Corner Bakery forbids photography inside their restaurants, “it’s policy”

Corner Bakery prohibits photography, be careful with your phone

While most companies beg their patrons to snap shots of their products, staff, or services, the restaurant chain Corner Bakery feels the opposite, in fact, their staff will yell at you from across the building, chastising you for taking any photographs.

At the Corner Bakery in Fort Worth, Texas, Benn Rosales, the CEO of The American Genius took his family for a quick breakfast and was shooting the following image when a male employee raised his voice, “you can’t take pictures in here.”

Rosales continued, as he asked the employee, “don’t you want me to tweet and share with the world my experience? Do you not want me to publicly celebrate my visit to your restaurant?”

“It’s the rules!” the employee insisted.

Rosales, along with his wife and daughter (who is recovering from surgery and using a scooter for mobility) were on their way out and chose to leave without confrontation, but the employee was still angrily yelling upon their exit.

This policy is “operationally destructive”

“As a publisher, I can tell you that this is operationally destructive to a company’s public relations efforts,” Rosales asserted. “To allow someone to enjoy your restaurant and want to tell people about service, food quality, or ambiance of the restaurant, such a policy would make that impossible.”

This particular location is not in a boring strip mall, rather in Fort Worth’s beautiful historic district where Rosales was on vacation with his family and had just finished a meal while discussing the historical buildings in the area.

Rosales concluded, “I was preparing to share photos of a sentimental breakfast, having visited this location on every Fort Worth visit I’ve taken with my family. Just like any other picture snapping patron, my intention was simply to share a positive experience with our many followers, but an aggressive employee turned a lovely family moment into a confrontation, and converted a positive experience into a negative (and public) experience.”

Is it legal?

While businesses have the right to restrict photography on their private property, it is legal to take images of the exterior of any commercial building, and for brands that restrict photography, it is standard to have those policies clearly stated in the building, particularly before entry – for example, entering a tech company office like Google, you sign a form at the door that as a visitor, you will not take or share any photos.

The social media experts weigh in

“That’s decided anti-social,” social media expert, Fran Stephenson, Principal at Step In Communication tells us. “In this environment of ratings and reviews, the potential for a shared picture online can be a positive force for a business. I see no downside, but there are some businesses who still don’t believe in the power of a solid online presence.”

“If there is a no-pictures policy, then it should be, at a minimum, written down, and also posted. Beyond being a baseless and idiotic claim, it is self-defeating,” said Mark Story, Social Media Lead at the National Cancer Institute. “What if you tagged the Corner Bakery in a post and have hundreds or thousands of friends? What if you wrote about how great their muffins are in your popular and well publication? Instead, whomever said this to you dug their own online grave.”

Other experts had more harsh criticism, but there is a consensus against this policy – we could not find one expert that agreed with Corner Bakery’s position on the matter.

Unfortunate and misguided

At last search, there are thousands of user-generated photos online that have been taken inside of this Corner Bakery and posted online, and Rosales had seen photos on Yelp before entering, saw no notice that photography was not allowed, and opined that this policy is unfortunate and misguided.

There is no mention on the company site that photography is forbidden, and we have reached out to Corner Bakery for comment on this policy.

All images in this story were taken by Rosales and do not appear elsewhere online.