A Contrast in Fast Food

The McDonald's on Broadway near NYU is awful. The other day, I was in a time crunch, so I ordered one cheeseburger. Not two. Not a double cheeseburger. One. Single. No special order. The order taker took my order and then turned around to wipe the counter down. I would assume that before he could finish, my one single cheeseburger would be ready and bagged. It was not. He took another order. He handed the person's before me to him. Still, no cheeseburger. In the back, I could see that no one was even making it!  Sure, they were busy rolling this cart or spraying that pan, but c'mon!

I asked for my money back. Of course, Mr. Ordertaker had to call for the manager, who then asked what the problem was. We were way past fixing the problem, though. I did not have the time or inclination to explain to the manager that no one was making food in a fast food restaurant!  Believe it or not, that's not the first time that's happened at that very same location.

Tonight, while working for Visor, I stopped at Shake Shack to get a concrete, essentially their version of the DQ blizzard. Again, I was in a time crunch. There was no line for cold food. I stood and waited. And waited.  Shortly after I placed my order, the announcer guy yelled for Ralph. While I waited, he called Ralph three more times. I went to see if he could check on my order, but before I could ask, he asked me if I was Ralph. "I'm not, but I'm about to be," I told him. Then, I asked if he could check on my simple order. He came back with the discouraging answer of three more minutes. So, I settled in for the wait. In the mean time, a job came through on Visor, so I really had to go. My concrete was finally ready, and the announcer guy almost handed it to me before he pulled back at the last minute and got a paper bag. "Oh," I said, "I'm going to eat that here."  He ignored me and instead, put my concrete in the bag, followed by Ralph's hamburger and strawberry milkshake. Riding a bicycle six miles to my next job while eating a hamburger, drinking a milkshake, and following that with an ice cream dessert is a story for another day. The point of this story is that in one of these instances, I left happy. The other, not so much.  A little thought goes a long way in the service industry. I would do well to remember that myself sometimes.