What a Mess!

Hello ya'll!  I'm currently in a tiny town off the interstate a few miles between Laramie and Rawlins, Wyoming.  This town is so tiny that my senior graduating class makes up the most of this town.  It's that tiny.  Around 191 people to be exact!  Don't ask how I'm doing with wifi because I don't want to jinx it yet on the first full day I've been here; I still have lots of homework to do!

This is the first big trip I've taken since I started studying in the hospitality industry and it's opened my eyes quite a bit.  One thing I couldn't wait to storm onto the blogging field with was our lunch stop yesterday in Goodland, Kansas.  We stopped firstly for gas since the truck was hitting about a quarter of a tank (which was really great considering that we fought a lot of wind on the way west to Colorado) but it was also lunch time and we were all hungry.

Normally we try our hardest to go to local restaurants because it helps the local economy, we get to meet the locals and depending on where we're at they have specialties that we're not used to in South Central Kansas.  Sometimes though when you're just off the interstate you don't want to stray too far.  This was the case yesterday and we ended up in a Dairy Queen since the restaurant we decided to try was boarded up and closed.  Well, that and none of us decided it was worth trying a sketch looking taco shop that had one car in front.

Our experience at this DQ was not a good one and we left as soon as we finished eating.  My responses in purple are what I would have done if I was a manager in the situation or the employee.  Or just my comments and notes.

First thing: the high school kid who eventually ended up taking our order was chewing gum.  No, no. NO.  I wanted to smack the gum out of his mouth and I was tempted to by the time we left.  I just hope he wasn't near the food because I can just see saliva dripping out of his mouth and onto the food. Do you know how many types of food borne illnesses there are that can come from just that? Don't even make me break out my books.  

Next, we waited. For a while.  A long while.  I don't mind this, normally, it was during lunch and I totally get that.  The high school kid and the other employee, I'm assuming the manager looked at us several times but never took the moment to say "we'll be right with you" or anything like that.  It was like they were ignoring us. I find myself super busy at work when I have to cover the front register and get food out the drive thru window.  I've found a balance though and when I can't get to the register I always make eye contact with my guest and tell them that I'll be with them shortly.

The kid never tried up-selling.  This was pointed out by my Ma who would have taken a large drink instead but since he never asked she wasn't going to bother. Taking orders is a conversation.  The guest says they want this and then you ask questions to help complete their order.  In some cases, this would involve asking if my Ma would like a large drink instead of the small.

Ma also pointed out after we sat down that the manager had a drink cup in the back by the window near where some of the food and drink prep was going on.  So yeah, I feel super strongly about this as I do with the gum.  Just don't do it.  I know it's hard to keep your mouth from drying out if you're taking drive through orders but you just can't have drink glasses near the food prep.

My Ma drinks iced tea and sometimes it's hard to hunt down the tea container because it's normally not in the soda machine.  I looked by the soda machine and it wasn't there.  Ma then asked at the counter and she was directed to the soda machine.  She went back and had to tell them that no there was not tea out there.  Ma reported that they were rude to her when she asked for tea.  Employees should have been aware of where their tea and other asked for items are.  They also should get impatient or rude when a guest asks questions. Simple as that.

The kid dropped a bunch of cups on the floor and then proceeded to say "oh well".  Wasting product is bad.  The attitude is an even bigger problem.  Thankfully the manager did throw all the cups dropped away.

Our food is finally ready, I got to pick it up at the counter.  It's in a to go sack.  We never said that it was to go and the kid never asked.  It was the "I don't care" attitude of the kid that makes me so upset with this.  We didn't mind eating out of to go containers, but we would have like it if we hadn't needed to.  Once again, it's a conversation when taking orders.  Ask the guest if it's dine in or dine out.

A kid dropped her DQ Blizzard and it went all over the lobby floor.  I watched out of the corner of my eye what happened.  The grandma helped clean up some of it and then I heard her go tell the employees that there was a spill that needed cleaned up.  The high school kid came out with a mop and bucket and proceeded to clean it up.  The mop was dry and all it did was smear it around the floor.  And then, he never placed a "wet floor" sign.  HELLO LIABILITY! What if the old woman in the corner didn't see the floor was wet, slipped, fell, broke her hip and decided to sue?  It could have been prevented with a single yellow sign that someone was too lazy or not educated to be told to put it up.  Also, who taught this kid how to mop? Draw the soapy water in the bucket, it makes cleaning up ice cream and other spills way easier!

Then, to make things even grander, I noticed that the floor was dirty too.  At this point I wasn't surprised about the dirty floor, not with the careless attitude of the staff I interacted with.

*takes a deep breath*

The whole experience was super frustrating.  But it was a good learning moment.  I got to do one of those case studies in person instead of watching TV.

I definitely plan on making a phone call or writing a letter to DQ about this.  I think, from what we saw and experienced, that it wasn't just at the lower level but it was also a lot of management problems.

Now that my rant is over, I hope you are enjoying your lovely Wednesday!