Does anyone else here think that the fast food industry should spend just a little more time in training, on the concept of centering the contents of a sandwich on the bun?
8
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19 comments
Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.It's not the training! It's the management and the kinds of people they hire! The way of Team cruise to the old days are pretty much gone. Arby's in Chick-fil-A are one of the few places left to practice team spirit! I used to be a Burger King manager and because it is so difficult to get a good work base I went in a different direction. No more restaurants for me
DanielYoung
Level 5
July 12, 2018
1
If they can't make a sandwich by the time they are old enough to get a job, this is probably as high up the food chain as they are going to get. So, cut'em a little slack. ☺
Sticks48
Level 9
July 12, 2018
2
you know I try, and I do most of the time. but this has really been weighing on me pretty hard. maybe they should teach centering in high school or something. it seems a fundamental skill.
More training all around, I think.
Drive through especially. I would guess that about 50% of the time, something is wrong with my order. I've learned to double check before I leave/drive away, but some things are harder to check. Cheese on a non-cheese burger I can live with, but no bacon on a bacon burger makes me mad... and sad. ...bacon.
scurry
Level 9
July 12, 2018
2
Doesn't seem to matter how centered the contents are, they always seem to slide around due to the sauces.
Condor5
Level 8
July 12, 2018
2
My needs are really simple. I just want a 1/4-pounder without cheese. Today (and several previous times) I ordered it w/o cheese and got it with cheese. I’d think without should be the default, but no. I checked my receipt and it says: quarter-pounder with cheese - no cheese. Last time, I checked before I left and sure enough it had cheese. So I sent it back and waited several minutes, but didn’t bother checking again. When I got home, guess what? CHEESE!!!
jerry99
Level 8
July 12, 2018
2
yes the whole cheese question must be very complicated for reasons I don't understand.
I run into this problem too.
My order isn't ever very complicated: @ McDonalds: a double burger. Not a double cheeseburger. And yet, I often get cheese. I can live with it, but let's face it, McCheese isn't great cheese.
Never have they ever added bacon I didn't ask for.
ah... perhaps we're onto something here.... without the cheese adhesive the sandwich wouldn't even be assembled it would just be a pile of ingredients. perhaps centering is just too much to ask for.
Most issues related to poorly prepared fast food are cropping up due to the new automated systems which conservatives are constantly jizzing their pants over. Last I heard, one of those automated pieces of shit got shut down less than two days after install due to fire hazard.
Sometimes (most of the time, in fact) you just have to pay a human being a living wage to do a job. A computer can't make the spur of the moment adjustments that a human can.
webbew1
Level 7
July 12, 2018
1
Yes!
It really does get under my skin. Five Guys does a pretty good job. I don't care if I've paid $4 or $12 for a cheeseburger -- I always wonder why they can't put even three seconds more into the effort of giving me something put together nicely.
BlueWave
Level 8
July 12, 2018
1
exactly. 5 guys does do well, you're right.
a handy thing I've learned is, if you get that stuff called cheese that's actually an adhesive, don't, it makes the reconfiguration of the sandwich nearly impossible.
@BlueWave I would guess because it's cheaper and it has a shelf life that approaches Infinity. I don't know what it is. it might be some type of cheese unknown to me, and I'm no expert on cheese. I suppose if you say cheese, knowing what it's going to be like, and they give it to you, it's cheese. it might be cheese. it might be part cheese. it might be something made by Tao Chemical. idk.
They should also train people that deliver hot food ..not to put cans of cold drinks in with the packages of hot food.
See cause it makes the hot food cold, and the cold drinks hot...just sayin..
It is sad that this is the only forum to discuss these and other pressing issues in the world of Athiesm.
Hitchens
Level 8
July 12, 2018
1
you would think if they wanted to preserve this hypnotically befuddled state of consumerism we all live in, they would do a little more to protect their interest.
Your comment made me laugh. We are a well-rounded bunch of conversationalists here.
I agree with you about the cold drink (or anything). When I make my hot lunch at work and put it in a bag to go to my super secret lunch spot (cause I'm a tad introverted and have to get away from humans -- yeah, it's just my car), I always carry my drink separately -- even though it's only three minutes from here to there.
Hi...happy you got a chuckle out of my traumatic reoccurring delivery issues Blue Wave ??
But you know what..If it's a beautiful day I will have my lunch in the plaza outside the office and away from the canteen.
Any other day I just sit in my car and either listen to a news show or some relaxing music..vape a little and chill out for an hour....in a human free zone.
I know your plight..?
@Hitchens That's not a weakness. That's a very kind gesture. And, trust me, it's needed. I drive for Uber and Lyft -- only about 25% of people tip. THANKFULLY, it's not my primary source of income -- but, even as a "side hustle," it feels so futile when so few passengers tip. So, trust me, your delivery person is very grateful for your kindness (not weakness).
@Hitchens We are twins! I play a couple games, read a bit on AG, Twitter if I can stomach the bad news, vape a bit, and totally enjoy the silence during my lunch hours.
Two of my bosses took me to lunch today. I love my bosses -- but I cannot help the tiny part of me that always mourns, just for a few split seconds -- that I won't have that hour to myself when I go out to eat with co-workers. 
I adore a lot of the people I work with..but I too cherish that me time. I think it's no bad thing..to get away for a while..to liken it to your bosses taking you to lunch..I had a similar mini death..when a female colleague asked me to have lunch with her..this a person I really like and enjoy being around..but all I could think about was ouch..thats like skipping lunch..of course I accepted, and we sat outside and it was perfectly delightful..??
