Hey Burger King, You're Getting Timed for a Reason!
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Something weird happened at the Burger King drive-thru, and I finally figured out why.
Last night, on the way home from camp, the kids and I went through the Burger King drive-thru. When we were next in line for the window I noticed that the guy in front of me had his reverse lights on, so I stayed back about 10 feet-I can't tell you how many times I've seen people back up for something, forget they're in reverse, then hit the gas.
When it was my turn at the window, the BK cashier asked me to pull forward and then back up. I was so surprised and busy processing what she was saying and trying not to back up into the window with my mirror and asking for salt and checking the orders that I didn't get a chance to ask her why. But I guessed that she had asked the guy in front of me to do the same thing. As I was leaving, I looked in the review mirror and saw that the guy behind me was doing the same thing as well. WTF?
It bothered me for the rest of the day that I couldn't figure out what the purpose was. I went back in my mind to my days working at McDonald's and Arby's, but at both places I mostly made the food. I worked the registers occasionally, but I rarely worked the drive-thru (and when I did, I got overwhelmed easily-it's the hardest job in any fast food restaurant that has only one drive-thru window).
Then, finally, it hit me: I've seen big timers in some restaurants, timing how long each Drive-Through order was taking. There must be a sensor somewhere that stops the clock and starts timing the next order! Was she asking each car to stop the clock on their order so that the restaurant's stats would look good?
I went back this morning in the interest of investigation, not because I was dying for a Croissan'wich (OK, I was-they're really good!). Once again, when I got to the window, I was asked to pull forward and back up. I said "Why? Are you trying to stop the timer?" She said yes. I said something to the effect of "But that's cheating. How will the process get any faster if they think you're already really fast?"
I know enough about fast food restaurants to know that they really study this stuff. There are systems that figure out when you should drop fries based on how many cars are in the drive-thru lines. There are McDonald's that have outsourced their drive-thru order-taking jobs to call centers. Corporate sure as hell wants to know for how long people are sitting in the drive-thru.
The BK worker admitted that yes, it was cheating, but that the restaurant is given time goals each week and they're not meeting them. So I said something like, "But how will the times get faster if you don't acknowledge that there's a problem?" She told me I didn't have to pull forward if I didn't want to. I'm not really sure it was necessary for her to tell me that. Was the alternative for her to hold my food hostage until I pulled forward?
When I go through a drive-thru, I want the process to be fast. And more often than not here in Brooklyn, the process is anything but. So as a customer, it is absolutely not in my best interest to help Burger King trick corporate into thinking that they're already speedy. I'm insulted that they'd ask.
2024 EDIT: Wow. I just found this post and read it for the first time in a very long time. I come off as very bitchy. If I'd written this today, I would be called a Karen.
I still stand by the principle of the post: circumventing systems meant to make things faster doesn't help anybody in the long-run.
But first of all, I absolutely should not have talked to that employee about it. I mean, seriously, dick move. I'd had those types of jobs, you would think that would have kept me from being so uptight about somebody just trying to get through her minimum-wage shift.
And second of all, I didn't do a good job (either to that employee, or in the post) of explaining that the problem I had was with the system that corporate had set up, because ultimately I'm sure their goal was to do less with more. To drive their employees as hard as they could.
And in my naive little mind, my thinking was that if you could just show the bosses the real numbers, you could convince them that the system they'd set up was doomed to fail, because they were giving the employees impossibly high goals. That cheating, by asking me to back up, was really cheating the employees out of a chance to improve things for themselves.
I'll bet that when I wrote this, I actually believed that. Because that's the way I want the world to work. (But of course, that all kind of falls apart in the last paragraph, when I make it about me getting my food faster. I'm guessing I thought that that was a "strong" way to close.)
But of course, we all know that that's not how things work. Most companies don't care even a little bit about their employees' well being. They care about profits. It was bad then, and it's gotten worse now. And yes, I'm just stating the obvious here, I know. But the post makes it seem like I don't care about the employees at all, just the rules.
Hopefully my writing has gotten better since then, and I can now get my points across better. I know that my empathy has grown, although there is always room for more.
It's mostly because these places are very understaffed and refuse to hire adequate numbers of employees to cover the shifts.
I agree. But having accurate numbers for how long it's taking to get food to customers would help with adequate staffing. If they're fudging the numbers so that they can continue to overwork the staff, then they deserve the criticism.
