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July 12, 2008
It never fails
Tonight we took a ride out to the nearest Chik-Fil-A so Trang could satisfy a craving for a shake. As we got into the drive-thru line one of the oldest and ugliest truths of nature re-asserted itself: whenever I get into a drive-thru line at a fast food place, it always seems to be just behind the car that orders Thanksgiving dinner. This evening, the party in the Camry in front of us took 4-5 minutes to place their order and was then at the window for an astonishing 12 minutes. The staff appeared to be running around, doing their best, etc.-in other words, appeared to be efficient. This car had ordered 9 by all appearances very full bags of food, and then sent the kids at the window scurrying for more napkins, sauce packets, a few empty bags (?).
I'm sorry, but getting an order like that at the drive-thru is just plain rude. As we drove away, I watched the Camry pull over and its two occupants begin gorging themselves. After all, what are 13,000 calories between friends on a Saturday night? (You may laugh at that figure, but do a rough estimate yourself, assuming roughly random menu selections and 2.5 of them-probably an underestimate-to fill a bag; however, I will allow that it seems hard to believe that even these people were actually going to eat all of the contents of those 9 bags in one sitting.)
While we're on the subject, I'm not much of a fast food person myself, but sitting there in line I noticed something (I had plenty of time to do so) that has struck me on each of my 2-3 (no casual empiricism here) experiences in drive-thru lines in the past year or so: that Chik-Fil-A was really nice. Beautiful stonework on the exterior, a lovely patio, a vaguely Craftsman kind of feel up close, tasteful and urbane (well, okay: maybe that's pushing it) on the interior. Is it just me or has there been some kind of recent arms race to make fast food places more posh, particularly out in the burbs where I live?
Posted by dag at July 12, 2008 10:24 PM
Comments
This week I passed a milestone. I've known you guys for for a good 16 years. You've been complaining about this for just about that long. I liken this sort of thing to those people that go through the self-checkout lines at the supermarket with the entire frozen food aisle in their basket. If you can't fit it in one of those hand baskets, you shouldn't be in the self checkout lane. Then again, that's MY issue - any line I choose at the supermarket turns out to be the slow line. It's just a part of the overall decline in common courtesy....
Posted by: The Good Rabbi at July 12, 2008 10:53 PM
My God, has it really been 16 years??
Posted by: dag at July 12, 2008 10:57 PM
By the way, a similar sort of problem asserts itself at ATMs: I've heard friends and colleagues bemoan the fact that every time they want to make a Fast Cash withdrawal they get stuck behind the person doing some king of eight party triangle exchange using accounts in Switzerland and the Cayman Islands.
I suppose that there is also the extremely remote possibility that we're just impatient.
Posted by: dag at July 12, 2008 11:03 PM