The genesis of this story is an event that happened on April 23, 2011 at the Las Vegas McDonald’s on Sahara at Arville. At great risk of attack from McDonald’s I will not hide the who/what/where/whens
As the temps in Las Vegas start to climb, so does interest in COLD drinks. With that in mind while running around about 3pm on April 23, 2011, I pulled into the aforementioned establishment. A fluke of mine is that whenever possible, I do not use drive thus, I prefer to park and go inside. This is especially important to me when getting fountain style drinks as I like more ice then average and I have discovered that if I am the making the drink, I get the extra ice.
Thusly I entered the store and took my place in line (next after the person currently paying his bill). It required the cashier 4 times (that I know of) before he obtained the right change from his register and settled up with customer. As I stepped up, I placed my order – One Large Sweet Tea. As he is ringing it up he actually asked me, “For here or to Go?” Being already slightly annoyed at how long it took him to handle the previous customer and having watch at least 2 cars go thru the driver thru window in this time frame, I responded sarcastically, “Does it really matter?” Puzzled look on his face for about 3 seconds and he said, “I guess not.” He then made my change for me, prints out a receipt and places it and an ink pen beside the register, slides it toward me and informs me that I need to put my name on the receipt.
I asked, “Can I not just get my cup?” “No, I can’t get it for you, someone else has too.” I assumed that would be the young lady that was preparing a couple of ice cream desserts for the customer in line in front of me. That customer retrieves his order and leaves, and the girls continues to move around behind the counter and never once even pretended to care about my order. At that point a little Hispanic Girl approached the counter and ordered an ice cream cone. The counter girl IMMEDIATELY prepared her order and handed it to and continued to completely ignore me and my ticket which was laying on the counter waiting on someone, anyone to simply hand me large cup.
After what was a minimum of 5 minutes waiting, I approached the counter, spotted an older women (did not say old, just older then rest of the employees) who was wearing a white shirt. Knowing McDonald’s I knew this was a member of management. So I loudly asked, “Are you the manager on duty?” She responded yes as she approached me. I then asked – loudly, “Well then can you have someone get me drink cup that I have been waiting 5 minutes to get? All I ordered was a drink and I would like to get it.” Immediately three people started scrambling looking for a cup and then they checked the tickets laying there to see that yes a drink had been ordered and not fulfilled.
As I walked away, I informed everyone that I would not be returning as the level of service was unacceptable.
While I fixing my drink I was approached by a non-manager lady who said she was sorry about what happened. She then stated that she is the crew trainer and the guy on the cashier is new (I had already guessed that or at least hoped that as slow as he was) and also that she witnessed what happened. I asked, “If you witnessed what happened why did you not do something to prevent it from getting worse?” I continued and asked why the cashier could not give the drink cup, and she informed me that giving cups and orders was the job of the ‘presenter’. I responded I had never been in any McDonald’s or other fast food place with that stupid of a policy. She then added that they did want to see me return to the store in the future, to which I added, “I would not hold your breath waiting for it to happen.”
As I left I noted that manager was talking to the ‘presenter’ about what happened and how to prevent it in the future. However, I know exactly why it happened – it was an example of racism by the presenter. She was on top of the order for the person in front of me and the little girl after me, but clearly ignored me.
I will drive great distances if needed to go to other McDonald’s or other brands before I return to this one. As what I wanted was sweet tea, I can actually get that at Wendy’s across the street or Subway about 1 mile away.
I would like to point out, I was the only White person there – customer or crew.