Row over restaurant ‘wealth screening’ boils over in French resort of St-Tropez
Row over restaurant ‘wealth screening’ boils over in French resort of St-Tropez
Mayor threatens sanctions over reported practices of large minimum spends and selecting diners by size of previous bills
The Nice Matin newspaper quoted unnamed insiders as saying that some restaurants in St-Tropez, a favoured summer haunt of celebrities and the international jet set for more than half a century, had taken to checking customers’ names against their database and refusing reservations if a previous visit was not felt to have resulted in a big enough bill – or tip.
An increasingly common technique was to say there was availability, but at a price. “They’ll say: ‘Sure, we have a table at €5,000. Is that OK?’” a customer said. Another cited a minimum spend of €1,500 a head.
My heart goes out to those poor slightly less wealthy people.
I'm not really feeling the outrage on this one.
Why be outraged that a notoriously expensive resort is... Expensive?
Right, and based on their history at that specific restaurant as well. Seems like they might be just a tad exclusive. I don’t think we were gonna stop in any time soon anyway
I have a hard time sympathizing with anyone frequenting $5000 nightclubs in St. Tropez.
I mean it feels like there's a potentially pretty good GDPR lawsuit in the making here.
Storing non-anonymised customer history without them explicitly signing up to a loyalty program with a privacy policy? That sounds like a big fine to me
Who cares. Bunch of rich assholes being assholes to each other isn't really news
What usually happens is the area becomes too rich for the usual folk who have lived there since their birth. Now they can't eat at a restaurant in their own home town.
i hope sea levels rise enough to drown those bs businesses.
Could it happen so suddenly that it includes all of those patrons, too? Please?
talk about flash floods 🏊
Rob the place. Like constantly. Make a sport out of it.
Back in the day we called this "face control"
were you in Greece, Russia, or Ukraine? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Face_control
Definitely not exclusive to those three countries. It's a well stablished term in Germany as well for example.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The mayor of St-Tropez has threatened “racketeering” restaurateurs in the Med’s most famous – and overpriced – former fishing village with sanctions after reports that some are selecting diners by the size of previous bills and are setting minimum spends.
The Nice Matin newspaper quoted unnamed insiders as saying that some restaurants in St-Tropez, a favoured summer haunt of celebrities and the international jet set for more than half a century, had taken to checking customers’ names against their database and refusing reservations if a previous visit was not felt to have resulted in a big enough bill – or tip.
The delights of St-Tropez, which was described by the author Guy de Maupassant as “a charming, simple daughter of the sea”, were first discovered in the late 19th century by painters and writers drawn by its simplicity and the peninsula’s spectacular light.
As early as 1937, however, the writer Colette was complaining about the number of American cars by the port, and its starring role alongside the then unknown Brigitte Bardot in the 1956 film And God Created Woman cemented its celebrity status.
Restaurants guilty of what amounted to “extortion and organised racketeering”, some potentially “illegally compiling databases, without consent, in complete disregard of data privacy laws”, could have valuable late-night licences withdrawn, she said.
In conjunction with the St-Tropez shopkeepers’ association Esprit Village, 1,000 stickers have been distributed reminding visitors and locals alike they should contact the town hall and the government’s consumer fraud service if they felt ripped off.
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If they want customers to pay more then they should just raise their prices. Oh but then they won’t be able to manipulate people into paying more than they want anymore.
Those poor rich people. Now they’ll have to get chefs to make their food at their mansions. Tsk tsk tsk, what ever will they do?