The group

An observation on groups would be that the more people there are in the group, then the less they are concerned about the rest of the world, and the more they are concerned about how their group views them. In other words they play to the group, and heaven help the rest of humanity.

So every so often we get a problem with the group and the bottle of wine. It goes like this, the group order a number of bottles of wine, consume most of it, then complain about the last bottle (which they have mainly drunk anyway) and expect to get most of their consumption free.

A typical example is a group of six, who ordered 4 bottles of Beaujolais, and consumed the first 3 without mishap. Bottle 4 was also started, and when there was around one inch left in the bottom of the bottle, and their glasses were all full, they decided that it was not quite up to the mark.

They said it was not as good as the other bottles. I tried it, and there was absolutely nothing wrong with it. Their response to this was that I had not tried the other bottles, so did not know whether it was as good as them or not. A line of approach that begged the question as to whether that particular bottle had anything wrong with it or not.

I decided that it would be pointless replacing the Beaujolais with another bottle and getting mired in the same discussion as to whether it was a good as the others. I therefore offered them another bottle of a different wine, their chests puffed out believing that they had put one over on the restaurant. However, I said, they would not want to be finishing the full glasses of the "inferior" wine that they were complaining about, therefore we would remove those.

This was too much for them. I had spoiled their game, I was removing their "free" wine. It was obviously a game they played every time they went out to a restaurant together. Their tempers flared, they threatened me with complaints to Egon Ronay, the AA , the Prime Minister, anybody else they could think of, and stormed out.

Again, why should we pay for the eccentricities of our customers. If they want a free bottle of wine every time they go out, then I for one, am certainly not prepared to pay for it.

 

And if you want to stay in a really nice hotel by the sea in Cornwall, Corisande Manor Hotel, Cornwall

Corisande Manor Hotel, Newquay, Cornwall

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