… and I, as the customer, still have to notify an employee when the syrup runs out?
First world problem I know, but what’s up with that? It’s irritating, and sometimes it takes them so long to address it I’m gone already.
Nobody has solved that problem? Seems like an array of semi-sensitive scales hooked up to an alarm would be a good start.
When the syrup runs out, when the ice is gone, when your shoes stick to the floor so bad you actually step out of them when you move, when there are no more bubbles in the carbonation, and my very favorite: when the Coke tastes like diet root beer.
And when the counter service is so terrible, you are afraid to complain, because you think they’ll hand you the syrup/ice/mop, and tell you to take care of it yourself.
By the way, the toilet is stopped up, and there’s no more TP.
~VOW
When there is nazi graffiti written boldly on the mirror at the men’s room sink the employees didn’t seem to care. That took an email to corporate to get remedied. And yet whoever cleaned that up didn’t address any of the copious amounts of graffiti in the stall, including - you guessed it - more nazi themed white power graffiti.
When I worked at McDonald’s there were definitely alarms that went off when the syrup got low. The problem is those were all the way in the back and there’s a million other alarms going off at the same time. Also, having eight cars in the drive-thru waiting on food took precedent over the Diet Coke being watery.
I don’t like soda but drink a lot of tea. Iced tea done half-and-half (sweet & unsweetened, so it’s not friggin hummingbird nectar) is one of my faves. So fie! ptuey! at places with opaque iced tea things. Often one or the other is empty, after I’ve already started with the other one… and now what! Just drink the stuff? Bah.
Blessings upon places with see through iced tea dispensers, so we can all clearly discern the beverage levels.
When you tell the workers that the syrup runs out and you tell them and the employees don’t believe you. I’ve had this happen twice at different restaurants. Do employees really get people complaining about syrup that often and get it wrong?
Also there’s a 7-11 right next to my job that’s Coke gives you WAY too much syrup and it has been like this for months. I told the employees numerous times, they said they’d look into it and they never seem to actually do anything. You can actually see the difference since the soda is noticeably “thicker” when it comes out of its nozzle compared to the adjoining nozzles.
I remember being a kid and the cashier would give us the sodas from behind the counter while we waited for the burgers. Self serve has gone over to movie theaters now with those machines that have, like, 64 different sodas/drinks. That was probably less than a decade ago. How long has self serve been at fast food restaurants now? Since '80s?
Years ago, I was the “Technical” manager at a movie theater. One of my many jobs was to ‘brix’ the soda heads monthly.
I think I was the only person in our chain to do so.
Watch one of those “rehab” programs for restaurants and bars, and you can be appalled by the grossness of drink dispensers and ice machines!
My kids both worked fast food after high school graduation. They worked their butts off. But ultimately, the servicing and cleanliness are the manager’s responsibility. The slaves, I mean the line workers, do the grunt work, but the manager schedules the duties and MUST check everything to make sure the work is done properly.
My kids would come home dead tired, filthy, and pissed off at the world. I told them they were paying their dues. Once you’ve done an exhausting, grubby job, you know that you can handle ANYTHING that Life throws at you.
Now grown and with families of their own, they have tremendous respect for the minimum wage workers, and they both tip big at restaurants.
~VOW
Might as well throw in empty ketchup dispensers. What chaps my fanny is that most places that have ketchup dispensers have two of them, and they are usually BOTH empty!
My experience with those is with the Coca-Cola Freestyle machine, particularly the one at a restaurant near here that specializes in Philly cheesesteak sandwiches. Perhaps the machine is great if you want some oddball combination, but it takes too long to select the basic stuff, like regular Coke, Diet Coke or Coke Zero Sugar. Most recently, after it dispensed my selection, I waited while the foam on top settled so I could top off the cup. But by the time it did, the machine had reset and I had to go through the whole selection process all over again. Meanwhile other people are waiting to use the machine. (And I read someplace that the machine is relatively expensive for the restaurant.)
So I’m not a fan, although it’s fun to try once.
This article, posted before the show first aired, includes photos of the bridge set. (It also includes some details about it. For example, “When it comes to Orville science, they are paying attention to the little things, such as how the wall paneling on the ship is supposed to be a form of plant life that acts as CO² scrubber.” And it mentions that the design of the ship is based on the scientific theory behind the FTL propulsion system.
I worked at McDonald’s back when the counter worker made the soft drinks. There was this little tool that the manager had that you would put under each spout and it would dispense a small amount of liquid into two little barrels. It fit so that the syrup and the water went into separate barrels and had marks to make sure that the ratio was right. It was checked several times per day. That’s what they should still be doing at the very least but as the OP mentioned, there should be better tech now so that a manual check isn’t needed.
Obviously, wrong thread.
Our local mom-and-pop restaurant has both ketchup and mustard in large dispensers. However, mustard is considerably thicker than ketchup, which means you have to put a lot of effort into pumping it. Their solution is to water it down. Sometimes almost to the consistency of water itself. For some reason I find this a little offputting but probably not as offputting as the little dried mustard “icicles” that tend to grow from the spout. I still like to go there for a hot dog and chili, though.
I’ve never really been bothered by this. If you have something you always drink, it’s easy to zip through the selections, I think. I’ll tell you something I discovered by accident, though. Whatever is first in any particular category is the default drink (Coke, Diet Coke, Coke Caffeine Free, etc.) and will automatically be dispensed whether you’ve pushed the button on the screen or not. You only have to push a button if you want something else on their list.
Yeah, the only thing that annoys me about the Freestyle machines is when you get behind someone that’s never used one before.
We had one at my last job. If it ran out it immediately stopped dispensing that type (one time mid-pour for me), then greyed it out. I think i recall hearing that it could email someone whenever it had an issue too.
Generally more tolerable for me since they’d usually have at least one tolerable substitute.
The employees at a local 7-Eleven got so tired of me telling them that the chili and/or cheese dispensers were out that they showed me how to change the bags myself.
I would imagine it comes down to money- it’s perceived to be more expensive to buy/rig a system to notify you automatically when the level is low, than to just detail someone to keep track of that as part of their job duties. Problem is, that’s usually not their primary job, so it’s something that can get overlooked in the heat of a busy day.
I actually think it would be more useful if they gave LOW warnings in addition to or rather than empty warnings. That way, the guy has some time to take care of the problem before it impacts customers, and can work it into his schedule when things aren’t so busy.
As for the Freestyle machines, I’m surprised they don’t have a sort of “Quick Options” menu that would have the marquee products (Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite, Coke Zero), and then maybe the top 5 combinations for that machine that aren’t already in the marquee list. So if people in a particular location REALLY like cherry cokes, they can get that quickly, but if they want peach Mello Yello, they have to navigate the menus.
People probably use them about the same amount, so they’re going to run out very close to the same time. It’s not much different than having one twice as big dispenser.
Or some kid who wants to mix every combination into one cup. Both of these are a rarity, though. At least in my neck of the woods.