Doing it dirty at McDonalds....

It’s 10:30pm in Long Island and pulling into the parking lot there’s not a soul at the McDonalds. I put the car in park, contemplating whether or not it’s even open and as I walk to the door I laugh to myself about the insanity of what is about to go down. The door swings open and the smell of burgers and fries flies around my face like a tornado. As I walk up to the counter and look around there’s not a person in sight…until I turn around and all the staff is sitting at the tables like a lounge. They look around to see who’s going to get up and finally a women walks slowly behind the counter and says “may I help you?”

As I placed my order, I tried to explain that it was vital for them to be as specific as possible on the receipt. I told the lady I would like a small cheeseburger with exactly 5 pickles, well done fries and a side of big mac sauce. She places the order (yells to the staff who walk to the grill), and as she puts the order into the POS machine, I explained that I needed the 5 pickles to show up. After 5 minutes of arguing because she said this was impossible, another lady came over who tried to explain how it could not be done. I asked them to push the button 5 times, which they refused until finally playing around for a little they realized how to make 5 pickles appear on the receipt. Everyone else (other staff members) watched me as they shook their head and the manager was simply standing in the corner watching the whole time without saying a word. The burger came, receipt was printed and to my surprise the order was perfect.

When I first learned about this assignment I thought it was going to be a lot more difficult than it turned out to be. Convincing the staff member that the pickles could be shown on the receipt was possible seemed to be the most difficult part, however, once that was accomplished the rest was simple. Although they don’t seem to be the “best” at customized orders (as such), they handled the situation a lot better than expected. However, If I was the manager during this situation, instead of standing in the corner doing nothing, I would have come over to the counter and either spoken to the customer or the staff member to try and solve the problem more efficiently.

Communication between the staff members seemed to be efficient (most was in Spanish so I could not understand it all), however I’m sure if this had been done at 2:00pm in union square with a huge line, this would not have been as smooth of a scenario. They also seemed to be accustomed to picky customers, because when placing the order they did not seem too surprised, and almost acted as if this was a normal occasion. As far as communication between the staff members and the customers, I do not have too many recommendations for improvements.

Regarding training, because it took two of the staff members to figure out how to get 5 pickles to show up on the receipt, I would say that training for the POS system could be more in depth so that they would be better able to handle customized orders more efficiently. They didn’t seem to be too familiar with the system, which is surprising to me since they use it all day long. I’m sure McDonald implements an initial staff training with the systems, but why was one of the staff members able to figure it out while the other stood there completely baffled? One good suggestion I would have would be to have a “updated training” either monthly or bimonthly just to make sure that all the members of the staff are well trained and equally competent regarding their systems.

There was no sign of true “leadership” in the restaurant, although the one woman who was able to help could be commended for standing up and conquering the pickle escapade. The one individual in which I feel could have done more to be a leader in this situation was the manager. Because he did not even attempt to help the situation, where he clearly saw me arguing with this lady for about 5 minutes, I feel a lot more could have been done on his end, such as trying to come over and work the machine himself.

All in all, the experience was exhilarating and I’m sure I will tell my kids and they will tell their kids and the story will live on forever. The burger was salty with a strong taste of pickles, and the fries were soggy from the sauce, yet crispy from being well done. I left with a smile on my face, but a sad realization hit me when walking to my car in the parking lot…I can no longer go into that McDonalds during the night shift without being known as the 5 pickle guy. Damn…