Haha. I was just at Taco Bell and the drive thru guy gave me a free drink for backing up and pulling forward again. I was so confused. But I still don't fully understand, if I back up and retrigger the sensor then won't there be less actual receipts for orders then the number of times the timer gets triggered. So for instance the manager would have say 20 orders (with receipts) but the timer would hav been triggered 21 times. Or am I still missing something
At any rate I urge you all to go to Taco Bell at 2 am on a weekday...free drinks quid pro quo
Yeah, that makes no sense!! Back when this happened I had to pull FORWARD to stop the timer, then back up to the window. But just backing up and going forward? I don't understand that.
As a current shift manager at a BK I can tell you everything wrong with BK. They start you at 7.25 and never give raises, only allow a small amount for food cost so when we run out, that's it until next truck. They have worked one guy for 3 weeks straight with no days off because they discriminate against who they want to hire and won't find another person to do this guys job. District manager yells at you for getting overtime when the GM causes it. They make you put as little as possible on burgers to save(there again, food cost) You have to have a Dr. note any time you call in sick which most people cant afford when they just have a bad cold(watch your food guys) They play favorites and give hrs and best shifts to the ones they like, even if they don't do their job right. The drive thru times have to be low so we are required to park customers and bring their food to them. It's not that we are trying to cheat (shift managers and team members) we are doing what we are told by higher management but the second someone complains, higher management will deny having us do this and we get write ups. We are always short handed so we bust our butts to do non-stop drive-thru, the front, prepare sandwiches. make a billion shakes that take forever, cut onions and tomatoes, cook bacon for the next day with only 3 people. Most customers take forever to order in drive-thru or they order huge amounts of food without having the courtesy of ordering inside. BUT WHO DO THE CUSTOMERS GET MAD AT????? Us.... busting our butts for little pay. smh. I can't stand people who think this world revolves around them and only them. So they asked you to pull up... do it. You are helping an employee to not get chewed out or written up for something that is beyond their control. Get over yourself.
Hi Diane, with all due respect, this is not a "get over yourself" situation. I didn't get mad (I actually had a completely civil conversation with the drive-thru person), and I don't think that the world revolves about me. It's not about me being inconvenienced, it's about me pointing out that a system is broken.
I've worked in two different fast food restaurants so I know what the deal is. If I order something special, like a veggie burger (which I often do) or fries without salt (which I would never do), then I would expect to be asked to back up or pull over. But when that's happening for every single order, something is comically wrong with the system.
If the people who make the decisions about procedures and timing would work on the line or at the counter or in the drive-thru for a day, they would make more realistic decisions. They won't do anything even approaching that if they're unaware of how bad the situation is. You just explained how bad it is, and while I understand you not wanting to point these things out to executives because you might be worried about your job, I find it confusing that you're defending the broken system to me. We're essentially on the same side. Working at fast food restaurants sucks, and putting unrealistic expectations on overworked and underpaid employees makes it suck more.
I read an interesting article the other day about a franchise owner who got out of the fast food business after 50 years (having started from the bottom) because of unrealistic expectations from the company. He made some of the same points that I made here six years ago. http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2015-mcdonalds-franchises/ It all goes back to people high up not knowing what's really happening inside the restaurants.
Thank you for this... I just stumbled upon this post and your comment is so right.... i been in and out of BK and only because i had school and 2 jobs.. but, it's TRUE we dont want to park you or do all the extra work, we have to... if the timer is above 2.45 we get bitched at by the general manager and district...
It blows my mind how much of a big deal this is to you. People are starving and you're whining about what fast food restaurants are 'doing to the customer.' They're not hurting you in any way. I worked in fast food for 5 years, and not all, but alot of people in there are working VERY hard, and as fast as they can to bring you your food, which is apparently a major issue. The times that corporate decides are wildly unfair. And they DO start at the menu boards. Did you notice how some places have two windows? That is another attempt to help the time, and get more orders in. You try assembling 24 tacos in under 3 minutes.
I don't even understand how this is 'useful information' or something to 'watch out for.' This is ridiculous and sad.
maybe I am just paranoid but I wouldn’t be making the minimum wage worker who is making my food out of my sight’s job harder. one of my rules is don’t tick off the cook.it’s not like they work there because they’re passionate about burgers, they’re just trying to keep their bosses from firing them for circumstances beyond their control to support themselves.
@Beauty: Hi Beauty, thanks for your comment. Normally I would agree with you if it was just a token amount of rudeness or a mistake in the order. But this, to me, went beyond that - I was being inconvenienced to help trick a system that clearly wasn't gauging what it is supposed to gauge. I've worked in two fast food places among my many restaurant jobs, and while I completely understand that they're shitty jobs for nowhere near enough pay, that doesn't give someone a blanket excuse not to do it as best she can. Since I agree that this issue as a whole was beyond this worker's control, I would've happily talked to a manager. This worker's life wasn't being made any easier by this system either, and hopefully someone from higher up in Burger King read this.
