Restaurants Rationing Napkins

Restaurants in Wisconsin have begun rationing napkins in order to cut costs and remain competitive. Restaurant workers have done everything from hiding the napkins to using dispensers that limit customers to one napkin only. Jerry Hawkins, senior director of marketing for paper company Georgia Pacific, said that his company's EZ-Nap dispenser should "reduce napkin use by about 30 percent."

Hawkins said that when he was first asked by restaurant owners to design a napkin-limiting dispenser, he reacted with skepticism. "Can't people just clean their hands on their socks?" he wondered. After one of Georgia Pacific's engineers showed him the designs for the EZ-Nap he realized it had enormous potential. "The EZ-Nap's main innovation is the addition of a 'customer-tracker' on the front of the napkin dispenser," Hawkins said. "The EZ-Nap's customer-tracker recognizes a customer who has already removed a napkin, and if that customer attempts to take more napkins, an alarm will sound and security will be called to escort the customer out." Hawkins warned that if customers continue to "shamelessly overuse the napkin supply," they will soon force restaurants to implement even more cost-cutting measures. He noted that one restaurant in the Milwaukee area has lost so much money supplying expensive napkins that it is changing over to a potluck system. "Each customer will need to bring a salad or a main course to the meal if they wish to eat at that establishment," Hawkins said.