I usually bring my morning coffee with me from home, but yesterday I had to make a stop on the way and so I decided to treat myself to takeout coffee…. I stopped on my way to work at a local chain coffee place.  The drive thru line was long, and there was like 1 car in the parking lot, so I parked and walked in. 

No line, sweet!  I walked up, got the attention of the young woman behind the counter and ordered my “large coffee, cream and 1 splenda”.  She rung me up, and I paid and then she handed me my receipt and my coffee.  For some reason I glanced down at the receipt - and there clearly written in black and white was “Large Coffee, splenda, skim milk.”

So, I called her back over.

“Excuse me, I ordered my coffee with cream.”

She very pointedly looked me up and down and said “I thought skim milk might be a better choice”

There was then a large pause, as I pushed back at the part of my brain that wanted to explode in fury.  Instead I responded:  “You don’t get to make that decision for me.  Get me your manager please.”

She shrugged and called to the back for someone.  At this point another customer had walked in and she moved over to help them.

A middle aged man with a heavy accent came up to the counter and asked if there was a problem. I conveyed what had just happened and he shrugged and said “so I’ll make you another coffee” - which he did.

The moment I got to my office I sent an email to the chain headquarters about the incident.  The response I found in my inbox this morning was simply:

“We’re sorry for the inconvenience, please accept the attached coupon for a free coffee.”

Clearly none of the employees of this establishment understand how bigoted and completely beyond unacceptable her behavior was. The size and shape of my body does not give anyone the right to choose what I eat for me.  I am a full grown adult who is ENTIRELY capable of knowing what I want to eat, and of making choices about what I should be eating based on my medical conditions (which you can’t possibly know a single thing about by simply looking at me across your counter).  OH, and I believe that I clearly communicated what I wanted.  You, random person, do NOT know better than I do, and do not have a right to impose your flawed belief system on me.  Get the fuck over yourself.