At Whataburger, Take a Number Means Something Entirely Different
One of Whataburger’s most popular items isn’t on the menu, but diners go home with it all the time.
The Texas-based burger chain is so beloved in the South that its “table tents”—the little plastic A-frame order numbers customers get as they wait for their food to be delivered—often don’t make it back to the stack at the cash register.
People pilfer them constantly. Some swipe their lucky numbers, others their birthday or anniversary digits. Athletes go for their jersey numerals. Die-hards want a complete set of 1 through 96.
Misappropriating an orange-and-white-striped Whataburger order number has become a rite of passage of sorts in the Lone Star State, where some posit you can’t be truly Texan unless you’ve filched a tent or two…or 10.
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In Denton County, Texas, police took notice several months ago after spotting piles of the little tents in cars during traffic stops. James Edland, chief of the area’s Northeast Police Department, says officers made the drivers—mostly teens and young adults—return the tents to a local Whataburger in Cross Roads, Texas, 40 miles north of Dallas.
“It’s just a little piece of plastic, but it’s not yours,” Mr. Edland says. “Don’t take it.”
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The restaurants don’t do much to stop the numbers from walking off, though. “If those things are disappearing and making their way onto somebody’s shelf or dashboard or wherever it may be, that is advertising that Whataburger would love to pay for,” Mr. Scheffler says. “We would never want to stop that.”
Still, customers delight in the furtive act of filching. Most say they slip the table tents into a pocket or purse, hoping no one notices. The numbers are printed on customers’ receipts, so servers can call out a number if they don’t see it—a loophole some collectors exploit by pretending they never got one.
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The chain was surprised that people would find the new numbers so irresistible, he says, but has come to appreciate their passion for the tents, which cost the company about 25 cents each.
The tents sometimes end up for sale on eBay . A No. 69 is currently listed at the asking price of $2,000. Its seller, Ramy Rabi, 18, says his cache of tents started with his soccer jersey numbers: 26, 17, 7, 9 and 19.
Mr. Rabi says he listed the tent several months ago just to see how much a Whataburger fan might pay. He’s gotten several inquiries. The highest offer has been $69.
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https://www.wsj.com/articles/at-whataburger-take-a-number-means-something-entirely-different-1500046507?tesla=y
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I have heard the testimonials from coworkers 
