E.J. Paterson from North Carolina received one great gift in his life that will surely let him go back on and on to McDonalds this year: unlimited fries for a year! Kids surely envy him today.
The six year old child with autism and his mom were in a restaurant nearby before they went to McDonalds to grab lunch. Mom did not feel so welcome in the other restaurant as she tried to explain the special dietary needs of her son. So they decided to hop to another place, which was McDonalds and finally grabbed their lunch there.
This is not the first time that McDonalds has done such a moving gesture to kids especially to those in the spectrum. News about McDonalds treating a poor kid with a value meal or another with an angry bird toy are just among the innumerable times when McDonalds cheers up a kid. This fastfood chain is not just about making money but making kids happy as well.
The Golden Corral, on the other hand did not want to upset E.J.nor his mom and like any other restaurants, they want to make customers happy. They apologized for the incident and explained that it was an "unfortunate misunderstanding". The statement they sent said as reported by ABC:
"We are aware of an unfortunate misunderstanding between one of our managers and a guest who has a child with autism spectrum disorder. While we typically do not allow guests to bring in food from other restaurants, we always strive to be sensitive to our guests' needs and supportive of all members of the Rocky Mount community. Indeed, in this case, once we learned that guest's child had autism spectrum disorder and would not eat certain foods, we waived the policy, but the guest chose to leave. We certainly did not mean to upset a guest. We welcome all guests with special needs and are committed to ensuring our staff is sensitive to the needs of all our guests. We have reached out to the mother and apologized for this misunderstanding. We invite her and her family to return, as our guests, to dine with us again."
McDonalds, even though having such a positive impression from the market, still has a history of bad impressions that paved way to negative publicity. One remarkable incident was when an angry mother who accused McDonalds to be discriminating against her Asperger's son because of an ad that says "eye contact a must".
Each restaurant should not be judged because whether they are a food chain or not, every food establishment is different from the othera. Some restaturants can be great while some may still be a bit challenged in dealing with disadvantaged people. Every customer wants the best so it is the responsibility of these food centers to bring satisfaction to their customers at all times.
