Speaking of dwindling service, NOW we have to make our own drinks at the McDonald’s here. Yes, yes, I know it’s so that people can get refills, but I keep saying one day we’ll be making our own burgers. That is why I don’t eat at the Fuddrucker’s anymore. You pay too much to be handed a burger that you have to fix yourself. Anyway, I’ve gotten around the McDonald’s drink dilema. Any time I want to eat at the restaurant, I simply go through the drive through (with all the kids- If it’s just me it’s no big deal) have my drinks made for me, and then proceed to park and go inside. Even if it sounds like a lot to go through, it’s just the principle- they should have to pour my drink!
You seem to be overlooking part of the equation. People trade hard-earned cash for service. The more service they receive -> the more cash they need to tender. When I go to Burger King, I’m not looking for linen napkins and courteous service, I’m looking for food that gets me back to the office as fast and cheap as possible. When I go to Windows on the Bay, I know I’m going to be paying a couple of hundred bucks for good food, good wine and a busboy that’s willing to fellate me when the meal’s over.
The obvious solution is to have people pay for their food as they leave the restaurant. That way, people will pay for the food, the amount of time they spent at the table plus the wages of any persons who had to clean up after them.
A former McDonald’s busboy.
Looks around to see if we’re in the Pit yet
Whay do you say, ‘bus’ the tables, instead of ‘clear’ or ‘clean’? That usage sounds a little odd to me, but maybe that’s just me.
Balthisar, it’s pretty usual to clear your own table where I am, in Ontario. I do remember going into a Wendy’s a while back (at least ten years ago) and being unable to clear my table and feeling quite upset, and complaining via the little comment card. The problem seemed to be that they were relying on the ‘we’ll clean up’ model but trying to staff it using the ‘customer self-clean’ model. It was unpleasant to go there and see the tables that customers had been unable to clear. I’m glad they changed.
Also, what of mall food courts, where a bunch of fast-food places share a common seating area? There everyone (except for the occaisional uncivilised person) clears their own tables. Perhaps food courts would not have come about wiithout the change in custom that CookingWithGas mentioned.
I’m sure it all started at the Golden Arches, or subliminally, the golden bosoms .
I agree with Balthisar and CookingWG that patrons are not required/compelled/responsible to buss their table. If everyone stopped doing it, the owners would have to hire enough workers to keep their restaurants clean.
If you want to clean your table go for it, (read: add to the owners profit margin), but don’t get upset with people that don’t want to do it. They are not inconsiderate. They are not slobs. It is not their job.
Don’t see a clean table? Tell the manager to have one cleaned for you. How many additional people would it really take to clear the tables in an average McD’s?
Does anyone really think that having your table cleaned for you is part of the service you pay for at a place like McD’s? Really?
Do you wait for the Maitre D to sit you?
Do you order at the counter or do you wait for someone to come take your order?
Do you carry your own food to your table or does someone bring it to you?
Do you tip?
If you really think that these businesses are going to simply hire people to clean the tables without increasing the cost of your food, you are pretty delusional, in my opinion. It seems bizarre you would really think that. It might happen if they thought it would bring in more customers and higher profit, but my guess is McD’s isn’t trying to sell you that atmosphere.
There are many services people have chosen to give up in favor of saving some money. Those listed above as part of your dining experience are just some of the ones you give up for cheap food at a place like McD. Pumping your own gas is another example. In my town there are several grocery stores, and one of them forces you to bag your own groceries. They simply won’t do it for you unless you have a special need. They also don’t take debit/credit cards. Why? It adds to their cost. They also happen to be the least expensive store in town. Eliminating many of these ‘niceities’ means a lower cost to the consumer. Guess which one I shop at? There is another store here in which people have the option of scanning their own purchases. The payoff there is a shorter wait to exit. I’ll take that any day over the ‘service’ of having someone scan my purchases.
My guess is that a retailer will offer the same products as other retailers at a lower price (or some other benefit) to the consumer in lieu of some service. If the consumers are willing to accept the compromise, it catches on and pretty soon that becomes the norm. Eventually, though, people might complain they are getting less service than what was once offered, forgetting that they are now paying less. I’m also willing to bet that if the service is that important to you, you can find a place that will offer it to you, but you will pay for it. McD/BK/Wendy’s, etc. are selling you cheap food with little service. If you want more service, go elsewhere.
