Saturday, February 13, 2010

Burger that...

What is the point of a McDonald's drive through? I can hear some of you screaming the answer: "The point is to provide customers with the very convenient option of driving through; ordering your food and paying for it at one window, picking it up at the next before driving off, on your merry way, thinking nice thoughts about Ronald and his employees for enhancing your life and saving you the time you would otherwise have spent getting out of your car." Yet I have had nothing but bad experiences at drive throughs. We are constantly being asked to go and wait in a parking bay while our food is prepared. Then, parked in our bay, we wait and watch as a long succession of cars use the drive through in the way it was intended, collecting their food while ours never materialises. Yesterday the watching and waiting grew unbearable and I stormed in to the Cottingham Road, Hull franchise, clapping my hands in the way I had seen 'five star' McD's managers doing to rally their staff in the past. "Ok, ok, I'm ready for my drive through order now. I think that waiting ten minutes for an Egg McMuffin is long enough, don't you?"


Three members of staff behind the counter looked at me aghast, as if expecting fast food to live up to its name was somehow too much to ask. One member of staff, a dopey looking girl sans stars, clutched three McD's bags of food. I was told the order was on its way. "Is it in one of those bags? I will take it now." "It is one of those, but we don't know which one. We will bring it to you." "Well, can you look, find it and hand it over? Because that will be faster." Deary me. I mean, how long can it take to make an Egg McMuffin? They are, essentially, a Sausage and Egg McMuffin, of which there were mounds in the rack, with less ingredients! I took possession of my bag and informed these people employed in a fast food, customer service industry that they were in the wrong game. So, our trip to the drive through, much like all recent trips to the drive through, was not convenient and did not save us any time - I queued not once but twice and still had to enter the 'restaurant' in order to get my hands on the food. Seriously, what is the point?

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