Drivethru Waits...

Kogo Shuko · #1 02-11-2009, 03:45 PM

I don't know if this belongs here, as it didn't happen to me per se... but it certainly affected me, and I was friends with the person running the place that night.

This happened about a year ago.

My friends and I were going to a club, but beforehand we wanted to zip through the McDonald’s drivethru and order some fries and such. Big mistake.

We left at 10:30 PM. And we didn’t get to the bar until about midnight.

It was fine enough when we got to the speaker. One of my good friends was working as night manager, and he was on speaker, so I joked around with him for a bit, and then pulled into the line. Only two cars ahead of me, this shouldn’t be much of a wait.

Oh, how wrong was I.

I waited half an hour for my measly medium fry and two hamburgers.

And not because of what I ordered. Oh no. It was the people in front of us.

The first car moved along fine… when the second car got to the window they sat. And sat. And sat some more.

The car behind me was full of more friends, and they had some sort of speaker system set up, so they began playing annoying music and noises. We were that bored, frustrated, and almost ready to give up on food. But damnit, I wanted my fries!

Then they started handing out the food.

Five large McDonalds bags in all. Plus two trays of drinks! At eleven o’clock at night!

When I finally got to the window, my friend came up, looked at me, looked at his coworkers, looked back, “Eighty dollars.”

“What?”

“They ordered eighty dollars worth of food!”

Now seriously. If you need that much food, why not just either order pizza (they deliver) or go to a place that is open (and not just the drivethru) and go inside to order? You’re holding up an entire line of people who want food just because you got the munchies or are having a party.

I guess they had been rude about it, too. My friend had not been impressed that day. And neither were all of us waiting behind them. I hope they got the message when my buddy starting blaring the annoying noises from his sound system.

Fast food is only fast if you don’t order in bulk.

otakuneko · #2 02-11-2009, 03:54 PM

Your manager friend really should've had those idiots pull out and park so as not to hold up the line.

Salesmonkey · #3 02-11-2009, 03:55 PM

Quote:

Quoth Kogo Shuko

Fast food is only fast if you don’t order in bulk.

Very true - it's fast for most people because they only make what they are expecting to sell within the next 10 minutes, so excessive orders overload the system.

That's no reason to get snippy with the vendors, though. I was a groomsman at my friend's wedding and I went to Sonic before I went to the church. I knew that everyone in the wedding party was going to be starving so I wanted to bring some food.

2 dozen sprites (clear, doesn't stain dresses or tuxes) and 2 dozen dry cheesburgers. I like ketchup, mustard, and mayo with mine but we can't have any potential for drippage. And when you bring them to people who are starving they don't really care. They just wolf them down.

Setsunaela · #4 02-11-2009, 03:57 PM

yeah a pull up and park would have been a good idea, but of course there are always those jerks who refuse to do so because they "might be forgotten about"
When my mom goes to taco bell for a large number of tacos (she tends to go get those 10 taco meals in groups of 4-6 for parties or something) she'll say "I'm ordering a lot, I know, I'm patient, take your time, I'll be parked over in X spot"

PepperElf · #5 02-11-2009, 03:59 PM

yeah but if you're going to order *that* much you should just go inside O_o

Kogo Shuko · #6 02-11-2009, 04:01 PM

I honestly don't know if my friend asked them to park and wait for the food... but judging from his attitude when he got to the window, I think they were just glad to get rid of the customers. They had complained about the order taking so long, and "Where the hell is our food?"

At eleven at night they don't prepare that many burgers... it's hit or miss if a lot of people show up (although on a Saturday night McDonalds is brimming with cars at 2am because everyone is leaving the bar and wants to eat). But these guys didn't understand, I guess.

Quote:

Quoth PepperElf

yeah but if you're going to order *that* much you should just go inside O_o

Doors were closed, only drivethru is open past a certain time. I think the only place that's open 24hrs where I used to live is Pizza Pizza or one of the pizza chains.

jerkface11 · #7 02-11-2009, 04:13 PM

Quote:

Quoth otakuneko

Your manager friend really should've had those idiots pull out and park so as not to hold up the line.

Can't open the doors after the lobby is closed. Security and all. The right way to do it is to have them pull back into the drive thru behind the normal customers and to try and hate them to death while you're at it.

SnapAddict218 · #8 02-11-2009, 04:59 PM

Attitude or not, I would have told them to pull ahead or too bad, I'm not serving them and they can go elsewhere.

Wait....I've DONE that before. Used to be a McManager back when I was 18-19, and that kinda crap happens more often than not. I would explain to them that, since we we not given any kind of advance notice of their insane order, it would be a wait as I had a duty to continue to serve those behind them. And if they got loud about how 'not fair' that was I'd just have to ask them to imagine if they were behind a large order like that....most people don't admit that they 'get' it, but you can read it in their beady little eyes.

Not to threadjack but that reminds me of the time this redneck got real lippy with little 15 year old snaps and refused to pull forward. "No thank you little lady. Ima be just fine right here. You people aint bright enough to remember me, plus you can't make me move...girly." Breakfast rush no less. So I let him sit, bagged up the other peoples orders and went outside to hand deliver them-loudly explaining that the person at the front of the line refused to move and that I appogized for the rudeness of others (he heard it, windows were down). Finally, after everyone else was served I returned to the window and handed his food out to him with big ol smile. This girly knows ways around rude redneck assholery!

PepperElf · #9 02-11-2009, 05:41 PM

Quote:

Doors were closed, only drivethru is open past a certain time.

ah...
still they were pretty sucky
i mean 80 bucks worth of food ... and they want it instantly?

i don't know if you can phone ahead to a mcdonald's but hell.. they could have tried at least

that happened kinda to us once... driving along the highway, coming back from a cross country invitational with mom & dad ahead of the school buses.. yes multiple buses were headed that way, and we knew they'd all be stopping at this mcdonald's.

Mom took the time to notify the manager so they weren't taken totally by surprise the sudden crush of teenagers. ... prolly good 10-20 minute heads up.

but back on topic... if you make an effort and don't just do a last minute thing... it works better for you.

jerkface11 · #10 02-11-2009, 05:48 PM

Quote:

Quoth PepperElf

ah...

i don't know if you can phone ahead to a mcdonald's but hell.. they could have tried at least

Yes we prefer it. As long as it isn't something silly. Yes I mean you who called during the lunch rush to say you were on your way to order 1 happy meal.