Fast Food

There is currently a space race in the fast food industry: who are the spaciest people, the people taking the orders or the people giving the orders. I learned tonight that it takes far longer than it should to convince people that in order to acquire a soft drink from Burger King, one must, in fact, order a soft drink from Burger King (and pay for it, of course).

I'm all for "have it your way" and the like, but people, please recognize that there is a menu out there, and try to order things that could at least reasonably be considered to be on it. I have been behind a family ordering breakfast at McDonald's who apparently gleaned nothing from the menu board except what basic ingredients were there. Standing behind a family of five, each of whom orders something bizarre and outré (bacon and sausage, wrapped in a pancake, topped with egg) is an experience. When I came up and ordered "a #6", the manager (who was, by that time, working the cash register himself) gave me two free apple pies, just for ordering something actually on the menu.

There is a difference between not having them put onions on your sandwich, and ordering a "Big Mac, but without the extra bun, oh, and make it chicken instead of beef." Worse, the person behind the counter wasn't really listening, and so called the manager when he got stuck. I don't know exactly what buttons that manager were pushing, but there were a lot of them; and at the end, the customer had a pretty good approximation of what a Big Mac with chicken instead of beef would be. And then, the most amazing thing happened: the customer (an elderly gentleman whom I had opened the door for, not that I'm stereotyping) started trying to bicker about the price. He made a counter-offer to the manager at McDonald's! I have never seen anything like it in my life, and I don't think the manager had either; you could see the look on her face change from 'this person is a customer" to "this person is not a customer" just like that. And let me tell you, I never let old people get between me and the counter at McDonald's any more.