March 25, 2025 • 6 mins
We saw that there was a thread telling stories about reasons why people booycott businesses and that brought us to sharing our funny stories about time that we have boycotted companies
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is a very famous story that I've told multiple
times over the years about the time that I decided
to boycott Burger King. Oh yeah, this happened when I
was a young man. I believe it was after my
stint at McDonald's. So there wasn't like a grudge situation
going on here, okay, but me and a bunch of buddies.
(00:21):
I was still living in Gilroy at the time, so
I must have been like eighteen somewhere on there, and
we decided we were going to go grab some food
at Burger King. So I walked it, went into the
Burger King and was just gonna give myself a wopper,
no big deal, Yeah, whatever we should do, okay. And
so I noticed on the menu board that they have
(00:43):
the whopper, and then they had like a regular hamburger,
regular cheeseburger, and on the menu the hamburger was at
the time, like fifty nine cents. The cheeseburger was sixty
nine cents. And I look up and I go, okay, well,
the whopper was like, I don't know, dollar thirty, so
long time ago, long ago, long time because a dollar
(01:04):
thirty and then if you want a cheese it was
like a dollar seventy. It was quite a difference in
cheese cost. And I went, wait a second here, that
doesn't add up. Doesn't add up? Is this super whopper
cheese that I'm not aware? Or is it the same
exact piece of cheese? Why is one piece of cheese
ten cents and another piece of cheese forty cents? That
(01:27):
doesn't make any sense, same piece of cheese, same piece
of cheese, I said. So I brought the young man
working at the register over and I said, excuse me,
excuse me, young young sir, I may speak to my
manager because I don't understand this is cheese pricing doesn't
make sense to me. Why is one ten cents? Why
it's one the same piece of cheese? I said? And
he said, well, I don't know what it costs. I said, well,
(01:49):
can you do me a favorite? I'd like a whopper
with cheese? But can you take the cheese from the
cheeseburger and put it on my whopper? And charged me
ten cents?
Speaker 2 (01:58):
This is your like Larry David moment right now?
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Does it not make sense? Yeah? Does it not make
sense sense? I just don't understand here. But it's the
same chief, are you using super watches. Forty cents for
a piece of cheese is kind of insane. It is
That's what people, you know, would would pay for a
block of cheese in Russia. What are we doing?
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Wow?
Speaker 1 (02:16):
What are we doing here? What are we doing? I
don't understand. No, sir, we can't do that. Blah blah blah.
Well this is unacceptable, this is unacceptable. Well now I'm
not buying it. I'm not buying anything. So I go,
who else can I complain to? Who's Who's your Who's
your boss? And he gave me a corporate complaint number,
typical corporate. And I said, okay, here we go. I'm
(02:37):
taking my business elsewhere. Thank you very much, sir, goodbye.
So I decaid, all right, I'm gonna I'm gonna try
and figure this out. Ye call the number and it's
some stupid, you know message thing. I know, nobody's gonna
I'm not gonna actually talk to your human but they
did give me a address to write a letter to.
I said, you know what I'm taking. I'm taking this
all the way. Yeow. I'm fighting for the I get
(03:01):
the man for the little people. So I write myself
a letter to Burger King Corporate. Uh no, we had
a computer, but it was the one with the printer
where you had to tear the sides off, you know,
I do. I remember that when they didn't line up
correctly on the printer. God yeah, so yes. I wrote
(03:23):
out a letter explaining the situation, explaining all the things
they just told you, and I said, this is this
is not right. She should be cheese. Whatever you're pricing cheese,
that should be the cost of cheese. It shouldn't be
for a different sandwich. Okay, unless again, you use I'm
not aware using super wapper cheese. I don't think you do.
So wrote the letter and I think, all right, that's
going to be the end of it. Right. Well, a
(03:44):
couple months later, what go get the mail. Look in
my mill mailbox. I got a mess, a piece of mail,
a letter from Burger King Corporation. Son of a bitch.
They actually listened to me. This is awesome. I finally
did something. That's huge, man. Okay, So I opened it
up so excited. Moment I see it's a form letter. Okay,
(04:07):
that's disappointing, but thank you so much for your complaint.
