Morons in fast food

[air914]

So my hubby and I were at a conference and went to get lunch - we went to Arby's. First, I understand that the store wasn't expecting 20 people to show up at once..... secondly, I understand they were understaffed....

What I don't understand? a second person comes to open up a register and we go to his line. I swear the guy must have been high..... he took the longest time I've ever seen to put our order in to the register.... then it must have been an ancient store or something b/c their credit card machine wasn't attached to the register..... so he had to go put the total into the c.c. machine and run our card - therefore we couldn't see if he had gotten our order right b/c of course the machine not being connected to the register wouldn't have printed out an itemized receipt......

THEN the people were soooooooooooooo slow in getting the orders put together and kept screwing orders up..... it seemed no one had any clue what they were doing - there was an older woman who I'm guessing was the shift leader or manager or something - she was the only one that seemed to have a clue.... everyone else just seemed to be SLOWLY running around with these lost looks on their faces like they couldn't read, figure out what the customer just ordered, put together an order, or make a sandwich..... I still don't quite understand why they made some sandwiches that people never ordered.... I guess to "have on hand" - but if you're in a rush, I would make the sandwiches people ordered...... not start making extras of stuff you don't even know if anyone is going to order.....

It was just amazing. I tried really really hard to not be a sucky customer and I don't think I was - I understood again that they weren't expecting a large # of people and were understaffed - but they were just really really slow and seemed really really stupid at the same time..........

[Gabrielle Proctor]

I worked in Arby's last, last January. I feel bad for whoever has to work a fry station, especially after 20 hungry people come in, but when I worked there we had that happen all the time with church groups. It would get so overwhelming.

It would take 5 and a half to 6 minutes to cook an individual piece of chicken for a chicken sandwhich and you anly have enough space for 5 at a time. The roast beef is even worse, it takes a whole day (or more, I can't remember).

A million people walk into the door at once and you have that ONE asshole who thinks that he is the only one in the entire place. Or he thinks he is being such a good person by pointing out everything you're doing wrong, "Excuse me? She just touched that cup the wrong way!!!" GAH! I hated that job! The co-workers had an attitude, the managers had something perpetually up their butt and the customers think that because you work food service you're worth nothing. I left after 3 months.....Oh, and the pay is shit. Illegal immigrants make more money.

[air914]

well thankfully I don't think we had anyone there at the time that acted like an SC... think there was one woman who came up and asked where her food was..... and they looked at her like they'd never seen her before and were totally confused by the question......

But I'm sorry you had to work there! I know it's not easy - it was more of the attitude I think of the workers - that they just looked completely lost and were moving sooo slowly.... I guess I just never understood why it was soooo hard to work a cash register - I did it at one of my very first jobs b/c no one was out at the counter and 5 people showed up - so I just walked up to the register and started ringing - later I found out that was wrong but my gosh it wasn't that hard..... I don't think I ever was really trained on it - there were a few times I might have to ask a question about something weird - like to put "no whip" you had to push the button "no" and "add whip" - so it was a bit weird.....

And then the fact that they just didn't seem like they cared at all - now if the pay is crappy, I can understand - but still, you could at least ACT like you care a bit... maybe I'm asking too much

[Sofar]

Our credit card machine isn't connected to the register either, it gets worse than that, actually. When we started out we didn't have a computer, just a rank-and-file cash register constructed in 1967. When we got a computer, complete with touch screen, we never got a cashbox to hook up to it. We just used the old register as the cashbox. So here's my procedure: All the items and their prices are on the computer, we use an unliscensed copy of Dinerware, which is designed for an actual restaurant, not a burger joint, but it works for us. I punch everything in and it gives me a total, I punch in what I've been given and it tells me the amount of change to hand over, I then punch that amount into the old cash register, put the money in the box, and there you go. The computer prints out an itemized receipt. It seems like it'd take a while but I do it super fast.

[XCashier]

I worked in Arby's last, last January.

I worked at Arby's in 1991. It wasn't too bad, my coworkers and bosses were pretty good, and our store was in a nice neighborhood. The customers, mostly were okay, though we had our share of SCs. We would not have had any problem handling a rush like yours, as we had that almost every weekend. We were properly trained and worked well together.

The only thing that really bugged me about the job was the ridiculous loudness of the food-making machinery. The fry vat alarm was extremely shrill and loud, the shake machine sounded like a monster truck rally, etc. Going home every day with a splitting headache and ringing ears was no fun. I put up with it for about six months, then left.

[powerboy]

Not fast food, but our CC machines are not connected to the register, but threw the phone line. Which sucks.

[jnd4rusty]

The fast food resturant business is not an easy job!! It is hard, sometimes frustrating, rewarding and fun all at the same time. I have never worked at an Arbys but I have worked in the fast food business for over twenty years! I have done this by choice. I resent when people think that fast food workers are dumb and stupid. A majority of resturant workers are teenagers who are gaining valuable work experience and ethics, many are moms who are trying to supplement their income, and many more are people (like me) who enjoy the fast pace and the challenges that fast food has to offer. One can't really know what is going on at the time at that particular store. We would all love to have the day go smooth and every customer is happy but in reality things go wrong and people make mistakes. Maybe the cashier was a mentally challenged person who was working his first job, we have one who is handicapped and I told him from the start that I was not going to treat him any different. I put him on tills all the time and even though he does not have the confidence and is a bit slower at taking the order, he is the only one who has practically perfect tills every shift!!

It also could have been the fact that there was a "green crew", heck I had my share of them many of times. I would be scheduled with almost all new people and not everyone would know how to do the teamwork. Many factors could be involved in why the store was fumbling but not because they were stupid or morons. Sometimes when there is a rush that they aren't expecting then confusion can happen. There have been plenty of times that we have had confused chaos at my store, no matter how organized a shift manager is, things happen and people get confused and disorganized. Especially if it extremely busy and crazy.

[Cia]

I've worked at A&W, Dairy Queen, Arby's and Hardee's so I know fast food isn't the easiest job and sometimes the shit does hit the fan, it could be because of idiot co-workers or SCs or management or the stars just aligned in the wrong way.