[aestra]

I worked in fast food eons ago.

Pretty much every fast food place has a counter on the drive thru that starts when a car pulls up and ends when the car pulls away from the food window. It displays the average time for the shift when no car is ordering. Here's the really stupid thing about it - it is supposed to be a useful metric and is taken really seriously but it measures almost nothing useful. Often (most of the time?) a car pulls up and just sits at the menu board because they aren't ready to order yet. The best "hold on, we've never been here before." If you haven't been here before WHY ARE YOU GOING THROUGH THE DRIVE THRU! Drive thru is not for that! They can take up the entire "goal" time just sitting at the menu board. People pull up on their phones and act annoyed I am disturbing their phone call when I try to take their order. I actually had someone sit at the menu board for like 10 minutes on their phone having a real serious fight with their girlfriend and I'm pretty sure they broke up on at the menu board. He started crying and then pulled away without ordering anything. Then when they get to the window they can take a long time to get their money out and after they get their food they often sit at the window for another minute to put their wallets away or root through the bag or whatever. You also can't control what a drive thru person will order, if it takes 30 seconds to pack or if it takes 2 minutes to pack. I've had people come through the drive thru with $50-$100 orders. I don't care who you are - you aren't taking and packing that order in 2 minutes 30 seconds. Or people who want 3 separate orders which takes a much longer time. Then if you have a slow day and only have like 10 drive through customers and one takes like 10 minutes it will screw up your average considerably even if you are the best at drive thru ever. The best are "pull-aways" - people who pull up, change their mind, and pull away without ordering anything. This happen more than you'd think. Their "order" is clocked in at like 50 seconds and brings your average down especially on slow days. On really slow days employees have been known (I did it) to go outside and just drive around the drive thru several times to get the average down. At the same time I've been yelled at when the counter is reading 7 minutes and I've working on their order. "What's taking so long in the drive thru!!?" Um... well this guy has 100 questions about the menu and took 5 of those minutes to order, but just go ahead and yell at me. That accomplishes something.

I notice a sign now in some drive thrus that says "please have your money out when you get to the window." Yeah, ok, because I'm supposed to locate my wallet, get my money out and count it all while operating a motor vehicle... sounds realistic. I know, I know, it it meant for when there is someone sitting at the window in front of you but still...