Just now I went to lunch at the food court of a major shopping center downtown. My choice was a sandwich place. Now, this particular place makes hot sandwiches to order. That means putting raw meat (raw meat sheets, really) on a hot griddle, frying it up, and then asking the customer whether (s)he wanted the sandwich exactly as it’s listed on the menu or not. IOW, this isn’t a place where you can just have cold cuts slapped on bread; it takes a few minutes (though not long per sandwich). The griddle, BTW, and its process is in plain view.
The line was a little longer than I’m used to, but it’s the lunch rush, so I didn’t think anything of it. Only after I’ve ordered and paid do I see what’s going on: three guys have put in an order for at least ten sandwiches - possibly as many as fourteen or fifteen (though the actual number’s probably twelve or thirteen). Obviously, this takes quite a while - significantly longer than normal. A rather large line of already-ordered people forms because of it.
My question is: did those three guys (obviously ordering lunch for an entire work group or crew) do anything wrong, etiquette-wise? Were they under any obligation whatsoever to do anything differently (like divide lunch among more than one place, which would obviously inconvenience them), assuming the consequences of their decision even occurred to them until it was too late?
Nope. Not even a little. Them’s the breaks for the folks behind them.
One time I was in a similar situation - the ladies in front of me were putting in a huge order at a not-quite-fast-food restaurant. The owner spotted me and my friend standing in line behind them, came around the counter, and took our orders so that they’d go in first. One of the benefits of being a regular.
I was once in a fast food line right behind someone who was on their cell phone getting orders from everyone in the office and giving them individually to the counter person. Now that’s extremely rude.
Yes, this. If it’s just one person taking an order from someone on the cell, OR a big order that you have completely organized are okay. But put them both together and it’s defiantly a fox paw.
What’s the alternative, all 10 people show up and give the order individually, crowding up the place? At least they seemed to be doing it in an orderly fashion. I think the issue is just that you perceive the process shouldn’t be taking as long as it is because there are only 3 people ahead of you, so it just seems rude. If you saw 10 people there you’d probably mentally go “whoa, big line today” and settle in for a wait or go elsewhere.
I’ve been in drive-through lanes behind people who are makng very large, complicated orders.
Initially, that pisses me off.
But on reflection, it shouldn’t. It is not against the law, or any common courtesy that I am aware of, to make large orders at fast food restaurants.
Whether the customer makes it at the counter, at the drive-through, or by splitting the order up between several people, is immaterial and irrelevant.
I do have an issue being behind someone at a drive-through who is obviously having a drawn-out debate with every person in their ordering group about what they want. It’s fast food for shit’s sake. Know what you want, order and GO. Let’s not have a lengthy discussion about how many packets of hot sauce, or whether you want the small or large fries at the counter, please.
The order giver did nothing wrong. It would have been a nice courtesy if the business said (before you paid) that they just received a big order and your wait will likely be longer than usual.
Erm, maybe call ahead? Give the shop time to prep 30-45 sandwiches?
Anytime, I’ve been sent out for lunch for the office team, and had more than 1-2 orders, I call first and let them know I have 10 orders and find out when it will be ready. If it’s more than, say, ten orders, I’ll put that order in a couple days in advance, maybe even a week, to avoid the risk of the restaurant running out of an ingredient because the manager had no idea to order extra stuff (cheese, lettuce, tomato, whatevs) because they usually don’t have orders for 45 sandwiches coming in all at once. Restaurant people plan for big orders like this, so I think it’s a courtesy, both to the staff as well as to the other customers, to give the shop a heads up that they’re going to run out of corned beef next Thursday.
But yeah, there really isn’t anything wrong with what these three fellas did; but I do think it’s a lapse of courtesy.
I think they should have called ahead. I’ve worked in plenty of restaurants and that’s usually how businesses handle large lunch orders. That way the food is ready when the payers arrive and they aren’t wasting their time or anyone elses.
Just because you have an hour lunch doesn’t mean I do.
Strictly speaking, they did nothing wrong. Fast food places are first come, first served places. They have three guys with long lists rather than 15 guys buying one apiece. Same diff. It’s just the perception that the line is shorter than it is.
Practically speaking, if they know ahead of time it makes sense to call in orders. Primarily, it lets the store pre-prep the sandwiches so they can have them ready for pick up, speeding up the recipient’s time while also allowing other customers to work in and not be delayed as bad.
But it’s not a requirement, or a necessary courtesy. What if they didn’t know they were going to order from this shop until 15 mins ago when they decided what to do for lunch?
Now talking on the phone to take the orders and place them one at a time, and working out the details real-time - that is a bit rude. Especially for several orders.
That probably would have helped. But I once worked in a place like that, and you still have to have a couple of people filling that order at the expense of the customers in line. It’s better, but not great.
Of course we had the people that called in big orders, and we’d tell them that their food would be ready in 30 minutes, and they’d show up in 2 minutes, PISSED that their order wasn’t ready yet. I guess they thought that by using the phone, their sandwiches would magically appear.
Yes, but would a Subway/Quiznos/McDonalds/Jimmy Johns/wherever actually get a large order together ahead of time for any random person who calls in? Or do they only do this for customers they already know?
Because I am reading the OP as a Subway-type establishment. And I’m not sure that sort of place would ready up a bunch of custom sandwiches just on the basis of a single phone call.
I don’t know if it is rude per se but IMO it starts at lack of thinking of others and eventually becomes rather inconsiderate.
I mean. I am in line at McDonalds. I could walk up and order 200 hamburgers. If they take my order overeverbody elses its gonna be awhile before anybody gets jack.
The people who sent John, Bob, and Jim to get those 45 samiches aren’t wastig their time standing in line. All those people behind John, Bob, and Jim ARE having their time wasted because they DIDN"T know a big assed order was ahead of them.
Hmm… This looks like a good place to tack on my question.
I go to a popular sandwich shop and see that there’s a significant line but go ahead and queue up.
Look at the menu board and make my choice, whip out my handy cell phone and call in my order. By the time I get to the front of the line my order is ready and I just say “I have a call-in for Projammer”. Or just change over to the take-out line and wait for my order to come up.
Pretty much my feelings. I’ve had polite disagreements with coffee shops before, where they’ve taken my order and neglected to mention the entire Chester-Perry building had been over to order their morning meeting lattes and subsequnetly it would be well over 20 minutes (that I didn’t have) before my coffee would be ready.
Had they said “Hey, the entire Chester-Perry building has ordered lattes, it’s going to be a while before we can get to your drink,” I can thank them for their honesty and go somewhere else (there being no shortage of places to get coffee) - but I’m likely to return the next time I want a coffee.
However, taking my money and then waiting until I say “Guys, I really need to be somewhere else right now, how’s the coffee coming along?” before mentioning there’s like a million orders ahead of mine? That’s an excellent way to make sure I go to your competitors first in the future.
It may not be Bad Etiquette when the person ahead of you in line whips out a notebook and starts ordering sandwiches for the dozen people in her department - but it’s damn annoying.
The Subway I occasionally eat at where this happens, does not have an overabundance of staff to handle sudden big orders. Maybe the people who are planning these mass orders could think of two alternate options - calling in a takeout order from a bigger establishment, or getting off their fat haunches and coming down individually or in small groups to get their food, instead of hanging up on line everyone else who has limited lunch time.