After a customer wrote a homophobic slur on his receipt rather than leaving a tip, a young waiter at a restaurant in Kansas was left in tears.
Noah Bierig, 19, was serving a group of customers who were aggressive from the very start earlier this month at the well-known fast-food restaurant Bubba's 33 in Wichita, Kansas. They were staring at his manicured nails and a Pride bracelet he got from his mother six years ago when he came out as homosexual. Bierig noticed.
"That hurt me a lot. I'm not the type to cry at work, but I gotta say, that was definitely the first time that had happened to me," Noah Bierig told KAKE TV.
"I'm not used to sort of blatant homophobia like that," said Bierig.
Instead of a tip, a customer recently wrote a homophobic slur on this server's receipt. Tonight, we'll hear how he's trying to turn the hurtful act into a powerful anti-bullying message. #KAKENewspic.twitter.com/bUFxeiCQ60
— Eli Higgins (@EliTheTVGuy) July 24, 2024
"The first time I went up to the table, they were just shooting me a couple dirty looks. And every time I would walk away, they would kind of just start laughing a little bit," said Bierig.
The teenager chose to overlook the group's taunts and provided them with the same level of service as he would any other customer.
In return, the group left a hurtful message instead of a tip. Instead of adding a tip, the customer wrote a homophobic slur in the designated tip area on the receipt.
"I looked at one of their receipts, and I noticed that it had a certain three-letter derogatory term written on it," Bierig explained.
According to KAKE TV, after the receipt got posted online, with the customer’s name signed and printed just below the slur, people flooded him with comments and shares.
The customer posted an apology on Facebook, saying, in part:
"I know it was wrong of me to write what I did, and for that, I am very sorry. The overall dining experience wasn't that great, and I shouldn't have dealt with it by saying what I did."
The post and the customer's social media pages have since disappeared.
