Working in food sucks in general. I would know I’ve been doing it for almost 14 years now. You drive to the store. You enter the store. You order your food. If there are any complications with your order you’re told right then and there.
But I’ll never forget the day my job introduced mobile ordering. It immediately made everything worse in almost every way. Customers ordering shit we ran out of, shit we no longer offer, setting the pickup time 5 minutes after placing the order then getting mad when it’s not done on time. All this while we can’t communicate with the customer at all until they arrive to find the order incomplete because we couldn’t contact them to figure out what they wanted to do.
Then door dash became a thing and all those exact problems became even worse. It slows down the entire store to the point of disrupting the customers who came in to order.
Why the fuck would you go through a third party system to obtain food when you can just go get the fucking food
Basically if you use mobile ordering or a delivery service you’re a big part of why food service has done nothing but get harder and more frustrating. And I do hold it against you.
Edit: I don’t think lemmy understands how unpopularopinion is supposed to work…
Edit 2: Considering how many people clearly disagree with me and seeing how few upvotes this post has gotten, lemmy clearly has no idea how unpopularopinion works.
Glad to know the Reddit custom of ignoring that still lives on.
15% of the world self-identifies as having a disability. The most common category of disability is mobility-related. E.g “going to the and entering the store” may not be as easy as it is for you, or even impossible. Even if you don’t have a mobility problem and can do that just fine, for other people “ordering and dealing with complications” is a lot harder if you have trouble hearing, or have facial paralysis and can’t speak, or even if you just don’t speak the local language fluently. There are a million reasons that might make the simple task of getting food impossible for a person, and there’s way more people out there who experience things like this than you might guess.
Maybe you simply never saw these people in person previously, because they weren’t able to order from you at all. Maybe you just assumed your customers didn’t have a disability because they didn’t say so. You have no idea how many people ordering from you have disabilities. You can’t know. Assume it’s one out of every 4 people you meet if you live somewhere poorer, because that’s realistic.
When mobile ordering went online, it meant that so many more people were able to choose what to eat, which meant more business for restaurants, which meant restaurants needed to staff their restaurant sufficiently, or upgrade tools. They don’t just get to enjoy the extra profits for nothing.
And yet your frustration is directed at the people who are just trying to eat. I would like to offer you a reframing of this situation and suggest that your problem is not with customers at all.
Customers ordering shit we ran out of
People can’t be expected to know a restaurant’s stock inventory. The responsibility is on the business to communicate that to the customers. Some restaurant’s make the cashiers say it in person to every single customer. Some restaurants erase them from displayed menus in the store. These days, restaurants can just tick the box “unavailable” in an app to let all future and present customers know immediately. It can even be scheduled, or automatically respond to events like “removing the last pack of an ingredient from the fridge”. These options all exist already, your employers need to figure out how to use them properly, or the software they use needs to add these features, or they can just not accept online orders when the restaurant is too busy. Your beef is with management or the order service companies they use.
shit we no longer offer
Same deal, but an even worse look for your management for not ensuring they tell their delivery services that something is permanently gone. Your beef is with management or the services they use.
setting the pickup time 5 minutes after placing the order then getting mad when it’s not done on time.
Still a software and management problem. They need to be able to set minimum waiting times, and management needs to update them if they know the restaurant is too busy. Your beef is with management or the services they use.
All this while we can’t communicate with the customer at all until they arrive to find the order incomplete because we couldn’t contact them to figure out what they wanted to do.
I have ordered online and later received an automated notification when the restaurant has had to extend waiting times unexpectedly.
I have also ordered online and then had a restaurant send an automated notification that a specific item went out of stock after I ordered and asked me to choose an alternative item or just leave it off the order. It also automatically recalculated my payment when I decided to leave it off. No in-person interaction required.
These features all already exist. It’s up to the managers of the restaurant to use them and to take the burden off the people they manage. It’s up to the owner to only use companies which provide useful tools that don’t harm their employees and customers. It’s up to the software companies to put features in which don’t harm customers and restaurants.
