What is it with customer service reps and their rude behavior nowadays?

My cousin was trying to use the McD app and it wouldnt go thru. The girl told her to never do that again as she’s holding up the line. My cousin said there’s no one behind me, no need to be hateful. The girl said oh I CAN be hateful.

Of course my nurse cousin talked to the manager but you can’t just say anything while someone’s paying your wage to be helpful.

@KNOWITALL is it that managers and companies no longer care that their employees are rude? Or has the general public become so inured to being waited on by rude staff, that most people don’t bother to complain anymore? Our society is in bad shape if you can’t even get courteous customer service.

The biggest factor is that so many customer service call centers are just that…they contract with companies to do their customer-service functions. The reps have little training and may take calls for multiple companies. As far as my own personal experience, there has been improvement and customer service returning to individual company location. Many call center functions have come back to the USA.

Many companies don’t train their employees in customer service like they used to and it is not innate to give good service like some people think. Generations of the lack or training and customer service means it just keeps getting worse. Some places still do have good customer service, but it is harder to find than 50 years ago.

Fast food has been hit or miss lately, especially now that there is a higher expectation for people to use the app or screens in the restaurant to order food. I prefer to order with a person, but I do use the app sometimes. The app is easier if I am using a coupon. I think fast food workers are under a lot of pressure and work very hard, so I try to be empathetic to that. Not that it is ok if they are rude, but just that I understand they can’t be chatty and spend a lot of time on a lot of niceties.

Overall, I still get good service at restaurants and here where I live people tend to be very helpful in our recreation centers. I am in rec centers almost every day.

In my experience service tends to be better done by older adults compared to young adults, but that is not a sure thing every time.

The most frustrating place for me to not get good service is in medical care. Staff at hospitals, billing centers, doctor’s offices, that is just bullshit. If I am sick and can’t get nice service…I mean if anyone should be getting good customer service it is someone who is worried about their health and dying, and yet all too often patients are treated terribly.

@SnipSnip that may be true in some instances, but I usually ask to talk to the manager at that location and yet I still don’t see any change in behavior when I return to the establishment.

@JLeslie it may be true that good customer service is not really trained anymore, but when I was younger and worked in customer service, even without training, I never would have thought to be rude to a customer. And I’m know that I’m not the only person that has had a good upbringing in that way. So I feel like it’s more than a lack of training.

If I could have talked to the young man without him continuing to be rude, I would have told him that he’s going to have a heart attack at an early age if he lets things like long lines get to him that much. When I worked at a grocery store and it was super busy, (think about snow in the forecast), my mindset was always that I would do my best to get people out quickly, but it was so insane in the store that there was no sense in getting stressed out about it. All you could do was your best, and then just accept that’s how it was. There’s no sense in getting stressed over something you have no control over. If you wait on 20 people in an hour, as opposed to 15, there’s still going to be a horrendously long line.

Is it possible that our society has come to expect everything to be at our fingertips so much to the point, so that even at our jobs, we expect everybody to jump at the snap of a finger? I do think there seems to be a general lack of wanting to work from young people today, but then that was often the case when I was younger too. And cell phones at one’s job are a real curse. It’s like people can’t be bothered to wait on somebody, (which is what they’re being paid for), because they’re too busy texting with their friends.

@LifeQuestioner While I agree he should not be rude, being concerned about keeping the line moving is part of his job. When I lived in the South (not counting Florida as the South) I noticed cashiers focused on the person in front of them too much, ignoring the line that was building. There is a balance that needs to be met. Being considerate and helpful and also considering other customers waiting is part of the triaging and efficiency of that type of business. You needed a little help ordering, they should have been helpful.

