Old tales from McDonalds (long and some language)

[MystyGlyttyr]

The Whopper Freakout thread ( http://www.customerssuck.com/board/s...ad.php?t=21365 ) brought back memories of when I worked at the unluckiest McDonalds in Little Rock a few years ago. I was there three weeks and LOVED it, and might still be there if I hadn't moved back home. The managers were just the right mix of caring and not caring, my coworkers were dumb but loveable, and we raked in the cash since we were in the middle of a bunch of hospitals and the like. However, in the three weeks, we ran out of things three times that made people go batty.

Ah, this is when I was younger and gave even less of a damn than I do now...fond memories.

Run-out Number One: Coca-Cola

Yes, dear lord, our Coca-Cola ran out. We had a massive run on it and were out of syrup, but we had a delivery due about an hour later and would be getting more then. In the meantime, we had Diet Coke, Dr Pepper, Sprite, orange drink, water (bottled AND tap), milk and chocolate milk, lemonade, and blue Gatorade.

BUT NOT COCA-COLA HORROR!

People shrieked at me for not being able to give them Coca-Cola.

Them: "DIET COKE IS NOT THE SAME!! DR PEPPER IS NOT THE SAME!! I HATE MILK!! I HATE WATER!! IF I WANTED GATORADE, I'D GO TO *gas station next door*!! YOU SUCK!! I'M NEVER COMING HERE AGAIN!! FUCK YOU!! YOU'RE ANTI-AMERICAN!! (whuh?) YOU'VE RUINED MY LUNCH!!"

Me: "We'll have it in *insert time less than an hour here* if you'd like to wait..."

Them: "Just give me a *insert drink here*! This is outrageous! I'm going to tell *newspaper* about this! I'll call my lawyer! Blah blah blah."

Me: "So you won't be waiting on that Coca-Cola?"

Them: "ARGH-!!!"

Me: *cuts off* "Thank you for coming to McDonalds, your total is ___."

At least that one was over with fairly quickly.

Run-out Number Two: French Fries

I can see being perturbed about this, but seriously, get over it. It's McDonalds, man. We're in the middle of about a million hospitals. There's an Arby's (curse that Arby's), a Subway, three gas stations, a Burger King, a Taco Bell, and like, ten cafeterias you can go to and find something to eat. Especially fries. Maybe if folks weren't horking them up at the rate of a bag of potatoes a second, we wouldn't run out.

Anyway, I was working in the rear drive-thru because I was the only one in the store who could effectively disarm those screaming maniacs without losing my cool. I actually altered my greeting. "Hi, welcome to McDonalds, we're out of fries at the moment if that will affect your order in any way, can I help you?"

People went NUTS. But this was the conversation every time.

SC: "YOU DON'T HAVE ANY FRIES??"
Me: "No sir."
SC: "Well, maybe I'll just go to ARBY'S then!! What do you think of THAT??"
Me: "I think I get paid the same regardless, sir."
SC: "GET ME YOUR MANAGER!!"
Me: "He's sitting right here, sir. As soon as he stops laughing, I'll let you speak to him."
SC car: *SCREECH*

Seriously, the manager loved it. Those guys were wonderful. Must be nice to have a guaranteed amount of business everyday.

Run-out Number Three: Electricity

Okay, this wasn't our fault. Although we got to watch the 18-wheeler on the street right next to us as he smashed through the electric pole and shut down a good portion of the city. That was kind of cool.

But here's the deal...no electricity = no grills, no heaters, no boiling oil, no drink machines, no lights, no drive-thru, no nothing. So, we're pretty much dead in the water. Fortunately, the store was empty when this happened so the managers ran and locked the doors, and quickly fashioned "Closed due to power outage" signs to hang on the doors.

They unlocked the door long enough to allow me to run back to our drive-thru window and tape a HUGE BRIGHT NEON PINK SIGN over the speaker saying the same thing. Then they told me to go vault Arby's fence and see whether the power was out everywhere...it was. (They'd seen me jump that fence several times so they knew I could do it, no biggie there, heh.) Once I was back in, the manager handed me a chair and said "Take your book and go sit in the back window."

One of my coworkers asked (since the rest of them had to start cleaning the store from top to bottom) "Why does Mysty get to sit back there and read?"

The manager at the time said "One, she just got done climbing a ten-foot fence. Two, just watch and see."

Sure enough, within five minutes, we could hear honking around at the back of the building, and someone yelling "Hello? Hello!" After a moment, a truck roared around and a Soccer Mom in a big SUV yelled inside "Your speaker is broken!!"

