Clerks, fast food, and you.

The BBQ Pit
41

The thing I hate, and I’ve especially noticed this at the McDonalds by school, is when the counter person stares right through me (standing 18 inches in front of her) and says “Can I help whoever is next.” I’m next, damn it. Ask if you can help me.

I was in California for the weekend and went to In N Out Burger for the first time. I was so stunned by the service that I actually remarked to my family: “Can you believe he actually looked me in the eye when he talked to me, and he smiled at me?” True story. I was very impressed and surprised. Do they really pay a lot more to attract better employees?

42

There’s a recruitment sign at the local In-N-Out which states that the starting pay is $9.45 an hour.

43

You call that a flame? Go back into the break room at jack in the box and resume fantasizing about the fry-girl, moron.

Only if I expected your sister to charge more than $1.50 for a rim-job.

Otherwise, where would you get a job?

I’m not cheap. I am in a hurry sometimes, though, and that is the whole idea behind so-called fast food. If it’s not fast, they won’t make money for long.

I don’t have trouble dealing with reality, in fact, I think that if it’s called fast food, it should be fast. You seem to have trouble grasping the fact that you’re a total idiot.
Maybe you should take some of your own advice.
According to the OP, anyone who get’s offended by this thread must be one of the high-school drop-outs mentioned. I’m sorry you got all wounded because I bashed the only job your dumb-ass can get. Chump.

Hey, he really does work at a taco bell! No thanks, but I would like you to re-arrange the following words:
"off " and “fuck”.
Dumbass.

Don’t bother replying, I am done with you. You may leave now.
Or, reply if you want to, but I’m not going to waste anymore time dignifying the moronic bullshit you post with a reply.

“Winners never quit and quitters never win, but those who never win and never quit are idiots.”

44

Lexicon wrote:

Heh heh, my sentiments exactly.

This is the first time I’ve seen someone do a good job at flaming himself.

There’s always another beer.

45

Dude, fast-food service is what you get when you don’t tip. Even a dollar would really change someone’s attitude toward you. Really, someone who makes minimum wage and doesn’t personally profit from your pleasure shouldn’t be expected to care if your fries are cold. If you bitch that just makes more work for them. If they bitch back maybe you’ll give up and go away, and they can still get their $5.25 and hour.

46

I believe it was Joe Pesci who said: “They FUCK you at the drive in.” Same principal.

The not-english thing doesn’t bother me. Hey, we all gotta make a buck, even those for whom English is a second language. But what pisses me off is when the counter people move slower than an old lady with weights. I was in MacDonalds for 1/2 hour waiting in line last Friday. There were MAYBE 10 people on two lines. That’s 5 people per line. Take the order, move aside, take the order, move aside. But the counter people didn’t get it. They’d take the order, s…l…o…w…l…y get the soft drink and fries, meander over to the grill, talk to the grill guy, meander back, wait till the burger or whatever was done, and then ring up the sale. ARGH. And THEN I order my vegetarian McDonalds usual: A cheeseburger with the works, without the meat. The chick repeated it back to me three times before saying, in an increadulous voice, “You mean a VEGGIE burger?” Um, no, jackass. That would mean there was some burger-like material in the bun I just want a godammed bun with some processed cheese, a couple pieces of wilted lettuce and a tomato. How hard it that? The whole reason I went there was because I was hard-up on time. I could have gotten real food in 1/2 hour. FEH.

hmmm…I like posting in the Pit.

47

I second all of those who have said you should vote with your dollar. If you don’t believe the food and service are worth what they charge don’t go there. Lex, I believe you agee with this, as you say you have sworn off that Taco Bell.

My story: McD’s less than 1 mile from our apartment, we get burgers and fries, get home, bite in, and the burgers are medium rare. I mean mooing and bleeding in the middle. I called the manager, without using the countless profanity filling my skull, and advised him of the problem. He said he would give us a free meal the next time we came in. I calmly explained that the chances were very slim that we would ever be there again. In fact, the only way he had an outside chance of ever getting out business again would be to cook us fresh burgers and fries and deliver them to us immediately. Believe it or not, the guy did it, and refunded our money. We went back several times, but have since moved.

