A Treat and A Lesson

On my way home from the day, I treated myself to a small fries from a local fast food restaurant (for the record, I eat fast food maybe six times a year.)  Someone at work had fries from this place for lunch today, and they looked soooo good, so I figured, it was Monday, I could splurge!
It was a simple order - a value fries.  A whole $1.26.  Quick, right?  I did get there after the dinner rush, too.  And there were only two cars ahead of me in the drive through lane.  I sat in line knowing that I was only moments away from the salty, crispy goodness entertaining my tastebuds.

Except the line took for-ev-er.  Seriously.  I was in line for 12 minutes.  That's a long time for a fast food place.  Especially when there are only two cars ahead of you.

So as I sat there, I began stewing.  I drafted a complaint letter to the company to complain about this particular franchise.  Thanks to my super smart phone, I even pulled up the corporate website and found my contact information.  It was a great way to pass the wait time.

When I finally pulled up to the pick-up window, I was beyond annoyed.  I planned on commenting to the drive through attendant, asking what was happening to make things ridiculously slow, and comment how this is unacceptable service for a fast food place.  When the attendant came to the window, I could tell that things were not hunky-dory.  The place looked to be very frazzled and short staffed.  The attendant gave me a pained smile as she asked if I had the value fries.

In that split second, I decided that my complaint wasn't worth it today.  Something bigger was happening behind the scenes at this franchise, and while a complaint to corporate may have been helpful, after a peek into the behind-the-scenes situation, it wasn't worth it.  Instead, I smiled back at her, and cheerfully replied.  As she said her pre-programmed closing, I bid her a good evening with another smile, and drove off to enjoy my fries.

Sometimes lessons arrive in the strangest of packages......