Slow service in the fast food lane

It was one of those days …

I took the grandkids to a fast food place to test their new breakfast sandwiches. The order was short and to the point: four new breakfast sandwiches.

“We don’t have any. We are waiting for a truck to bring in a new shipment.”
We had three little kids waiting for breakfast.

“Okay, we want a couple of the kid-friendly, dipping breakfast foods and a couple sweet crunchy munchies and a couple of the old kind of breakfast sandwiches.”
The kids went to wait at a corner table with their mom.

I hung around the counter and waited for my fast food order. As I waited I watched the cash register worker go over to help with the food without washing her hands or donning a pair of gloves.

The guy waiting with me got his sandwich first. He opened it right there at the counter, “this is supposed to have more than one thin piece of meat and tell her to run it through the microwave.”

The manager took the sandwich and hissed at the cash register worker, “tell him you are sorry.”
“Sorry,” she mumbled.The manager loaded three servings of sweet crunchy munchies into a take-out order, turned and told the clerk, “there are no more for your order. We are waiting for the truck.”

I rolled my eyes and ordered another sandwich – as a meal this time.
My daughter-in-love came over, “What is taking so long?”
“New workers and they are out the food I ordered.”
Eventually the clerk handed me a tray loaded with our not so fast food. We sat down to eat. I counted sandwiches. We were one short. I went back to the counter, explained my problem a couple of time, got the third sandwich and we chowed down.

That afternoon as I drove home, the image of onion rings tempted me. At the first fast food place the clerk stared me, “Onion rings? We don’t sell onion rings.”

I ordered a crunchy, zesty Caesar Salad instead and went next door for a small order onion rings. The sign said fries or onion rings … same sizes, same prices – until the clerk wanted my money and the price on the onion rings went to the next larger size.

I sighed, pulled out another dollar, took my change, onion rings and dip and left.
Driving along, I opened the sack with the Caesar Salad. I should have checked my order at the counter. There were no croutons or dressing in the bag for the Caesar Salad. The lettuce did have a bit of parmesan cheese sprinkled over it.

I alternated bites of plain Caesar Salad with overpriced onion rings dipped in spicy sauce. It was a poor substitute for a crunchy, zesty Caesar Salad, but the onion rings were pretty good.
As darkness descended, I began to yawn and blink. I stopped to buy popcorn to munch on so I would stay awake. The counter tag said plain old popcorn cost 99 cents. The clerk said one dollar and 60 cents.

At that point, I did not care anymore, I paid for my gourmet popcorn and left. (At that price it had better be gourmet popcorn.)

I made it home awake and safe after one more stop to stretch my legs and purchase a simple – no, scratch that – a gourmet apple, glad that ‘one of those days’ was finally over.


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