Locking refrigerator provides solutions!
Do you have a maid, or unwanted extended-family member in your home, who is taking advantage of you bysneaking into the refrigerator (or kitchen cupboards) and eating up your family’s long-saved, or expensive stocked-up treats, without asking?
Here is the Middle Eastern solution–buy a locking refrigerator, and keep your cupboards locked.
Locking Kitchen Cupboards
Of course, if you have a kitchen maid doing the cooking, and she is the one doing the sneaky eating of special treats, then you’re out of luck. Some expats have the additional problem of all the leftovers “disappearing,” doubling the food bill, and leaving you without food when you are expecting it. Some Middle Easterners have told me that locking cupboards and refrigerators keep children’s eating under control, as well.
That said, many more ordinary refrigerators (without locks) are for sale than those with locks. So while locking refrigerators are available, they don’t seem to be the bestsellers.
–Expat 21
Tags: employees sneaking food, employees stealing food, expats keeping family food costs under control, keeping cupboards locked, leftovers disappearing, locking refrigerators
November 5, 2009 at 8:03 pm
Did you ever see the I Love Lucy episode where Lucy hired a maid? She ate the entire family’s dinner as a “snack” and was reallllly bossy. They did better without her, but it made for a good episode. :]
November 5, 2009 at 8:30 pm
It was probably very realistic!
November 11, 2009 at 5:39 pm
Most refrigerators sold here come with locks
November 15, 2009 at 9:11 pm
An Alien Earthling (in above comment) sent me some additional comments about locking refrigerators in India, through email, which he said I could post here:
“I guess more than 90% of the household refrigerators sold in India come with locks and this has been the case right from the beginning. It’s quite rare to see a home refrigerator without a lock, though I believe they’re hardly used these days.
I’m not sure of the reasons though. It could be because large joint families with a lot of kids and one or more household employees were the norm in the past. All that has changed now, with small nuclear families being the norm, though it’s quite common to see three generations living under the same roof.
Regarding household employees, I don’t know about Middle-Eastern culture but India, as a country with an uncouth “culture” cannot be compared to the civilised countries of the world. It’s a separate topic by itself but to put it mildly, domestic workers got a raw deal even about fifteen years ago. Thankfully, things have changed a lot with urban nuclear families, but I believe that people still have a barbaric mindset in the mediaeval parts of the country. There are people primitive enough to employ little children as permanent household help and abuse them.
There is another interesting point about refrigerators in India. When some Western/South Korean home appliance manufacturers wanted to manufacture and sell refrigerators here, their designs had to be altered. They had to increase the size (volume) of the refrigeration compartment and decrease that of the freezer.
I guess it had to do with dietary habits and climatic conditions. With a diet that has much less meat/fish and a fairly large proportion of vegetarians in the population, a large freezer was not needed. With a tropical climate in most parts of the country, leftovers and most semi-prepared stuff are refrigerated to prevent them from getting spoiled. These two factors called for a larger refrigeration compartment and a smaller freezer when compared to Western/Far Eastern markets. I guess the manufacturers also decided to include a lock (generally found only on the refrigeration compartment) when they made these changes.”
December 7, 2009 at 10:39 am
Great Post…….Keep Posting