I would have fired her on the spot.
 

and then laughed when $0 an hour sucked more than $8.25.

"I've been there 40 years."

Best comeback ever.


But seriously, it's like some people don't understand how free market economies work.

I really can't believe people think like this. Youtube comments are killing me too. It's like no one told these people when they were kids that they could grow up to do anything they want. Not just flip burgers. And why get knocked up when you have a garbage job and can't afford to feed and take care of your kids? -1 on being a parent. That right there makes her a useless piece of trash - waste of a human life.

Does she ever wonder why she has been in the same position for 15 years? If you don't like your circumstances you need to take steps to change them. Asking your employer to double your wage with no business case for it is not a good way to take action.

I also enjoyed the part about how she can't buy her kids new shoes but some people do this on a monthly basis. Seriously? I need to buy more shoes apparently.

People that learn a job at McDonalds in like 15 minutes. They deserve as much pay as say engineers who spend 4-7 years learning the trade.

Let's see here. My wife, a Japanese citizen but resident alien (green card) got her first job here in America last year. Retail at Macy's making minimum wage. She got tired of making minimum wage, so she did the craziest thing.

She searched for anther job that paid better! OMGWTF! INSANITY! MIND=BLOWN!

She found a job with better hours and paid more than double the minimum wage within 2 weeks of starting the search. And this is someone who hasn't been in the country long, and doesn't have a college degree from an American school.

I don't buy into this "oh poor me" BS. Minimum wage/fast food jobs were never meant to be a family supporting career.

That's the part which baffles me.

An important question to ask in cases like this: "Is the only reason why I have this job is that I am cheaper than a robot?"

no.

actually, a robot would be cheaper and easier, but mcdonalds is actually nice enough to keep her employed and overpaid.

I blame Obama

I've actually put a lot of thought into that.

In some markets, they do have a robot which automatically dispenses drinking cups onto a conveyor belt, dispenses ice into them, pours the drink, caps it with a lid, and delivers it to the drive-through window. Dispensing drinks is an easy task to automate, because there are only a couple of different sizes and the process is identical for every order. (Cup - ice - drink - lid.)

It would be much more difficult to automate sandwich-assembly. Even if you ignore wraps and things like McNuggets, there are so many different types of sandwiches, very little commonality from one to the next, a number of different package types, and this is one area in which new "limited time" menu items are constantly being added and removed.

It could certainly be done, but the resultant machine would be extremely large, complex and unwieldy.

Then you have the reliability issue. If an automated drink dispenser goes down with a mechanical fault, it's not that big a deal to switch back to manual dispensing. A manual drink dispenser is not large, and specialized labor is not required to operate it.

By comparison, if you have converted your whole sandwich-assembly area to robotic operation, you have pretty much give up the ability to assemble sandwiches manually by virtue of the space which the robot would consume and the fact that you'd no longer have adequate staff to perform that task.


Now, one area which I am a bit surprised to see humans in is the order-taking. There are SOME venues in which humans have in fact been fully displaced by automation for fast-food ordering; the food court in terminal 5 of JFK airport comes to mind (it's all touch-screen.) And I have seen one or two Jack in the Box locations with automated ordering as well, although utilization seemed to be low and they still had a normal complement of human order-takers.

We don't know exactly what she does, but yeah. I think of sheetz, when you order food, what do you interact with? an easy to use touch screen where you don't get your order screwed up people the person at the register has been getting paid $8.25 for the last 10 years and has issue communicating...


I've seen the automated drink dispensor at mcdonald's; it's pretty choice.



on this same note: It's come to the point where if I order food at any business, especially milkshakes at elevation burger or chic-fil-a I have to double check the order is actually what I asked for and I make a big fuss about it at the counter and take up everyone's time and when they fuck up I get loud and irrate.

Any of you guys ever been to a McDonald's in Japan?

Sh*t is super clean, the food comes out promptly and looks perfect, exactly like the picture on the menu. The employees are proud of their work and take it seriously, and extremely helpful and friendly to boot, even if they don't speak your language.

That, and the one I went to for breakfast a few times, literally had two people working their at 7AM in the morning. Those two workers were more efficient, accurate, pleasant, effective, etc. etc. etc., than the 10 sad sacks of poopoo that are usually working at your average McD in the morning around the US.

