Kitchen Nightmares
I love Gordon Ramsay, I really do. He is my hero.
Why, you ask.
I think we can all attest to my huge distaste for customers. When I say that, I mean the customers who view a mistake as a huge ergregious assault on... whatever it could be possibly assaulting. There's a fine line between complaint and being an ass. I remember one day when at the plaza when this woman wanted a newspaper. Now, if you were to buy a paper from the plaza, there are several ways to do it. You either buy it from those boxes for 75 cents like a smart person would, or get it from us or the gift shop for 80 cents. One woman decided one day that it wasn't cool. Why would anyone berate a 18 year old girl on sales tax and pricing is beyond me. Also there only so much yelling a person can take. Sally and the customer ended up in a shouting match. The woman proclaims that we were charging her a higher sales tax than she is used to. This woman was completely out of line but what could we as the front line do?
Schlow hates this but I really can see both sides. I mean, I see service going down the drain. I've had people answer their cell phones while taking my orders or carrying on conversations. Even being decent to customers have gone down the drain. So, if anything, I try to put on the veneer of decency as much as possible. Being a Starbucks employee is unique in the fact at once you are part of cultural phenomenon that is equally reviled and celebrated. I often hear how people complain how sickeningly positive we are or how uncommonly rude we are. I know that as time goes on we will never win this battle: we are people who from time to time get sick of it all just as much as you do. Part of it I'm noticing how we call out drinks. Harris has often called on the anti intellectualism on the part of Americans. For the majority of people ( the elderly get a reprieve, they're old) this is some hun attack them and feigning stupid to save themselves. It's a show, people, get the fuck over it. The one thing that confuses me the most is the loyalty people pay to Starbucks. I do not get it at all. Starbucks now owns Barnie's (cringe) and Seattle's Best (cringing, not so much). We're going to rip you off anyway, so what does it matter? I'm pretty sure we're even using the same ingredients. This confuses the shit out of me. I guess people are weird like that.
Anyhoo, back to Ramsay. On last week's KN, a woman complained about how bad her food was. The food was taken back to the kitchen and nothing was found to be wrong. Then, the R-man went to talk to the woman was still complaning. He read her the riot act and was persona non grata for the rest of the night. She actually stood in front of the restaurant's podium and was telling all the people in line how bad the food was. Now I don't know about the riot act thing because if people say it's bad, the best food critic in the world can say it's the best food they ever had, that customer doesn't care. So I don't know how much of it was called for. The podium bit, yes; the other stuff I don't quite know. However, it is ALWAYS rewarding to hear jerk offs getting reamed.
Why, you ask.
I think we can all attest to my huge distaste for customers. When I say that, I mean the customers who view a mistake as a huge ergregious assault on... whatever it could be possibly assaulting. There's a fine line between complaint and being an ass. I remember one day when at the plaza when this woman wanted a newspaper. Now, if you were to buy a paper from the plaza, there are several ways to do it. You either buy it from those boxes for 75 cents like a smart person would, or get it from us or the gift shop for 80 cents. One woman decided one day that it wasn't cool. Why would anyone berate a 18 year old girl on sales tax and pricing is beyond me. Also there only so much yelling a person can take. Sally and the customer ended up in a shouting match. The woman proclaims that we were charging her a higher sales tax than she is used to. This woman was completely out of line but what could we as the front line do?
Schlow hates this but I really can see both sides. I mean, I see service going down the drain. I've had people answer their cell phones while taking my orders or carrying on conversations. Even being decent to customers have gone down the drain. So, if anything, I try to put on the veneer of decency as much as possible. Being a Starbucks employee is unique in the fact at once you are part of cultural phenomenon that is equally reviled and celebrated. I often hear how people complain how sickeningly positive we are or how uncommonly rude we are. I know that as time goes on we will never win this battle: we are people who from time to time get sick of it all just as much as you do. Part of it I'm noticing how we call out drinks. Harris has often called on the anti intellectualism on the part of Americans. For the majority of people ( the elderly get a reprieve, they're old) this is some hun attack them and feigning stupid to save themselves. It's a show, people, get the fuck over it. The one thing that confuses me the most is the loyalty people pay to Starbucks. I do not get it at all. Starbucks now owns Barnie's (cringe) and Seattle's Best (cringing, not so much). We're going to rip you off anyway, so what does it matter? I'm pretty sure we're even using the same ingredients. This confuses the shit out of me. I guess people are weird like that.
Anyhoo, back to Ramsay. On last week's KN, a woman complained about how bad her food was. The food was taken back to the kitchen and nothing was found to be wrong. Then, the R-man went to talk to the woman was still complaning. He read her the riot act and was persona non grata for the rest of the night. She actually stood in front of the restaurant's podium and was telling all the people in line how bad the food was. Now I don't know about the riot act thing because if people say it's bad, the best food critic in the world can say it's the best food they ever had, that customer doesn't care. So I don't know how much of it was called for. The podium bit, yes; the other stuff I don't quite know. However, it is ALWAYS rewarding to hear jerk offs getting reamed.