The key phrase in your post is “paid to…” Most people will put forth an effort which is relatively proportionate to what they get they get paid. For six dollars an hour, you’re going to get six dollars worth of effort, not twelve. You get what you pay for.
When you go to a McDonalds you know that what you end up with in your bag is going to a bit of a crap shoot. To be fair, 90% of the time they get it right, but if you know there’s going to be that other ten percent you should preemptively remove any chance that you could get some potentially health threatening.
Fast food workers process hundreds of orders a day, much of the work is very repititious. Your brain turns to oatmeal after a while and it’s hard to remember every detail of every order. It may seem simple to you, but you haven’t already processed 900 other orders that day, many of them special “grill” orders. Mistakes happen, and frankly, FF workers aren’t paid enough to try any harder than they do. Getting mad at the counter guy doesn’t really accomplish anything since he doesn’t give a shit anyway. Blame the corporations that treat their employees like shit, pay them nothing, forbid their managers from give them enough hours to trigger any benefits and meanwhile rake in billions in profits for themselves.
If FF workers got paid decently and were treated with some dignity by their companies you’d see a huge difference in attitude.
Myself, I don’t grandstand if I need to send food back. I’ll pick off the tomatoes or the pickles or whatever, but when someone’s spread ketchup or mustard or mayo over a sandwich I don’t want it on, I’ll get back in line (see how nice I am?) and say “'Scuse me, I ordered this without ketchup (or whatever), and I got it with.”
Sometimes they snatch it back without a word, sometimes they apologize. I don’t care, as long as I get my food.
I know how awful it is working in those places. I know how it is when you can’t get a job anywhere else.
But if anyone ever, ever, EVER puts anything extra into my food and I find out about it, they’ll have the health department in their kitchen so fast it’ll make their heads spin. I’d write to corporate headquarters and explain how very, very lucky they are that I’m not considering a lawsuit. Probably. Yet.
By the same token, I wouldn’t mind paying an extra dollar per meal if they could treat and pay their employees better. I just know, though, that any increase in price just goes into the pockets of the executives. Sigh.
Let’s all of us magnanimous righters of society’s wrongs start tipping those poor schmucks behind the counter with each purchase!!! Just slip 'em a buck as they hand you your tray or bag of “goodies”! They’ll love you for it! They might even find remorse in their little hearts for gobbing your burger or hocking into your shake.
Want to change the way corporations treat their drones?
It’s only 4 bucks where you live? Lunch here at the local fast food places tends to be between 7 and 10 bucks. Fast food from McDonalds (a combo) is usually over 5 but sometimes over 6 depending on where you go.
The stories related in this thread remind me this incident (which was the topic of another thread) that happened to me.
One evening, I went into a tavern/sandwich shop in Washington State and, upon seeing it was the daily special, decided to order a barbecue beef sandwich. I expected to get beef simmered in BBQ sauce on a large bun but, when I received my sandwich, I discovered a thick slathering of mayonnaise all over it. Now, I’m allergic to mayonnaise, so whenever I order any other type of sandwich I always tell whoever’s taking the order to hold the mayo. Yet, in this case, because I’ve never heard of anyone ever automatically putting mayonnaise on a BBQ beef sandwich, I didn’t ask for it to be left off. I told the waitress that I couldn’t eat a sandwich with mayo and she took it back. However, next thing I know, the fascist owner of the tavern is angrily giving me my money back and telling me that’s the way he makes his BBQ beef sandwiches and that if I don’t like it, I should take my money and leave. Since he looked liked he was ready to kill me, that’s what I did but not before I heard him call me a “piece of shit” as I went out the door.
Okay, I realize this didn’t happen at a fast food place but it does go to show that people at independent joints can be just as nasty about a customer’s order.
Not a fast food story, but a restaurant story: Family style restaurant, a Denny’s-like place. The waitress was very accommodating to us wanting our burgers on wheat toast instead of rolls (we gave up white flour. . .). I wanted a bacon cheeseburger, but the only one they had listed was a BBQ Bacon Cheeseburger. So, I ordered it, but added, “No BBQ sauce on that, please”. The waitress said, “I can just bring it on the side” “No need,” I answered, “I don’t eat BBQ sauce” “Oh. I’ll just put it in a little cup on the side then”. Right, whatever. I didn’t say anything. She brought the sauce in a cup on the side, and I proceeded not to eat it.