I get that..in Europe it's customary to tip, when the service is above the norm..so you tip accordingly...I know in the States it's different as it's really a large portion of their take home pay..so it's vital that people recognise that and support them.
One time I was in Egypt.. and I was running out of money that I had set aside for tipping..(It's important to tip there) so I had purchased a lot of cigarettes in the airport duty free (I smoked back then) so I started handing out packs of cigarettes..?? before I knew it I had armed Egyptian soldiers following me around offering to take my picture and carry my backpack around the Aswan Damn..anything for a pack of good cigarettes..???
In the same vein as some of the other comments, when you have a dining room packed full of not-so-patient and sometimes not-so-pleasant customers, then the need to get get everyone their food as well the need to get it to them as fast as possible (orders are literally timed as someone else said) takes precedence over the presentation unfortunately. I worked at McDonald's last summer. I remember one guy ordered a Filet-O-Fish (one of the items that takes the longest to cook) when we were busy and after a bit he yelled "I've been here 15 minutes where's my food!!!" and I looked at the screen and thought "Actually its been 7 minutes since you ordered which I know cuz we're literally timed but nice try 
"
JD7270
Level 2
July 12, 2018
1
i know. ive been back there flinging lettuce and pickles. long time ago. I guess there are always impatient people and jerks out there I understand that. and they're going to be there whether my bun is centered on my hamburger or not. and it's okay. I'm prepared to accept that my Burgers not going to be centered. I'm just trying to have fun. I know that when the people who make those Burgers order one, there's isn't centered either.
It's not a training issue or a pride issue. It's the maximum speed and efficiency that hinders the quality to the lowest possible level still considered acceptable by the general public in the form of impact to revenue.
To summarize, you're still buying them so they don't fucking care how centered the burger is.
mattersauce
Level 7
July 12, 2018
3
I want to say something like 'pay them more than starvation wages and actually treat them like people and they'll probably care more about their job' but I've worked in all manner of restaurant kitchens and I did my tour as a grocery bagger in high school and unfortunately, for every one person like me who sees a task as being worth doing right for the sake of personal pride in my work and because those jobs serve a necessary but underrated service to the people in the community, there are about 15 lazy, self-important jackasses who don't care about anything but getting a paycheck in exchange for the absolute bare minumum of effort so...really it does come down to a relative absence of REAL training protocols within those businesses. At grocery stores, all your training is done the first couple of days on a computer in a room by yourself. And fast food, they just kind of expect you to pick it up through a little time on the computer, watching for a little while, and then getting thrown to the wolves. And honestly the rigid insistence on a 5-7 minute TTY regardless of business volume is part of the reason the work gets shoddy. When you have seven minutes to make 35 differently configured sandwiches and you have to cook extra meat because of belligerently-adhered to hold capacity rules, and there's only one of you, this is not conducive to quality worksmanship.
The grocery store employees being incapable of proper grocery bagging thing does infuriate me, i'll admit, but half the time there's no bagger it's just the cashier these days, and the only way I've found to ensure my groceries are bagged properly is to lay them out in their appropriate groupings on the conveyor.
geist171
Level 6
July 12, 2018
2
Not when their goal is to assemble those things as fast as humanly possible. They literally time you. Or, at least, they did at Wendy's when I worked there.
memorylikeasieve
Level 7
July 12, 2018
5
SO MUCH THIS! and it's not just fast food. Most restaurants have a 7-10 minute expected TTY at lunch and 10-15 minute expected TTY at dinner unless you're talking about something like a rack of ribs or a well-done T-bone, and volume only changes that time frame if you're 10 or 15 4-top tickets in, then calling a 20 minute wait on an order might be acceptable, assuming the customer doesn't raise immortal Hell because they can't understand how business volume and cooking work.
I could write a few pages on the industry, from an insider’s viewpoint.
NothinnXpreVails
Level 8
July 12, 2018
2
That would be interesting. Seriously.
Also the grocery industry on how to bag groceries
Marcie1974
Level 8
July 12, 2018
2
This is true. When I was living in Maryland, a grocery chain gave you a scanner, and you scanned your own stuff and bagged your own groceries - the way YOU want them!!! I loved it.
@poetdi56 Whenever possible I avoid this. By doing so, you displace a job. Maybe not one you'd want, but a job for someone.
@Mitch07102 No - this was not self-checkout. It was scan your own groceries as you went and packed them yourself. You still needed to go to a regular register to final checkout. No one was displaced (except perhaps an incompetent bag boy).
@Mitch07102 I’m all for having someone bag my groceries....just take 10 minutes to actually train them!
@Mitch07102 good point.
When I lived in Porter, Tx the baggers were so bad that I started bagging my own groceries. Eventhough I was bitched at by the baggers, (as I told them) it was a lot better than having bleach bagged with fresh fruits/vegetables, cakes bagged upside down, and fresh pies bagged sideways. I could go on, but I'm sure you all get the picture.
@kiramea yep, I live in an apartment so I always tell them to use as few bags as possible. Inevitably I’ll end up with twice as many bags as they need to use. My favorite grocery store bags them for you and I don’t feel comfortable asking to bag my own. I often go to a different store because they have half lanes where they bag and half where you can bag them yourself.
@Marcie1974 My mother used to be manager at one of the grocery stored when I was raised so I guess I was comfortable with bagging my own. I never asked though; I just did it. When the bagger told me that they would do it I just told them to help someone else.
@kiramea I think part of why I’m so picky is because I worked in a grocery store in high school. We were definitely taught how to properly bag them
@kiramea, @Marcie1974 Same with me. I worked at Von's for a short time. The lessons (common sense really) stuck.
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