The last day or so, I’ve become fascinated with the Latreasa Goodman case from March of 2009. Many of you may remember the story line as “woman calls 911 because McDonald’s ran out of Chicken McNuggets.”
Some McDonald's have "no refund policy."
The real story is a bit more complicated. Imagine if you went to a store and ordered something. A few minutes later the cashier, and then the manager, tell you that they are out of the item you ordered and that you need pick something else. No refunds allowed under any circumstances.
Most of us in polite society will never deal with such an absurd scenario. But, imagine if you were poor and relatively uneducated and told the same. Where would you turn? What would you do?
Ms. Goodman did what we are all taught to do in such cases. “Don’t take matters into your own hands. Call the police.”
Ms. Goodman did just that, three times. She was very calm during each call. She relayed, and all of the press missed this at the time, that she was willing to accept a “McDouble and small fries” in lieu of her McNuggets if she was given a refund for the difference in menu price, as the McDouble is cheaper than a 10 piece McNugget order. McDonald’s told her that wasn’t possible. Ms. Goodman then asked for a full refund and was told that refunds weren’t allowed.
Had Ms. Goodman been white and wearing J. Crew I’d bet ownership of this website that she would have gotten her money back with an apology. One can only surmise that the particular McDonald’s in this case decided that because Ms. Goodman was black and “uneducated” that they would institute their “no refunds under any circumstances policy.”
To top it off, when the police arrived they arrested Ms. Goodman. Again, it is hard to imagine a scenario where a J. Crew’d white person would be arrested in this case. I do understand the police response to a degree. However, the boys in blue got this one wrong.
McDonald’s corporate later offered an apology and a small refund, saying that “Satisfying each and every customer that visits our restaurants is very important to us. Regarding this isolated incident, we apologize for the inconvenience caused.”
The coverage of this story at the time focused on the “waste” of 911 resources, not McDonald’s actions which in my mind are at worst racism and at best a complete lack of respect for the consumer.
WPTV in Palm Springs wrote a typical take on the story. “Told McDonald’s was out of Chicken McNuggets after paying for a 10-piece, a local woman called 911…Three times,” WPTV said. Their report also states that “Goodman told investigators she tried to get a refund for the 10-piece McNuggets, but the cashier told her all sales are final.”
The Huffington Post stated “Goodman had paid for her 10-piece McNuggets but was then informed by the employees that the restaurant had run out. Goodman claims she was refused a refund and felt it rose to the level of a 911 emergency.” Fox News reported the story the same way, but had a little more balance.
No questioning of McDonald’s actions at all in either the Huffington Post, WPTV, or Fox News stories.
The blogosphere was even worse in “covering this story.” Below is a video from YouTube, I found posted on inquisitr.com, of Ms. Goodman’s 911 calls. Throughout the video the YouTube poster adds “talk bubbles” to Ms. Goodman’s face to let us know what Ms. Goodman is really thinking. Among them is “Eye’z be hun-grey,” and “I want be gotten muh 5 dolla’s back.” The video mocks Ms. Goodman throughout and then credits her as “Welfare Recipient” at the end.
The question for detractors of Ms. Goodman is, what should she have done? The manager of the McDonald’s refused to give a refund for a product they did not have. Should she have taken the food offered and kept quiet? Should she have gotten violent?
Under the circumstances she did the right thing, in my opinion.
Thanks to Alessandro Machi at Daily Puma for the heads up on this one.
John Romano is the publisher and editor of Yes, But However!, a musician, a former political correspondent for BBC Radio London, and a serial web entrepreneur. Follow him on twitter: twitter.com/yesbuthowever or John Romano on Google+John Romano article archive.
