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It’s common to see a busy restaurant that needs a quick sweep, but customers expect tables and floors to be clean enough to sit and eat. One woman in Brooklyn, New York City, said she couldn’t even sit down at a Popeyes on Clarkson Avenue without cleaning the table herself. In a TikTok video, she showed what she described as a dirty dining area and filmed a long argument with the staff while asking for a refund.
The woman said she had wiped down a table before starting her meal but quickly lost her appetite after looking around. “I had no choice but to sit there…This is sickening,” she said when complaining to the employees at the counter. A worker, who appeared to be the manager, defended the restaurant. “You want me to sweep it while somebody’s eating?” he asked. The woman replied, “It shouldn’t be like that in the first place,” as someone nearby added that the place was “very nasty.” At one point, she accused the manager of closing a service window in another female customer’s face, while the woman outside could be heard yelling back.
More on What Happened
The customer later demanded a refund, explaining that she had only taken one bite of her chicken before deciding she could not stay. “I bit a piece of the chicken. I’m not sitting in this nasty place to eat,” she said. The manager asked for a receipt, but she claimed one was never given. “Ask him for the receipt. I bought the food from in here,” she insisted, tapping the register and pointing to the employee who took her order.
The back-and-forth continued for several minutes, with the manager saying, “How can I give you money back if you don’t have any receipt?” and the woman shouting back, “He didn’t give me a receipt and I need my money back.” Another employee tried to explain how receipts are printed, but the woman said none of that mattered since she had never received one.
As the dispute went on, more customers joined in. One woman complained about undercooked chicken and said she, too, deserved a replacement meal. She even accused the staff of disrespect and racism, saying that it only happened in “the black neighborhood.” Another customer offered to pay for her food, but she refused and continued sharing her frustration about the service. Although the staff tried multiple times to calm everyone down, the arguments kept flaring.
Online Reaction to the New York Popeyes Ruckus
Many TikTok viewers sided with the first customer about the store’s appearance. “Totally unacceptable for a restaurant to be in this condition. NOPE!” one person wrote. Another agreed, “I stopped going there. They are too out of order and unsanitary!” A different commenter asked, “Why is he not cleaning, just walking back and forth.” Several users argued that management should have handled the order more professionally. “It shouldn’t matter how many orders he took after you, your order is in the system… this is getting me mad. Justice for you boo,” a commenter wrote.
However, some people felt that both sides shared blame. “I don’t get it if it was so filthy why did you still buy anything in the first place that’s one,” someone noted. “The customer is not always right lol,” a second netizen remarked, while a third added, “d place is Nasty but u still ordered and want refund after u start eating….u both wrong.”