@JLeslie I didn’t need help ordering, I just needed a moment or two to make up my mind what I wanted. And the fact that he was rushing me distracted me from thinking about what I wanted to get, so that it ended up taking more time. You may be focused on getting your line down, (I certainly always saw that as a challenge when I was a cashier back when), but that doesn’t mean that you are rude to the current person you are waiting on. And no, I was never one of those cashiers who had to talk to each customer for 20 minutes. But I was always super polite, greeted them, and thanked them at the end. I would make small talk while I rang up their groceries and bagged them, but it in no way hampered the progress. This young man was openly hostile to me. There’s a reason why the phrase is, to wait on a customer. The reason for your job is to help the customer and to be at their disposal. You don’t get to rush them or take them to task and if you think otherwise, that’s probably what is wrong with today’s society.

What annoys me even more are customer service reps who are polite but unhelpful but that isn’t the worst. Some companies go out of their way to infuriate their customers it would seem. I mean, is there any phrase in recorded history more annoying than “your call is important to us” while you wait endlessly for someone just to answer the go*****ed phone.

@flutherother I agree! Or even when you’re talking to them and it’s obvious that they’re following some sort of script. I mean, do not know how to talk to a customer without having to have it laid out before you?

Maybe you should consider that it is your fault. You are not there to be coddled or to get your rod slobbered, you are there to get pretend food. You know their menu, so make up your mind before you roll up.

@flutherother Yes! It’s passive aggressive, condescending, belittling, obnoxious, antagonizing…

@LifeQuestioner I agree with your response to me.

You can’t get decent people to work customer service anymore. COVID lowered that bar to an unrecoverable level. Many people found that they can get better work or they don’t even need to work. Inflation makes working at such establishments a lost cause because wages are so low. Lastly, you all mostly keep going to these establishments despite the poor customer service. They’re seeing record profits so they have zero motivation to get better customer service or hire more than a skeleton crew. They blame “worker shortages” but the reality is plenty of people would work there but they won’t hire and they won’t pay. Please just stop going.

@ragingloli I tend to understand that, at least at McDonald’s, as the menu rarely changes. But I’m a mood eater so I like to look at my options a minute like @LifeQuestioner.

But, people can look at the McD’s menu while in line. If you aren’t ready let someone go ahead of you. A question about the menu is fine, but not knowing basically what you want or your second choice if you don’t like the answer the cashier gives for your first choice is taking too much time to order. That seems like basic fast food etiquette.

I have a theory, actually a few theories. One is that it’s the company (in this case, McD’s) stresses that a certain amount of time be taken on each customer and they keep track. Speed is of the essence. One McD’s a few miles from my house used to have a sign on the outside of the building that said please don’t bother with change, please only use bills. They don’t want people picking out dimes, nickels and pennies to give perfect amounts, taking a minute or two to pick out change.

Like @JLeslie said, it’s fast food and you should have a decent idea of what you want before you get up to the window. Most people know the menu pretty accurately, what McD’s has. It’s not like sitting in a strange restaurant in a different city where you need to scrutinize the menu. I don’t use the app (I’m not into apps for anyplace if I can avoid it) but if I order at the drive thru window and then I think of something else that I want, I will tell the person who does the money to add something to my order and they do, and it’s never a problem. In the sixty seconds it takes me to go from that transaction to the pickup window, they have it. I think if I were to drive up to the menu board and say “uh, I’m not sure. Um, let me think about my needs and I’ll let you know” they would probably not appreciate that. I don’t think they should be rude, but if everyone did that, it would really hold things up.

My last theory and it’s just a general statement is that a place like McD’s has no training, just maybe basic cashier training. When I call customer service at the cable company or other places, they’re very polite now because they’re all recorded, so if you complain, the supervisor can always listen to the recording and the employee would be in trouble. Not so at a fast food place like McD’s. They probably take shit from customers too, which I am sympathetic about because their job can’t be easy.

@Blackwater_Park based on my experience yesterday. I probably will stop going to that McDonald’s. There’s one that’s a little further away that I may try out next time, but not the one I went to yesterday. You’re definitely right about things being related to covid, but I feel like customer service was declining well before that. Back when I cashier, we were always taught to greet the customer and to thank them afterwards. Before covid, I had noticed for a while that when you went in the grocery store, the cashier barely greeted you and most of the time was having a conversation with the person next to them. It was like they couldn’t be bothered to wait on you even though that was their job. So yes, things got worse during and after covid, but in some ways that’s also a convenient excuse for the declining in courtesy.

