Racist receipt? Waiter gets stiffed on tip, but that’s not worst part
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (localmemphis.com) – A waiter is reminding people to practice tolerance after he was stiffed out of a tip while working at On The Boarder Mexican Grill & Cantina.
The customers reportedly left a note explaining why they left $0.
“I was more shocked,” said Nathan Bergeron. “The fact that they would be so blatant and put it out there.”
WISH-TV’s Memphis affilicate obtained a photo of the receipt with what some people are calling a racist remark written on top of it.
“We don’t tip white ppl! LOL” was written in black ink on the top portion of the table’s final receipt Sunday.
The bill was for $47.
“I treated that table no differently from anyone else,” he said. “Obviously in this business we don’t always get a tip. You just move on about it and go onto your next table.”
Bergeron said the comment was left by his last table of the night. There were reportedly three people sitting at the table, a husband and wife and a teenager.
Bergeron cashed out and took a photo of the receipt and says he sent it to a number of friends via text.
One of his friends asked if she could post it to Facebook to raise awareness about the situation, specifically racism.
“He’s a good person. He goes to work, does his job,” said Brandy Sciara. “When I saw the comment I cried. I was always told, ‘If you have nothing nice to say, don’t say it at all.’”
Sciara posted the receipt and it was shared dozens of times before going viral.
“Community support has been wonderful,” said Sciara. “Everyone is standing being Nathan.”
“I’m not going to let this bring me down,” said Bergeron. “I love what I do. I get to meet new people every day and interact with people from all different backgrounds.”
In a statement the public relations spokeswoman for On The Border said, “Since the restaurant management has only just been made aware of the post and the employee’s reported personal situation, we are in the process of looking into it. We would like to speak with the employee before commenting.”