Free sandwich

[Parsnip Totin Jack ★]

I usually brown bag a lunch. It’s cheaper and healthier. Sometimes I don’t. Today was one of those days. I ordered some tacos and chips and salsa from a place I hadn’t tried before. Taco Bamba is a local chain with several locations. I ordered the house taco, carne asada, and a Korean Mexican chicken mash up. I get there to pick up my order and there are three people ahead of me. Annoyed, I look around for a sign that says something like “pickup orders here”, but there is no sign. The place is packed and loud. I get to the counter and say I ordered online. Oh, you have to go to that counter over there. Is there a sign that says that? No, sorry. Whatever. I go over there and there is another person to wait behind. The person packing orders is overwhelmed and does acknowledge me or the person in front of me. She had a to go order plus a few add-ons she ordered at the previous counter. Her stuff is ready. My turn. My order is right there; probably been there for half an hour. I get back to my desk and find the two tacos and chips and salsa that I ordered plus an oversized torta (sandwich) that I didn’t order. Somebody didn’t get their order. Oops. I have a large crispy chicken sandwich with lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, cheese, sauce, and jalapeño peppers for manana. 

[Razors Edge ★]

Just now, Parsnip Totin Jack said:

The place is packed and loud.

It is!  The Clocktower one?

I like their tacos.

[Parsnip Totin Jack ★]

1 minute ago, Razors Edge said:

It is!  The Clocktower one?

I like their tacos.

Yep. Their tacos are good but service sucks when they’re busy. I wouldn’t order the Korean chicken mash up. The chicken was half meat and half breading. By the time the breading was cooked the chicken was drier than the Sahara.

[MoseySusan]

6 minutes ago, Parsnip Totin Jack said:

Whatever

This. Standing in line, again and again, is a fact of life. There’s no ethical obligation to convenience you everywhere you go, and time spent in line is like a mini sabbath rest, a retreat from having to do anything else but wait. Also, highly efficient customer service is a red flag for an authoritarian management style that prefers employees to fraudulently interface with customers, over-riding their authentic intelligence for person-to-person interactions. For example, say “thank you” at a Chik-fil-A and the employee will respond according to a script with “It’s my pleasure.” But is it really? A pleasure? I doubt the veracity, especially when the person isn’t smiling. I’ll take waiting, keeping it real, and an occasional mistaken sandwich over fascist food service any day. 

[maddmaxx ★]

27 minutes ago, Parsnip Totin Jack said:

I usually brown bag a lunch. It’s cheaper and healthier. Sometimes I don’t. Today was one of those days. I ordered some tacos and chips and salsa from a place I hadn’t tried before. Taco Bamba is a local chain with several locations. I ordered the house taco, carne asada, and a Korean Mexican chicken mash up. I get there to pick up my order and there are three people ahead of me. Annoyed, I look around for a sign that says something like “pickup orders here”, but there is no sign. The place is packed and loud. I get to the counter and say I ordered online. Oh, you have to go to that counter over there. Is there a sign that says that? No, sorry. Whatever. I go over there and there is another person to wait behind. The person packing orders is overwhelmed and does acknowledge me or the person in front of me. She had a to go order plus a few add-ons she ordered at the previous counter. Her stuff is ready. My turn. My order is right there; probably been there for half an hour. I get back to my desk and find the two tacos and chips and salsa that I ordered plus an oversized torta (sandwich) that I didn’t order. Somebody didn’t get their order. Oops. I have a large crispy chicken sandwich with lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, cheese, sauce, and jalapeño peppers for manana. 

Karma isn't always a bitch

[MickinMD ★]

21 minutes ago, Parsnip Totin Jack said:

I usually brown bag a lunch. It’s cheaper and healthier. Sometimes I don’t. Today was one of those days. I ordered some tacos and chips and salsa from a place I hadn’t tried before. Taco Bamba is a local chain with several locations. I ordered the house taco, carne asada, and a Korean Mexican chicken mash up. I get there to pick up my order and there are three people ahead of me. Annoyed, I look around for a sign that says something like “pickup orders here”, but there is no sign. The place is packed and loud. I get to the counter and say I ordered online. Oh, you have to go to that counter over there. Is there a sign that says that? No, sorry. Whatever. I go over there and there is another person to wait behind. The person packing orders is overwhelmed and does acknowledge me or the person in front of me. She had a to go order plus a few add-ons she ordered at the previous counter. Her stuff is ready. My turn. My order is right there; probably been there for half an hour. I get back to my desk and find the two tacos and chips and salsa that I ordered plus an oversized torta (sandwich) that I didn’t order. Somebody didn’t get their order. Oops. I have a large crispy chicken sandwich with lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, cheese, sauce, and jalapeño peppers for manana. 

They say patience is a virtue.

Sometimes the people in the ma-pa sub shops can be much better to deal with than the bigger chains.

When my mother was early in her terminal struggle with lung cancer and still living alone at home and still babysitting her grandson during the day, a big snowstorm was developing.

After teaching high school, I went to the nearby family-run sub shop and said I needed a few subs to get my mom through the next couple of days in case she's isolated at home and added she had terminal lung cancer.  The woman waiting on me said her husband had died of cancer the previous year and she got plastic baggies to divide the subs into the onions, etc. in so the subs wouldn't get soggy until she ate them.

Of course, mom was amazed at and pleased with all the food.