The Couponator 23: The Time Destroyer

At my restaurant, as with most fast food establishments, we are graded on our drive-thru times. One of these times is how long it takes from the moment the guest pulls up to the order screen until the moment they drive off with their food. It doesn’t matter if it’s our fault for taking too long, or theirs for sitting in the drive-thru for five minutes figuring out what they want — while holding up any cars behind them. It looks bad on the employees.

A woman pulls up to the order speaker. She keeps changing her order, asking the cashier to repeat back what she’s already ordered, modifying her sandwiches five minutes after she ordered them — so three or four minutes after they’ve been made, meaning we have to remake them — spending a good ninety seconds four separate times talking to people in her car to figure out what they are all trying to order while not speaking to my cashier, etc. All in all, she spends over twice as long ordering as we are supposed to spend getting people from the speaker, to the window, to gone.

We have a whole sheet of coupons that just got delivered in the mail a few days ago.

The cashier has the sweetest nice-girl voice and is unflappable when dealing with customers, no matter how crappy they act.

Cashier: “Your total is $50; please pull around.”

Customer: *Pulls around* “Your total was wrong; I have these.”

The customer shoves an entire sheet of coupons into my cashier’s hands.

Cashier: *Still cool as a cucumber* “Yes, ma’am, I put your coupons in already, your total is $50.”

Customer: “I didn’t even tell you I had coupons!”

Cashier: *Still totally calm, sweet as pie, and unflappable* “At the beginning, you told me you had coupon one for two [specific sandwiches], and coupons two and three for your free shake and for a discount on [other sandwich], so I assumed you had the whole sheet of coupons and put in every one that applied to your order, even if you didn’t specifically mention it. Your total is $50. Do you need any ketchup or other sauces in your bags?”

All in all, this woman ruined our drive-thru times for that hour and made every person in the store cranky as h***, but this teenage girl on the drive-thru dealt with it so well! I was amazed. She can have my manager meal for the day any time she asks!

Related:
The Couponator 22: Coupons Of Mass Consumption
The Couponator 21: The FINAL Sale
The Couponator 20: Coupons Of Mass Consumption
The Couponator 19: Fast Food & Furious
The Couponator 18: The Digital Revolution