McDonald's — Restaurant in Florida

Fast food is a tough job. I’ve worked in food service and I don’t want to get anyone in trouble. However my ticket time early this morning was 11 minuets. 4:37am food order; delivered incomplete at the second pick-up window at 4:48. A small Sprite, Parfait, two hash browns and a Sausage n Egg McMuffin. No salt or ketchup was ever offered or delivered. A bit less than $8. I hope the two guys I saw tonight were working alone or had some computer problems or something, because it was pitiful. I’ve been eating Big Macs since they came in Styrofoam containers. And, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve cut down on fast food considerably. However, this is probably my last time at MickyD’s. The young man in the speaker said breakfast switch-over was at 3:30, so I missed out on my usual first choice - a Big Mac combo. No biggie, I like the breakfast. I pulled ahead and waited behind a Tahoe for a couple of minuets. Once I got to the pay window, a young man took my money and asked me nicely to pull ahead. McDonald’s hash browns take about 3 minutes. You can look it up. I told the guy, “No, thanks I’ll wait tight here.” I never thought it was proper they wait until you have paid and they are handing you the receipt to tell you it will take longer than it should and please pull up. I could rightly assume my meal should be ready at anytime, anyway because it had almost been enough total time by now to serve the potatoes even if they hadn’t dropped them immediately after I had ordered. There were no other customers in sight. After a few more minutes, he again asked me to pull up, indicating there was someone pulling behind me soon. I complied - no use in anyone else suffering. I waited at the second window for at least five more minutes, eventually watching the car behind me pull around to sit in a parking spot and eat. By this time, I was regretting almost ever double all-beef pattie I had ever bought off of these people, when a different young McDonald's man in a tie walked right out the front door and tried to deliver my food to the only other car in the parking lot. The one I just let pull through. Our cars looked nothing alike. They weren’t even both cars. It was sad. The McMuffin was dry and hard. The hash browns, not quite dangerously undercooked. But close. The parfait and granola were good. The two men I saw working there were harried and resigned in equal measure. Their shrugging apologies seemed more like a comfortable habit than sincere regret. I might come back if the kids want McNuggets as a reward one day or I’m stuck on the interstate with no other options but I think I’m done with McD’s. I certainly am with this particular one. I think it might be better to just drive one more mile, spend $3 more dollars and take 9 more minutes just to eat and sit down at Waffle House or something. I'm getting too old...

Subject: McDonald's - A Case Study in American Decay Date: January 4, 2025 Observations: The Symbolism: Golden Arches. Two grotesque, grinning mouths perpetually agape, consuming the landscape. A mockery of the American Dream. The Product: Uniformly insipid. "Food" that transcends taste, existing solely as a vehicle for profit. A testament to the triumph of the assembly line over the human spirit. The Clientele: A microcosm of American despair. Families trapped in a cycle of consumerism, children indoctrinated into a cult of cheap thrills and empty calories. The elderly, clinging to faded memories of "better times," now reduced to slurping milkshakes in sterile booths. The Atmosphere: A cacophony of noise and artificial cheer. Muzak designed to numb the senses, children screaming, the incessant clatter of Styrofoam. A sensory assault designed to mask the underlying emptiness. Analysis: McDonald's. A blight on the American landscape. A symbol of our collective surrender to the forces of corporate greed. We, the people, have become the product. We are being fed a steady diet of processed garbage, both literally and figuratively. Our minds, like our bodies, are becoming increasingly numb, increasingly susceptible to the blandishments of mass media. The Golden Arches. A constant reminder of our own insignificance. We are ants, scurrying to and fro, feeding the insatiable maw of the corporate beast. We are cogs in the machine, expendable and replaceable. Prognosis: Grim. Unless we as a society can rediscover the value of true nourishment – of both body and soul – we are doomed to a future of spiritual and physical decay. We must resist the temptation of easy answers, of cheap thrills. We must demand more from ourselves, and from those who...

I don't come to McD's often, so here's my experience today: They're having customers use the kiosks. That's fine, but (a) it takes much longer to order from the kiosk and I couldn't order a bottle of water with my meal instead of getting a fountain drink. I settle for Fanta orange as a treat for myself and my oldest child and got a 4-piece McNugget happy meal with BBQ sauce and apple juice. All the while, the manager is harping on the employees about the amount of time drive through is backed up, quoting times and it kinda sounded like they're competing with other locations on times, but I could be way off base there. Anyway, I get the food. They hand me 2 drink cups to go fill myself, even though I specified what I wanted on the kiosk. I filled drinks, and grabbed napkins and straws. They also left out the barbecue sauce and the apple juice. Food tasted great. Fruit flies were flying around us while we were trying to eat. I wasn't pleased with the experience but the really depressing thing is I just internally shrugged and said 'McDonald's' to myself.

Sorry guys, the kiosk just isn't cutting it. If you're going to have a kiosk, can't be flashy with fade-ins/fade-outs. I couldn't order a bottle of water with my meal. It takes for-freaking-ever to order food from the kiosk. It took me 2-3 min to go through the menus and order my food. I'm sure next time I can knock a minute off that time, so 1-2 minutes. I could have had a human being take the order in 30 seconds or less. Make ordering from the kiosk even faster by talking to some UX people, until then, let us have humans...