Me: "Yes, ma'am, there's a sign back there saying as much." (*cough*) "Electricity is out on the entire block. We can't do anything until it comes back on."
SM: "WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE ELECTRICITY IS OUT?! HOW CAN IT *ARGH RABID FOAM*"
Me: *points over to where the 18-wheeler is still crammed against the electric pole* "See that?"
SM: "SO I CAN'T GET ANYTHING TO EAT?!"
Me: "No, ma'am, unfortunately, we're unable to cook or use our registers at the moment, so we're closed until electricity is restored."
SM: "THIS IS RIDICULOUS!! I WANT A BURGER *RABID FOAM FOAM FOAM*"
Me: "I'm sorry, ma'am. Maybe you could try Arby's."
SM: *foam froth, peels out*
Manager: "Mysty, you said Arby's electricity is out, too."
Me: "She's their problem now."
Manager:

Repeat that about twenty times during the hour and a half the power was out. Obviously the sight of 10 tons of steel wrapped around a sparking pole ten feet from our parking lot didn't clue many folks in...

[Dilorenzo]

As soon as he stops laughing, I'll let you speak to him

Without a doubt, my favourite line in that piece. Ah, for the days when more managers were like that, and didn't always cave to the stupid amoung us.

[MinimaMagistra]

Good lord, what happened to Soccer Moms to make their stereotype that of frothing, impatient, entitled nutjobs with one point five tons of minivan and nothing to lose? Did they used to be nice people? Maybe they were dangerously unbalanced to begin with. I'm with your former manager, though, in appreciation of your aikedo-like redirection of their aggression.

[PorkChop]

Heh, this story reminded me about that hot summer day the electricty went out for 8 hours. Up the road, a truck ran into a electricity pole. So, of course, that means, no electricity means the store is closed. So many people banged and pounded on our doors so they can buy their smokes and beer. We told them to go down to the Circle K a mile down the road, they might have power.

[Gawdzillers]

Good lord, what happened to Soccer Moms to make their stereotype that of frothing, impatient, entitled nutjobs with one point five tons of minivan and nothing to lose? Did they used to be nice people? Maybe they were dangerously unbalanced to begin with. I'm with your former manager, though, in appreciation of your aikedo-like redirection of their aggression.

Minivans?
Pssh, those are so 2005.

[MystyGlyttyr]

Good lord, what happened to Soccer Moms to make their stereotype that of frothing, impatient, entitled nutjobs with one point five tons of minivan and nothing to lose? Did they used to be nice people? Maybe they were dangerously unbalanced to begin with.

I don't know about anywhere else, but after working four different jobs in Little Rock, I can tell you that almost every "soccer mom" there was a slavering maniac. There was a soccer field not far from where I lived, and I would go sit on the bleachers and draw, and I got yelled at for being "distracting" to their four-year-olds who could barely even pick up the ball, let alone actually play the game. They were like showbiz moms, except with sports, and god help you if you bothered them.

You knew them as soon as you saw them, too. Stretch denim leggings; pink, white, or yellow polo shirt; short, straight bobbed haircut, typically an obvious dye job (not in the sense that they wanted it to be obvious like with my bright red hair, just obviously inferior color and application); immaculate white nurse's shoes, which was odd since they were constantly chasing their kids up and down the fields; and nine times out of ten, carrying a purse big enough to park their car in loaded with more bottles of water than your average walk-a-thon. Bonus points if they had a light pink phone glued to their ear.

Of course, I spent the entire time harrassing as many of them as possible once I realized what complete psychopaths they were.

[Alpha Strike]

Wow - the good ole days of the Golden Arches. My first job was working at McDonalds, as a wee young lad of 16. Most of my experiences were pretty run of the mill, idiotic SCs - none of the craziness described in the OP.

I do, however, remember an encounter I had with a little 16 or 17 year old punk who came in after I had worked at that particular store for a couple years (while still in high school) and had been promoted to trainer. He was with a couple of buddies and for whatever reason was yelling and harassing one of our younger female employees who was working the register. She was Mexican (as were many of our employees) and didn't have the best grasp of English and there having some cruel fun at her expense.

I recall getting very angry and telling these kids to take a hike. When they got lippy with me I repeated my instructions and then added that I was off at such and such a time, and if they had any more problems they should show up then. Probably not the best or most mature thing to do, but I always disliked spoiled little brats who believed that our employment at a fast food establishment made us inferior to them - and I especially didn't like them making one of our employees cry.

[Becks]

Run-out Number Two: French Fries

I can see being perturbed about this, but seriously, get over it. It's McDonalds, man. We're in the middle of about a million hospitals. There's an Arby's (curse that Arby's), a Subway, three gas stations, a Burger King, a Taco Bell, and like, ten cafeterias you can go to and find something to eat. Especially fries. Maybe if folks weren't horking them up at the rate of a bag of potatoes a second, we wouldn't run out.

McD's has the BEST fries. Ever. So there.

I'd be slightly upset to hear that the fries were gone.

BTW, BK's fries SUCK.

