Step Out of Your Box

Fast food marketing.

I'm not sure what the criteria is for a person to obtain such a position, but one would think that they would need to have the ability to think outside of the box; right?



In my opinion, the one working for Taco Bell may need to BOX up his stuff and move on (Isn't their most recent slogan to "Think Outside the Bun"a play on the common phrase 'Think Outside of the Box'?) In fact, I have an extra one - box, that is - that he can borrow.

Here it is, right here...

The one that they put my lunch in today.

Yep, that's right. They gave me this GREAT BIG BOX for two little soft taco's and a chicken quesadillia.

Now, I realize that this may seem like a lot of food to some; but seriously, was it deserving of an entire BOX??

Every other time I've ever gone to Taco Bell, they've been able to fit my entire family's order into one of their little plastic bags; so why, today, did they put three itsy bitsy items in a BOX?

I might feel differnly if the BOX they gave me were similar to the ones McDonald's uses for their Happy Meals; but nooooooo, they gave me a GREAT BIG OPEN BOX.

So, not only did I look like a great big oinker, carrying in a huge BOX of food; but, the wind caused the napkins to start flying through the parking lot, so I was the great big, littering oinker, carrying in a huge BOX of food.

Thanks Taco Bell! That's just the image I was going for.

Do they ever get it right?

I wonder how studies get started?

Do you think anyone has ever done a study to determine how many times fast food restaurants actually get it right?

If the amount of times they've gotten my order wrong over the years is any indication, I would be willing to bet that they only get it right less than 50% of the time.

How many times have you gone to the drive-thru, ordered your food and driven all the way back home only to discover that they screwed up your order?

The four year old LOVES 'Donalds' (after all, how many four year old's do you know who don't love 'Donald's?)

She asks for it all the time.

Last night we were so late returning home that I caved and we drove through Mc Donalds to grab a bite on our way home.

As you may recall, I HATE onions - right?

[BLECH!]

So of course, I ALWAYS order my burgers minus the onions and I can not even begin to tell you how many times they get this wrong. I mean seriously, how hard is it to leave off the onions??

Used to be, I would order my burgers with no pickles and no onions; but, as the years went on, I began to think that this might be too complicated for them to remember. At which point, I decided that I could pick the pickles off; so I narrowed it down to only one special request - thinking this would increase their odds of accuracy.

This line of thinking worked for a while but the staff soon evolved into a breed of apparent lesser intelligence and before I knew it, I was right back where I started - with them getting it wrong more often than not...

Last night was no exception to this rule. After waiting in line for several minutes too long for the man two cars in front of us to get his order, you would think that they had enough time to cook special orders for every person in line. But when we arrived home and sat down to eat, we soon discovered that this was not the case. The onion fairy had thrown up on every.single.burger in our bag.

Not willing to drive all the way back to this particular location, we grabbed a butter knife out of the drawer and began the tedious task of removing all of those teeny-tiny onions.

When she unwrapped her second sandwich, the eleven year old suddenly exclaimed, "Heeeeey! They jacked my burger up!"

Laughing at her phrasology, I said "Yes, I know. They jacked all of our burgers up. What are you talking about?"

At which point, she shows me this....

Which gives a whole new meaning to the famous, eighties catch-phrase, "Where's The Beef?"