4 ms·

> When I was young it was common for a McDonalds to have 10+ employees working the lunch rush, one for every station and a few floaters cleaning the dining room

by toast0 2mo ago

> When I was young it was common for a McDonalds to have 10+ employees working the lunch rush, one for every station and a few floaters cleaning the dining room. Someone took your order right away, and you got your meal in a minute or two. When I was young, they predicted orders and had hot food waiting, you would get your meal as you ordered. Unfortunately, after merciless teasing by other chains, they relented and only assemble to order and cook to order in some cases. Huge increase in lunch latency; ordering via the app can help a little...

07c84979b3b5d7 2mo ago
Yes, I remember that too. They even had this one promotion back in the day where you could start some timer after you ordered and if you didn't get your meal in 60 seconds you did get something for free (was it the full order? I dont remember). It's been so obvious for a long long time now, but people still keep believing that smart things make you faster or give you a better life or whatever, but that just doesn't add up. It's just frustrating, often takes longer and the only reason it is there is to grab your data. There is no other reason. Edit: Found it. You did get a coke for free. Damn, 2004. https://www.burgerschachteln.de/2004/Sonstiges/index.htm https://www.burgerschachteln.de/2004/Sonstiges/index.htm
- Cockbrand 2mo ago
  TIL there's burgerschachteln.de, because of course there is a person collecting burger packaging on the Internet.
  - bluefirebrand 2mo ago
    Of course they're German too.
- ricardobayes 2mo ago
  That brought back some memories. I would always order a Filet-o-Fish which they made fresh due to the low demand.
- alex0015 2mo ago
  I'm too young to remember this particular promotion (though I certainly ate a lot of fast food in 2004). Data grabbing can't be the only reason, though. It's so much more expensive now to pay a large staff at a restaurant that isn't busy most of the time. Raw materials are more expensive, labor and benefits are more expensive, and the result is a combination of higher prices and lower quality outcomes. If the outcomes were the same the prices would be quite a bit higher. The only counterexample I can think of is In-N-Out, which is always packed with customers and always has a large and very busy kitchen staff.
  - genewitch 2mo ago
    In N Out has a much smaller footprint, so there is scarcity going for them. In a suburb of los angeles, there might be an in and out in your town or a neighboring one. There were sometimes a dozen or two McDonalds, BK, Carl's, Taco bell, Del Taco, Jack in the box, etc - multiples of each. 1 In N Out for 3-4 cities, but potentially 6-12 of each of the others. I think that explains it. The singular Carl's Jr in a nearby city was always busy, for a similar reason. it closed during covid, for whatever reason, and the next nearest one is at least 2 hours away. Compared to the 6 McDonald's in my metro: 4 Taco Bell, 3 Whataburgers, 5 Wendy's, and 4 Open BKs out of 7 that were open prior to 2020. The Raising Cane's is always packed to bursting, too, because there's only 1 in the area.
- HeyLaughingBoy 2mo ago
  Burger King has a promotion going where if they screw up your Whopper, you get an extra one for free. My wife laughs at me because every time I see that commercial, I point out that if our local BK (now out of business! surprise!) had to do that, they'd have been out of business even faster. Every single time I went there, they screwed up at least one thing. I just finally stopped going.
andai 2mo ago
The machines were right; truly civilization peaked in 1999.
Dylan16807 2mo ago
> ordering via the app can help a little... It can? I used it once a few years ago and they wouldn't start making the food until I was in the parking lot.
- xp84 2mo ago
  Sure. It's definitely in the "a little." But given how slow the kiosks and apps are to operate, due to all the animations and cross-platform frameworks, getting that order done before you get in the car to go means the order starts when you pull into the parking lot, rather than after you go inside and poke buttons on the kiosk 37 times. Or in the slim chance that there is a line it's good. But I've rarely seen a number of kiosks insufficient to prevent lines.
- toast0 2mo ago
  At the McD's nearest me, they will start when I'm at the nearest stop light; if I get stuck on a long red, timing is pretty good. At other locations, starting in the parking lot is still a little faster than if I had ordered in the store; drive through may be faster from the parking lot, but if the queue is full to the order point, if I order at the regular point, my order is usually ready by the time the orders in front have been taken care of; the order point is usually placed so the pipeline works smoothly at peak volume.
- wvenable 2mo ago
  They only changed this recently.
xp84 2mo ago
It keeps getting worse, too, because everyone in the store is heavily evaluated on the KPI of 'time to serve an order.' But except for drive-thru, the staff control the timer. If you delete the order off the screen, the computer that does all the metrics thinks you've served it. So of course they delete the orders as soon as humanly possible, relying on the printouts stuck randomly around the kitchen to try to keep track, and now anyone in the management chain who does care about actual service time is completely blinded to how well or poorly they're doing. Even a manager who is out there helping, and can plainly see how slow they are, still knows the metrics are meaningless so it's hard to track progress towards improvement.
- ApolloFortyNine 2mo ago
  >If you delete the order off the screen, the computer that does all the metrics thinks you've served it. I've noticed this at other restaurants too and have debated emailing corporate when it happens (since I'm guessing the manager of the restaurant also is on board). It's not that I don't get _why_ they do it, but it just compounds the problem. Corporate will see the stats and go 'oh X employees is enough at Y hour' despite 10 people waiting for their order since it said complete.
  - idiotsecant 2mo ago
    The impulse to rat on low level employees for gaming the system just enough to keep their jobs is a wild one.
    - voakbasda 2mo ago
      The impulse is to out the bad system, not the poor souls stuck in it. Thus the ultimate decision to say nothing, as there is no way to affect one and not the other.
      - tavavex 2mo ago
        You can just complain about seeing it at "every location you've been to" (because this is true, I've yet to find a McDonalds in my city that doesn't game the order system). It shows the problem is widespread without blaming anyone too specific.
maccard 2mo ago
> ordering via the app can help a little... I’ve used the app once - it was slower than ordering at the kiosk, I was bombarded by ads and promos, and they didn’t pre cook my food.
rascul 2mo ago
> When I was young, they predicted orders and had hot food waiting, you would get your meal as you ordered. I worked at McDonald's at that time. We would make a tray of 12 cheeseburgers and microwave them then leave them in the warmer until they're sold or got disgusting enough for customers to complain.
- kalleboo 2mo ago
  I remember people sharing "tricks" like "order without X" in order to force the order to be made from scratch instead of pulled from the heating tray.
HeyLaughingBoy 2mo ago
The App irritates the living f** out of me. I live about 10 miles outside town and it assures me that when I'm two minutes away, they will start making my order. That has never happened. I either have to click the "I'm here now" as I pull into the parking lot, or go into the dining room. Doesn't matter; the price of McDonald's has gotten to the point where it costs about the same as the local diner whose food is exponentially tastier and they'll give me a free soda as I wait for my food to be made.