Your beef is with management or the services they use. You are misdirecting your frustration at the only people in the situation with the most reasonable time-sensitive important problem out of everyone involved. None of the problems you listed are the customer’s fault, they have no idea how your workplace runs or what is normal for them.
Start a union instead of blaming people for ordering food and you might not have to experience years more of the same.
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Temporary self-inflicted disabilities are still disabilities!
I honestly think it probably has though. People will still make bad risky decisions when drunk, but if it’s just as easy not to use that option, there has to be beneficial results. It would make an interesting study, for sure.
If “Temporary self-inflicted disabilities” qualify as disabilities, then I think that percentage would be a lot higher 😂
The apps don’t actually help disabled people, they just exploit and rip them off.
Of course people with disabilities are getting exploited and ripped off, so is everyone in a system where profit is the motive.
But at least I can eat my favourite foods now while it happens. Not many other forms of exploitation provide me with any value at all. And the purpose-built disability service providers where I am are often some of the most exploitative, because they know their clients are vulnerable. Uber just thinks I’m lazy.
How is it exploitation to offer a service to someone for money?
I like your unpopular opinion, here is my take on it:
Don’t fucking offer mobile ordering of it’s such an inconvenience. It’s not like you’re forced to offer it.
Unless he owns the company in not sure he has a choice.
Except we are. The people in the store have no control on what corporate tells us to do.
Unless you own the store you have no say on whatever bs they decided to dump on us. Unless you decide to just quit but you’ll just end up at a different store with the exact same mobile/delivery bullshit
Please help me understand. What’s in your opinion the reason why a competitive disadvantage would be this widespread?
Because the companies are still making money off it because even though it’s a complete shit show customers still use it.
It boils down to the customers which is why this was directed at them. If you use these services you’re the sole reason they still exist.
This sounds like your employer set up the online ordering poorly. Most places have the food set as available minimum 15 minutes after you order. They should remove items that are out of stock from the mobile site.
Usually the problem I see is that the order volume is higher than the kitchen staff can support and their management doesn’t want to turn it off or hire more people.
These things are an absolute godsend for the disabled.
If those were the majority of the orders I wouldn’t mind at all.
How do you know they aren’t?
He works in the store and can see who is coming in to pick up the orders?
I have huge news for you about invisible and less visible disabilities.
Most disabilities are not visible.
You wouldn’t know what percentage of orders are placed by disabled people. Relatively few disabilities are visibly obvious.
Sounds like most of the problems you are complaining about are the structure of the system. Ordering things you don’t have/offer or for a ridiculously fast delivery time shouldn’t even be options.
I agree apps like door dash make all the problems of delivery worse, but delivery in of itself is a good thing. Restaurants and individual locations should just have all the power, not some weird intermediary that takes a huge cut.
Meanwhile, I’ve called places to ask to order food only to be told that I have to order online!
While I appreciated being able to order basically everything as takeout during the pandemic, some places took it too far.
I’ve been ordering delivery since the '70s.
You’ve been ordering fast food delivery since the 70’s? You’ve been having restaurants deliver your food for that long?
A few places, like New York City have had delivery from a lot of Resturants for a long time, basically since phones went in.
That’s fair. I live in Ohio and only a select few stores offered delivery outside of pizza. Other than those if you wanted it you had to go get it yourself or do without.
Yes. It’s not like it’s a new thing.
Ah yes I remember getting McDonald’s delivered to my door as a boy. Or the local Mexican restaurant offering delivery for decades. /s
It is a new thing by far. Fast food companies and restaurants barely ever offered delivery until the past decade. And they sure as fuck didn’t have mobile ordering.
Alright, I’m happy for you. We, my family, would regularly order Chinese delivery when I was a kid. And that was many decades ago. It may be new to you, but it’s most definitely not a new thing as hard as that might be to believe. Hell, my parents lived in Japan before I was born and had regular delivery there back in the '60s. I’m sorry you’re upset at reality, but I’m not sure what else to say. I mean, yeah, they didn’t have mobile ordering, but we did have phones back then.
