She’ll Figure It Out In Due Course

We are all to-go only in the state right now. A middle-aged lady shows up an hour late for her “lunch date” with her boyfriend, and they have not placed an order ahead of time. We have a drive-up check-in area for online orders. When slow, we can take orders ourselves for those who have not placed one yet. This is lunch on a Friday, but it’s relatively slow for the moment.

Customer: “I’d like two teas and bread to start.”

Me: “Great! What else would you like to order?”

Customer: “Just that for now, until we want our salad.”

Me: “Okay? Ma’am, just to clarify, all you’d like today is salad, bread, and drinks?”

Customer: “Oh, no! We’ll let you know when we want our lunches. We’re having a lunch date in our cars!”

Me: “Ma’am, you’ll have to order your entire meal at once and take it to go. We cannot serve each course to your car like we could in the restaurant.”

She walked away, telling me she’d be in her car waiting for her food, brushing me off.

I asked my coworkers if someone else could help me explain our new normal to this customer. The customer proceeded to tell two other workers that she was hoping to place her order course-by-course to her car, saying that she already told me her hopes for this “special lunch date” until my manager came to correct the situation.