From Frogtown to Radtown

originally published in Issue 11 of Season 22 of Whim

Why is it so hard to get a meal? I don’t mean get a good meal, a home-cooked meal, or even a hot meal. I just mean why is it so hard to get one. This past week my fiancé and I put over 1000 miles on each of our cars, together. I mean we sat in my car for 1000 plus miles and then did the same thing in his car. And you know what? That whole time I did not eat.

I don’t have an eating disorder and it was almost completely not my fault. Every single time I ordered food it was prepared wrong, the wrong temperature or simply too gross to eat. I understand that the fast food chains in this world are meant to be quick and inexpensive but does that give them the right to make inadequate food that a dog won’t eat? I think not.

First of all, McDonalds is my absolute favorite of all fast food places to eat, I love it and the supersize movie just made me want a Big Mac while I was watching it. The fries are cooked with beef flavoring and salted enough to give me (someone who is young and healthy) chest pains. Many of my friends joke that there is something addictive like crack in the food because we all know it’s bad for us and we still want it. Sounds like a cigarette to me, but I love those too.

Anyway, do not stop at the McDonalds in Fairfield, Va. I did and not only did I have to stand for a few minutes before the cashier came to the register to take my order but when he was finished he just left and started mopping floors. Once my sandwiches were ready they sat there on the warming rack for about a minute and a half and then the boy returned from his floors to bag my two double cheeseburgers.

He then sets them down and walks around talking to the sandwich maker-guy about the fries. He then starts the fryer and tells me it will be four minutes until my fries are ready. It has been at least four minutes since he took my order, why didn’t he start the fries then, instead of mopping floors? Don’t customers come first anymore? I should remind you that during this four minutes plus the two he wasted talking to the sandwich maker-guy my sandwiches are sitting in an open, unfolded bad, getting cold.

Finally, beep, beep, my fries are ready and then I hear the cashier yell to the drive-thru girl to get me a large fry. She s-l-o-w-l-y got them for me and then handed them to without saying anything. What no F-ing thank you for waiting here in the middle of the night 10 minutes for something that should’ve taken two? To top it all off I get back on I-81 and go to eat my food and as I mentioned my sandwiches were freezing.

Then I try the fries and they have 0 salt on them. So I put them in the backseat for the dog. No lie here, he didn’t even touch one of them and he eats everything. If a dog can’t eat it how do you expect me to?

By the time this article runs, the The Better Business Bureau will know of my next story. Exit 205 on I-81, better known to most of us as the Whites truck stop exit, we all know it. Well at that same exit is a Wilco truck stop and a Wendy’s combined. I went there for one sandwich, a single with cheese.

It starts the same as McDonalds with a long wait for someone to pay attention to me. That entire wait I spent staring at a large, sweaty man with long straggly hair( and no hair net), eating a sandwich on the make-line with gloves on. That’s weird and gross.

After I was rung up I watched that same man start to prepare my sandwich, I knew it was mine because I was the only one there and the drive-thru girl was just standing around. He laid the bun out and placed a piece of meat (?) on one side and then he reached over and took a bite of his sandwich.

The next move I made was to get my money back and not get anything from that place. The manager seemed concerned but not really.

It was raining so my fiancé was putting a tarp over the back of the truck. While he was doing this I was watching the Wendy’s from outside, and the manager did say something to the man, but he never changed gloves or washed his hands even after the manager said something to him. He should’ve been removed from his job permanently in my opinion and that of many employers. I guess Wendy’s is not one of those.

If you want me to flip out about something a little more close to home you put me in the same room or even the same building as the manager’s and owners of the Sonic here in Radford. I have NEVER once gotten what I ordered there. NEVER. I am not exaggerating and I am nice enough to give them a tip because I know how nice that is to get a tip randomly.

I met one of the owner’s once, and he gave me a free pass for two meals. He wrote on the paper, “Do not fuck up her order,” and then he signed it. Well ya know what? They f—– up my order!

So ya know what Wendy’s, McDonald’s, Sonic and all you other people that can’t do your jobs and give me what I pay for? I’m telling you now I’m going to find a way to make you do your jobs and give me what I want because I am tired of being screwed over all the freaking time. Your job is not that hard! I’ve done it.

I know a lot of you have worked in the food business, was it really that hard? Or do you have a similar story that you want to tell? Reply in the forum or submit an article!