Do I have the right to refuse service to a 'fat' person if I own a restaurant?

Question

Hear me out,

Hypothetical situation (I actually am planning on having my own food truck with my best friend)
Let's say we have a successful food truck, based in our city of Toronto, Ontario. We sell brunch to gourmet snacks to frozen deserts and some items contain high levels of fat and sugar, processed foods and we have labels that say this for the benefit of consumers. Do I have a right to refuse service from someone that is visbly borderline obese, especially children? It breaks my heart and upsets me when I see children that are not just fat, but obese eating terrible foods.. and I don't ever want to be held accountable for feeding them unhealthy foods...

Do I have this right or can I be sued for doing this and telling the rest of my employees not to serve someone that is fat, morbidly obese, borderline obese? I don't want to serve these people for health reasons. If I was an *******, i'd accept their service and encourage them to eat their heart out literally and I don't want to do that. I'd rather serve healthy looking people. It's a genuine question, and I know there are people out there that probably wonder about this too.

Answer 1

Well for starters, the word "fat" can be taken as an insult. Try using "overweight" instead - to lower the obvious negativity and highlight more of the positive point. Not everyone is gonna see your point of view and unfortunately, you may not make good business. But who knows, take-a shot. Your care and concern is very polite and selfless but as I already wrote before, not everyone will be seeing your point. Well, I'm-a wish you and your dear friend the best of luck! :)) Peace! ^.^

Answer 2

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RE:

Do I have the right to refuse service to a 'fat' person if I own a restaurant?

Hear me out,



Hypothetical situation (I actually am planning on having my own food truck with my best friend)

Let's say we have a successful food truck, based in our city of Toronto, Ontario. We sell brunch to gourmet snacks to frozen deserts and some items contain high levels of fat and...

Answer 3

I assume you are not serious. Either you are not serious or you should seriously consider NOT working for yourself. One law suit will ruin you, whether or not the fat guy wins. (Unless you have a money tree or otherwise are independently wealthy).

You really have no clue about what you "can be sued for doing" ??? Wow! Talk about ignorance. How do you explain the fact that you are ignorant about basic business law? Its not like it is rocket science, and it obviously will impact your business dramatically. Well, they say if you throw enough Sh!t at a wall, some of it will stick; maybe you actually will pull it off.... I think being a bit prepared might increase the odds, which are poor at best even with the best preparation.

OK here it is the facts of life (for the clueless): You can be sued for ANYTHING.

Please let me know if you don't understand any of the words or meaning of that sentence.

The chances of a suit getting to the jury or the judge(s) depends on the laws in your jurisdiction (I don't know Canadian Law). The chances of you losing the verdict depends on the evidence, the time and preparation you and your lawyer do. If you do that, you will not be making money, but still spending huge amounts on your lawyer, hence my statement that it will ruin you.

Also check if there are discrimination laws which could impact you. In the USA you can NOT fail to provide a "disabled" individual or a variety of minorities with service. The idea that you are going to train your employees to make legal judgments about your customers is delusional.

Really. ah well, the dreams of youth are what they are..... mostly fantasies.

Answer 4

Fat people, overweight people, obese people – they're an ever-growing segment of the population. You'd be doing them more good if you sold yummy gourmet snacks that were actually healthy for everybody.



Discriminating against people on the basis of whether they look too fat would just label you as a prejudiced person. Can't you imagine the uproar around your food truck if you imposed a "No food for fatties" rule?



A lot of fat people have become that way from many years of eating just a bit too much, day in and day out. I myself have gained just two pounds a year, but over many years I've become fat.



However, some of the fat people you see are suffering from "metabolic syndrome", a complication often related to diabetes. One of the symptoms is an apron of fat over their abdominal area. Others are actually in the process of losing weight, and were recently a lot heavier than they are now.



It is sad to see little kids whose parents feed them on fast foods and sweets to the point where they're pudgy. Today's children don't get the amount of running around and outdoor play that kids used to get – they don't walk to school as much, or spend so much time on a playground. It's easy for them to become too fat, and then they hate to exercise – it's a vicious circle.



My suggestions: Label all your products, as you were saying. Offer "small" sizes of your more fattening snacks, as a choice. And offer a nice selection of healthy foods. They don't have to be "grassburgers" – they can be creations with just a little sweet stuff to make them attractive, but with low-fat, low-cal main ingredients.



Do you have the right to refuse service to a 'fat' person? I'm sorry, I don't know about the laws up in Canada. Here in the USA a fellow who ran a shop offering chocolate, ground coffee, tobacco, and such "legal addictive substances" refused to sell us some coffee when he found out we were planning to mail it to a person a hundred miles away. He said it would be ruined by the heat and the elapsed time, and he didn't want that to happen. O-kayyy ...

Answer 5

No, I don't think you do. No matter how you feel personally about obese people, especially children, you can't mix private life with a business one. It is up to individuals and parents to take a responsible attitude towards food. That's not your prerogative. If you're selling it to everyone than everyone regardless of their diet is allowed to eat your food. Still don't like it? Don't sell food to the public. Also no matter the size of a person then high levels of fat, sugar and processed foods isn't good for anyone!

Answer 6

You are in business as a retauranteer, not a nutritionist. If you are running a food service, you should know that people who like to eat large amounts no matter the consequences are the ones who will pay your bills. It breaks our hearts to see you guys miss the playoffs every year and embarrass yourselves on the ice, but we still let you in when you come to play!

Answer 7

I suppose you could if you really have the guts to look the person square in the face and say, "No. I'm refusing you service due to your super-morbid, globe-tipping, sumo-looking obesity." If you can do that with a straight face and deal with their response... I guess you can refuse service.



I, on the other hand, do not like to live in a "nanny state". In my own opinion, it's not up to others to decide what's best for me. Hell, if my parents were wrong more than once... certainly it is not a stranger's place to inform me of my own best interests.

Answer 8

I don't think you can. I underhand you care so why don't you just serve healthy food. Skinny people can be unhealthy and have diabetes just as much as a fat person. Also fat people are not always unhealthy eaters they could have a thyroid problems or some other medical condition that makes it harder to be skinny. I say be different and serve health food!

Answer 9

Always start your meal with a salad. It'll fill you in place, making you eat less with the actual meal, and it's method fewer calories than typical deep-fried or perhaps cheesy apps.

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Answer 11

Thats like asking if you could refuse service to a D-bag who wore 5 polo shirts at one time all the time if you owned a clothing store.

Answer 12

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Answer 13

Keep a food diary. Seeing every morsel of food you’ve eaten in a day written down can allow you to see where you’re overdoing the item, or reveal patterns or triggers to bad ways of eating.

Answer 14

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Answer 15

This is absolutely unacceptable.

This is called discrimination. You will be sued, and probably put out of business.

You should maybe advertise on the cups healthy choices or something. That's the most you can do.

Anything else would be offending, and you'll get sued.

Don't do it.

Answer 16

yes you can be sued for discrimination same as if you told a black person you wouldn't serve them cause there black or a gay person cause there gay can almost guarantee it would get press and you'd be ruined

Answer 17

Opt for the baked potato as an alternative to french fries, and yes, eat your skin!

Answer 18

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Answer 19

Set up reminders on your pc or phone every hour to encourage yourself to get up, walk around, in addition to stretch.

Answer 20

if you own a restaurant, you are able to refuse service to anyone that is on your property

Answer 21

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