You make minimum wage what do you care?

Today I went to Dunkin Donuts to grab me an iced latte.  I’ve been a long-time recovering Starbucks frappucino addict.  I’ve been getting some coupons from my wife for Dunkin Donuts so I thought I’d give them a try this morning. 

I ordered a 16oz mocha iced latte.  The coupon states 16oz mocha iced latte for $1.99.  The kid asks me what I want, and I tell him I want a 16oz mocha iced latte.  Silly of me to think someone working at Dunkin Donuts would know what a 16oz cup looked like.  It’s not like they have actual cups taped on the wall or the size printed on the cup right?  So he gives me my drink.

Another underpaid employee looked at my coupon and says to me “your coupon says 16oz, this isn’t 16oz, this is 24oz”.  Referring to the fact that her co-worker gave me a 24oz instead of a 16oz.

So I said:  “O.K.  But I asked for a 16oz”. 

She takes my 24oz and dumps it down the sink!  Then she proceeds to make me another (keep in mind there are at least 6 people behind me).  She gives the kid who made my drink an evil look and says in the most condescending tone:

“That’s not a 16oz that’s a 24oz, a 16oz is SMALL and a 24oz is medium”.

Right, I’m sure he had the same Harvard education she had right?  The whole time I’m thinking, wow this bitch is worried about 16 cents worth of extra latte mix when she just threw a $2.00+ drink down the sink and threw the cup in the trash as well?  Wow.  No wonder she’s working at Dunkin Donuts, clearly she doesn’t posses the aptitude to comprehend economics or even simple math for that matter. 

I never got upset one time.  I just allowed her to hold up her entire line to dump out my drink and make me another (smaller) drink. 

It was so ridiculous that when I was walking to my car, the guy directly behind me said: “I can’t believe she would rather waste the drink than just give it to you”.  I agreed and the gentleman and I made a few derogatory statements about the twit, laughed and went our separate ways.

But it got me thinking.  One big pet peeve I have is fast food workers and their penny pinching attitude.  I’ve often been asked would I like any sauce with my meal.  Being the picky but simple eater I am.  I tend to say “just plenty of ketchup”.  Only to be presented with two packets of ketchup.  So I say I’m going to need more and they present me with another two packets.  This goes on until I’m satisfied with the number of ketchup packets I have to finish my fucking meal to my liking.  Is that so wrong?

My point is, you make minimum wage at McDonalds, Dunkin Donuts, etc.  OK maaaaybe you make 30 cents over minimum wage (congrats on that promotion).  But why do you give a shit about giving a customer extra ketchup?  I’m not trying to have a surplus of McDonalds ketchup to supply my home or anything.  I just want to enjoy my food the way I want!  Why do you give a shit about just saying “oops our mistake, just go ahead and keep that large iced latte”.  Is McDonalds going to give you a super-sized-Ronald-McDonald-MVP-awesome-fucking-employee-of-the-year-McBonus-check?  Huh you fuckin’ cunt?  You’d rather hold up your drive-thru while we negotiate 6 packets of ketchup like we’re at some sort of flea market in Dubai?  It’s bad enough I wasted 5 hours taking an online class in the drive-thru just to understand what fucking language you were speaking whilst trying to communicate with you through a blown speaker in the drive-thru that acted as more of a CB radio then a fucking legitimate order-taking machine.  And yet somehow you still managed to fuck my order up, then accuse me of being the one who ordered the wrong thing while pointing to your 4 packet maximum ketchup policy. 

When I have people refuse me what I want, I tell them to go-ahead and refund me my money.  I’ll be damned if I’m going to pay 25 cents extra for some additional ketchup because you implemented some fly-by-night policy that I’m sure McCorporate wouldn’t approve of.  So hey, you don’t want to give me ketchup, give me a refund and cancel my order.

You know how fucked up that ends up being.  Now it’s 3 people none of which can speak English trying to explain the issue to each other, the drive-thru line is growing, they ask you to pull forward, you refuse, now they have to grab the manager because he’s the only one with a key to open the register, he’s pissed because the 3 minute average drive-thru time is now fucked.  And eventually they just give into your more ketchup demands.  All that for a few extra packets of ketchup. 

