Food Service/Retail Woes

[Greatguardian]

I guess I lucked out. I've only had the pleasure of working one food service job, but I honestly really enjoyed it. I worked at a small sushi place in Fort Worth. The manager was really nice, friendly, and all of the employees and customers alike liked him. He went out and bought food to grill up for people's birthdays and holidays, and never had a problem giving customers discounts out of his own pocket if there was a problem. He also paid me time and a half any time he called me in to ask (ask being the key word, too) if I could work on my days off, since it was usually short notice.

There was actually this one really terrible customer who came in for dinner one day and freaked out because we didn't serve coffee (I mean, it's a sushi restaurant. No shit). So, the next day, my manager goes out and buys a coffee maker for the restaurant. Seriously. The next time that customer walked in, almost 6 months later, my manager remembered him and offered him a cup on the house. He always knew everyone's favorite dishes and drinks, and was really just a great guy to work for. Even the absolute shittiest customers didn't really faze him, and he made sure that they never took their shit out on the other employees.

For all the absolute shit food/retail jobs out there, which definitely constitute the vast majority, there are occasional gems that restore at least some faith in humanity.

[Gredival]

Here's my best story. This was a McDonald's in Mississippi over the summer. I ordered two McDoubles and a large fries. Not too hard right? No special requests... just two dollar burgers and a large fries.

After waiting at the second window for about 5 minutes they ask me to pull up and to the side. Okay fine I guess, even though my order shouldn't be that difficult.

Another five minutes pass and this guy comes out to my car to ask what I ordered. I tell him.

Another five minutes pass and this time a girl comes out to my car to ask what I ordered. Irritated and hungry by this time, I upgrade to two Quarter Pounders and a large fries.

Guess what happens next? The fucking manager comes out, apologizes that I've been waiting so long and asks for my order since it was lost...

Final order was two Double Quarter Pounders, two large fries, a sweet tea, and one of those Asian salads.

[Pharaun]

Also bigger stuff, like meth addicts coming in with large merch (kitchenaid mixers) and no receipt claiming they 'got three from an aunt for their wedding because she thought they'd need more than one' and that they were returning two. I'm pretty sure a fucking five year old could come up with a more plausible story.

Oh man, I used to work for Gamestop, I know lolGamestop, and we would always get the meth heads coming in to try and trade in 5-6 copies of all the games that were just released two days before. The best excuse I ever got for why they had so many copies was that they had a buddy who worked for walmart and they got 50 extra copies and just gave them to the employees and his buddy passed them on to him. I was laughing so hard it was difficult to tell him to get the fuck out of my store and never come back.

[arus2001]

I guess I lucked out. I've only had the pleasure of working one food service job, but I honestly really enjoyed it. I worked at a small sushi place in Fort Worth. The manager was really nice, friendly, and all of the employees and customers alike liked him. He went out and bought food to grill up for people's birthdays and holidays, and never had a problem giving customers discounts out of his own pocket if there was a problem. He also paid me time and a half any time he called me in to ask (ask being the key word, too) if I could work on my days off, since it was usually short notice.

There was actually this one really terrible customer who came in for dinner one day and freaked out because we didn't serve coffee (I mean, it's a sushi restaurant. No shit). So, the next day, my manager goes out and buys a coffee maker for the restaurant. Seriously. The next time that customer walked in, almost 6 months later, my manager remembered him and offered him a cup on the house. He always knew everyone's favorite dishes and drinks, and was really just a great guy to work for. Even the absolute shittiest customers didn't really faze him, and he made sure that they never took their shit out on the other employees.

For all the absolute shit food/retail jobs out there, which definitely constitute the vast majority, there are occasional gems that restore at least some faith in humanity.

Said manager was doinitrite, and basically what small non-chain shops need to do to carve their way into the market. If I had more bosses willing to pay me time and a half at old jobs, I probably would've picked up the phone more often when I saw their number on the caller ID. Others just miss out on the concept that if you refuse to work for your employees, they're unlikely to give you their all. Sadly seems all of this gets lost the more rungs you add to the corporate ladder, and with that, soul sucking policies that don't really help the people who keep the higher ups in their cushy positions.


