Why 4 and not 7 pickles?

My boyfriend and I went to McDonalds at around 6 o’clock in the evening and when we got there, it wasn’t as busy as I thought it would be. There were two people at the registrar, two people ordering, one guy at the drive thru window, manager was in the front talking to one of the employees, and three workers in the back. So my boyfriend stood by me on the side while I ordered. It was finally my turn and the guy who was taking my order seemed relaxed and had a smile in his face. I told him to listen carefully and he bent over a little bit just to be funny I guess and then I told him my order. I emphasized that I wanted four pickles and well done fries with no salt. He said jokingly back if I’m sure that I wanted seven pickles instead of four. I replied with a “haha” and said that I really wanted four.

I also told him I will not take the food if my receipt doesn’t mention two extra pickles and well done, no salt. He replied with an “oh” and went over to his manager. His manager told him to deal with the guys in the back about my order. The guy shouted exactly four pickles twice to the people in the back. Then the manager took over the register and asked what I wanted on the receipt. Then the manager told the boy who was close to the fries fryer about my order and dealt with it. Then guy from the beginning went back and told me the price. Since I only had $2 in my pocket being the smarty that I am, my boyfriend took out $50 to pay for my $2 plus tax order. He took the money and brought it over to his manager and came back and said, “I’m sorry we can’t accept this, it’s considered fake.” My boyfriend’s face was about to turn completely red and the guy immediately said he was joking and gave me the receipt and change.

The fries were ready and the boy put it into the bag and gave it to the manager and he also looked into the bag. Then he gave it to our guy. Our guy took the burger from one of the people in the back and he personally opened it and checked it himself if there were exactly four pickles. Then he closed it, put it into the bag, and handed it to me. I checked in the bag and everything was good. The fries had no taste and boyfriend enjoyed the burger.

Overall, I was actually treated well while I was ordering at this McDonalds but I definitely remember instances at some of the McDonalds in the city where I had to deal with rude people behind the register even without a special order. This felt like the first McDonalds experience where my order-taker was actually joking back at me.

I think the management process for my order was fair. They got my order done without waiting so long for it. It’s good there weren’t a lot of people at this McDonalds. I thought just shouting the order to the people in the back twice wasn’t really needed. I would have thought since they had screens of the orders in the back that one burger would emphasize it needed two extra pickles. The manager was a bit everywhere and kept checking things. I thought there were a fair amount of workers in the back and I definitely like the light humor that the guy had who dealt with my order.

If I were a consultant who was brought to McDonalds, I’d probably suggest that the workers should be extremely trained on how to work the counters efficiently so that they wouldn’t have to ask for help. I also suggest that each worker has clear role of their specific job function. For example, instead of the people behind the register to also deal with food assembling, why not have other workers deal with that area. Last but not least, according to past experiences, I also suggest that the nicest people would be the ones working in the front and who can also tolerate stressful situations.