@KNOWITALL exactly! I was actually going to go to Taco Bell but as I drove down the road I remembered how rude they had been before and at the last minute I decided to go to McDonald’s. So, I really hadn’t had much opportunity to think before I pulled up at the drive-thru as to what I wanted to order. And the cars were jam- packed in front of me so it’s not like I was holding people up. The line was not moving very fast anyway.

@JLeslie sorry, but in this case, you need to be aware that not everybody can view the menu from two cars away. I have eye issues where I can’t really read what I want on the menu until I am pulled up to the speaker. And I really only needed about 20 to 30 seconds to the side, so the world wasn’t going to come to an end. And as I said in my response in the paragraph above, even if I had ordered 10 times as fast, I still would have had to sit there until the car is pulled up.

@jca2 as I’ve already stated, I only needed 20 to 30 seconds to decide what to order. I happen to want a burger yesterday, and they have multiple combinations to choose from so it was taking a moment. By the way, as far as taking s*** from customers as you say, I cashiered 30 years ago and we had to do the same thing back then. But we were also expected to be courteous no matter what. If somebody got really ramped up, we called the manager to come handle it. That was part of their job as the higher paid supervisor. I appreciate the pressure that people are under, but there’s always been pressure on employees and that situation. And I could have called into a customer service number and complained about the young man, but I really didn’t want to put his job in jeopardy. He was very rude, but I wouldn’t have wanted him to lose his job. He probably benefited from the fact that I had tons of customer service experience and I knew what it was like to be frustrated when it’s super busy. Another person might have gone higher up to try and get him fired. That’s how rude he was. We’re not talking about just being terse with somebody, he was downright rude.

A few years ago, I had a problem with something at a McD’s (this was probably 15 years ago) and I called or emailed the customer service for the HQ, and I got a format form letter response. I would have been better off complaining with the manager of the individual store, which is what they want you to do, they don’t want it escalating higher. I don’t complain too much, because I usually don’t order much so it’s easy to keep track of, but a few years ago they screwed something up and I called the store customer service and they were very helpful. I think I asked for a burger without cheese and hold the onions, which is what I usually ask for. Some might say that’s an easy fix, just take the cheese and the onions off, but I don’t want to touch that smelly stuff haha.

I remember going to a supermarket once and I went to customer service and asked about something being on sale, and the lady told me “you have to look in the flyer.” It’s like ,well what are you there for?

I hate at some supermarkets, they not only don’t talk to you at all, but they won’t even tell you the total. I try not to shop at places like that – when I have a bad experience, I try not to go back.

@jca2 for me, grocery stores have gotten so bad that I actually prefer to use the self checkout. On the one hand I hate to do so because I know that is taking work away from people, but then I feel like if cashiers would be more pleasant, I would enjoy going through their line more. So I would much rather just go through the self-checkout, and then I get to bag my groceries exactly the way I want to.

@LifeQuestioner It’s true that in a car you can’t see the menu until you are at the place where you order. That is one reason I rarely do drive through at a place I am not familiar with, instead I go in the restaurant. Plus, I prefer to be face to face with the person who can help me.

Some fast food you have the menu and an audio speaker where you order on the drive through. Some you come forward to a window to do your order and you actually are face to face with them, I like that much better, but it is very rare. Some drive throughs have the menu before you get up to the order area where they have the menu again for a second time. Places with very high volume.

I do feel the pressure of the line, so if I do drive through, I don’t worry about saving $1 because I was crafty with how I put an order together for my husband and me to share. I don’t expect to the perfect order if I drive through if I don’t know the menu well. Drive through you have to be ready, it is the nature of the drive through. Waiting in line inside of a fast food restaurant, you can sit back and let others go ahead until you are ready.