[Alpha Strike]

McD's has the BEST fries. Ever. So there.

I'd be slightly upset to hear that the fries were gone.

BTW, BK's fries SUCK.

One of the few fringe benefits of being a McD's peon: fresh fries whenever you went on break. Personally I think they way over-salt 'em now and will normally not get 'em for that reason, but if you can get 'em fresh and salted the way you like... YUMMMY!

[marasbaras]

You must admit ... a McD's running out of Coke or fries ... that's WHY WE GO THERE! It's certainly not for the burgers.

It's been my experience that when a place like McD's runs out of staples that some middle manager or beancounter moron decided to save a little money by ordering less at a time.

[Nayeli_Sabia]

You knew them as soon as you saw them, too. Stretch denim leggings; pink, white, or yellow polo shirt; short, straight bobbed haircut, typically an obvious dye job (not in the sense that they wanted it to be obvious like with my bright red hair, just obviously inferior color and application); immaculate white nurse's shoes, which was odd since they were constantly chasing their kids up and down the fields; and nine times out of ten, carrying a purse big enough to park their car in loaded with more bottles of water than your average walk-a-thon. Bonus points if they had a light pink phone glued to their ear.

Of course, I spent the entire time harrassing as many of them as possible once I realized what complete psychopaths they were.

I'm a mom of a 1 1/2 year old and other moms scare me. I think I scare them though, too. Long skirts/dresses, dress shoes, waist length hair. I look a bit more like a hippy than a soccer mom. That and i tend to laugh(A LOT) when i met people or am nervous. Maybe they are more afraid of me than I am of them?

[Broomjockey]

You must admit ... a McD's running out of Coke or fries ... that's WHY WE GO THERE! It's certainly not for the burgers.

It's been my experience that when a place like McD's runs out of staples that some middle manager or beancounter moron decided to save a little money by ordering less at a time.

I'll admit to going to McD's for the fries.

However, in my experience, when a place runs out of something, it isn't the place itself at fault. Both my theatres got shafted on a semi-regular basis on deliveries for various reasons, running from "Oh, we forgot to send it" to "Well, that day's a holiday, so we're sending your order two days late" to "We ran out, so here's something similar" to the best of them all: "We didn't think you actually needed that many, so only sent you that much."

[raideo]

This reminds me of a couple of months ago when the credit card machine at the sonic I work at went down for an hour or two. Most of the people were ok but one woman didn't have enough cash.

Me: obvious
SC: stupid woman
CH: carhop
MG: manager


At first I took her order ( before I knew the machine was down) and one of the carhops took her order out,

I am not 100% sure of what happened at this point, but I assume that CH told her that the card didn't go through and then took the card and food back inside only to find the machine was not working then told MG .

Now to the part where I come in,
MG: Jeremy the cregit card machine is broken, tell people before they place thier order.
ME: Ok.
*SC comes on the switchboard ( thing we use to take orders with)*
ME: Welcome to sonic, our credit card machine is down at the moment whould you still like to place an order?
SC: *pissy tone* Well maybe you should have told me that before I put my order in!
* just for shits and giggles I look at her order and see that it was about $35 worth of food*
ME: I am sorry ma'am but I did not know the machine was broken until a minute ago.
SC: Well that's bad bussiness practice to not know if something isn't working.
ME:*trying to suppress laughter* I'll get my manager

So the manger goes outside and talks to the woman for a minute or so, and comes back in laughing.

MG:She said she only has a $20 and wants to know if she can tkae the food now and come back tomorrow to pay.
CH: You're joking right?
MG: No.
CH: *High pitched laughter that hurt my ears a bit*

*SC comes back up on the switchboard*

SC: Let me speak with your manager again!
ME: (to MG) Jessica, guess who wants you.

*MG walks back out*

*When she comes back in, she is laughing even harder than the first time*

MG: She didn't belive me when I told her we were going to throw the food away, (to CH) go throw this away in an outside trash can.
*CH throws food out in a can near the womans SUV*

*a few minutes pass before CH takes an order out and comes back in*
CH: *laughing hysterically* she was looking in the trash can and talking on her phone syaing " yeah I can see it right here in the trash can, they through it away."

[sms001]

Me: "He's sitting right here, sir. As soon as he stops laughing, I'll let you speak to
&
Manager: "Mysty, you said Arby's electricity is out, too."
Me: "She's their problem now."

Chock full o' win MG!

[Knightmare]

I have been on this earth for 35 -almost 36! - years. I have been to so many McDonalds "restaurants" that it just isn't funny. And one thing I have learned from all my visits is: McDonald's french fries suck.

Yes, they suck. suck suck suck suck. Cold, bland, no salt, limp as a noodle. Horrible.
The only good thing about McDonalds is the regular hamburgers.

Now Wendy's french fries... those are the best when freshly made!