The past two years have been extremely stressful for restaurant owners. Due to the pandemic, many of them had to shut down their eateries or operate at minimal capacity. The losses caused the restaurant business to lay off many employees and even cut back on other operating costs. So, when an Australia-based influencer reached out to a restaurant for a 'collab', the restaurant owner couldn't help but give her a piece of his mind. He wrote back a strongly-worded reply to the influencer and shared the screenshots with food critic John Lethlean. The post about the freeloading influencer shared by Lethlean on Instagram has gone viral. Take a look:
The post has received over 3.5k likes and was widely circulated and discussed on social media. "They're back #couscousforcomment I expect you're going to get a little unsolicited social traffic of your own @ellegroves Have a nice day," wrote the Australian food critic John Lethlean.
In the pictures he shared, we could see the message from influencer Elle Groves, who runs a food page called Two Tea Spoons with a friend. Stating the terms of the deal, Groves wrote in her message, "We would love to come try it out in exchange for some stories on our personal accounts, and a post and stories on our food page accounts. Would you be interested in this collab?"
The restaurant owner was extremely enraged to read the message by the freeloading influencer. He shared a long response to her 'collab', turning down the request for trying their food for free. The owner wrote that reaching out to a venue looking for freebies was the worst thing to do when the COVID pandemic was adversely affecting small businesses. "Reaching out blind to a venue you know nothing about (like me) who (as I have had to) might have even had to take a job at another venue on their days off just so they can continue to pay their staff properly and still be able to pay rent," wrote the owner in his message.
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Restaurants have suffered extreme losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
He further said that hospitality businesses were still trying to catch up with the losses and stresses of the past two years. He ended his message with some advice for the influencer, suggesting that she should give it a year or so to see how the business landscape looks. Meanwhile, he suggested the influencer should amass more followers to actually be of benefit to the venues that she visits. "In the meantime, maybe exchange money for the things you want to eat and drink, up your content quality and volume and post those stories anyway as a way of supporting a decimated industry," he wrote in the message. "Eat, drink, spend and tip instead of beg and you'll probably be on the right path," he concluded.
What did you think of the influencer's deal? Do you feel the restaurant owner's response to her was justified? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below.
About Aditi AhujaAditi loves talking to and meeting like-minded foodies (especially the kind who like veg momos). Plus points if you get her bad jokes and sitcom references, or if you recommend a new place to eat at.