None of us were there. We don’t know if we would have felt you were taking too much time or not. Still no excuse to be treated badly, but we also don’t know if we would have felt you were being inconsiderate if we were behind you. We weren’t there. You say you took a moment, is that five seconds or twenty seconds or a minute? Everyone agrees customer service people should not be rude, and I find it odd and rude for them to say you should have ordered on the app, but I do think you need to be ready when they are ready to take your order in a drive through.

@LifeQuestioner I refuse to use self checkout. If they want to give me a discount, I would consider it but otherwise, I won’t and I tell them I won’t. I don’t argue with them about it, I don’t state why. I have a few reasons why – one is that they’re not giving me a discount to do more work (i.e. lifting things out of the cart to scan and stuff like that). Two it takes work away from people, even though they say it doesn’t, but if they used to have six cashiers working on lines and now they have three cashiers and one person working on self checkout, then there are two cashiers less than there used to be (just an example).

I do notice in many supermarkets now, they don’t bag your stuff. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t. I think in that way, the job of a cashier has gotten easier than it used to be.

I do notice that cashiers don’t usually greet people now, they rarely thank them and say have a good day.

I’ve noticed in some supermarkets cashiers aren’t as friendly. That seems hit or miss too. I prefer regular check out to self checkout. Not so much to save the jobs of others, but because I selfishly like regular check out better. It is usually more efficient to have cashier check me out, especially if I have more than 5 items, coupons, or a lot of produce items that need to be weighed.

Recently, I was in a supermarket doing self check out and I screwed something up and the woman who came over to help me just went in front of me and started touching my screen and whatever else, and was a little rude, and I confronted her about it asking her to please be a little nicer. She said, “I am trying to help you.” I told her I appreciated her help, but then again told her please just be a little nicer. I had weighed something incorrectly, and then she entered it incorrectly too and started to argue with me that it didn’t matter. Then she fixed it. It was a ridiculous interaction. By contrast I was in Target recenlty at self checkout, and messed something up (this is why I hate self checkout, it usually takes me longer than regular check out) and the woman was very nice and helpful and realized she was telling me something I did not want to hear about how the coupons work (not her fault obviously) and told me what to do next time to avoid the situation.

@JLeslie Add that to the reasons why I don’t do self checkout.

@LifeQuestioner Every McD’s I have been to in the last year has been horrible.

@jca2 My Neighborhood Walmart has more self check out than regular cashiers. Often there are 6–8 self check out machines open and only one regular cashier. My regular supermarket, Publix, still has mostly regular cashiers and some Publix stores still have 100% cashiers. Publix also still designs their stores to have a person help to bag groceries. They will help walk you out to your car also. That surprised me in 1990 when I moved here and it is still going on today.

I wonder if the new minimum wage increases in Florida will harm this service. Sometimes managers even bag groceries to help out a cashier, I think it is nice. That doesn’t happen often, but it is a nice way for managers to interact with the employees and the customers at that level during very busy times. I used to help giftwrap during Christmas when I was a manager in cosmetics and fragrance.

@JLeslie There’s a Super Walmart that I go to on rare occasions that has a big self service area and will often have only one or two regular cashier lines. The line for the cashier might be fifteen minutes which is maddening but I feel if I use the self checkout, it’s going to give them what they want, what they predict will happen, which is that people won’t want to wait. I don’t know if it’s because they’re short staffed or they just don’t put a lot of people on the schedule deliberately. Maybe customers complained because the last few times I went into that store, there were more cashiers and shorter lines.

@jca2 I think about that too, if I use self check-out it only encourages the stores to build or convert stores to self check-out so I usually go through the regular line. I would say I use regular check-out 75% of the time. Self check-out feels horrible if I have a lot of items. It feels lonely. While a nice brief conversation with the cashier at the end of my shopping experience is very pleasant. Plus, like I said, the cashier is usually much more efficient.

@JLeslie Sometimes at Walmart, I will ask the cashier how they like working there, if they make them work weekends, stuff like that. It’s interesting.

