NOTE: This story took place in mid-2021, shortly after all of the reopenings following COVID, and when the worker shortage was at its worst. I was reminded of it recently, so I decided to post it now. I had meant to post it at the time, but I forgot.

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There's a local fast food place by me, which is part of a medium-sized national chain. All of the locations are franchised, but some of the franchise owners own multiple units within the area. I was relatively happy with the place, and went semi-regularly. However, I stopped using the drive-thru because they always made you pull forward and wait for your food, and then if there was a mistake it was a tremendous pain in the ass to fix everything. So I decided just to walk in and order from the counter going forward.

They're open until 11. I came in at 9:45 to order takeout, which is obviously quite some time before closing.

I saw a young Hispanic guy -- we'll call him Juan -- at a register, with a headset on. He looked early 20s to me. I figured he was ringing up a drive-thru order, so I waited until he was done, and assumed he'd acknowledge me. Instead, when Juan was finished, he grabbed a broom and started sweeping the floor behind the register. He clearly saw me, so I was perplexed as to why he didn't move on to take my order.

I said out loud, "Hi, can I place an order please?"

Juan looked surprised, and muttered, "Uh... you want to place an order?"

I said yes, so he put down the broom and walked back to the register. I could tell he was already annoyed, as he wanted to finish this cleaning job, and felt that my order was stopping him!

I was ordering for multple people. One of the people wanted a sandwich with pepper jack subsituted for swiss. You can order online and there's no charge for this, nor was there ever a charge when I made this substitution in-strore. Anyway, Juan rang up 80 cents for the pepperjack substitution.

Now, of course, 80 cents isn't the end of the world, and I'm not going to make a federal case about it. However, I thought this had to be a genuine mistake, so I pointed out that he charged me for the pepperjack when it's just a subtitution.

"We always charge 80 cents for pepperjack", said Juan, in an increasingly irritated tone.

"But this is a substitution. It comes with swiss, right? So shouldn't that be an even exchange?"

"No, it's 80 cents, that's the way it is. Look, I've gotta get back to cleaning here. Are you going to finish the order, or not?", snapped Juan.

Before I could even respond, Juan stepped away from the register and started sweeping again!





I was shocked. Dude just abandoned my order in the middle to go back to cleaning, because he didn't like my question about the pepperjack.

I said, "Wait, what's going on here? Why are you cleaning? We're in the middle of my order!"

"Yeah and I asked if you were going to finish, so I decided to go back to cleaning," he responded.

"What kind of priorities are these? You think sweeping behind the register is a reason to abandon my order in the middle?"

Juan stepped back to the register and responded, "Well, you gonna finish the order, or what?"

At this point I started telling Juan that he's being disrespectful to the customer, and asked for the manager.

"There is no manager here", he responded. When I questioned that, he replied, "Well, there's a shift manager."

I asked for her.




The shift manager came over -- a Hispanic woman who looked around 35. She was making excuses for Juan, claiming that she was "listening to the whole thing" and "didn't hear him say he needed to get back to cleaning". When I asked why he would leave the register and abruptly start sweeping in the middle of my order, she said he was "multitasking". I then asked, "Do you think the store manager would ever agree that an employee should leave the register in the middle of an order to sweep behind the register?", she didn't have an answer, and reluctantly admitted, "No, probably not."

The shift manager said, "Well, I'll tell the manager about this tomorrow." I responded, "Actually, I'll tell the manager about this tomorrow." Juan heard this and I could tell he was unnerved by the whole thing.

I completed the order with her. I considered walking out, fearing they would fuck with the food, but I was able to watch them prepare it, so I figured I was safe there. I stood right in front of the counter, watching the food being made. I was also watching Juan out of the corner of my eye, as I kind of got the idea he was seething about our exchange, and I was wondering if he was going to take this further, or perhaps take a swing at me. I was keeping an eye on where he was without being obvious about it, getting ready for whatever was going to come next.

About 10 minutes later, shortly before the food was ready, Juan walked near me and said, "I'll see you tomorrow, sir."



Bizarre. I assumed he believed that I was going to come back to the restaurant tomorrow, when in fact my plan was to call (which I didn't state either way). I just ignored it and didn't respond to him.

They gave me my food, and I walked out. I wondered in the back of my head of Juan was going to follow me out, and either talk shit or try to fight me. I just got an uneasy feeling about the guy, and he gave me gang member vibes.

However, nobody followed me, and I almost reached my car, when I heard a familiar voice across the lot.

"I'll see you tomorrow, sir!"

It was Juan! The fucker actually followed me out, albeit about 30 seconds behind, and said this to me one more time from near the door.




Just like the previous time, I didn't respond and got in my car. I drove away. Juan did not step into the parking lot or attempt to approach me, but he was clearly following me out to make these ominous "I'll see you tomorrow" closing remarks.

CONTINUED NEXT POST