PARA-PAPA-PA ... I'm Lovin' It

        Extra Credit 

          After we found out what our extra credit assignment was, I was really excited to get it done.  The assignment asked that we go to any McDonald's restaurant and ask for a hamburger  with 5 pickles and small order of fries well done with Big Mac sauce on the side.  And to top it off, the order had to be shown on a receipt.  We couldn't tell them this was for school or else it would be too easy.  And as they take care of my order, I am suppose to watch how the process goes and take mental notes. 

            After I got home, I headed to the McDonald's that is closest to my house.  I went to the one on 86th Street and 4th Avenue in Bay Ridge Brooklyn, store number 12352.  This store in particular gets pretty hectic around 3:30 PM because all the students from Fort Hamilton High School gather there to eat after school.  So I thought this would be a great time to catch them of guard with a ridiculous order like mine.  I know that if I went around 6PM  I could probably have gotten my food faster, but that's no fun. 

            So at 4 PM, on Wednesday October 20th, I walked in wearing dress pants and green button down shirt.  I waited on line, which was very long due to the large crowd of high school students, for about 2 minutes.  The line that I was in was the 3rd from the left.  The cashier was a very tall and big girl, who seemed to be of South American decent.  She asked me how she could help me and casually I responded with, "Can I please get a hamburger  with 5 pickles".  The look on her face was priceless and her response was even more.  She said "Umm.. five?", I answered yes and I also said "I also want an order of small fries well done with some Big Mac sauce on them".  At this point she thought I was joking from the way she was looking at me.  And when I told her I wanted it all on a receipt she walked away and grabbed some skinny guy with a black shirt.  I think this guy was the manager because she left and opened another register and I was now directly dealing with Jose, one of the McDonald's manager. 

            He did not introduce himself nor did he speak to me.  He looked at the computer for about 5 minutes.  I introduced myself and he told me that he was the manager and he was trying to figure something out on the computer.  About ten minutes pass when he asked me "Let me get ya' order again".  So, just as I told the other girl, I told him my order but this time I asked for the Big Mac sauce on the side instead.  He told me to hold on.  He went to where they prepare the sandwiches and I clearly heard him tell the person that " This fucking asshole wants a cheeseburger with five pickles".  The lady responded in Spanish, and all I understood was "Hijo de puta".  From my experience in working in the service industry and working with a lot of Spanish speaking workers, I know very well what those beautiful words mean. 

            Then he proceeded to the frying machine and put some friends back in the oil.  He came and told me that the fries will take a long time and he also gave me the Big Mac sauce on a small container.  Then without any excuse he went to his office. So far 10 whole minutes have passed.  But thankfully Jose the manager did not make me wait long, and he came back.  What he asked me kind of surprised me.  He asked me why did I need everything to show on the receipt, so with a straight face I replied with, "My girlfriend will beat me".  He looked at me, I'm guessing waiting for me to laugh, but when he saw I was serious he told me that it wouldn't be possible for him to write the world FIVE on the receipt.  So I suggested he put the number 5, but Jose knew those damn computers too well, he told me that it's impossible because writing anything is impossible on the receipts.  His tone of voice was hinting that I just take a regular receipt.  After he told me that I said to him, "Well then I guess we have a problem".  Once I said that, he suggested that he press the pickle button 5 times causing the word PICKLE to show on the receipt five times. 

            I told him that I guess that would do, and as his fingers were pressing the buttons I said, " See, I'm not such an asshole",  to my surprise this did not bother him one bit.  H did not even try to justify his comment with an excuse.  He just let it roll right off his back.  That Jose, he doesn't take shit from nobody.

            Finally about fifteen minutes later, Jose gave me my receipt that said Hamburger and the world PICKLE five times and one order of small fries.  So, I noticed this was wrong so when Jose came back with my food I pointed out that he left out the well done fries and the Big Mac sauce.  Jose grabbed the receipt of my hand and crumbled it  and hit some more buttons and before he printed the receipt out,  he went to the kitchen and started screaming "IGNORE LAST ORDER!".  Then he came back, and printed my receipt.  I took my food and walked away.   

            The manager of the McDonald's that I went to would be classified as a problem solver.  The problem that he had in his hands was having to place a difficult order.  I do not think that he had this problem before because of the amount of time it took him to solve this issue.  He must now train his staff to deal with this kind of issue and this would be a programmed decision.  The solution to the problem is to just train your workforce, which could be learned from the past.  When the staff does not know how to do handle a specific situation, you train them, and next time this occurs, they will be able to handle it on their own.

            When I went there at that time I knew that I was going to encounter some type of problems.  One thing I was surprised to see was when the manager pulled the cashier from working with me and moved her to help others while he worked directly with me.  As he was helping me I noticed he kept an eye on the other registers.  He would walk past them and take a look at what they were doing.  In my opinion, I don't think Jose was a bad manager, the situation he was put in was not a easy one to deal with.  He tried his best and in the end, after almost half an hour, I got my food and receipt.  I ended up not eating the food.  I was scared that someone might have added some special sauce that the computer had no button for.