Friday, April 11, 2003

McEfficiency

So last night I decided to drive through McDonald's on my way home from school. - Please, hold your comments. I know it's bad for me and I shouldn't eat it... - Of course, it never tastes as good as you think it will. The fries are always turning cold and your hamburger lid was placed at an angle, so you have exposed patty and a ketchup explosion. Never a pretty site. Anyway, so I drive up and place my order and am told to proceed to the next window. So, I merrily roll along and as soon as I arrive, the cashier repeats my total with his hand outstretched. Hang on just one second, good buddy, I have to get my wallet out of my purse. And then here I am, rummaging through the ash tray for pennies (no, they won't let you slide on 2 cents to avoid breaking a dollar), all the while the guy is getting restless. Staring at me. Taking orders through his headset, entering the special requests with one hand, while he's hanging half out the window waiting impatiently for my money. I finally get together all my change and hand it over, and he already has my exact change (two crisp dollar bills) ready to go. No time for setting the money from the customer in the cash register and THEN taking out the change... this guy is 2 steps ahead. Kudos to you.
Now I am ready to proceed to the pick up window, where the girl is half hanging out of the window, looking at me. Implying that now she is waiting on ME to serve up this food monstrosity. I get a brief 'tsk' and click of the tongue and my meal is thrusted out the window and into my car. At this point, I stop messing with trying to put the $2 back into my wallet - it's apparently disrupting the flow of McDonald's efficiency - and drop them on my seat. "Thank you and have a good night" and the little drive through window snaps shut. Meanwhile, I am still trying to manage the drink-in-one-hand-bag-in-the-other-get-it-in-the-cup-holder-before-it-spills routine and pull forward enough to let the car behind me move up to receive their healthy portion of McEfficiency.
I don't begrudge the efficiency of the McDonald's staff... mostly because they move through their day at work like they actually like to be there. Although at times, it DEFINITELY feels like they just hate the customers so much that they want to help you and get you the heck out of their face. Either way, I was through that drive through in 2 minutes flat. The crew there could have done it much faster, if it weren't for me.

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