McDonald's — Restaurant in Salem

I finally encountered the infamous ice cream machine breakdown issue - but that's not what earned the one star. It was so much more...

First, I almost missed the pay window because it's at a weird place on the dark side of the building. The cashier mentioned how he has suggested a light, but "they" are more interested in times.

Second, after I arrived at the pickup window and waited about a minute, someone approached with a stunned look and asked me what I had ordered. "Two small vanilla cones."

She politely explained that the machine was broken, but she'd be happy to get us fries, a drink, or a shake. We opted for two shakes. And this is where it gets interesting..

Third, as cars piled up behind us, we waited as they filled the shake machine (it took two tries) and the people watching. They had to move clutter, get a different bag of white liquid, and over their heads a TV screen displayed sales data, cats per hour, and other proprietary numbers. Meanwhile cars piled up behind us and some employees wandered around aimlessly.

Fourth, nearly 15 cars had stacked up behind us. It was almost funny, of it hasn't been so sad.

I know there's a shortage of low-paid employees willing to work fast-food - can you blame them? But shouldn't the adults who own and operate this McDonald's be on the floor dealing with this sort of chaos?

I witnessed morale issues, training issues, management issues, and a complete breakdown of the systems McDonald's is famous for (eg; fast, consistent, and stellar customer service). The person who tried to sorry it out was amazing, kind, professional, and apologetic.

Finally, back to the ice cream. Why didn't they person taking out order inform us the machine was down? System failure. Why didn't the cashier tell us? System failure. why weren't we asked to pull ahead while other customers were served? System failure.

It wouldn't surprise me if they don't all walk off the job, en masse. And they should, unless the adult owner/managers...

Gentle reader, If you are seeing this you've gone too far down the rabbit hole. McDonald's is ubiquitous, it's reliable like the sun rising in the East it does not warrant reviewing, if you don't know what to expect go ahead and go on in and give them a shot. McDonald's has the same menu options pretty much everywhere, decently clean, rat free rest rooms, and somehow the same awkwardly tall teenage boy operating behind the counter with pants that are slightly too short. You'd think that a company that has enjoyed such success in replication would have been able to put a longer pair of pants in their duplicator machine and get Elwin2.0 some pants that fit. (R.I.P. Elwin1.0, you live on in our hearts. And, you left enough genetic material in the fryer to use the "McMachine" so technically part of you lives on at most participating locations, not in AK or HI) The real magic of McDonald's, whether you believe in magic or not, but I hope you do, is in the cloning process. And I'm not talking about just the employees, the food is spectacularly homogeneous. It's the same burger from here to Tampa to NYC, it's uncanny. I think and you can quote me on this, McDonald's will be the first fast food on Mars. They have been able to produce the exact same rapid dining experience in every climate and all conditions, I don't feel like 38% gravity and some wind storms will make much of a difference in the business model. After all is there anything more familiar and comforting than a quarter pounder w/cheese? The same as you can get anywhere on Earth... unless you are in Europe in which case good luck finding a Quarter Pounder, they use the metric system, they don't know what a 1/4lb. means. You can however often get a glass of beer, and I'm not talkin' about no paper cup. I mean a glass of beer... Here's to hoping that science prevails, and MarsDonald's eschews the Imperial system and refers to the Earth delicacy as the 42.9...

It's pretty hard to give bad customer service at a drive thru, yet these guys failed with flying colors. Drove up and waited for about a minute and no one acknowledged that we were even at the the drive thru, not even a 'we'll be right with you'. Had to ask if anyone was there, I thought they were closed. They finally took our order, but when I wanted to add an item, they just asked us to pull forward and pay without confirming the added item. Pulled up to the pay window, waited for about another minute, an employee looked at us confused and went about doing there job with no indication if they were going to take a payment. So we drove up to the pick up window, where, yet again, another employee looked at us confused. We waited for another while, then they finally open the window and asked for a payment, but they had not added my additional item. Without saying a word they add the item, and we wait again while they discuss an issue about an employee not reporting for work. Eventually, they take our payment and we get our food. The whole experience felt like we were an inconvenience to them while they sorted out their scheduling problem. Normally, you roll your window down during this type of transaction, I had roll mine up twice because of the wait time I between interactions, it was cold. I see why this particular location has below 4 stars reviews. They get 2 stars from me because somehow they got my coffee order right, no sugar, without me asking for no sugar. Maybe it was just bad timing, but that's...