The owner of a Dublin restaurant says they felt 'disrespected' after an influencer asked for a free meal, but then failed to collect it.
Chimac - a Korean friend chicken restaurant on Aungier Street - posted about the incident on social media over the weekend.
They said they agreed to prepare the takeaway as they felt they could use the online promotion after being closed to diners for months.
The influencer in question has since apologised to the restaurant.
We prepared a large meal to feed four at the specified time. The influencer never turned up or contacted us. 😠We won’t name names but if you’re an influencer we urge you to consider the small businesses with livelihoods on the line - a lil respect goes a long way! #supportlocal
— Chimac Dublin (@ChimacDublin) February 7, 2021
One of the owners of Chimac - Garrett Fitzgerald - spoke to Lunchtime Live.
He said: “We put up on our social media on Thursday that we were doing a new special.
“An influencer got on to us and said ‘I’d love to try you food and promote this on my page… is there any chance I could come by tomorrow and pick some up on Saturday?’
“We’re used to being a restaurant… we usually have a tangible relationship with our customers, which we’ve lost in the last year unfortunately.
"This sort of paid promotion is not something we’d ever really do… but staring down the barrel of another four months being closed, we thought we might as well."
The restaurant prepared food for four people, but the influencer in question never showed up or even contacted them to say they weren't showing up.
'We're not a huge corporation'
Mr Fitzgerald said: “We put so much into making everything… sometimes people can not realise there’s so much that can go into a free meal with them.
“We’re not a huge corporation that has loads of money - we’re really struggling. We at the moment are doing as well as we can, with delivery and things… but I also feel there are other restaurants that maybe aren’t. That can really get taken advantage of."
He said he doesn't want to give all influencers a kicking, as he doesn't believe they're all in it for the paid sponsorship or free food.
He also said the restaurant accepts the apology from the influencer in question.
However, he said they just want to raise awareness about it because 'sometimes a level of self-entitlement is not good for anyone'.
Mr Fitzgerald says the last year has been 'pretty tough' for his business, with he and his partner running the restaurant with just themselves during the first months of the pandemic.
However, he said being able to get the rest of their team back together after case numbers started coming down was a 'great thing' to be able to do.
