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The Struggle Is Real (Gwen Moritz Editor’s Note)

4 min read

Rob and I took a long weekend last month to visit our son, so I naturally ended up working late to make up for the lost time. I left the office in downtown Little Rock about 10:30 p.m. on a Wednesday night, and I was famished. As I headed across the Interstate 30 bridge, I noticed that the golden arches were still glowing at the McDonald’s on Broadway in downtown North Little Rock, so I decided to pick up something quick and cheap.

I rarely go to McDonald’s, so I had to study the menu board before I ordered four chicken strips. That seemed like something that would be easy to eat in the car. Sauce? No thanks. Too messy. My total was $4 and change.

I drove to the first window to pay, where I was informed that they were out of chicken strips and weren’t going to cook any more so late at night. But I was still hungry. With no menu to look at, I said, “OK, just give me a Big Mac.”

“That will be $4.94,” the young woman said.

“Really? A Big Mac is almost $5? Didn’t the sign say I could get two Big Macs for $5?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“OK, then I want two Big Macs. I’ll take one home to my husband.”

She rang that up, I handed her a $10 bill and she handed me back two nickels and two pennies.

“This change isn’t right,” I said. “I gave you a 10.”

“You ordered another Big Mac.”

“Yes,” I agreed, “but that should be $5 plus tax.”

“You ordered the second one after I rang up the first one.”

“Well, I changed my order to two Big Macs. For $5, remember?”

She stared at me.

“Because it seemed ridiculous to pay almost $5 for one when I could get two for just a little more. Remember? I certainly didn’t want to pay $10 for two.”

“But I already rang up the first one,” she said.

We went through this a couple more times before she became so frustrated that she brought a manager over. The manager promptly refunded the second $4.94, so I guess I got the second Big Mac free.

Ultimately, I had my first Big Mac in a long time, and it was messy. The one I took home was the first my husband could remember eating in his life. And I concluded that the struggle to find employees with critical thinking skills is real.


I wrote about my McDonald’s experience on Facebook, and the responses confirmed that my experience was neither particularly unusual nor particularly bad.

One friend told of paying for a soda cup and filling it with water because the counter clerk at a Taco Bell couldn’t figure out her request for water.

A Kroger clerk told another friend that it was rude of him to lay out exact change on the counter rather than put it in her hand. That doesn’t seem rude to me, but telling a paying customer that he is rude sure does.

Another friend told of putting merchandise back and walking out of a children’s clothing store after the customer in front of her was shortchanged by $10. My friend confirmed that the elderly woman had given the cashier $20.34 for a $10.34 purchase — she had even used it as a practical math lesson for her daughter while they waited in line — but the clerk and manager insisted that the woman come back at closing when the registers would be counted.

The inability of clerks to properly count back change in the old-fashioned way is a common frustration that I don’t happen to share, but over-dependence on cash registers to do all the thinking is another thing. One friend told of handing over $21.28 for a $11.28 lunch in the Atlanta airport. “He froze and kept pushing the $1 back and trying to make change from the $20,” my friend said.

After reading my story and the responses, Jack Shock, intrepid public relations professor at Harding University, went straight for the bottom line:

“My new obsession is studying and thinking about how the fortunes of a company are solidly in the hands of a teenaged minimum wage worker who can torpedo a company with an offhand word or action. And that’s why everyone should be a communication major.”

Email Gwen Moritz, editor of Arkansas Business, at GMoritz@ABPG.com and follow her on Twitter at @gwenmoritz.
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