An ex-Buffalo Wild Wings employee shared how he used to get free food at the restaurant.
In a video with 338,400 views and counting, user BerryD Treasure (@berryd_treasure) asks viewers if anyone else who’s worked in a restaurant has pulled this same scheme.
Everyone loves a hack when it comes to fast food and this TikToker is no exception. In his video, he explains that when he worked as a cook at Buffalo Wild Wings in the early 2000s, he would often call in an order for pick-up before starting his shift. He would also specify that the pick-up was for around 5:30pm, knowing the restaurant’s dinner rush usually ran between 5-6pm.
@berryd_treasure #buffalowildwings #food #resturant ♬ original sound – BerryD Treasure
After the dinner rush died down, one of the servers would call to find out why the fake dinner order hadn’t been picked up. The TikToker says he usually used a phone number of someone that was in his class so that he could also hear the story from his classmate the next day.
Inevitably, the person on the phone would say they never placed an order for pick-up. “So then we would be able to eat the food in the back,” the TikToker says. He also admits that he and his colleagues would pull the scheme once or twice a week. “So that’s how we were able to get free food during our shift,” the TikToker says, ending the video.
TikTok users were generally amused by the story and appeared to be taking notes in the comments.
“But was it prepaid? Lol that’s smart,” one person asked, to which the TikToker responded, “No. No one paid for it.”
Another asked, “Did the managers ever catch on to this?” The TikToker confirmed that, “No, they didn’t care about their jobs. I doubt the managers even knew.”
From the comments, it also appears that scamming free food isn’t exclusive to Buffalo Wild Wings. “Pizza Hut…always a couple pizzas either made ‘incorrect’ or never picked up…hmmm,” said one user, seemingly admitting to pulling a similar scheme at Pizza Hut.
“I work at Dairy Queen, I accidentally make the wrong blizzard a lot lol,” another admitted.
One user even explained how an ex allegedly got his mom involved in the plan. “My ex did this at Pizza Hut. His mom would call it in and not get it and he’d be able to bring it home free.”
Many users pointed out that it would be hard to pull this off today as most restaurants throw away food from an incorrect order or one that hasn’t been picked up by the customer. According to Time, this is often due to the strict health codes set for food handling and distribution, making it harder to reduce food waste.
“My old place would make us throw away the food. Perfectly good food,” one user said.
“When I worked at ruby Tuesday in college we didn’t get free food, discounted food etc and if they caught us eating anything like this we’d get fired,” said another.
Others also pointed out that restaurants caught onto the scheme and that “some restaurants are now demanding pay up front over the phone. Probably because of this.”
The Daily Dot reached out to BerryD via TikTok comment and to Buffalo Wild Wings via email.
