Restaurant leaves family fuming over McDonald’s fries dispute
A cafe in a Westfield shopping centre has been forced to defend itself from accusations it ‘singled out’ a six-year-old boy with disabilities.
The family of a six-year-old boy with special needs has accused restaurant staff of “bullying” him over a packet of McDonald’s chips.
The fries were brought into Shingle Inn, inside Queensland’s North Lakes Westfield, for Max while his mum, Amy-Lee Zerafa and aunty, Alli Hall, had breakfast on Wednesday.
The little boy has learning disabilities and autism, and has been working with a food therapist to expand his palette, but currently only willingly eats shoestring fries.
Ms Hall claimed that before they ordered breakfast, they were approached by the store owner and informed they were not allowed food purchased elsewhere inside the restaurant.
She said despite trying to explain Max’s needs, the family were told “you have to leave”.
While trying to express her disappointment, Ms Hall claims the owner told her to “stop raising your voice” which she felt was unjustified as she wasn’t speaking loudly.
The dispute, which attracted attention from other diners, had by that stage escalated and the family left the restaurant.
Ms Hall said she returned a short time later to reiterate to a separate senior staff member her nephew’s difficulties and said she was told repeatedly “I don’t care, you need to get out”.
“I said to her, you were singling him out in front of his mother, do you not care that he probably thinks, ‘mummy got kicked out because of me?’” she told news.com.au.
“She just said ‘I don't care,’” Ms Hall said.
“I can’t believe a retail store would treat a little boy that way because he has a disability.”
The centre has well-advertised policies surrounding protocols for people living with disabilities, including a wristband program that informs retailers if someone has special needs.
“To single out a six-year-old, it’s the worst case of bullying I’ve ever seen,” Ms Hall said.
She added that Max was “confused” by the whole ordeal, and she was concerned it would have a lasting impact on him.
One of the directors of the Shingle Inn cafes franchise, Andrew Bellchambers, told news.com.au he understood the incident to have been one big misunderstanding.
He disputed Ms Hall’s claim that she informed the owner straight away of Max’s condition, arguing that staff were not told until much later in the disagreement.
“My understanding is that they did sit down with McDonald’s food and drink, and [the owner] approached and advised them that there’s a policy against outside food,” Mr Bellchambers said.
“They didn’t explain at that point why they had that for their six-year-old. They said they were about to order, and [the owner] reinforced they can’t have outside food. He didn’t know why they had it.”
Mr Bellchambers said that’s when “they got upset” and Ms Hall raised her voice.
At that point the situation had escalated to a point that the senior staffer intervened, and only then, according to Mr Bellchambers, did Ms Hall reveal Max’s food troubles.
“From my understanding, the situation had escalated to a point where the lady was yelling and they decided to leave,” he said.
“It’s a really difficult situation in the end, everyone has gone away unhappy.”
The business, while it disagreed with certain details, was concerned that Max had been upset by the situation, which was “certainly not our intention”.
It claimed there was another diner with specific needs that had previously been permitted to sit in the restaurant with outside food.
Mr Bellchambers said if Max and his family were willing to return, the restaurant would happily invite them back for a meal on the house.
“We want to try and make everyone feel more comfortable ... it might be good for him to see it was not his fault.”
Mr Bellchambers said the businesses had been targeted by angry locals after a post was shared to social media about the incident and hoped the community would cease its attacks.
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