A Front-Loaded Argument

(A car comes through the drive-thru and orders a hot dog. Note: we cook all hot dogs to order and they take about five minutes. Five minutes later, a customer comes into the store and also orders a hot dog. He is informed of the wait. The hot dog for drive-thru comes up shortly after the second customer orders. The drive-thru expeditor packs it up and hands it out to the car.)

Second Customer: “HEY! She just took my order!”

Me: “Yours is still cooking, sir. They ordered a few minutes before you came in, so theirs was ready first. I’ll have yours ready for you in another couple minutes.”

(The customer continues to be huffy about it. He leaves, and I put the incident out of my mind, until my next shift.)

General Manager: *pulls me aside* “Why did you serve drive-thru before front the other day?”

Me: *thinking for a moment then remembering* “The hot dog? Drive-thru ordered first. By like five minutes. The second guy wasn’t even in the building yet.”

General Manager: “I don’t care who ordered first; front gets their food first. Always.”

Me: “I know that, but that’s if orders come in at the same time. These were several minutes apart! The first one was practically ready by the time he came in. I even told him he would be waiting for his.”

General Manager: “I don’t care. Don’t make front wait for their food.”

Me: “So, I’m supposed to make drive-thru wait ten minutes because one guy doesn’t want to wait five?”

General Manager: “He shouldn’t have had to wait, because his food shouldn’t have been given to drive-thru.”

Me: “It wasn’t. Here, I can show you”

(I go into the office computer and pull up the sales logs for that day. It basically shows a full copy of each receipt, including timestamps.)

Me: “See? Drive-thru ordered at [time]. Front ordered at [five minutes later].”

General Manager: *silent for ten seconds, staring at the screen* “Front gets served first. That’s the end of it.”