In my opinion, if all burgerkings, or for that matter all fast food resteraunts would quit cheating the system so corporate could get the actual stats that should be there, then it would be better,things would be better for everyone. As a company owner, I cant be everywhere watching everything and i depend on these kinds of stats to weed out non-production to improve my business, therefore creating more jobs. when employees cheat the system they are in essence taking money out of other peoples pockets by pissing off customers thereby sending them to my competitors.
OK, I better stop forgetting things: it was corporate policy to NOT pull people up, but we employees were still told by the bottom-rung managers to pull customers up when their food wasn't ready by the time they got to the window. Tell the DM about it, and somebody's head would roll...
I work at a Wendy's, and I do not have people go forward and then back up. I have them just pull forward to be closer to the door (and off the timer). I am actually instructed by my manager to do so. Corporate does want a certain time to be met no matter what: size of order or customer disposition. They have no way of knowing if a person has never been to a Wendy's before or is on the phone or talking to a mini-van full of kids. They can't know and they certainly don't care. I'm not sure how they expect a bunch of minimum-wage workers to be able to speed up the reading abilities of equally economically-disadvantaged persons ordering food.
It's weird how a big line always forms behind a $40-order car...
I did see once a QSR with a timer that started when a car reached the window. I don't remember where it was, but I was thoroughly impressed and wanted to apply there right away.
Tip to all people who have to work in fast food to make ends (still not quite) meet, work lunchtime. People order more quickly because they know what they want and want to leave quickly, and there are more workers there to fill the orders faster.
@Wally: I forgot to add this: it is "fast food" after all, not instant food. Wait just a few minutes so we can actually have the food ready. No, seven doubles is not an order we can pop out like a newspaper printer prints the dailies. So pull up and wait while we cook it! Or do you really want the old stuff we just tossed out because you can't wait for some fresh meat?
That's really interesting, I have never heard of timers like that but have seen too many people putting their cars in reverse and like you mentioned seeming to forget they had done that. Speed it up BK.
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this isn't really fair, you know. think of everyone who pulls up to the drive thru window and asks the person to wait a minute. even if they have their order done in 30 seconds, it means nothing if they're at the menu board for 200.
not to mention, it's fast food. you're paying mere dollars for food and you're being served by people who aren't paid enough money to live. it's not like they work there because they're passionate about burgers, they're just trying to keep their bosses from firing them for circumstances beyond their control to support themselves.
@Jon - If we're all about fair treatment here, maybe laying off using "bitch" to describe a female we don't agree with would be a reasonable tactic. Noticing the way it has been used in these comments, always by males btw, its use demonstrates its equitability to hate speech-- as in the use has been both sinister and revelatory of deeper issues in the psyche of the poster.
My brother worked at a fast food joint and he told me people would get piaaed off when having to park for getting their fast food. The ones that would get posses off or give any attitude they would mess with their food. When I asked what they would do he told me they would add a squirt to their food. I asked a squirt of what? He said either bodily fluid or can be bleach or cleaning product or even a pesticide. That is why I never say shit to my server regardless!!!!