Walmart is having problems with rampant theft. You can’t stop it without staff. The last time I went in Walmart I had to go beg the service desk to send someone to sporting goods to unlock a cabinet so I could get out a $20 item. After an hour, I gave up and left. I thought that the first time this happened it would be an isolated incident but it was not. A week earlier the same thing happened. I went in to get a fishing license, begged the service desk for help, called the store and asked for the manager from my cell phone etc, etc. Finally, I figured out I could just buy my fishing license online from my phone.

@Blackwater_Park I had similar problems with Walmart in the hardware/paint department. They were calling for help and no help came. Another time, I got paint there and it had to be mixed, and they had a problem with the computer program that gave them the color mixes. Long story short, I couldn’t get the paint I wanted in the color I wanted. Very frustrating.

@jca2 Funny how it’s not a problem at Lowe’s or Home Depot… Not anymore than normal anyway.

I usually shop at a Neighborhood Walmart not a Super Walmart. My Neighborhood Walmart is great. I do a lot of curbside pick-up there actually, and go in the store maybe once every two weeks or so for just a few items. The volume they do out of that little store must be astronomical.

I do worry the that the staff is under incredible pressure and overworked. That is what worries me most, is overworking employees, not that few people are employed. I realize it is part of the same thing in the end, but the people physically there dealing with the exhaustion and the pressure is what I feel in my body when I hear and think about it. I worked in retail for years, and if you never have you have no idea how physically and mentally abusive it can be. Mostly, the physical was the worst part for me.

As far as theft, no surprise with less staff around they probably have more theft.

@Blackwater_Park True. I know stores don’t like to have people complain to customer service at HQ, but the problem if I try to contact customer service is that everything is automated, and they probably are handling thousands of calls and emails per day, so there’s no special handling of any issue.

@JLeslie I think I already said that I needed about 20 to 30 seconds more to decide what I wanted. But more to the point, and I kind of already implied this, even after I put my order in, I still had to sit in that same exact spot for almost 5 minutes before the line moved ahead. So there’s no way I was holding up the line! Might as well argue that the food prep people were holding up the line because maybe then the line would have moved quicker.

@jca2 I don’t mind ringing up and bagging my groceries, but then I used to cashier myself. In fact, I prefer to bag my groceries because I know what a good weight is to carry for me, plus I’m not loading the bags up so much that they’re going to tear. I definitely feel you on the fact that it’s less people having jobs when they have self-checkout, but in my neck of the woods, if you go through a line with an actual cashier, they get annoyed with you if you want to bag your own groceries, and I don’t like that. So while I sympathize with the loss of jobs, I feel like cashiers kind of brought that on themselves as well. They stopped being courteous, and then they get put out if you want to bag your own stuff. At that point it becomes much more desirable for me to check myself out then to go through a person’s line. Not to mention that the accuracy of pricing has really gone downhill. When there’s a cashier ringing me up and I’m trying to bag my stuff, it’s very hard to keep an eye on if things are ringing up the correct price. And if I don’t catch it until after I’ve checked out, now I have to go get in line at customer service (and don’t get me started on that because half the time there’s nobody up at the desk), and wait even longer to get my money back. And I use my bank card, so of course they don’t give me cash back, but I have to wait another 5 to 7 days for it to be put back on my card and remember to check that that has happened so I don’t get cheated. I would much rather ring myself up and be able to verify the prices right then and there, bad things the way I want without somebody giving me an attitude, and not have to deal with somebody being really rude.

