In article >,
Steve Calvin > wrote:

> Yell all you want at me too, but the OP's right.

I can tell you that SOME restaurants DO give you a spoon. Like the one
I used to work at as a second job. A privately owned place in St.
Charles, MO called Trailhead Brewing Company.

But the reason some restaurants don't distribute spoons is that it
reduces silverware cleaning costs to not clean spoons that were never
used. Those restaurants will give you a spoon a request, but then they
will wash a spoon that was actually used.

It may seem silly, thinking that spoons are small, and so washing them
may not seem a big deal. But it is like pennies. One penny isn't much.
A handful of pennies may add up to a small bit. A truckload of pennies
might be enough for a nice vacation, but the volume is noticeable. A
few spoons is not much. But a silverware tray of spoons is significant.
And many cities have health codes that mandate all silverware be double
washed. If the silverware is mixed, it then all has to be separated,
stored, and if the place in question wraps its silverware inside the
napkin, then that is an extra set of motions for each napkin. All those
extra bits add to labor, and thus to labor costs.

Grumble as much as you want, but when the impact is a bottom line jolt
to satisfy that one in 300 customers when anyone can ask for a spoon and
only those who want one will dirty one, and it should be clear why
management has made this decision.

jt