stop feeding ur kids crap.they will end up heavy w/diabetes. now that is a selfish mom
Well I geuss i basically restated seans post, sorry! :D But I read througha few more of the comments, and basically your all right. In my own opinion, drive thrus shouldnt be timed, it would make everything a hell of a lot easier. Riight? Most of seans post is true also, but amy is also correct in the fact that the workers shouldn't be cheating, but there are cheaters everywhere, even in big office buildings, they probably arent as easily noticed though. I know I get upset if I wait too long for my food,but I also dont mind being asked to pull forward, just another one of those "hey it happens" things. But oh well, who am I to say anything about it, I'm just an 18 year old college kid working at good old Burger King, paying for college and everything else I want in life haha, but remember, whether you get pulled up, backed up, the wrong food, overcharged, undercharged, too much food, not enough food, or waiting an hour for a double cheeseburger, it's always a great day at BK, would you like to try a value meal today? :D
So I read most of the responses to this whole DT time travesty, but not all of them because I figured I'd lost enough brain cells for one night. I work at burger king myself, and have been there for almost 3 years, I mainly work in the Drive Thru also. The store I work at is a Corporate owned store, and we recently were given a new store manager, and a new district or regional manager. Also the store I work at is the busier or 2 stores in my town. Knowing this, we are still required to keep our drive thru times under 2:30, and if not, we do get in some trouble, like write ups and even worse hours cut. Im also one of two of the only crew members on nights that works drive thru, so being up there a lot I feel like I should have a bit of a say so in this, and whether or not anyone pays attention to this or what I don't care. And I'm not looking for an argument or anything I just want to share my knowledge of how things work. The average customer pulls up to the call box and the order taker has 3 seconds with to "greet" the customer. After that the majority of customers respond with an "ummm" or "hold on a minute" and proceed to sit in silence, or ask around the car what everyone wants. This process can usually take from 30 seconds to 3 or 4 minutes. (I had a woman come through the other night and sat and argued on the phone with her children for 6 minutes before ordering and she only order 3 sandwiches) And I can only do so much to speed their requests up without irritating the customer and having them be rude to me, or driving off altogether which in turn runs up the time on the timer a good deal. After the customer finishes ordering, if they're alone in line, the rest of the process usually takes a good minute or two, depending on how much and what they ordered and how long it takes for the money to be exchanged and the food to get out the window. On average for last month in our store on nights we had a 4something drive thru time. Which I know is horrible, I don't need reminded, but i also know that I did everything in my power besides screaming at the people and throwing their food to them for free to get them their food in a quick manner. There are a few things that could help this process, and in turn get YOU your food faster like; Asking everyone what they want before getting to the restaurant, what else are you going to talk about on the way? Its been the same food for the last 40 years, pick something! If you know you have a very large order, come inside! It makes things a lot easier for us, and you. You aren't pulled up, you get your food just as fast, and can make sure it's all there inside before you leave. Not hard concept to grasp. And if you have such a big order, and your in that big of a hurry and don't feel like using the drive thru, then use that 40 dollars to go get real groceries and cook at home. Also, if you want your sandwich with no lettuce, no tomatoes, light mayo, extra onions, cut in fourths, with extra cheese, get over it. Come in with your crazy orders so it's not holding the line up and you can once again make sure its right. Same thing with not being sure of what you want again, come in, theres a board you can stand and stare at for as long as you want in there, and noone will bother you. Now on the other side, it would be a lot quicker with more crew members working on the inside. More people to make food, get things cooked, and collect money and pass orders out. But corporate rules are you can only have so many hours for crew members in a week. So the manager has to make a decision going off of sales of the week before to see where to put more people, they arent mind readers people, don't get mad at us because you went to a basketball game and went to eat at burger king with the rest of the team, and had to wait 15 minutes on your chicken fries because there were only 3 people working. Sorry. As for the pulling back and forth, I know some managers that have done that, yes it's cheating, but its not really a BIG deal. It takes an average of 6 cars going the whole line in under 2:30 to drop the drive thru time 1 second for the day. Sure your doing us a tiny favor, which never hurts anyone, think of it as your good deed for the day, or whatever. To me it's not that big of a deal, and when we pull you up there usually good reason for it. We have a set amount of each item we cook, according to the computer which again goes by sales for the day before, and if we dont have that amount, waste goes up. Which eventually, when your waste is up, means you don't get a bonus. And who doesn't want a bonus? So if you come through and order 3 tendercrisp sandwiches (keep in mind they take about 5 minutes to cook) and we only have 1 or 2, we're going to need to cook more right? So you'll probably get 3 freshly cooked ones instead of 2 that have been sitting there for god knows how long, so it's a good thing right? All we ask is you pull up, and we'll walk the order out to you, it's not taking any longer for you to get your food, your not getting any more or less, and we aren't doing innapropriate things to it. It's just so we don't get in trouble. As for not pulling up because noones behind you, that doesn't make sense really, doesn't matter if anyones there or not, your the one on the timer, so we need you to move along, while we make your food, fast and fresh for you! Also, corporate rules about pulling people forward (yes there are some) are if theyre waiting more than like 3 or 4 minutes on something to cook, we can pull you up. If your waiting on something, and someones behind you and their order is done, we can pull you up. The pulling up and back thing is kind of stupid, it doesn't do much good, and I wouldn't have anyone do it, but in turn it does help some, if you get enough people to do it. And if you refuse to pull up, or won't move back and forth, trust me they're going to have someone on the shift go out and drive around the store a few times when you leave, so either way they'll find a way to cheat the timer. If they're that desperate to meet times, which some managers can be. I don't know if this helped any or not, but I hope it cleared some things up. Again I didn't read all the other comments, and Im not trying to argue with anyone, because arguing does not good whatsoever, because noone ever changes their minds about anything, but I just thought I'd give my opinion on the subject.