If the quality or service does not live up to your expectations tell the manager, in a nonconfrotational manner. Give them a chance to make it right. If they can’t or won’t, don’t ever go there again.

Or keep going the the damn place, keep getting shitty food and service with an attitude, keep giving them your money, and find a message board or something on the freakin internet where you can whine about it.

48

Excuse me…Excuse me…can I say something??

I worked in the fast food and the food service industries during college. I was a waitress for over a year and I made $2.80 an hour plus tips. That sucks!

I simply cannot feel any sympathy for fast food workers. They get paid minimum wage and do not have half the duties that waitresses do. I will not tip a fast food worker. That is utterly ridiculous to me!

As I said, I worked in the fast food industry for a few years and it did suck too. However, I got paid minimum wage and did not have to worry about whether my customer was having a bad day and would not leave a tip.

This is my opinion. If you disagree, that is your opinion. If you feel the need to flame me, please be gentle. LOL :slight_smile:

What matters most is how you see yourself.

49

Tip some dipshit that’s working in a fast food joint? Fuck that and a half, man. They get paid to do the only job they can fuckin’ get, and they should do it as best they can. Don’t give me any “times are tough” shit, either.
The bottom line is, if they don’t like their job, they can fuckin’ quit. As long as they’re there, they need to do at least a passable job, or get the fuck out.
As far as times being tough, I got a few choice words for that:
If you don’t like flippin’ burgers, learn to fuckin’ type, cause if you’re expectin’ me to tip you for a job you’re already gettin’ paid to do you’re in for a big fuckin’ suprise.

Damn fast food fucks, (not to mention the retards that sympathize with them!) makin’ me curse like an imbecile.

Fuck!

Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken.

50

The only time I go to fast food places is if I’m travelling and want to eat in my car, or if my son really REALLY wants a happy meal/kids meal. Hey, he’s four. He doesn’t care. We get him a “cheeseburger kids meal with no meat” which is a bun with American cheese, ketchup and pickles (eeewww!!!) and he eats it and says “delicious” so what can ya do? Plus he gets fries and a toy that keeps him happy for a while.

I do have a weakness for McDonald’s breakfast items though… sigh

–
I have over 2000 posts, dammit! Show some respect.
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O p a l C a t
www.opalcat.com

51

Just want to get something clarified–Occam, are you saying people should tip fast-food service workers, like at McDonalds, in order to get better service? Or are you saying, “Go to a sit-down restaurant, instead of McDonalds, where you can tip the waitress and so get better service”?

FWIW: when I worked in the fast-food industry, we were not allowed to accept tips. Back then (say early '70’s) there would still be the occasional old-fashioned gentleman or little old lady who didn’t quite grasp the concept of fast-food (that service was included), and would try to tip you for handing them their bag of burgers. We were not allowed to accept these. I doubt whether Burger King has changed their policy on this.

“Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast!” - the White Queen

52

In defense of counter people everywhere, I would just like to mention that it is an established fact that clueless members of the public do occasionally, for reasons best known to themselves, lean pointlessly on the counter, and when you ask, “May I take your order, sir?” they look startled and say, “Oh, um, no, I’m just waiting for my wife to get here, she’s got the kids in the bathroom.” Particularly clueless members of the public have also been known to elbow their way up to the front of the line, so they’re, like, at the counter in between the cash registers, and then lean on the counter staring into space while they decide what they’d like to eat. If you assume they’re just deciding what to eat, and ignore them and don’t ask them if they’d like to order, after a minute they’ll bite your head off–“Hey, ya wanna take my order or shall I go down the street…” (Not everybody realizes you’re supposed to get IN LINE behind the OTHER PEOPLE who are already STANDING IN LINE).