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Great use of this thread, I disagree with your opinion but love hearing your viewpoint. I agree there a problem with the whole set up and I don’t know the solution. But I like that i have way more options than 10/15 years ago when i could only pick from chippy, Chinese, curry or pizza for a lazy dinner. (Uk).
I remember the first time I really noticed online ordering. I had gone to Starbucks to get a couple coffees. While waiting in line, and then waiting for my order people continued to pour in and pick up drinks. There were drinks littered all over the pickup counter with no one there to get them. They were making these drinks that would sit there, ahead of the people waiting in the shop. I think that was the last time I ever went into a Starbucks like 7 years ago.
There’s serious problems with the way online ordering/delivery services get implemented. Customers in the building should never lose priority to someone sitting on the couch at home.
Hey my fellow lemming
Here’s my take on your edits: they’re pathetic.
Unpopular and I agree it is even more that pathetic. This reality has created a world of delivery slaves and as you said, the product is poor. I never ordered anything from these shitty realities .
I’ve leaned that anyone posting shame to people who don’t share their unpopular opinion are excellent people to block.
Door Dash I will never. Nor will I Uber Eats. I don’t even order by phone at places with door dash because I’m afraid they take a cut of that too. Small places I go in, order, wait, tip, the whole thing.
But corporate apps like Panera? Yes. It doesn’t let you order stuff that’s not in inventory (and seems to have a cushion built in for in person orders.) Turns you down entirely if the shop is too busy for online orders. Easier to customize stuff, the kitchen can SEE what I ordered so I am more likely to get what I ordered.
If you are just saying it makes in person dining worse, then yes. I agree. But it’s at least partly because the restaurant is doing more business, which isn’t all bad.
Food ordering/delivery services are a double edge swords. Its convient but it “keeps you in your pod”.
I am not bothered by these services as long I can still go to the restaurant itself and get the food in person.
Does it not bother you that your experience in the store is made worse because these same companies demand we take care of mobile/delivery orders before helping customers inside?
It bothers me a bit, but you’re blaming the wrong person here. The problem isn’t the person using a valid service. The problem is the capitalist machine treating people like shit. The stores having awful inventory management software or over burdening employees is not the customers fault.
I talk often with the pick up and go crew. They like their job and seem to be treated reasonably well given the late-stage capitalism we’re all living in. If I found out they were miserable I wouldn’t order anymore. I do find out about flaws in the system and do what I can to remedy that on my end.
I talk often with the pick up and go crew. They like their job and seem to be treated reasonably well
I can almost guarantee you they’re lying.
I have several regulars that always praise me for always being polite and helpful and nice. What they don’t know is that if I didn’t act that way I’d be reprimanded or fired for “not having a good attitude at work”
You’re not wrong that it’s the companies fault I’m understaffed but it is definitely the customers fault that I’m overworked.
Like if you walk into a super busy restaurant that’s clearly understaffed, why would you stay? Why would you not go somewhere else? It would be faster for you and make the employees day that much easier.
But people would rather stand in line for half an hour which just makes everything worse for everyone.
Sounds like you need a different job, you work in a awful environment that you recognize is a problem so why do you stay? I’m in the industry and if it’s such a problem I would leave, it’s not like kitchen jobs aren’t always available
THAT’s the lead on this story - if it were implemented differently it could be much better, expanding people’s choices without taking away existing ones. It’s like those amusement parks where if you pay extra on top of the already exorbitant rates to begin with, you can cut in front of the line, so rich people can make “the poors” stand there, literally at the very front of the line, for hours on end as those who pay extra cut in front of them. Thus even if the price of a regular ticket were to remain the same, what you get in return takes a nosedive in quality, essentially taking something away from you, compared to the way it was before. (Okay so I never go to such parks, I am far too cheap for that, that’s mostly just how I imagine it would be:-)
I’ve seen restaurants that refuse to pay their workers (cough Chipotle cough) get short staffed and literally shut down their in-person service, so if you show up at the door, the only option was to pay the extra fee for the “convenience” of the pickup option. Same food, same door you physically walk through, a register literally one foot away from the other one… but you need to pay more for the privilege.
It’s all about the money.