But why must it be like this?  Why can’t you just make the customer happy and make logical decisions.  While we went back-and-forth on ketchup, 2 people drove around and abandoned the McDonald’s drive-thru for the Wendy’s across the street because you increased their wait time by trying to save 2 packets of ketchup at a cost of 10 cents.  And that’s assuming one packet costs McDonalds 5 cents (which I doubt). 

Dunkin Donuts threw a medium drink down the sink and a good cup in the trash because my coupon was for a 16oz small not a 24oz medium iced latte which they erroneously gave me.  It never occurred to her that she wasted more money and product than she saved the company.  I guess she taught me a lesson huh?  How dare I come in there with my little cut-out coupon thinking I was going to get an extra 8oz on the house.  Not with trusty Detective Dunkin Dipshit on duty work the morning shift.  I’m sure Dunkin will be proud, she can hang that employee of the month plaque in the studio apartment she shares with 42 other immigrants.  One day she might even make enough to bring her family to America and share her plaque with them as well.

At the end of the day I can only assume this is why these jackasses are working at McDonalds instead of owning a franchise.  This is why they make minimum wage.  They’re probably just happy to get that check and sneak home a 10 piece from time to time. 

Palin steps down 18 months early. Alaskans everywhere rejoice.

Well if they’re not rejoicing they should be.  After a failed run at a bid for VP (like that was going to happen) and one embarrassing speech after another, Alaskans everywhere should be happy that they can now refocus their attention on the crackdown of meth labs and “Salmon slaying”.

Though no one is sure why Palin has decided to end her term early, there has been much buzz and speculation.  Everything from she can’t handle the pressure, ridicule, and ethics complaints, to the possibility that she may run for President in 2012.  Palin explains her decision as: "A good point guard, here's what she does. She drives through a full-court press, protecting the ball, keeping her head up because she needs to keep her eye on the basket, and she knows exactly when to pass the ball so the team can win. That's what I'm doing. I'm passing the ball. I know when it's time to pass the ball for victory."  Yes I guess that means people in Alaska actually watch more than just Nascar and bass fishing.

The state of Alaska has spent nearly $300,000 investigating ethics complaints and according to Palin her and her husband have spent $500,000.  She’s been the subject of 15 ethic probes, 13 of which have been resolved by the state Personnel Board with no findings of wrongdoing.  The other two are pending.  One of the agreements required Palin to reimburse the state for $8,100 for costs associated with trips she had taken with her children.  Her approval rating is low to mid-50% range, much lower than her 88%+ approval rating in Alaska before her failed attempt at a VP spot.

If Palin has dreams of running for President in 2012, I think she’s going to be in for a rude awakening.  I suspect she’s pissed off plenty of republicans and democrats alike.  But the issue is she could be hurting republicans more than helping with her loose lips double-wide backwoods trailer mentality.  Not an image I think the GOP is trying to portray though when you have people like Rusty DePass and Sarah Palin it’s hard to shake that image.  Besides, I think Obama was a strong candidate but I also believe Palin probably caused the republicans to lose a lot of votes (thank you Palin).  So let’s hope she doesn’t embarrass herself, her family, or Alaska any further.  Besides, a governor who couldn’t even handle finishing out the rest of her term now decides to run for President?  What kind of commitment does that show?

A local radio station suggested that republicans in her inner-circle were possibly  intentionally giving her bad information, planting bad seeds in an attempt to further make her look like the idiot that she is.  I personally think that she can’t handle the ridicule and embarrassment.  Part of the problem with dishing shit is you have to be able to take it.  I think Palin had and still has a lot to say and it’s come back to bite her in the ass.  She’s the butt of a lot of jokes, and her every action is under heavy scrutiny.  Newsflash Palin, in case you didn’t know, being in the public eye means you will always be under heavy scrutiny.  Especially when you don’t know when to shut your mouth.  Lucky for her I also think if she crawled into a hole and we never heard from her again she wouldn’t really be missed and people just might stop filing ethics claims and talking about her and her family.  In fact she could be forgotten in less than a week.