by toast0 2mo ago

07c84979b3b5d7 2mo ago

Yes, I remember that too. They even had this one promotion back in the day where you could start some timer after you ordered and if you didn't get your meal in 60 seconds you did get something for free (was it the full order? I dont remember). It's been so obvious for a long long time now, but people still keep believing that smart things make you faster or give you a better life or whatever, but that just doesn't add up. It's just frustrating, often takes longer and the only reason it is there is to grab your data. There is no other reason. Edit: Found it. You did get a coke for free. Damn, 2004. https://www.burgerschachteln.de/2004/Sonstiges/index.htm https://www.burgerschachteln.de/2004/Sonstiges/index.htm

Cockbrand 2mo ago
TIL there's burgerschachteln.de, because of course there is a person collecting burger packaging on the Internet.
- bluefirebrand 2mo ago
  Of course they're German too.
ricardobayes 2mo ago
That brought back some memories. I would always order a Filet-o-Fish which they made fresh due to the low demand.
alex0015 2mo ago
I'm too young to remember this particular promotion (though I certainly ate a lot of fast food in 2004). Data grabbing can't be the only reason, though. It's so much more expensive now to pay a large staff at a restaurant that isn't busy most of the time. Raw materials are more expensive, labor and benefits are more expensive, and the result is a combination of higher prices and lower quality outcomes. If the outcomes were the same the prices would be quite a bit higher. The only counterexample I can think of is In-N-Out, which is always packed with customers and always has a large and very busy kitchen staff.
- genewitch 2mo ago
  In N Out has a much smaller footprint, so there is scarcity going for them. In a suburb of los angeles, there might be an in and out in your town or a neighboring one. There were sometimes a dozen or two McDonalds, BK, Carl's, Taco bell, Del Taco, Jack in the box, etc - multiples of each. 1 In N Out for 3-4 cities, but potentially 6-12 of each of the others. I think that explains it. The singular Carl's Jr in a nearby city was always busy, for a similar reason. it closed during covid, for whatever reason, and the next nearest one is at least 2 hours away. Compared to the 6 McDonald's in my metro: 4 Taco Bell, 3 Whataburgers, 5 Wendy's, and 4 Open BKs out of 7 that were open prior to 2020. The Raising Cane's is always packed to bursting, too, because there's only 1 in the area.
HeyLaughingBoy 2mo ago
Burger King has a promotion going where if they screw up your Whopper, you get an extra one for free. My wife laughs at me because every time I see that commercial, I point out that if our local BK (now out of business! surprise!) had to do that, they'd have been out of business even faster. Every single time I went there, they screwed up at least one thing. I just finally stopped going.

