A farewell to Chick-fil-A,

I have spent the past year and a half proudly working at Chick-fil-A. Employment at any other quick service restaurant would be somewhat looked down upon but not Chick-fil-A. When I tell family members or new friends that I work at Chick-fil-A there is a certain level of respect associated with the company. My employment there categorizes me as the typical girl next door. The food is better quality and the environment is much cleaner than any other quick service restaurant. The store has a positive connotation and it is well known for being a cut above the rest. Although the store itself is a cut above the rest something I have learned in the past year and a half is that does not mean all the customers are of the same quality.

Customers are the worst because they:

1. Forget their names

Less than two minutes ago Jim told me he wanted three chicken biscuits but now that I am holding Jim’s chicken biscuits and calling his name while looking him in the eye he is a deer in the headlights. He keeps looking at me and then quickly looking away and I am really not sure why. I thought he was hungry; doesn’t he want this food he paid for?

2. Don’t listen to you

We have a memorized list of questions that we ask in order to make sure each customers has everything they may need with the meal but 8 out of ten customers isn’t listening to any of them. “What would you like to drink with that?” “Austin” No I’m sorry we haven’t gotten to the name part yet Austin but thank you for making it obvious that you haven’t been listening to me all along.

3. Dress inappropriately

I have seen people in pajamas and I have seen people in prom dresses but the worst thing I have ever seen was the nipple incident of 2015. A girl came to my register with a very loose tank top and no bra. She leaned too far in one direction in order to pull her wallet out of her satchel and her nipple stared at me during the rest of our interaction. I shouldn’t be seeing nipples; I don’t work at that kind of a restaurant.

4. Talk To Us Like Servants

Customers will literally just yell the items that they want at any given team member. A customer yelled “buffalo, buffalo!” as a co-worker of mine walked away from him. She looked at me and said “I have a lot of nicknames but buffalo has never been one of them so I don’t really feel the need to answer.” As much as I should have made her stop and grab his sauces I completely agreed with why she wouldn’t.

5. Want to create their own meals

This one is pretty self-explanatory. You would be surprised how many people want to change every aspect of the menu item that they have ordered. But my personal pet peeve is the when someone orders a fruit cup with only blueberries or only strawberries. Why would they not just go to the grocery store and buy fruit?

6. Hover

A customer places their order then stays at the register and will not stop looking at me. I’m making their drink and can feel them staring. I’m getting their sauces and they’re still staring. Do they even blink, why cant they move to the pick up line.

7. Spill their coffee and blame you

My suggestion for Chick-fil-A is that they hire nonstop referees to declare who had the cup last before all of its contents are spilled on to the lap of the customer in drive-thru. I guarantee you the answer will always be the driver because they were being careless. There is nothing more annoying than watching a customer slam the cup into the edge of their window, spill coffee on their hand, then look at you with utter disgust.

8. Start talking before we greet them

There is nothing more annoying on headset than someone pulling up and immediately blurting out “two chicken sandwiches and two large fries.” Most team members will give the customer at least a five second penalty before they start to greet them and then let the customer repeat their entire order again.

9. Plan last-minute parties

The party itself probably wasn’t thrown together last minute but for some reason an hour and a half before the party our customer decided that now would be a good time to hammer down those catering details. “Can I get three large salad trays, four gallons of lemonade, a large strip tray, two large nugget trays and forty sandwiches?” And they are genuinely confused and upset when the food isn’t ready in time.

10. Do not say thank you

We probably said my pleasure either way but now everything is awkward because there was a perfect pause where someone should say thank you and naturally we tried to fill it with my pleasure and then the customer just looks at you strangely.

Although the customers were not always pleasant, the employees have become so of my dearest friends. Thank you for all of the laughs, “would you rather’s” and throwback singing days. You guys made what was sometimes a long and monotonous job something to look forward to.

Sincerely,

A chicken that’s leaving the nest