Dave Thomas Is Rolling In His Grave…
I didn’t think this would be worth an entire post, but I’m getting old, so why not?
Not our Wendy's, but a Wendy's
For those of you not in the Saint Louis metro area, a couple years back, the local Wendy’s franchisee owner went under and closed nearly all the Wendy’s in the area. Really. You had to drive a good chunk of distance to get to a Wendy’s. And while Wendy’s is pretty standard American fare, it does have it highlights. Everybody seems to love the chili, myself included.
So, it was with a great deal of joy that I recently found out a Wendy’s had reopened not far from my work. If you’re interested, it’s near the intersection of Manchester Road and Rock Hill Road. So, I’ve been there now, like three times in two weeks. And the food is great. But…well…they have put together the most piss-poor group of employees I’ve ever seen. Really. They scrapped the bottom of the barrel with this crew.
I haven’t seen this many sad and angry faces in one place since I passed through a customs inspection station in an airport. Grouchy and bitchy…all of them. No courtesy. No ‘how may I help you?’ Go through the drive-thru and you get a bag of food shoved in your window without a word.
Now, to be honest, Wendy’s doesn’t have the best track record. I wrote a post a couple years back about a teller who couldn’t add at Wendy’s. But this crew makes her look like the Progressive insurance hottie.
Look, I know you’re working in a fast food restaurant and maybe you’re life isn’t turning out the way you might have planned it. I get that. It happened to all of us. I was supposed to be the next Bill Gates. Maybe you were going to be a Plano dentist or a rock star. But here you are working at Wendy’s. SUCK IT UP. You never going to be anywhere but here unless you figure out how to make people not hate your place of employment. The food is great, but eventually, we will go elsewhere. Fix it.
October 28th, 2009 at 11:25 pm
They should be dancing because they have a job in this crappy economy.
Ungrateful kids.
However, a lot of it goes back to the management. When you go into a fast food place, most often the cheeriest crew has a cheery manager working along with them. If you have a surly manager, you won’t want to work there any more than they do.
.-= Ganesha´s last blog …Some positive things about a recession =-.
October 28th, 2009 at 11:33 pm
I used to love Wendy’s. But it seemed like five minutes after Dave Thomas kicked the bucket, the whole Wendy’s chain went down the toilet.
We boycotted Wendy’s forever after Mike went to the one in Burlington, MA for lunch one day, and became violently ill. He said that the employees were skeevy, my guess is that they didn’t wash their hands after using the bathroom. Mike’s symptoms were identical to what I learned in culinary school about e.coli, which is indeed passed via feces.
Working in fast food sucks, but it’s still a job. Practice poor hygiene, make people sick, your restaurant closes down, and then you have NO job. Sheesh!
October 29th, 2009 at 7:40 am
You would think most people would be happy just to be getting a paycheck these days, but unfortunately, that’s not the case. Customer service in general has gone down the toilet!
October 29th, 2009 at 7:55 am
The Rock Hill Wendy’s is walking distance from where Son #3 lives. He says he’s been there, but the food isn’t as good as he remembered it being.
However, I’m looking forward to getting a Frosty next time I’m in the area. How badly can they mess THAT up?
.-= Kathy G´s last blog …"Hulaweeny" =-.
October 29th, 2009 at 8:04 am
Have job = be thankful.
Burger slinging isn’t the worse job in the world, and it is still some place you can learn skills and grow.
Heck, I was a burger slinger at Jack-in-the-Box back in the day. I managed to have some good times there.
Sad to hear about this state of affairs. Management should be working to help improve the public face at least.
.-= Todd Jordan´s last blog …RT @google: Tweets and updates and search, oh my! =-.
October 29th, 2009 at 9:19 am
Honestly, I have been obsessed with their hamburgers for the last few months (i don’t know if it is a pregnancy thing or if it is just because they opened that Wendy’s)… anyhow, we stopped at one in the middle of Illinois a couple of weeks ago and I will never complain about the service at the Rock Hill one again. The guy was obviously completely wacked out on something. Yea, the service sucks and they definitely made me drive all the way back through the line for a forgotten frosty during a weekend lunch rush, but at least I can indulge in their awesome hamburgers!
.-= Melody´s last blog …The Good Buy Girl’s Guide to Changing Seasons =-.
October 30th, 2009 at 9:36 pm
I was so ticked when I moved to st. louis and found out there were no wendy’s left. However, one opened up relatively close to me as well. Luckily they don’t have beat-down employees (well they might, but I’ve only been there once since they re-opened).
.-= Scott´s last blog …What if Kids Filled Out Comment Cards? =-.