It doesn't look like the picture! (AKA, McCook's revenge)

[Acolyte]

I was working the closing shift at the local McDonalds, and, as such, was running the kitchen myself. (Unless it's really busy, we only have one person from 11 to 12.)
Anyways, I was closing down the Toasted Deli sammich station early, and was returning from the fridge to hear some SC berating the cashier, who was also the swing manager.

Me: Yours truly
SC: Duh.
SM: Swing Manager

SC: *Something angry, I didn't catch it*
SM: Ok, I'll look into it. *Walks into the kitchen* Acolyte!
Me: Yeah?
SM: They say their sammich isn't right.
Me: What, did the grill slip not come up?
SM: It wasn't grilled, just regular.
Me: *Looks at sammich, a Big Mac* Looks right to me.
SM: That's what I thought. *Takes it up front* It's made right. We can make you a fresh one, if you want.
SC: Ok, and make sure it looks like the picture!
...wait, what?
SM relays this to me.
Me: Uh...
SM: Yeah, I know.
So, In walked up to the front and looked at the picture.
Me: Ok, in order for that to work...ah, you'll have to charge him for leaf lettuce, extra Mac sauce and quarter pounder patties.
SM: *Relays this to customer*
SC: What?! I just want to look like the picture!
Me: Well, since Corporate makes the pictures look a lot better then the sandwich is, you'll need to pay extra for what's in the picture.
SC: Screw you! I'm leaving.

Seriously, who expects fast food to look exactly like the picture?

[Becks]

Seriously, who expects fast food to look exactly like the picture?

I NEVER expect my fast food to look EXACTLY like the picture. Enough to resemble the picture, sure. Anything more than that, GREAT. Never EXACTLY, though.

What an idiot that customer is/was/forever shall be.

[chainedbarista]

if it looked exactly like the picture, the dumb ass couldn't eat it...geez.

after all the treatments they use on 'photo food,' the food is inedible.

[South Texan]

Me: Ok, in order for that to work...ah, you'll have to charge him for leaf lettuce, extra Mac sauce and quarter pounder patties.

Uh oh! That is a BIG problem. The advertised look of the sandwich can have the ingredients arranged to make it look nicer, but it cannot show the sandwich to have different and better ingredients than what actually will be delivered once it is ordered. To do so would be false advertising.

If that is what the customer was complaining about, he/she had a point. If it only was that the product served did not look as pretty as the picture (assuming the served sandwich had not been slopped together) then I agree the customer was acting irrationally.

[Rapscallion]

Trades Description Act over here would have something to say about it, therefore we get a huge amount of close-ups to make stuff appear big.

There are days when eating the picture would be more satisfying, but I think we've all fallen foul of that one

Rapscallion

[Acolyte]

I'm not totally sure that it's got those condiments, and, it's still essentially the same-still lettuce and 'hamburger', just slightly different amounts.
But, no, they were complaining that it didn't look like the picture.

In retrospect, they would have also needed us to buy a toaster that doesn't squish the buns.

[Tanasi]

Several years ago before most youse guys were hatched out, McDs got into trouble with their Cherry Pies. The pie container showed way over 50 cherries but the pie inside was luckly to have 5 cherries. I think the FTC or some such agency decided it was false advertising and made them change the packaging, and that why boys and girls McD pie packaging is very generic.
Then again I've not see cherry pies on their menu for several years, now their Thanksgiving Pumpkin pies are worth killing for.

[HappyCthulhu]

I'd be happy if my burger wasn't smushed when I get home.

[Kogarashi]

Dude, I've heard what goes into "photo food" to make it look good for TV and magazine ads and the like. Yeccch! Stuff like glue in the milk to make the cereal sit just right.

[Imogene]

Pins in the burger to prop up the bun...
"Really, sir, exactly like the photo?"
*temple fingers, giggle evilly*
"Sure, hold on a moment."

[Acolyte]

Heh, never thought of that. I shoulda broken out a can of spray-glue and asked how much they wanted.

[gundam40]

So, how can one actually tell if the sandwich really is the same ingredients? I mean, if we compare the size of the beef patties in relation to the buns in the pics, it's always much larger than what we actually get :P

[Hotelboy]

Plus, since meat shrinks when you cook it, you could make your patties look just like in the picture. Just scorch the outside and leave the inside full of Salmonella goodness! Hmmmm hmmm! "Can I get an order of McDiarrhea please?"

[Gonzo]

Well not to hyjack the thread too much but in Morgan Spurlock's movie "Super Size Me" there is a scene where he buys a quarterpounder with cheese and notes that it is the first time he has ever gotten a sandwich which actually looked liked the picture.

[HYHYBT]

So, how can one actually tell if the sandwich really is the same ingredients? I mean, if we compare the size of the beef patties in relation to the buns in the pics, it's always much larger than what we actually get :P

Look again: they use the right ingredients, in the right amounts, but they're all pushed to the side of the bun towards the camera. If you took the sandwich in the photo and looked at it from the other side it'd just be bun, maybe with lettuce or something hanging out. But they make sure everything shows in the picture, including stuff like ketchup and pickle which normally would be inside. And of course they want the meat to look as large as possible