Since giving up white flour, I often go to Wendy’s and order a Big Bacon Classic and small chili. I take a knife and fork, sit down, take the burger off of the bun, cut up the burger and eat it. I’ve thought about trying to order the burger without the bun, but it might just be too much for about 15% of the counter workers at fast-food places. I could envision this:
Me: Big Bacon Classic, no bun please.
FFW: Dude. It comes with a bun.
Me: I know, but I don’t eat white bread.
FFW: It’s not bread. It’s a roll.
Me: Yeah, whatever.
Good lord! I swear that the people on this board read my mind to steal my thoughts and post as their own then feed them to their CIA controlled Zetian overlords. I was just about to post the same rant about Togos.
I love the crushed ice they have at Sonic, and I usually order a big big cup of soda, just so I can have ice afterwards. Invariably, when I ask for extra ice (meaning I don’t want two pitiful melting icedroplets in my soda), I end up with no ice at all.
It could mean that, but it’s a lot more likely to mean what benson said. I know a lot of people who request their pop with “light ice,” meaning easy on the ice. It’s a pretty common phrase that fast food people use to mean less of something. So, don’t worry–you’re getting your full-fat mayonnaise!
I’m not going to attempt to describe my late-night trip to Taco Bell when the drive-through lady said, “I’m sorry–we’re out of meat.”
Diogenes, Diogenes. What a sad way to live, giving only what is asked. (Or more accurately, less than what was asked.) If I ever handle a legal matter for you, I’ll only give you $200 of effort, not $10,000.
I’m a reformed junk-food junkie (hypertension ended my addiction), and, barring a language barrier, like during my college years in San Antonio.
(At Taco Cabana)
Me: I’d like 2 chicken fajitas w/ guacamole and cheese & a large tea.
Fast-food Guy: OK-you ticket number 92. (order processed & delivered)
Me: Excuse me, this is beef, not chicken (note-this was a standard menu item). (Hand order to FF Guy)
FF Guy: Ticket #92?
Me: Yes.
FF Guy: Your order! (Pushes tray back at me)
Me: No! No! Pollo! Uh, no Beef! (My second language is German, not Pidjin Spanish)! Pollo Fajitas! (Pushing tray back to FF Guy)
FF Guy: 92?
Me: Yes, Si, No beef!
FF Guy: (handing me the fajitas and tray seperately, talking slooooowly and looooooudly) 92. Tea. 2 Fajitas.
Woman who was there with me: (sniggering) Third Base!
Those were some good beef fajitas.
I expect to get what I order, wherever I eat. Sometimes, I had to pay extra to get it my way, but I’d rather have it right than cheap. That time, I just didn’t have the energy to push the issue.
I lived in Japan for awhile. I kind of dug the eggs on everything. One of my favorites was spaghetti with a fried egg on top. Sounds gross, but it was actually really good.
I’ll tell you, the Japanese LOVE their mayonnaise. I have never seen so much mayo on a sandwich in my life.
Ha, ha. I noticed that kind of thing everywhere. When you’re used to getting extra stuff for free in the U.S., it’s really culture-shock when they do things like charge you for bread in a restaurant. On the other hand, it was heaven not having to figure out the tip.
I used to go to a particular take-out place in Japan, and just point at the picture of the one I wanted. I always thought the clerk was saying “Chicken Number 1”. I took it to work for lunch one day, and my co-worker asked me which one I got, and I replied, “I got Chicken Number 1”. After he stopped laughing, he informed me that it was called “Chicken Nanban”.:o
As a hip, young trendster in the sixties, my mother worked in a high class restaurant and The Beatles came in.
She was the head waitress, so the boss asked her to wait on them.
John Lennon made a huge deal about not wanting any fried food then asked for whatever it was he wanted, with chips.
I do not like tomatoes or mustard on my hamburger, so when I go to a fast food place, I tell them, “No mustard and no tomato”. Simple and uncomplicated.
I went to a Subway once in the 'hood (on the way to work). They had a steak sandwich on sale with A-1 sauce on it. I don’t like A1 so I told them “No A1”. I ended up getting the steak sandwich with no meat.