Few weeks back my sister took me to a little mexican place in a neighboring town. I've been through the town enough since my aunt and grandparents live there, but I'd never actually realized this place was there despite driving by it and, in turn, didn't expect much. We were seated instantly, had our drinks a minute later, orders taken a couple after that, and our food sitting on the table not more than 5 minutes later. A personal observation I made was that I was never sitting there looking at an empty drink glass waiting for a refill, and I'm probably someone who drinks a bit too much when eating out and faces that predicament far too often. Waiter certainly earned his tip. Downside being the place was a bit on the pricey side for me to consider going there too often, but it'll certainly be a future considering when mulling over where to go.

[Coren]

Wait, do you really walk into every fast food joint you stop at? That sounds like way too much effort!

Honestly I try to not eat fast food. However when I'm comin in from the office at 11pm, I'll specifically hit up the jack in the box that still has the lobby open even though there's about a half-dozen other places open with drivethru only.

I hate when drivethru gets preference. That's bullshit. If I make the effort to come stand in your store, you need to make my shit before the fat bitch's 70 tacos. I've told managers that they shouldn't reward laziness. Apparently some places have minimum drivethru times they have to maintain, but walk-ups get no such "guarantee". Ugh.

[Qalbert]

and these minimum times are maintained by "pull around and park please"

[arus2001]

There's a good chance that if you willingly park when there's a drive-thru option, you've got time to burn. Prioritizing DT traffic doesn't surprise me in the slightest. When it comes to the local McD's, if I find the DT line is back up to where you turn into the store, I'm usually tempted to walk in and order. The few times I have, the car I would've been behind is maybe just pulling up to the squawk box when I'm heading out with my bag. I also hate this McD's because their menu board is like 10 feet past the box, so in the odd chance I'm in the mood for something different, I have to sit there at the box squinting to read tiny text and thus taking even longer to make my order when a well-placed menu board BEFORE could've had me browsing while the person in front did their thing.

Also, big orders are sometimes people picking up things for their office/floor/whatever and not just random fat fucks. I know when my family's together, sometimes I'll be ferried off to order things for over 15 people, but since I'm the only one sitting in the car, certainly I'm a glutton!

[Aksannyi]

I have to sit there at the box squinting to read tiny text and thus taking even longer to make my order when a well-placed menu board BEFORE could've had me browsing while the person in front did their thing.

This is me like 99% of the time I go to a drive-thru. Do these people not realize that some of us are fucking blind?

[arus2001]

It isn't even a matter of blindness for me (okay, I wear glasses, but still...), it's just they try to cram so fucking much on the tiny boards that the little text is the only way they can pull it off. Add 10-15 feet between you and the board, and it may as well look like this.

[SephYuyX]

Man, what the hell is up with all the people who eat at fast food places?
Atleast go to an "up-scale" fast food place like Chipotle or something.
Even worse are the people who go to fast food places through the drive-thru. Thats just begging for trouble, and being really lazy.

The rare times I go to fast food (and thats Skyline, fuck yeah chocolate and cinnamon chilidogs with cheese), I damn well know better to avoid the drive-thru. For some reason the error rate goes way up, and the funny part is, you dont get your order any faster. Everytime I follow someone in to the same place, I park and go in (always small lines if any, with multiple cashiers), and by the time I leave, theyre still waiting in line. Dumbasses.

But yeah, screw fast food in general. I havent eaten at a mcd, wendys, bk, wc, kfc, arbys, rallys, etcetc in over 10 years. I recently did go to a wendys though, and before that a mcd because I got out voted by a bunch of drunkards, and holy shit, what is this crap they server now a days? Pay more for a burger thats smaller than a white castle burger.

So glad I pack a lunch every day, and make my own dinner. The money I have saved doing that is astronomical. Yet another petpeeve of mine is that poor bluecollar or shitty job people buy lunch every day and smoke, lol @ how much money youre wasting.


http://x76.xanga.com/062b756a26c3027.../b19971925.jpg

[Silenka]

Personally I hate going through drive-throughs. I feel retarded squinting at the menu board which I can barely see, practically yelling my order to the speaker out the window and getting the wrong order anyway when I finally do get my food, then trying to figure out how to fix it (go through again?) The only time I ever go through is when the dining room is closed and I cannot physically go in and order.