Blah blah blah. We hear your issue. We're very sorry,
blah blah blah. Here are two coupons for a free whopper,
and I went, wait a minute, it's whoppers without cheese.
(04:32):
You didn't listen to my complaints at all. You didn't
listen to my complaint. If you would have sent me
two coupons for pieces of cheese, I would have been elated.
I would have been related. I went, you know, thank
you for listening to and so I was pissed. You
know what, I did send them back, sent back to
coupons with a strongly worded letter again and said, you
(04:56):
didn't even listen to me here. I know you would have,
but that's spitting in my face. I get that. Because
of that, I did not return to Burger King for
ten years.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Wow was this before you worked at McDonald's.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
I think it was a little bit after. Oh, Because
I was going to say, imagine if he didn't work
at Burger King because of this, his whole life would
have been different. If any would have worked at the King,
who knows he'll still be this different. So eventually I
was on like a road trip or something, passed by
a Burger King and ended the boycott and returned to
Burger King, but whatever. But it was a ten year
boycott because of cheese. Yeah, thank you very much. So
(05:37):
I could have told that story and it would have
gone viral.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Yeah, that would have been your moment.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
But there's this threat. Has have you guys ever boycotted
the business for anything? I feel like thor has He's
got no memory.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Yeah, he had to have. I haven't ever.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
I know you.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Yeah, my boy. I caught it Olive Garden for a
while because they.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Put this she's listen to this, listen to this.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
So Dave Letterman made some sort of joke which I
don't remember. This was back in the Sarah Palin days,
and made some joke about her daughter, Bristol Palin, who
was a miner at the time.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
And you know, Letterman a.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Lefty, and I guess Olive Garden kind of a righty
decided they were going to take a stand and pull
their advertising off of Letterman. So I decided, well, I'm
gonna pull my business away from Olive Garden.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
How about you showed them?
Speaker 2 (06:26):
I sure did. I don't know, no, probably like a
couple times a year.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
But I did not go back to Olive Garden probably
for like fifteen years, until I forgot that I had
boycotted them when I was halfway through my never ending
salad in bread sticks, and I was like, why the
hell did I boycott this place?
Speaker 2 (06:43):
This is delicious,
This is a very famous story that I've told multiple
times over the years about the time that I decided
to boycott Burger King. Oh yeah, this happened when I
was a young man. I believe it was after my
stint at McDonald's. So there wasn't like a grudge situation
going on here, okay, but me and a bunch of buddies.
(00:21):
I was still living in Gilroy at the time, so
I must have been like eighteen somewhere on there, and
we decided we were going to go grab some food
at Burger King. So I walked it, went into the
Burger King and was just gonna give myself a wopper,
no big deal, Yeah, whatever we should do, okay. And
so I noticed on the menu board that they have
(00:43):
the whopper, and then they had like a regular hamburger,
regular cheeseburger, and on the menu the hamburger was at
the time, like fifty nine cents. The cheeseburger was sixty
nine cents. And I look up and I go, okay, well,
the whopper was like, I don't know, dollar thirty, so
long time ago, long ago, long time because a dollar
(01:04):
thirty and then if you want a cheese it was
like a dollar seventy. It was quite a difference in
cheese cost. And I went, wait a second here, that
doesn't add up. Doesn't add up? Is this super whopper
cheese that I'm not aware? Or is it the same
exact piece of cheese? Why is one piece of cheese
ten cents and another piece of cheese forty cents? That
(01:27):
doesn't make any sense, same piece of cheese, same piece
of cheese, I said. So I brought the young man
working at the register over and I said, excuse me,
excuse me, young young sir, I may speak to my
manager because I don't understand this is cheese pricing doesn't
make sense to me. Why is one ten cents? Why
it's one the same piece of cheese? I said? And
he said, well, I don't know what it costs. I said, well,
(01:49):
can you do me a favorite? I'd like a whopper
with cheese? But can you take the cheese from the
cheeseburger and put it on my whopper? And charged me
ten cents?
Speaker 2 (01:58):
This is your like Larry David moment right now?
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Does it not make sense? Yeah? Does it not make
sense sense? I just don't understand here. But it's the
same chief, are you using super watches. Forty cents for
a piece of cheese is kind of insane. It is
That's what people, you know, would would pay for a
block of cheese in Russia. What are we doing?