I'm not sure how McD's pays in Japan, but if they only have to have two or three employees to get the job done of 10 people in the US, then I suppose they can pay them significantly better.

Luckily for me, the McDonald's closest to my house is staffed mostly by white (I'm racist) high schoolers that are happy to have a job. I don't like eating at McD's, but when I do go there, it's refreshing to have decent, competent, kids making my order.

One time we went to a mcdonalds for breakfast in upstate NY, and my wife was confused.

I would of fired every person out there and had them escorted off the premises and then arrested for trespassing. Gone in and run the restaurant myself and then hired some other mouth breathers to do the untrained mundane job. You do a job that any human that isn't a vegetable can accomplish, you are worth exactly what you get paid (Even much less in many situations). Every single thing is as automated as possible. You don't even flip burgers anymore, you put them down, push a button, and take them off the grill when the clam shell opens. Making the sandwiches is just as simple. Everything has a photo tutorial showing how to do it. If you want to make more than $8.15/hr, GET BETTER TRAINING AND BECOME AN ASSET NOT A LIABILITY.

I've said this many times, I would eat at McDonalds more often if it was run by robots. I feel it would be quite easy to automate all the tasks, and have just 1-2 people ensure the robots run smoothly and perform maintenance. The gross people that work there ensure I will never eat there.

There is this place called Portillos that we have in the Chicago area, and Diesel will likely back me up on this. It's basically a glorified hotdog and beef place.

Take a look at this video and see if you notice anything:


First, look how many workers they have behind the counter. I have been to a Portillos at lunch time and have counted 45 at one time. That is just what was visible at one moment in time. Second, notice how they seem to enjoy their jobs. Workers move with speed and efficiency. I hear Portillos pays more than McDonalds, and this means that they have a larger pool of workers and (Dick) Portillo doesn't put up with no slackasses. He knows that he has a pile of applications inches deep and if you don't want to work, he can replace you tomorrow.

Now, watch this vid and skip to the part at 1:00


The place is packed, has high seat turn-over (both in terms of actual seats and drive through), and the average meal price per person has to be between eight and eleven dollars. It is actually good quality food for about 30% more than you would pay for similar McDonalds junk. It is the market at work. Portillos pays more than minimum wage because it wants GOOD employees. Portillos represents a more premium quality of good and services than does McDonalds, and this cost is passed on to the customer.

My point I guess is that McDonalds tailors its job requirements around the kind of worker they know they can get for a given wage. If your abilities are not being sufficiently utilized then it is your own fault for sticking around for a shitty wage. Even in the realm of fast food, markets for goods and labor work.

Damn I love me some portillos... Gonna go for lunch now... lol

Portillos is great except people talk like their ribs are god... Their terrible. And they sell shitty beer.

To be fair, this is largely about where you live. Even in the US, there are many areas in which the subset of people whom you probably associate with fast-food employment (eg: those unable to speak clear and un-accented English, process abstract concepts such as "no pickles" without the prompting of an on-screen menu, etc) simply do not exist.

There's no magic, it's just basic demographics. In some areas, the bell curve is wider than in others.

So, if you dine at a McDonald's in an upscale suburban community in the northwest, you will have a very different perception of what an average McDonald's employee is than if you dine at one in a rural area of Alabama / Georgia / Louisiana / Virginia / etc.



I've never had the pleasure of visiting Japan, however I did go into a McDonald's in a small town in northern Germany (just to see what it was like), and my experience was similar. The level of staffing was similar to what you'd see in a US McDonald's, but the employees seemed to actually give a shit about their work- even the one person whose sole job it seemed to be to gather up trays from the tables that customers have just vacated and stack them into a rolling cart to be taken into the back for cleaning.



Also, for those who don't really have much experience with industrial automation, here's what an automated sandwich-making machine looks like:



Bear in mind, this machine is making just one type of sandwich, continuously, at a fixed rate. That sort of thing is easy to do. What's not easy is to build a machine capable of fulfilling a huge variety of different orders with a very short time-to-completion. Could be it done? Of course. But the fact that McDonald's does not presently use them tells me that a number of very highly paid engineers have determined that fast-food sandwich assembly is still a task best suited to meat-robots.

Why do you assholes suck at posting YT videos? like jesus christ stop posting HTML on a vB site.

they work at mcdonalds bro, bear with them

I'm just glad they aren't my doctors.