Another annoying thing is when the drive through lane has a bend in it and is actually too small for larger vehicles and they have to jump the curb lol.

[arus2001]

Atleast go to an "up-scale" fast food place like Chipotle or something.

Not everyone lives in some gloriously urban area where such places exist. It wasn't until like 15 years ago when we finally got a burger king around here. Since then, like 3 others have popped up about 15 minutes from each other. Otherwise, there's that, 5 McD's, 2 Subways, 1 Hardee's, 2 Arby's, 2 KFCs, and then stuff like 3 Pizza Huts, a Papa John's, and some other semi-fast food within about a 40 mile radius.

[Priran]

I got Chipotle once, it was fucking gross. Cold-ass burrito with some alleged meat filling that tasted like someone accidentally the entire supply of cumin.

[Silenka]

Yeah, I've had chipotle a few times and the price for what you get is terribad (especially if you don't like burritos and prefer tacos, their tacos are fucking tiny). Taco Bell is my preferred 'mexican' fast food, it's cheaper and tastier even though the ingredients are probably the sludge picked off the slaughterhouse floor (or at least that is what i heard from someone who worked there and claimed to have visited their slaughterhouses, but who knows if he was telling the truth)

[Yuri-G]

taco bell tastier than chipotle what??

you must live in a very different world. taco bell here uses only the finest canned crap from hell, whereas chipotle's ingredients are fresh (or at least fresh-tasting afaik) and their tortillas are a world apart as well. plus their salsas are actual salsas and not just "hot sauce." then there's the guac... oh the guac <3

I will say that it used to be better though. the steak has gone down a couple of grades in quality. the carnitas is always your best bet. and I won't say it's worth the price, but it is certainly better than taco hell.

[AoE]

Chipotle was p/ good when I had it but can't justify the price when I can buy much better stuff for a lot cheaper.

[Darkdoom]

For the price, Chipotle doesn't taste nearly good enough. Seriously, it's like 10$ for two tacos. Fuck that, I'll just go to taco bell and eat horribly.(since it's the only thing I can afford anyway, lol.)

[Qalbert]

ten dollars will get you a 12 taco box at tacobell. I pick up one for my loldnd group most weekends and we add sriracha and shit

[Acevalefor]

I remembered another dumbass customer story!

I live near a Fred Meyer (Think Wal-mart only more expensive and less peopleofwalmart.com like. Also owned by Kroger) so I go there frequently for the convenience. Consequently I recognize a lot of the employees and they know who I am. I was waiting in line at the register and the lady in front of me was trying to buy 2 seat covers for her car. They were $15 each. She had a $20 bill. She couldn't understand how $20 wouldn't buy her the two seat covers and proceeded to tell the cashier and everyone within earshot about her horrible social security income and how it wasn't enough to pay her bills. Her husband had gone through the line in front of her and spent over $200 (he handed the cashier 2 $100 bills and it wasn't enough. I didn't see the other bills he handed her.) on beer, wine, and 3 cartons of cigarettes. But her pity story was supposed to get the cashier to lower the price of the seat covers...wtf? The cashier tried several times during the sob story to get the lady to go away and she did it very nicely. Finally, I spoke up when the lady started telling another story and told her that nobody cared. She needed to move on and only buy 1 seat cover or gtfo.

She finally jut stormed off after that. I walk up to the cashier and she apologizes to me for the crazy lady's behavior...really? After explaining to her that she owes me no such apology for a customer's bad behavior, she tells me that they are written up for customer's poor behavior if a manager has to be called in to settle the problem...............RAGE!!!! I wanted to wring the neck of whoever though up that fucktarded policy. Why would you ever think it was ok to place the blame for someone's behavior on someone else?????

[Silenka]

Sadly that happens when you work a shit job. One of your jobs as a clerk is to be able to handle the problem customers and do whatever it takes to get them gone without a fuss. Can't remember how many times I was berated for calling a supervisor/manager because my customer wouldn't listen to reason. The write-up thing is going way too far though...won't have too many employees after too long, since in my experience, a customer like that came along at least once a day.