@JLeslie sorry, I’m responding to people’s comments as I read them so back to you. I guess the difference between you and I is that since I have a lot of cashiering experience, I know how things work with ringing items up. I also do pretty small orders, such as I’ll be able to carry up to my apartment in one trip, because with my heart issues, I’m just not up to doing multiple trips up and down the steps. And because I cashiered for so many years back in the past, I still remember a lot of the lookup numbers for the produce, Believe it or not! So it’s easier for me. But I do agree with you about the people who come over to help you when you’re using self-checkout. Half of them don’t even know how to fix a price correctly. We always learned that if something rang up wrong you had to take it off by scanning the item and then hit the price in under the correct department. This was especially important because otherwise you might be charged tax on something you shouldn’t be charged tax on or vice versa. Nowadays, when these people go to correct an item, they just take the difference off as a coupon, which I can tell you you are definitely not supposed to do as a store employee. And half the time they can’t even do the math in their head and I have to figure it out for them. We don’t have Publix up here but that sounds like it would be wonderful! And yes, back when I was cashiering, the store manager would come up and help bag groceries when it got busy. It really sent a good message to the customers that the manager cared about getting them out as quickly as possible. It also is great for morale as a cashier because you felt like you were all really working together as a team to deal with the long lines. It sounds like you have much nicer stores to shop at where you are. I can’t remember the last time I had a nice conversation with a cashier. Most of them are just solid. I get it, you’re at work and you can’t wait to get off, but this is your job. You only make yourself more unhappy if you go through the day with that attitude.

Sadly, everyone, I’m afraid that at some point we will not have cashiers at all and it will all be self-checkout. Not a good thing, but I can see that’s the way we’re going. By the way, there was one store in my area that didn’t have any self-checkout lines. I just found out the other day that they are closing as of today, which breaks my heart.

@Blackwater_Park that’s horrible! Yeah, and when theft becomes rampant, then the customer ends up paying for it because of the prices go up. But it’s definitely harder to find help nowadays when you shop in person. And forget about trying to get somebody from the meat department to come out!

I’d be phoning and writing McDonald’s corporate to fill them in on the situation.

. . .

(IF I didn’t avoid McDonald’s like the plague, and if I didn’t actually relish the prospect of them going out of business.)

. . .

I expect what you may be seeing, is the growing prevalence of conversations about how terrible big corporate chain restaurant companies are.

I happen to have been doing some research that has had me visiting some online communities that restaurant staff visit, and in many such places, morale seems low, due to corporate cultural depravity, inhumane and foolish corporate policies, awful managers, awful employees, etc.

@Zaku well, as I said above, I didn’t want to take it to corporate. I didn’t know the young man’s situation so that even though he was very rude, I wouldn’t want anybody to lose their job. He could have had something personal going on in his life, and even though I don’t think that excuses the rudeness, I wanted to keep that in mind. After talking to his manager, I had faith that she would talk to him, and that was enough for me. Now, if he has a history of being rude to customers and she has decided that this was the last straw, then that’s a repeated behavior and he probably shouldn’t be working in customer service. But I didn’t want to take it further up not knowing what he might have been going through that day. I know, I’m a conundrum. Not willing to put up with discourteous employees but still wanting to show empathy.

@LifeQuestioner 30 seconds is a long time waiting in a line that is supposed to move quickly. I understand your point that realistically there was a line in front of you and going to take 5 minutes to get your food anyway. Maybe that is true maybe not. Maybe it takes a certain amount of time from the time you order to the time it is ready no matter what the length of the line in front of you. I think mostly they are just used to people being ready to order, especially if there is a long line behind. You were there, so you know best the tone in the person’s voice and whether they were trying to be helpful or whether they were being rude.

I worked in retail for 30 years, I rang people up on the registers, was in sales, management, and I was a buyer for a while. The particular problem at Publix that time was I didn’t have the fruit on the scale correctly, so it didn’t charge enough money. She came over practically pushing me aside to correct it and telling me it didn’t ring up correctly, I was fine with her correcting it, I am not trying to get away with anything, but how she did it was not very nice. When she corrected it, she didn’t choose the right type of container my fruit was in, and when I pointed it out, she said it will be the same. I said to her, “we should probably make it correct since we are correcting anyway,” and she again said, “it will be the same.” Then with a bit of a huff she decided to go ahead and correct it, and when the new price was a few cents more she said, “my way it was cheaper for you.” Like a smarty pants.

