A restaurant banning influencers who asked for free meals in exchange for their recommendations has sparked a debate on social media.
Recently, an Australian restaurant owner recently made headlines for his no-nonsense response to two influencers requesting free meals in exchange for online promotion.
The incident began when Elle Groves, who runs the food Instagram account @twoteaspooons with her friend Annie Knight, messaged the unnamed restaurant.
An influencer requested free meals due to her popularity.
Groves expressed interest in trying the restaurant’s offerings.
She proposed a “collab” where she and Knight would post positive reviews and stories on their personal and account pages, which have a combined 7,000 followers.
In the viral request, Elle Groves said: “Hey guys! My friend and I have a food page together – @twoteaspooons – and saw your restaurant and thought it looked amazing!
“We would love to come and try it out in exchange for some stories on our personal accounts, and a post and stories on our food page accounts.
“Would you guys be interested in doing this collab? If not, we completely understand. We can’t wait to hear from you XXX”
The restaurant owner mockingly refused her proposition
However, the restaurant owner was less than impressed.
With 23,500 followers on Instagram, the business likely had more to gain from such an arrangement than the influencers.
In a scathing reply, the owner did not hold back, saying he had been “grappling with how much rage to demonstrate” in his response.
Acknowledging the devastating impact of COVID-19 on small businesses over the past two years, the owner pointed out the naivety of the influencers’ request.
He suggested they wait about a year and build a more substantial following before approaching venues, so their “collabs” could actually benefit the businesses, not just themselves.
“Hey, Elle apologies for the delay…I’ve been grappling with how much rage to demonstrate/throw in your direction,” he said.
“Maybe give it a year or so and see how the business landscape looks, and see if you can amass enough followers for your ‘collabs’ to actually be of benefit to the venues you approach so naively, instead of them being only of benefit to you,” he added.
Groves later defended her actions, claiming she never asked for free food and simply left the offer “open” for the restaurant to decide.
However, the owner’s response struck a chord, with many praising his direct stance against influencers seeking freebies.
Social media reactions
On social media, many online users left their opinions on the matter. Most of them expressed their sickness whenever hearing someone pro-claims they’re influencers.
Hearing the word influencer just makes me automatically roll my eyes, one user said.
They try to influence em to give em free meals lol. Didn’t happened and failed, the second user said.
Sick of these “influencers” who think they’re something special. Entitled people who can’t be bothered to work for a living, the third user commented.
I own several hospitality-related companies and my staff get this all the time- the same thing, from “influencers” who have a fraction of the social media followers my companies do! We always get a laugh out of it, another shared.
I’m sure the restaurant owner has had a successful, profitable business, decades before these two freeloading twits came in asking for a free meal to influence this business & pretty sure the owner will continue to have a successful restaurant after they were showed the exit & hope they were told ‘don’t let the door hit you in the ar*e’, another said.