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Wow?
Speaker 1 (02:16):
What are we doing here? What are we doing? I
don't understand. No, sir, we can't do that. Blah blah blah.
Well this is unacceptable, this is unacceptable. Well now I'm
not buying it. I'm not buying anything. So I go,
who else can I complain to? Who's Who's your Who's
your boss? And he gave me a corporate complaint number,
typical corporate. And I said, okay, here we go. I'm
(02:37):
taking my business elsewhere. Thank you very much, sir, goodbye.
So I decaid, all right, I'm gonna I'm gonna try
and figure this out. Ye call the number and it's
some stupid, you know message thing. I know, nobody's gonna
I'm not gonna actually talk to your human but they
did give me a address to write a letter to.
I said, you know what I'm taking. I'm taking this
all the way. Yeow. I'm fighting for the I get
(03:01):
the man for the little people. So I write myself
a letter to Burger King Corporate. Uh no, we had
a computer, but it was the one with the printer
where you had to tear the sides off, you know,
I do. I remember that when they didn't line up
correctly on the printer. God yeah, so yes. I wrote
(03:23):
out a letter explaining the situation, explaining all the things
they just told you, and I said, this is this
is not right. She should be cheese. Whatever you're pricing cheese,
that should be the cost of cheese. It shouldn't be
for a different sandwich. Okay, unless again, you use I'm
not aware using super wapper cheese. I don't think you do.
So wrote the letter and I think, all right, that's
going to be the end of it. Right. Well, a
(03:44):
couple months later, what go get the mail. Look in
my mill mailbox. I got a mess, a piece of mail,
a letter from Burger King Corporation. Son of a bitch.
They actually listened to me. This is awesome. I finally
did something. That's huge, man. Okay, So I opened it
up so excited. Moment I see it's a form letter. Okay,
(04:07):
that's disappointing, but thank you so much for your complaint.
Blah blah blah. We hear your issue. We're very sorry,
blah blah blah. Here are two coupons for a free whopper,
and I went, wait a minute, it's whoppers without cheese.
(04:32):
You didn't listen to my complaints at all. You didn't
listen to my complaint. If you would have sent me
two coupons for pieces of cheese, I would have been elated.
I would have been related. I went, you know, thank
you for listening to and so I was pissed. You
know what, I did send them back, sent back to
coupons with a strongly worded letter again and said, you
(04:56):
didn't even listen to me here. I know you would have,
but that's spitting in my face. I get that. Because
of that, I did not return to Burger King for
ten years.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Wow was this before you worked at McDonald's.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
I think it was a little bit after. Oh, Because
I was going to say, imagine if he didn't work
at Burger King because of this, his whole life would
have been different. If any would have worked at the King,
who knows he'll still be this different. So eventually I
was on like a road trip or something, passed by
a Burger King and ended the boycott and returned to
Burger King, but whatever. But it was a ten year
boycott because of cheese. Yeah, thank you very much. So
(05:37):
I could have told that story and it would have
gone viral.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Yeah, that would have been your moment.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
But there's this threat. Has have you guys ever boycotted
the business for anything? I feel like thor has He's
got no memory.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Yeah, he had to have. I haven't ever.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
I know you.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Yeah, my boy. I caught it Olive Garden for a
while because they.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Put this she's listen to this, listen to this.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
So Dave Letterman made some sort of joke which I
don't remember. This was back in the Sarah Palin days,
and made some joke about her daughter, Bristol Palin, who
was a miner at the time.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
And you know, Letterman a.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Lefty, and I guess Olive Garden kind of a righty
decided they were going to take a stand and pull
their advertising off of Letterman. So I decided, well, I'm
gonna pull my business away from Olive Garden.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
How about you showed them?
Speaker 2 (06:26):
I sure did. I don't know, no, probably like a
couple times a year.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
But I did not go back to Olive Garden probably
for like fifteen years, until I forgot that I had
boycotted them when I was halfway through my never ending
salad in bread sticks, and I was like, why the
hell did I boycott this place?
Speaker 2 (06:43):
This is delicious,
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