andai 2mo ago

The machines were right; truly civilization peaked in 1999.

Dylan16807 2mo ago

> ordering via the app can help a little... It can? I used it once a few years ago and they wouldn't start making the food until I was in the parking lot.

xp84 2mo ago
Sure. It's definitely in the "a little." But given how slow the kiosks and apps are to operate, due to all the animations and cross-platform frameworks, getting that order done before you get in the car to go means the order starts when you pull into the parking lot, rather than after you go inside and poke buttons on the kiosk 37 times. Or in the slim chance that there is a line it's good. But I've rarely seen a number of kiosks insufficient to prevent lines.
toast0 2mo ago
At the McD's nearest me, they will start when I'm at the nearest stop light; if I get stuck on a long red, timing is pretty good. At other locations, starting in the parking lot is still a little faster than if I had ordered in the store; drive through may be faster from the parking lot, but if the queue is full to the order point, if I order at the regular point, my order is usually ready by the time the orders in front have been taken care of; the order point is usually placed so the pipeline works smoothly at peak volume.
wvenable 2mo ago
They only changed this recently.

xp84 2mo ago

It keeps getting worse, too, because everyone in the store is heavily evaluated on the KPI of 'time to serve an order.' But except for drive-thru, the staff control the timer. If you delete the order off the screen, the computer that does all the metrics thinks you've served it. So of course they delete the orders as soon as humanly possible, relying on the printouts stuck randomly around the kitchen to try to keep track, and now anyone in the management chain who does care about actual service time is completely blinded to how well or poorly they're doing. Even a manager who is out there helping, and can plainly see how slow they are, still knows the metrics are meaningless so it's hard to track progress towards improvement.

ApolloFortyNine 2mo ago
>If you delete the order off the screen, the computer that does all the metrics thinks you've served it. I've noticed this at other restaurants too and have debated emailing corporate when it happens (since I'm guessing the manager of the restaurant also is on board). It's not that I don't get _why_ they do it, but it just compounds the problem. Corporate will see the stats and go 'oh X employees is enough at Y hour' despite 10 people waiting for their order since it said complete.
- idiotsecant 2mo ago
  The impulse to rat on low level employees for gaming the system just enough to keep their jobs is a wild one.
  - voakbasda 2mo ago
    The impulse is to out the bad system, not the poor souls stuck in it. Thus the ultimate decision to say nothing, as there is no way to affect one and not the other.
    - tavavex 2mo ago
      You can just complain about seeing it at "every location you've been to" (because this is true, I've yet to find a McDonalds in my city that doesn't game the order system). It shows the problem is widespread without blaming anyone too specific.

maccard 2mo ago

> ordering via the app can help a little... I’ve used the app once - it was slower than ordering at the kiosk, I was bombarded by ads and promos, and they didn’t pre cook my food.

rascul 2mo ago

> When I was young, they predicted orders and had hot food waiting, you would get your meal as you ordered. I worked at McDonald's at that time. We would make a tray of 12 cheeseburgers and microwave them then leave them in the warmer until they're sold or got disgusting enough for customers to complain.

kalleboo 2mo ago
I remember people sharing "tricks" like "order without X" in order to force the order to be made from scratch instead of pulled from the heating tray.

HeyLaughingBoy 2mo ago

The App irritates the living f** out of me. I live about 10 miles outside town and it assures me that when I'm two minutes away, they will start making my order. That has never happened. I either have to click the "I'm here now" as I pull into the parking lot, or go into the dining room. Doesn't matter; the price of McDonald's has gotten to the point where it costs about the same as the local diner whose food is exponentially tastier and they'll give me a free soda as I wait for my food to be made.