The best part is, on a youtube video when you hit share it posts the link right there in your face. They have to click off to get the html code...:facepalm:

Let me go upload a pic from my phone and show you what I cant freaking stand more than anything.

self pic?

This reminds me a bit of a typical southern California In-n-Out.

A large number of employees working at a frenetic pace, but who seem to be of a somewhat higher caliber (intelligence, motivation, etc) than the mean average for all fast food workers.

The minimum starting pay at In-n-Out is $10.50 / hour, and the average pay for hourly workers is in the neighborhood of $13-15 per hour, depending on which data you believe. They also offer a fairly reasonable benefits package which is available even to part-timers.

Thus, In-n-Out can be rather more selective as to whom they hire, with the more motivated workers tending to score the In-n-Out jobs, and the less desirable ones tending to drift downwards in the labor pool towards the KFC / McDonald's end of the spectrum.

This ain't complicated.

Because lots of things about the real world aren't taught in the not-market-driven-but-monopoly-bureaucrat-run high schools:

- how much interest is paid with minimum credit card payments forever
- mortgage interest calculations
- small business accounting
- credit scoring
- typical corporate rules and ethics
- how to hold a job and how to get promoted

etc

Which reminds me, I had a realization that math and science are taught via rote. The principles and mechanics are taught first, so most students don't see the usefulness. A better way would be to show a few real world problems, and then show how the tools (e.g. fractions or algebra), enable you to solve them.

You mean, I get higher quality if I'm willing to pay higher prices? I would have never guessed!

In reality, I couldn't care less since I don't eat or shop with the other poor people of OK.

okay.

everyone loves chipotle right?


wrong.


I hate chipotle. They have an awesome system to pump out food quickly: 1 person on tortilla heating duties, 1 person for meats, 1 for toppings, and 1 to check out.

Ford model T assembly line shit. great!

expect when this happens:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1381418429


I've complained to corporate twice about this place and have refused to go back since (plus I moved away, but still).

Chipotle? Looks like a Qudoba. What am i looking at?

read, asshole.

Looks like you standing there waiting for your food.

Perhaps you should have walked out.

Oh, i forgot this was you.

well i was hungry.

but yeah. I deal with that at chiptole a lot, if one person in the chain leaves to go check email or talk to friends, or jerk off in the guac, the line backs up like crazy.

Here in this picture y8s and I ordered food, and then all the employees just left the line and we had to wait for like 5 minutes to acutally finish the order.

corporate couldn't care less, they actually told me to go back to this location because they "fixed ths issue" and when they didn't they couldnt care less my experience was less than satisfactory.

I'm incredibly polite and cordial if you don't piss me off. The housekeeping staff here say hi to me and know my name because I treat them with dignity and respect.

But when you're in the business of customer service and satisfaction while fulfilling simply requests in exchange for money and you can't that that correct you don't deserve me making your life easier when you fucked with mine.

Qudoba now has Chipotle style plywood-and-metal cutouts of Aztecs nails to the wall?




Winston "The Wolf" Wolfe said it best in Pulp Fiction: "Move out of the sticks, gentlemen."

Seriously, I don't know why this strikes you as new and uniquely offensive each time. You are going to keep encountering an abnormally high percentage of stupid people for as long as you live in an area in which an abnormally high number of stupid people also live.

Yup, completely agree. Its usually a whole lot better going to those than mcdingles. And they're like 300% more popular around these parts and always packed with a line up to the door. Obviously other people agree
wow, I've never seen a chipotle around here like that. Like in-n-out (actually the one by my work even more so), they are usually insanely busy and have like 10 workers at counter at all times. Its crazy to see how quickly and efficiently they make the food. Easily a couple hundred people within an hour or two during lunch rush

There's another location to that about 5 minutes down that road that has at three times the volume and they pump shit out like nobody's business.

I dont live in the sticks. I live and dine in the most expensive places countries in the country. and that's the problem, they do so much volume that can rest on their laurels.

The reason for McDonald's being so awesome in Japan is the general understanding that if you can't do the job at McDonald's flawlessly, you aren't good enough to do anything else. It's a stepping-stone job, and not expected to be a career. If you can't make the burger look exactly like the picture, you aren't good enough to work anywhere else. Mediocrity is not tolerated. And coworkers all try to outdo one another with their service skills. You just might be serving a burger to someone who is looking to employ hard working people.

