Sunday, February 11, 2018

Sliding Downhill

Every Saturday I go to visit my dad at his house, and I always take my dog Grace along, but this isn’t about that.

So they recently they opened a new Hardee’s near my dad’s house, and Dad wanted to go there for supper. It sounded good to me too. So the three of us got in the car to get some delicious take out.

Dad and I went inside to get a good look at the menu. The first of the four TV screen menus was dedicated to promoting sliders. Grace always gets a small sandwich when we go out like this, and a slider would be perfect for her.

The girl behind the counter informed me that she couldn’t serve me a slider because they were out of slider buns until Thursday. When my dad asked, “Well couldn’t you just…” she cut him off and said she’d have to ask the manager.

OK, so normally I would have gone nuclear at this point, but it’s a fucking slider, not an international conflict. Still, it really got in my craw over the way this had been handled.

Never mind the fact that they ran out of buns. That shit happens. The “buns won’t be in until Thursday” kind of irked me, but that’s not the worst of it either. Cutting my dad off without hearing his proposal wasn’t very nice, but I could tell from her tone she’d been dealing with this all day.

Having worked a few fast food places in my youth, I knew from experience that you typically offer the customer something of commensurate value for the inconvenience, especially when 25% of the store’s promotionals are pushing the sliders. You don’t just drop that shit in the customer’s lap with, “I’ll need to check with my manager.” Have a fucking backup plan in place already.

The girl wasn’t trying to be rude either. She was just doing what management left her with, and when you have bad management, talking to the manager can turn a shaky dining experience into a shitty one.

Fortunately, Grace didn’t mind getting a cheeseburger instead of a slider. It just felt like they could have handled their bun shortage a little better. Great first impression Hardee’s. Good luck at your new location.

Pax,

-f2x