction & now damaged BK’s name.