The RM460 Burger Takeaways
The now dubbed “RM460 burger” story went crazy viral this past week. It was on the news, on facebook newsfeed, on table talks, everywhere! All this happened overnight.
It started from the Chinese speaking community in Malaysia and then spread out to the entire Malaysia and now even globally.
In case you didn’t know what was going on or somehow missed out on this story entirely, you can read it up at Says.com or the full-ish story on Sin Chew Daily or China Press (in chinese + there are multiple parts too). Take it all with a pinch of salt, ya? There are always 2 sides of a story.
As I read about the widely circulated story, I can’t help but reflect on how this is frequently happening in our society and the financial (+ Life) implication that many may not be aware of.
Firstly, to recap the gist of the story.
The RM460 Burger SUPER summarised version
There are 3 parties to the story:
- Man (asked to pay RM920)
- Birthday girl (now referred to as Miss Burger)
- Birthday girl’s friend(s)
Man was invited to Miss Burger’s birthday party in Banyan Tree’s Horizon Grill. There was a total of 8 people who was at the dinner.
Man ordered a burger that costs RM88. Miss burger and friends ordered lavishly and the total bill came up to be RM3.7k.
It was claimed that the Man proudly mentioned that he will pay Miss Burger’s portion. The bunch split the bill evenly and hence ended up with RM460 per person. After the dinner, the Man was asked to pay RM920 for the dinner (i.e. RM460 his portion and RM460 for Miss Burger’s portion). Hence, giving this whole story the “RM460 burger” name.
Man paid his RM460 portion but was reluctant to pay up the extra RM460. So, Miss Burger’s friend took this to social media with the intention to shame the Man, saying that he is courting Miss Burger but that he is not a gentleman to foot the bill. That ended up getting a backlash from the public instead.
3 Key Takeaways
Let’s for now disregard all the gossip and the truth of what happened as this is not the point of this post.
I picked up 3 key takeaways that stand out from this simple story to discuss.
460 Burger takeaway 1: Who pays?
I am saying this in the context of any event-related matters. I believe that following a simple logic here would suffice.
If the host invites then it would be the host covering the expense of the event. Think of the last time you got called to an open house or a baby shower or (in this case) a birthday party by the host. Were you expected to pay for the event’s expenses or meals? No.
The guest generally is not expected to pay as he is… a guest. What the guest may do. in return, is to come with a gift as courtesy.
Of course, typically for a birthday party, it will be organised by friends. Hence, it makes perfect sense to cover for the birthday person’s expense as he / she is the VIP guest for the day.
This we all know out of logic or norm… but it seems sometimes it can be forgotten.
460 Burger takeaway 2: The notion of the guy paying for a meal is nice, but…
… it is not a determination of whether he is a gentleman or not.
A gentleman is a man of good and courteous conduct. He treats people well and carries himself well. Perhaps in the olden days when women stay at home and seldom are the ones making any earnings, it makes sense that a gentleman be the one paying for all meals. This doesn’t apply in our modern context anymore.
Furthermore, it makes absolutely no sense from a personal finance point of view.
I have had a deep discussion before with my other half on this topic. If both parties are equally capable of earning a living, then why should the guy be the one paying for all the meals? It is nice, but how could it be expected? Let’s say both guy and lady earn RM5,000 each per month. The guy will have to fork out RM2,000 for meals for both of them instead of just RM1,000 if they go dutch. That’s part of his salary going away just to “feed” the lady. On the other side, the lady gets to have RM1,000 for shopping because she is freeloading all her meals on the guy.
This is an unrealistic example, but you get the point, right? I think that finance matters in any relationships should be a joint effort and on a fair basis! This old school notion is no longer valid in the current society. Just like how the notion of women stay at home and men go out to make a living is expired.
Typically in a date, the guy will be the one inviting the lady out for a meal. This provides the guy an opportunity to court the lady and to impress her as well. Hence, it makes sense for the guy to foot the bill. As a matter of fact, ladies will start thinking twice if it’s a date and the guy is so petty to insist on going dutch (split the bill)! This concept is very similar to “Takeaway 1”.
No, I am not discussing about the RM460 Burger story, but just a general concept of this takeaway.
460 Burger takeaway 3: Splitting bills in a group setting
It is common to split dining bills and there are typically 2 ways to do this:
- Even split
- Each pay what they ordered
Which one do you usually use?
For me, I will always go for the latter, except for some special cases. The principle for this is that everyone should be paying for what they ordered. If I ordered more items or if it is more expensive, then I should be responsible for paying for that.
Let’s keep this simple and say a dinner of two people. (A) ordered a steak that costs RM300 and (B) only ordered a grilled chicken for RM50. Imagine splitting it evenly… Each person pays RM175, which means that (B) is overpaying the grilled chicken by RM125!!!
Now extrapolate that to a meal with a group of friends. This can get out of hand just like the “RM460 burger” story.
I personally experienced something similar. A bunch of friends went out for dinner and drinks, where one sub-group ordered expensive drinks and they were the only ones indulging in that. The bill got split evenly with everyone. As you can imagine, it became a fiasco and one group of people were arguing with the other. Someone took it on her to do up a spreadsheet and split the items just to resolve the issue. However, it was obvious that the friendship was strained after that event.
Exception cases where I would be ok with splitting the bill evenly across the group is when:
- It is a sharing meal such as a chinese roundtable dinner or a sharing platter
- The price difference between each item is insignificant
Finally…
A meal is supposed to be enjoyed. However, it is important to ensure that we are not taken advantage of, whether intentionally or not. Stay woke, peeps.
These are small but important matters. A friend should ensure that you be fairly treated, even when it comes to small matters such as not making you overpay for your meal like a RM460 burger.
