Aside from Subway or Chick-fil-a, I normally don’t eat fast food unless I’m on a road trip. At that point, I’m at the mercy of whichever national chain has planted its flag at the next exit. In the past, this has led to some unsavory experiences, but I’m not generally concerned because I know I’m getting what I pay for — bulk food pre-heated by minimum wage employees with better things to do.
But Burger King just blew my mind.
Yesterday, I tried to order a chicken sandwich and failed. That’s because Thursday is “Get 2 Chicken Sandwiches for $4″ day at Burger King. But I only wanted one, for which, as the cashier explained, I would have to pay full price — and full-price for one chicken sandwich is more than the special price for 2.
Thus, I would have lost money by getting less food. Or, I would have had to waste food outright (by throwing away a second sandwich I did not want) in order to save money.*
Befuddled by this logic, I did what any sane person (in a hurry) would do:
I left and went to Subway.
* Yes, I know: I could have given the second sandwich away. But really, would YOU trust a free chicken sandwich from a guy standing outside Burger King?
Tags: common sense, perception, Sociology, travel
It all comes down to the first tag, common sense. Is it a corporate culture? I doubt it. Just like Brogan’s post I am sure that the head office had a plan in place for this, but the employee and local manager do not use common sense and use an “I am boss of this situation and I want to say no right now”.
I always give a company 3 chances, usually different locals, before I cut them out completely.
I’ve had the same experience with other companies. Lots of cases in Fast Food where ordering more than you want (or can eat) saves you money. Really bugs me!
It amazes me that this kind of thing goes on; but it’s startling and not surprising. Just like McDonald’s training it’s employees to declare “You want fries with that” rather than ask “Do you want fries with that?” I expect this is more about metrics for investors than anything else. Twice the number of chicken sandwiches, right? Sure looks good to investors, even if the revenue is lower.
Sure doesn’t make the food itself any more appealing.
Not saying this isn’t stupid, but there’s a couple of other factors involved here.
First of all, there’s no way to account for ringing up one burger in the POS for that price. Yes, in this case, they could have just rung up two and gave you one, but in more complicated situations with more complex deals, this becomes an issue. This happens a lot when people are trying to substitute things in deals as well. Substitutes often aren’t allowed due to differing margins between products, even if the actual price to the customer is the same.
Secondly, minimum wage employees aren’t encouraged to think, just to blindly obey the rules. This sorta sucks, but is also sorta good. Having been on both sides of the counter, I can attest that I wouldn’t have wanted many of the people who wait on me to actually think about what’s going on, because they would have screwed it up. No question. However, keeping people stupid sucks too.