A Bengaluru customer was left stunned after allegedly finding the words “Little fat black shirt” printed on his bill at popular coffee chain Subko instead of his name. The incident, which reportedly took place at Subko The Craftery in Koramangala, has since prompted the cafe to issue a public apology.The customer shared his experience on Reddit, writing under the title, “Subko didn’t use my name. They used my body to describe me.” He also posted pictures of the cafe and the receipt.“I went to Subko The Craftery, ordered my food, paid my bill, and later looked at the receipt. Under Customer Detail, instead of my name, I found: ‘Little fat black shirt.’ Yes. That was apparently enough to identify me,” he wrote.He said what upset him most was that the description appeared to have been deliberately entered into the system.“Not my name. Not ‘the gentleman at table 12.’ Not even a simple order number,” he wrote. “What makes this worse is that someone had to consciously type that into their system. Someone looked at a customer and reduced him to ‘fat’ because apparently basic dignity wasn’t part of the service.”The customer also pointed out that body-shaming shouldn’t be treated differently when the person on the receiving end is a man.“If this were a woman and the receipt described her body instead of using her name, I doubt anyone would call it a harmless joke. Body-shaming isn’t funny just because the person on the receiving end is a man,” he wrote.
Subko Says ‘It Was Cruel’
The post eventually caught Subko’s attention, with the coffee brand sharing a detailed statement on Instagram.The company said it wasn’t responding simply because the incident had gone viral. In fact, it acknowledged that the post hadn’t yet gone viral when it decided to address it.ID@undefined Caption not available.ID@undefined Caption not available.“Today, we’re not addressing this because it’s gone viral. It hasn’t, yet,” Subko said. “We know that publishing this could give it more attention than it currently has. But we’re posting this because it genuinely bothered us.”Subko confirmed that a guest at its Koramangala outlet had been “described by their body type on a printed bill instead of by their name” and said the description had been knowingly entered by an employee.“Fat shaming is wrong. Every form. Every time. No exceptions,” the company said. “There’s no clever way to say this. It was cruel, and it happened under our roof.”The cafe said it had tried to contact the customer directly to apologise and had taken “the strongest disciplinary action possible” against the staff member involved.It also said it was reviewing how customer details are recorded at its counters and would address the incident during staff induction.“To the guest who experienced this: we’re sorry. Not for how it looked. For what it was,” the company said.
‘Body-Shaming Is Never Okay’
The Reddit post drew strong reactions from other users, many of whom backed the customer and criticised the staff member’s behaviour.“This is completely unacceptable! Please write a Google review so that the manager becomes aware of this and, hopefully, someone learns a lesson from it,” one user commented.“Omg this is horrible! Sorry you had to go through this,” another wrote.“This is totally not acceptable,” a third person said, while another simply summed up the sentiment: “Body-shaming is never okay.”