Also, portillos is the shit. Fast food that tastes good, workers are happy and having fun, it's awesome.

I took a video once, i wonder if i still ahve it, maybe 10 minutes of footage of the longest line you've ever seen and like nobody behind the counter to service the customers.

The answer on why Fast food workers in America suck is a problem with our culture. People are told they are awesome and deserve the best even when they are a mouth breathing waste on society. The American dream is just that, A DREAM. If you don't do something besides fondle yourself and show up to work (even showing up is a difficult concept to grasp), you won't achieve that "dream".

Oh i totally agree. I'm the same way.

I've talked about this topic before, but when i wait in the drive through for over 15 minutes to get two taco's, i'm gonna get mad. I've heard it's not just like that here, but everywhere.

Something like what you pictured happens so often it's not even worth getting mad over. I've actually had really good luck at qudoba.

Production style looks the same. The interior style does kinda look the same too.

+ eleventy billion

Well now I know. Thanks for fixing my shit.

In all fairness I tried fixing it three times but had to actually go do real work and figured I would come back and figure it out. By then two more pages had been posted.

According to Google Maps, you live more-or-less under the approach path to runway 1R at Dulles airport.

I've been to Dulles, and the surrounding area. You need to get out and see the world a bit more- it'll broaden your perspective. :)

I live and dine in the actual most expensive place in the whole US and, trust me, the caliber of fast-food workers here not as high as in some of the more laid-back areas of the western US. Cost of living is not an accurate barometer of the quality of humanity.

I'm a little late to the party, maybe I don't understand how franchising works, but i'm pretty sure she's in front of the wrong audience.

I do understand they could make franchise rules to regulate all McDonalds but that is silly.

I agree with the best comback... haha I've been here for 40. If she was there for 40 she'd still be getting paid $8.

I ate with Robert Duvall once.

Quit going to crappy chain restaurants.

But I pay less for the food because the cost of bussing my own table isn't included in the price of really delicious, cheap ass food.

They just opened a Portillos here in Phoenix. Once the initial opening crazyness is over I'll be eating there. Being from Chicago I've missed it so much.

Because of this thread, I just had Portillo's for lunch. I was going to take pictures for this thread, but then I realized what the fuck I was about to do.

Take pictures of my food to post online. :bang:

Dammit, now I miss Ted's char-grilled hot dogs in Buffalo. A couple of those and some Aunt Rosie's loganberry drink and I was in heaven.

um we have a thread for that...

Joe, if you ever get a chance, visit Texas Hots in Wellsville, NY. Small, crowded place, but the food is worth it. Best hot/spicy dog sauce for miles.

of all the food we have around here, the only place i can get a hot dog at lunch is 7-11 :(

Nothing wrong with the Big Bite.

As long as you don't think about what's in it, or how it tastes, or the texture, or...

The next time I'm feeling like a 630 mile round-trip on my bicycle, I will definitely stop in and give 'em a shot.

Because of this thread I just ate Chipotle.

Just kidding I was going to go already. But it was delicious, and although there was a long line, I was eating my food in about 7-8 minutes. It tasted great, I stuffed myself, and I still feel great. All of the employees were nice, and the place was clean. Although this is right by a college so most of the workers are probably college students.

Does anyone here when asked at the drive through to "please wait in the special parking lot as your order will be a few minutes" say "no I'll just wait here at the window until it's ready" My mom did that growing up and sometimes my wife does it. She says they start to hustle and the food is actually done much faster that way. I'm too quiet some times for that. Really if its on the menu at the drive in it should be ready in a reasonable amount of drive through time. I remember when McDonalds had "ready in x minutes or its free" that promo didn't last long at all.....

When I worked at McDonalds I was told to tell cars to park all the time because McDs was doing a big push on speeding up the drive thrus so managers would get bonuses if they had short order times. Many times they told us to do it was pointless because the food was almost ready anyways.

At our local long john, that has a Drive thru that pulls out into the main road, that is only 1 car wide, they tell you to pull forward. It's like wtf for? So I can clog up the drive they from yo there instead of here?

Joe - I would be curious to see what the average wage and benefits package looks like at Chick-fil-A vs McDonald's, et al. You can have one right across the street from the other, presumably pulling from the same broad population, but there is almost universally a much higher quality of service at the former.