One good thing Publix does, and when I worked at Bloomingdale’s that company was very similar, was cashiers and salespeople had a lot of power to make things right for the customer, they didn’t have to wait for managers to approve everything. If they adjusted a price incorrectly, they would be told how to do it correctly for next time and were not in trouble, they were rewarded for making the customer happy on the spot and then finding out the correct way to handle it if they were unsure.

It matters that things are scanned correctly so stock and sales are recorded correctly so stock is re-ordered, but mistakes happen. Sometimes we can correct it at the store level or with the buyer. Luckily, Florida has no tax on grocery items, just on ready-made food like if you buy a rotisserie chicken or fresh made sub, just like if you were at a fast food place, but all other grocery items are tax free. I think about half the states tax groceries, which I think is terrible. When I lived in TN the tax on groceries and other retail items was crazy high. Very regressive tax.

I agree with @raginglol. You know the menu. Make up you your mind before I you get there.

I do have to say I agree with @ragingloli on that, too. If it’s a chain like McD’s, you should have some idea of what you want. If it’s a place you’ve never been to, like if you’re traveling and there’s some restaurant you’ve never been to, then go inside (if possible) and look at the choices and think about it.

@JLeslie here in Maryland, we don’t tax food items except for the ones you mentioned, ready to eat food. We do tax household goods though and pet food. Do you guys have tax on that?

@Dutchess_III no, because I don’t eat there very often, I’m not that familiar with the menu and it is changing all the time. And I guess you missed the part where I talked about my vision disability. Same response to @jca2.

@JLeslie Here in NY and CT, there’s no tax on meat, dairy, fruit, vegetables, groceries like that, but there is a tax on things like candy and desserts. They’re considered a luxury.

@LifeQuestioner I’m pretty sure we have tax on household products like laundry detergent and window cleaner. I would need to double check. Things that are medical often are tax exempt like blood pressure monitors unless that has changed.

Maryland isn’t usually very patient if you are in the DC area. I don’t know where you live. I grew up in MoCo and you better not hesitate on a left turn signal or block traffic in any way. Dilly dallying wouldn’t be very tolerated in the stores I shopped in. You might be further out in the country.

@JLeslie New York too. You better know when you get to the menu board, say what you want and keep it moving.

@jca2 My husband has a Carnegie Deli story about that. They rushed him so much he didn’t want to go back. It was his first time and it was lunch time.

@LifeQuestioner….what do you usually get from McDs?

@JLeslie I’m in the suburbs, but not real close to DC. People in general just drive crazier nowadays, but around here they seem like they’ve always been impatient. I learned to be a lot more patient after taking care of my mom and seeing how as you get older, sometimes simple tests just take a moment or two longer. Oh, and most of our medical stuff is tax free too, definitely medicines and the like. I’m not quite sure about things like blood pressure cuffs, although you would think they should be.

@Dutchess_III you say usually in your question, but I really don’t go that often, especially since they jacked up their prices ridiculously. But a lot of times I just get the chicken McNuggets and then it’s much quicker because they are a definite item on the menu. But lately I’ve been wanting a hamburger when I go various places, I don’t know why. Maybe I need more protein? And they have multiple types of hamburgers to choose from. I usually get a quarter pounder, but even then they have a triple, a double, one with bacon, etc. So it does take a moment to look at the menu and figure out which meal number you want. Pair that with the fact that the menus are not printed real large and my eyes are only so so with reading at any sort of distance, and yes it takes me half a minute.

We have a family story about my grandma going to McD’s for her first time and she ordered a hamburger cooked medium.

medium cooked cardboard, that is funny.

We used to joke and say we would go to the McD’s drive thru and ask for a hot dog.

@ragingloli You don’t get to pick your doneness at McD’s. Every burger is cooked through.

Pull the menu up.on your phone before you go @LifeQuestioner. You can blow it up and make your decision then, without inconveniencing every one else.