"Hold the pickles hold the lettuce, special orders......will short circuit our brains!"
I think fast food is a pretty novel idea. It is what nourished me the whole time I was in school and working slave hours. I like the idea of being able to decide, on a whim, that I want a sandwich, milkshake or some fries and be able to pull into the next drive, yell my order at someone through a little box and three minutes later have a depressing depiction of what I saw on the menu with which to sustain me until the next craving hits.
When we can synchronize our shedules in such a way to allow for it , my bestest good little buddy and I love taking road trips. Long, short, in circles, doesnt matter. We just love the drive, its our thing. Often times it is on these trips that we realize the need to eat but dont wish to pause the roadtrip and fast food is the solution. One such time found me in line at a local Arby's looking over the standard menu.I decided upon the Turkey bacon ranch market fresh sandwich wereby my friend and partner in crime stated that he only wanted a large curly fries. I decided that I would just order us the value meal and we could share the small soda too. I then proceeded to place my order.
"I would like the Turkey bacon ranch market fresh sandwich value meal please. Oh, and can I have a large curly fries with that instead?"
"Why don't you just supersize?"
"Sure, thank you".
She reached for the supersize soda and I saw that this thing was like five gallons in size. Who can drink that much soda? And why? I cant even hold it without two hands, how am I supposed to drive away and eat with that thing? And isnt that what one DOES with fast food, drive away and eat.
"That's okay", I explain "I really just want a small soda with my meal."
*blink*
After a return the the register followed by some taps with her fingers, I realize that she is attempting to refund my order to make it a regular value meal. Now, I know my friend, and I know his love for fries. This would NOT be a good idea.
"Okay, really I just want the small soda but to KEEP the supersize curly fries."
This is the point that all hell broke loose......
"UUUUMMMM, we really cant do that, you have to get the supersize soda with the supersize fries."
Are you serious?!
It was like I had asked her to work the formulas that define Kepler’s three laws on orbital rotation. Apparently, the keypad on the register doesn't allow for mixing and matching the sizes of the items on the menu and the thought of just grabbing a smaller cup seemed to elude her. Another employee came from the back to help their troubled comrade. But to no avail, it would appear that Assistant Managers are no better at figuring out how to charge for a supersize fries AND a small soda.
"Look, don't worry about it, I will pay full price for the supersize meal, can you just GIVE me a SMALL SODA?!"
Both of the coworkers let out an appreciative sigh of relief and I could smell the smoke in the air. That's when it dawned on me: Things in our society have become far too efficient. There is an OVER efficiency problem to the extent that institutions offer you only a limited set of choices and what results is a subtle determinism of your behavior. Well stop it!! I wish to exercise my freedom of choice, I want big AND small with my meals and I want to be able to find SOMEONE that speaks ENGLISH manning the drive through!!!!!!
Urgh!! >.<
But thats another rant entirely. We can touch upon that one later.
I remember the days of "Your way, right away” and “Hold the pickles hold the lettuce, special orders wont upset us.” Well, today, special orders might not upset them, they just short circuit their brain synapses. The "Have it your way" mentality of the past no longer applies. Today, all of the fast food chains seem to be saying "Have it our way". You are not free to choose. And this is a serious issue. The result is a dummy down effect of our society. Not only am I forced to be some drooling drone without the ability to decipher my own individual wants for the foods I eat, but the people serving it are now too stupid to think outside the box and do anything different than what appears on the screen of their computerized registers. It would appear that we are on the threshold of some sort of mechanized mind control, whereby through a backsliding evolutionary process we are facilitating our own demise and contributing to the progressive senility and numbness of our society. By taking away peoples right to exercise their BRAIN on a regular basis, we are ensuring their inability to do so. “If you offer people nothing but mediocrity, you will create a mediocre people.”
Well, I hate mediocre!!! >.<
Furthermore, I hate that it has to take 20 minutes of bomb squad tactics in order to get the pimply faced girl wearing far too much make-up to understand and handle the fact that sometimes people just want lots of fries and a little soda.
When we can synchronize our shedules in such a way to allow for it , my bestest good little buddy and I love taking road trips. Long, short, in circles, doesnt matter. We just love the drive, its our thing. Often times it is on these trips that we realize the need to eat but dont wish to pause the roadtrip and fast food is the solution. One such time found me in line at a local Arby's looking over the standard menu.I decided upon the Turkey bacon ranch market fresh sandwich wereby my friend and partner in crime stated that he only wanted a large curly fries. I decided that I would just order us the value meal and we could share the small soda too. I then proceeded to place my order.
"I would like the Turkey bacon ranch market fresh sandwich value meal please. Oh, and can I have a large curly fries with that instead?"
"Why don't you just supersize?"
"Sure, thank you".
She reached for the supersize soda and I saw that this thing was like five gallons in size. Who can drink that much soda? And why? I cant even hold it without two hands, how am I supposed to drive away and eat with that thing? And isnt that what one DOES with fast food, drive away and eat.
"That's okay", I explain "I really just want a small soda with my meal."
*blink*
After a return the the register followed by some taps with her fingers, I realize that she is attempting to refund my order to make it a regular value meal. Now, I know my friend, and I know his love for fries. This would NOT be a good idea.
"Okay, really I just want the small soda but to KEEP the supersize curly fries."
This is the point that all hell broke loose......
"UUUUMMMM, we really cant do that, you have to get the supersize soda with the supersize fries."
Are you serious?!
It was like I had asked her to work the formulas that define Kepler’s three laws on orbital rotation. Apparently, the keypad on the register doesn't allow for mixing and matching the sizes of the items on the menu and the thought of just grabbing a smaller cup seemed to elude her. Another employee came from the back to help their troubled comrade. But to no avail, it would appear that Assistant Managers are no better at figuring out how to charge for a supersize fries AND a small soda.
"Look, don't worry about it, I will pay full price for the supersize meal, can you just GIVE me a SMALL SODA?!"
Both of the coworkers let out an appreciative sigh of relief and I could smell the smoke in the air. That's when it dawned on me: Things in our society have become far too efficient. There is an OVER efficiency problem to the extent that institutions offer you only a limited set of choices and what results is a subtle determinism of your behavior. Well stop it!! I wish to exercise my freedom of choice, I want big AND small with my meals and I want to be able to find SOMEONE that speaks ENGLISH manning the drive through!!!!!!
Urgh!! >.<
But thats another rant entirely. We can touch upon that one later.
I remember the days of "Your way, right away” and “Hold the pickles hold the lettuce, special orders wont upset us.” Well, today, special orders might not upset them, they just short circuit their brain synapses. The "Have it your way" mentality of the past no longer applies. Today, all of the fast food chains seem to be saying "Have it our way". You are not free to choose. And this is a serious issue. The result is a dummy down effect of our society. Not only am I forced to be some drooling drone without the ability to decipher my own individual wants for the foods I eat, but the people serving it are now too stupid to think outside the box and do anything different than what appears on the screen of their computerized registers. It would appear that we are on the threshold of some sort of mechanized mind control, whereby through a backsliding evolutionary process we are facilitating our own demise and contributing to the progressive senility and numbness of our society. By taking away peoples right to exercise their BRAIN on a regular basis, we are ensuring their inability to do so. “If you offer people nothing but mediocrity, you will create a mediocre people.”
Well, I hate mediocre!!! >.<
Furthermore, I hate that it has to take 20 minutes of bomb squad tactics in order to get the pimply faced girl wearing far too much make-up to understand and handle the fact that sometimes people just want lots of fries and a little soda.
posted by Anonymous at 8:12 AM
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