A sane person probably would have just canceled their order and have just gone somewhere else, but I wanted to see this play out just out of my own curiosity.

I pulled into the drive thru and waited a long time just to get to the intercom. When I finally got there after the car in front of me pulled out if line, I was told to "please wait a moment"

10 minutes later they came back on the intercom and said "How may I help you?"

I started to say that I had a mobile order when I was cut off mid-sentence "Please wait a moment"

"I have already been waiting a moment!" I said politely and quickly as I could before they turned off their headset

Then I got the weirdest reply

"Bear with me sir, I'm in the back office"

radio silence

I give up on the intercom and try to pull around but the line is completely full. After another 10 minutes of waiting I pulled into a curbside parking stall and changed my order from drive thru to curbside

After 15 minutes of seeing no one else around me get their orders either, I decided to go inside and see what's going on.

When I entered the lobby, it was complete bedlam at the register. There was an angry mob of rednecks spouting the meanest things they could come up with to the manager who was in equal parts panic mode, given up mode, and still trying to work mode.

I waded into the mob and decided to get through by being calm and polite. Which seemed to work... at first.

The manager threw up her hands and said "We're so short staffed tonight! You see how many people we got back here?!?"

I looked behind her to the kitchen and saw at least a dozen people.

Now, I have never worked at a McDonald's and I do not know if that's enough people for rush hour. But what I do know is that it might be enough people if any of them were doing any actual work.

I stood back and just observed for another 15 minutes or so and my order wasn't even on the screen anymore.

Everyone back there appeared to wandering aimlessly, going from station to station while not actually accomplishing anything at any station while one single worker actually put together sandwiches at their station at a walking pace.

At this time one of the other workers moved from the back of the store to the register. One hour since entering the drive thru, I took this opportunity to ask about my order. Gave her my name and my order number.

To my surprise, they knew my order and even rattled the whole thing back to me.

"Yeah, that's me!" I said completely surprised

"We're still waiting on your Big Mac"

My look immediately went from happy surprise to dumbfounded

But they offered an olive branch:

"You had a large sweet tea, I can give you the cup and you can go fill it yourself so you don't have to wait"

If course I took the cup, anything to speed this up even a little bit by giving them one less thing to do.

I took the cup over to the dispenser and filled it with ice and then started to fill the tea and... it's empty.

I just stood there for a moment and took a breath. A few minutes later a young guy came around and refilled the tea.

As he set out the new containers of tea, I could see that he was holding back tears, and he just kept muttering to himself "It's chaos, it's just chaos"

I offered some words of encouragement to him as he walked away.

I filled my tea, and went back to the angry mob at the counter.

As I was standing there, a young girl walked up next to me. She was maybe 13 or 14.

When the same worker came back to the register, this girl just unloaded on the lady behind the register.

"WHERE ARE MY MOTHERFUCKING CHICKEN NUGGETS?!?"

"I ORDERED A FUCKING 20 PIECE AND THERE'S JUST SOME GODDAMNED FRIES IN THE PIECE OF SHIT BAG YOU GAVE ME"

I just stood in stunned silence. Even the loud adult angry mob were keeping their expletives to minimum.

I guess that was what was necessary, because she got those chicken nuggets immediately.

As the nuggets were being handed off I enquired again about my order. She just nodded, calmly walked back and filled the order and handed it to me.

1 hour and 30 minutes after entering the drive thru, I finally left the store with my order.

I sat down in my car and opened my bag, the order was wrong.

I had to go back in. 30 minutes later, I left with the correct order.

At any moment during that entire, I would not have been surprised if a savage beating randomly occurred

These people were animals

[–] Linkalee@sh.itjust.works 23 points 1 day ago (1 children)

With the leisurely pace, I wonder if some of the employees had organized a quiet-quitting strike or something.

Reminds me of the time I pulled up to a Del Taco, and it took so long for someone to take my order that I thought the intercom might be broken and I was about to pull forward. I don't remember how long I waited in line, but it was foreeeever. When I finally got to the window, I discovered why: There was one guy working in the whole restaurant. ONE. He'd take an order, then leave and go to the back to make the food himself, leaving no one to take orders or payments at either the drive-through window or the inside counter.

I felt so bad for him, his day must have been awful.

[–] M0oP0o@mander.xyz 6 points 19 hours ago

Quiet quitting is just doing your job, this sounds more like a complete collapse of a system. I would think they would not be crying and talking about chaos if they planed it.

I think we will see more of this sort of thing though, as more and more places seem to almost be attracted to bad ideas like a moth to a lamp. Even years ago in my old line of work I watched companies seem to almost try and sabotage themselfs. Used to calling it "management by excel sheet". Saw things outsourced to 3rd parties that full on told them they had no way to do the thing, but that since it was cheaper it was "worth it".

[–] Audiotape@lemm.ee 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

„Fast“ food

[–] fushuan@lemm.ee 4 points 17 hours ago

Found the german!

[–] Zirconium@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

The wonders of modern society and the kitchen experience. You hate to see it