Menu by number is making people stupid. I only discovered this the other day when I went to TOGO’s. I looked at the menu board and not seeing what I wanted, proceeded to tell the sandwich girl/artiste/whatever what I wanted, which was of course the world’s best sandwich*.
Me: I’d like a turkey, bacon and avocado sandwich.
S g/a/w: Huh. Which number is that?
Me: It’s not up there but you have two similar.
S g/a/w (after perusing the menu): Well you could have a number 16 that’s turkey and avocado.
Me: Sure. Can you add bacon?
S g/a/w: uhm, wait you can have a number 12, that’s a turkey club.
Me: Great: Can you hold the cheese and add avocado?
This apparently caused some kind of feedback loop because she merely blinked for at me. A second g/a/w arrived and there was a conference. The first g/a/w still looked a little hesitant but finally announced she’d make me the turkey and avocado, but would charge me for a club. I had the same problem at Subway last week. I swear the g/a/w there was absolutely crushed when I didn’t want pickles, olives, oil and the rest of that crap Subway foists on the hapless.
FTR, the world’s best sandwich in addition to the turkey, bacon and avocado, should have a few tomato slices, lettuce, mayo and a dab of mustard.
We went to a branch of the largest chain of ice cream stores in our area last week.
I asked the Zombie behind the counter if they had soft-serve ice cream. Completely blank look. “Soft what?” Eventually a “senior” employee came over and explained to her what soft-serve ice cream was. Of course they don’t sell it. Only a couple places in our county even sell vanilla soft-serve, forget trying to get chocolate.
We live in a country where ice cream store workers don’t even know what soft-serve ice cream is. This explains a lot.
When I was vegetarian, Subway used to offer meal deals on specific sandwiches: you could get a club sandwich, drink, and chips for a pretty decent price. No problem, I thought: given that their veggie delite sandwich was just a club sandwich minus the meat, that’s what I’d get instead.
No deal. I had an employee categorically refuse to make me a club sandwich, hold the meat, and charge me for the club sandwich deal.
This is bizzarre. I eat at Subway whenever I travel (i.e. rather often) and I’ve never once found them reluctant to make the sandwich exactly as I request.
I don’t like fries. Or “patatas bravas” (diced fries, with a sauce made by mixing ketchup and mayo although it actually should be mayo with red pepper), which is the alternative offered by many Spanish chains.
In a town nearby, the company that owns most of the fast food joints has a policy that if you order, say, the club sandwich and soda but no fries and that comes up to more than the club sandwich menu - they should charge for the menu. In their sandwich places, you can ask for an additional item (some items are added free, some are 10ç charge), ask for a change of bread or ask to have an item taken out. Most of the girls will give it some thought (or call another girl who’s better at this) to see if you can actually get a better price for “the vegetal plus tuna” than for “the house minus egg”.
If I ever meet the woman who owns that company, I’ll have to be restrained from giving her a huge hug.