Um, there is a friggin’ POINT to them giving you a tray, and HANDILY providing a place to deposit the tray HANDILY over the trash bins. A fast food place is party cafeteria - you walk into line, get the food you want, eat it, return the dishes, and leave. It speeds up the time because no one needs to wait on you or clear your table - you take your burger, sit down, unwrap it, chow down, chug a soda, toss the wrapper and napkin onto the tray, dump the tray, and leave, so someone else can use the table. They aren’t cleaned after every patron, because you are using the tray and wrapper basically as a table cover that you take with you. If they were going to bus the tabloe for you, the burger would cost more, and you’d have a plate instead of a cheap ass tray and disposable covers.
If there were a waiter/busboy, you’d be tipping them. The result is that you spend less on a full meal for two people at a fast food place than you would on the friggin’ tip at a real restaurant - and you still expect them to wipe your as- er, table?
It’s the difference between a “restaurant” and a “workaurant”!
from a “Steak 'n Shake” TV commercial
Is this a regional thing? Our family took a trip to Florida when I was a kid, and I was amazed to see that no one bussed their own tables at the fast food restaurants we went to. The trash cans were there just like at home, but people left their trash on the table for the employees to clean up. In Montana (where we lived then) and in Minnesota (where I live now), almost nobody does that. You put your trash in the trash cans and set the trays on top, and if you don’t, you look like a lazy slob.
I find it amusing that you think they’ll simply absorb the cost of hiring more workers.
“Drat, Ronald, they’ve stopped bussing their tables! They’re on to us!”
“Aw hell! I guess I won’t be able to make the payments on that new Porsche!”
'Cause, gawd knows they’d never jack up the price of a burger to cover the cost of hiring new workers.
Gosh, your kids must be so proud to have a parent that incredibly lazy!
Look at places like Perkins, Denny’s, or Big Boy. They offer cheap food, take your order, and bus your table. But they also don’t sell you a burger for under a buck.
If you are such a lazy slob that you can’t return your tray to the trash can, then don’t eat there. All it does is makes the employees’ lives that much more miserable.
Also, when I worked at KFC, it was expected at closing that I would have to wipe the tables, sweep and mop the floors. (We also wiped/swept/mopped throughout the day) And if I had to clean up after lazy people who left trash every where, it only added to the time that I was on the clock, thereby adding to how much KFC had to pay me. Sure, it might have only added 10 minutes, but add that to every resturaunt they run. It adds up.
The moral of the story is: if you don’t clean up after yourself, you have no right to bitch when Burger King raises the price of it’s kid’s meals by a dime.
Shall I get off my soap box now?
It’s mostly the dirty tables that bug me. Not trash, but food stuff. And sneezes, etc. I could bring my own cleaning supplies, I guess.
And the fact that a lot of the time when you go to toss your trash, the can is overflowing.
Personally, I’ll pay the extra dime.
Peace,
mangeorge
Leaving your garbage on a table at a fast food place is an option, but what if everyone did it? It would be worse.
Even in this less than stellar economy, outside of the inner cities and college towns it can be pretty hard to fully staff a fast food place, let alone find extra help to clear and clean tables during peak periods. If the place is shorthanded, service suffers even more to send a food handler out to the dining room for a quick sweep.
If the owner can find extra help, it’s an extra paycheck. The owner will try to pass the cost along to the consumer if the competition allows it. If he cannot pass the extra cost along, subtle but bad things happen. It the owner is not meeting his profit targets, there is a huge temptation to cut back on costs to make up the difference: a little less beef on your taco, keep the food in the holding bins a few minutes more prior to throwing it out, cheaper soap and toilet paper in the restrooms, watering down the drinks a bit, putting off improvement and repair projects, cut back on raises and increase turnover while service suffers.
Aestehtically, it’s just ugliness for everyone else who has to look at someone else’s garbage left on a table.
It is more repulsive to throw out someone else’s trash than one’s own. Presuming the fast food place does not have sufficient staffing to keep tables cleared during peak periods, the trash leaver, therefore, gets a free pass while the next patron who clears the previous patron’s table pays more than double what the first patron saved. Inefficient and unfair.
Where no one is cleaning up after himself, everyone suffers more or less equally, so I guess everyone deserves what he gets in that situation.
However, those who do not clear their own tables where others are cleaning up after themsleves are classic “freeriders:” they get the most of the benefit of lower prices and better service caused by others cleaning up after themselves without having to do the work themselves.
This question is factually asked and answered.
As to those who want to have a debate about what one “should” do or whether restaurants “should” follow this or that policy, please be advised that
NO ONE GIVES A FLYING FUCK ABOUT YOUR OPINIONS IN GENERAL QUESTIONS! THIS IS A FACTUAL FORUM.
Persons unable or unwilling to learn this will soon be former members of this message board. Thank you for your attention to this matter.