Howevr, sometimes if you assume the opposite, that these people leaning on the counter in between the cash registers are next, and ask them if they’d like to order, you frequently are told, “Um, no, I’m still deciding…” and then they’ll barge into the middle of the next person’s order, their eyes still focused up on the menu board, “Uh, yeah, I want, um, a Big Mac,…” And then you have to tell them, “Sir, excuse me, but you’ll have to wait until I’m done” and then they get pissed off. (These are the ones that nearly always will come back up to the counter over and over again, looking for ketchup, napkins, straws, etc.)

So–one of the first things a counter person learns is to ask out loud, “Who’s next?” because frequently there is literally NO WAY of telling. Even if you’re the only warm body there, MtnMn, for all she knows, you could be just standing there, listening to The Voices.

“Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast!” - the White Queen

53

One more thought: (hey, as long as I pushed this sucker over to 2 pages, might as well get my money’s worth!)

Big chains like McDonalds, Burger King, Taco Bell, have time and motion studies that break down the serving of fast food into hundreds of steps. They have whole libraries telling managers in exhaustive detail EXACTLY how to run a McDonalds, or Burger King, or Taco Bell. Managers get huge ring-binders stuffed full of detailed instructions, like how many steps the fry person should take to the freezer, how many hand motions it should take the burger dresser to put the pickles on the burger, etc. Working in a Big Chain can be perfectly terrifying–you are just a component on an assembly line.

Now, here’s my point. A good Big Chain manager understands two important things: (A) How his restaurant works, like the time-and-motion technical stuff in the ring binders (and also of course how to work the deep fat fryer. And (B), How To Motivate People.

A manager who does not understand both of these things will have a poorly-run restaurant, like the ones ya’ll have been complaining about. If he’s got time and motion down to a science, but all his employees hate his guts, for whatever reason, they’ll work badly, and you get a bad Fast Food Experience. You’ll be served quickly by cranky employees who don’t give a shit if you got the wrong thing.

If he’s the Boss of the Year but doesn’t have to heart to push people for more speed, or to make sure they do things the Right Way (which is by definition the Fastest, Best Way), you will also have a bad Fast Food Experience. You’ll be served your food by slow, happy employees.

So–just wanted to point that out. Don’t dump ALL the blame on the minimum-wage counter help. Put at least half of it on the manager back in the back, who doesn’t know what he’s doing, and, obviously, doesn’t care.

“Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast!” - the White Queen

54

What annoys me is when there’s a large, clearly marked tip jar sitting on the counter and a larger sign in the window reading “Help Wanted, $9+/hr to start”. Balls.

55

Oh boy! Oh boy!

I don’t know how it is in all fast food places, but locally, most hire A: school kids who shake my confidence in the State Public Education, C: minorities in high numbers.

I go into 1 of 2 Taco Bells to buy their cardboard taco’s with two tiny bits of tomato on them (unlike their display pictures) now that they ran Taco Viva (an excellent taco place) out of business. Usually I eat after the savage lunch rush and get treated to the 98% all Black staff A: loudly discussing their love lives, B: playing loud rap music over the store system, C: leaning out of the drive through and talking at great length to girl or boy friends, D: letting the work know whose ass they’re gonna kick and E: going to the register to take my order and looking and acting like they’re stoned.

I go to KFC and find a 65% Black staff, but with no rap music, White girls usually young, usually tubby, usually not even close to looking pretty or even intelligent, and get to listen to them all jabbering on about their love lives. (What ever happened to being somewhat quiet while customers are eating?) They – Black and White – even pay attention to and shout back at the conversation in the kitchen while they clean up the tables!!

I hit McD’s around 10 to get a sausage egg, hash browns and coffee. Two Black girls are at the counter, looking confused, stupid or pissed. One is at the drive through, looking pissed, several are roaming around the fryer, grinning and joking and not doing much, a couple more are assembling orders, looking over worked. The White manager is off to one side, watching and looking like he is the 4th generation of inbreeding. The floor behind the counter is a vast wasteland of wrappers, fries, straws, napkins, and dirt. Some Black guy is out among the seats, looking bored and just kind of stirring the dirt around with a mop and not trying real hard to actually clean anything.

