In my continuing adventures of always being behind the worst people in any store, I was behind a man at McDonald’s who asked for a Bacon Cheeseburger. The cashier told him they don’t have a Bacon Cheeseburger at McDonald’s and they didn’t even have strip bacon. There was a back and forth between the man and the cashier for at least a minute before the cashier asked her manager if she could manually add bacon to a cheeseburger and got the go ahead.
I looked it up and McDonald’s indeed has a Bacon McDouble and you can in fact add bacon to anything at McDonald’s.
Is this like that time I asked for a Big And Tasty Taco at Taco Bell and the cashier claimed they didn’t serve it and only later did I find out it was called the Big Taste Taco?
Training at McDonald’s consists largely (or it did when my kid worked there) of standing on the customers’ side of the counter and studying the menu board. If the employee is new or if the menu has changed recently, they may not be up to date.
Reminds me of the time I tried to buy Velcro at a Sears store.
From a thread in 2010:
“I can see that, but what about Velcro? Ever heard of it? Is there anybody on the continent who has never heard of it? Why yes, yes there is. The Sears employee I spoke to some years ago had no idea what it was. I even described what it looks like and sounds like when you pull it apart, and that it was used on practically every fucking thing from shoes to watchbands to wallets to jacket closures. Still had no clue. By the time the conversation was done, my wife was pulling me away because I was really losing it with this moron.”
As noted, the Quarter Pounder With Cheese Bacon, and/or the Bacon McDouble, appear to be standard menu items at U.S. McDonald’s. I suspect that, because, they do not have a sandwich which is literally named “Bacon Cheeseburger,” the cashier responded that way (though, to state, “we don’t have strip bacon, at all,” further underlines the clueless response).
I wonder if since the man in the OP said “cheeseburger” rather than “McDouble” or “Quarter Pounder”, the cashier though the he wanted a regular cheeseburger (the one with the smaller patty than the Quarter Pounder) with bacon. That is indeed not a thing on McDonald’s menu. Although a knowledgeable employee should ask for clarification in that case – “Did you mean the Quarter Pounder With Cheese Bacon, or the Bacon McDouble?” instead of just saying “We don’t have that.”
Right. 0.1 pounds (1.6 oz uncooked weight). What the crew called a 10-to-1 when my wife worked at a McDonald’s 40 years ago.
Hamburgers and cheeseburgers have 1 of those. A Big Mac has two.
And, in the simplified and unimaginitive lexicon of ordering fast food, a Quarter Pounder is not a cheeseburger, because a cheeseburger is made of a 10-to-1 and a slice of cheese. “Cheeseburger” is not a generic and using it that way can confuse the poor counter worker terribly.
My theory is that cashier is from good ol’ Midwestern farm stock. She knows what BACON is… it’s quarter-inch slabs of hog belly, smoked til it gives you dreams of a bonfire, then sizzling in Gramma’s cast-iron pan, deep-frying in its own fat.
So she knows McDonald’s doesn’t have bacon. And she’s saving every customer she can from having to chew on a tasteless paper-thin piece of petroleum by-product.
But you can order a cheeseburger add bacon. Depending on your mcdonalds it may be more expensive than the Bacon McDouble. But unless it’s some weird day where suppliers haven’t delivered any bacon or all the bacon got ordered earlier that day it shouldn’t be a thing.
This is also why you opt for the electronic kiosks so you don’t have to talk to people.
Can you? I didn’t see that option on their online menu, but I will take your word for it since I rarely go to McDonalds (although honestly this thread is making me crave a McDonalds cheeseburger).
Reminds me of the very first time I smoked pot back in the '60s. I went to McDonald’s and ordered a “ham jelly”. Of course this began an animated back-and-forth about whether McDonald’s sold ham jellies. They finally sold me a hamburger, and I sat down to eat it, while trying to decide whether or not I was naked.
Your response is interesting to me. I’ve never knowingly been a fast food restaurant where they limit what toppings you can get on what items. Is there some place where you know where this is the case?
Really? I would never assume you were allowed to add toppings unless the menu specifically said something like “With bacon, $1 extra”, unless I was at someplace like Five Guys that allows you to completely customize your burger.
Mcdonalds ordering system has buttons that are labeled. There likely isn’t a “bacon cheeseburger” button. There is a menu board that corresponds with their buttons. Order from the board and don’t be an asshole. These people take hundreds of orders per day. Have you noticed that in the drive through they are literally taking orders as they process your payment?
Well, this post surely will help all those hardworking fast food employees not be harassed. It is very helpful in showing how to be an asshole by example. Good job!
So for science, I downloaded the McDonalds app and placed an order for a hamburger. Right there, immediately next to the quantity is a button labeled “Customize”.
Clicking it gives you a variety of options (including deleting the hamburger patty) and one of those options is adding 2, 4 or 6 strips of bacon. I would have to make a strong guess that if that much customization is available in the app and kiosk environment, there must be the same options for the cashier.
I don’t see how asking for options that McDonalds explicitly provides makes one an asshole.