By the time I manage to get through the crowd of delayed and now pissed off customers, sweep the cold fries off of the counter before me, try not to put my hands in the ketchup smear, and have my order all set, it is 10:30. I order and am told that breakfast is OVER and that I CANNOT GET SAUSAGE BISCUIT AND HASH BROWNS AFTER 10:30!! I look at the clock. It clicks to 10:31. All around me I hear growls of anger from other pissed off customers.

I leave. I stupidly tried this 4 times with the same responses (actually, I arrive twice in time to get in line just as they said breakfast was over) before I stopped going there.

One time I went to a fast food place, a new KFC and the pert Black girl ACTUALLY LOOKED AT ME WITH AWARENESS and took my order, was sweet, pleasant and cheerful and I almost forgot to pay, I was so stunned! The place was CLEAN and no loud rap music boomed from the speakers and later, a White girl came out to industriously clean the tables, ASKED ME IF EVERYTHING WAS OK, and did not yell back into the kitchen with comments concerning whatever was going on in there! I did not get bored by listening to anyone’s tales about their love life!

Some mornings, it’s just not worth chewing through the leather straps.

56

Yeah, Sentinel, I hear ya. Boy do I hate it when my fast food help is not attractive. “tubby” and “not even close to looking pretty”? I tell ya, makes me want to head right on over to NaziBurger and eat there instead.
Putz.

(Sorry Wally)

“You don’t have insurance? Well, just have a seat and someone will be with you after you die.” --Yes, another quality sig custom created by Wally!

A Jesusfied sig: Next time I covet thine opinion, I’ll ask for it!

57

Yep, the fast “food” industry does hire a lot of clueless, drug-raddled, effective illiterate teenagers for its counterfolk (it also hires a fair number of retirees and the occasional competent working-age employee, but the previous statement is basically sound).

So, what to do about it?

Get a haircut. Get a real job. Stop eating at Mickey D’s, Taco Hell, and the rest of those places that open cans of dog food, slap it on some kind of starch, and charge $5 for it. Buy some food, for Heaven’s sake, and learn a style of cooking that a little more involved than setting the microwave on “high” for 30 seconds. Don’t expect someone else to do the work of tantalizing your jaded tastebuds.

“I don’t just want you to feel envy. I want you to suffer, I want you to bleed, I want you to die a little bit each day. And I want you to thank me for it.” – What “Let’s just be friends” really means

58

Evilbeth, have I told you lately that I love you?
:smiley:

“Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast!” - the White Queen

59

Its been my experience that some are smart and nice, and others aren’t.
McDonalds seems to be a particular hotbed or non smartness.
So many friends of mine say they’ve gone thru the drive thru and been missing an item they ordered.
I thought I’d go in one day; well, they did miss an item, and I was eating there!
Okay…

My home page

60

Man, I hear that. Last year of college, which was last year incidentally, I became an assistant manager at a Mickey D’s at school. Good lord those books sucked. The funny thing was that although the job wasn’t bad overall (spent 6 years working for Ray Kroc at 2 different stores) I knew most of the details already.

Back to thread topic. I agree, a lot of people that I worked with were pretty bad. I will admit that we had some pretty good managers (especially during the day) that tried to keep the standards up. Night shift suffered a little, but hey, we mostly catered to college kids anyway.

Yeah, 9 times out of 10 it was the employees fault for bad service. The other 1 time it was something out of their control, and I understand that. As a counter person, the best thing I heard was a customer relating to a situation beyond my control. If the customer was nice to me, I would bend my ass over backwards for them, even doing things that technically I wasn’t supposed to do.

Last point. In 6 years, the ONLY thing I have seen (relating to the “You don’t want to know what they do behind the counter to your food” idea), is a crew member took a dirty towel, and wrapped it in a cheesburger wrapper, in place of the burger. They were fired on the spot.

My 2cp.

Vispair: ™ (Inspired by Despair, Inc.)

Teamwork: When you do all the work, and your co-workers get the credit.
Irony: The light at the end of the tunnel is actually a pair of headlights.