So I’m teaching at our Colorado Springs location last week and after a lot of driving week, from Denver to the Springs back and forth 5 days straight, I am finalizing the week and going to treat myself to a little snack before I hit the road…
I pull through Macky-D’s as I so often do and order a Diet Coke (only because they don’t have Diet Pepsi) and a McDouble, which is the big brother to the Goodtimes Bambino but not as big a big brother as Big Mac.
I pull through and pay and then forgot that I always order a water also, it has saved me many times when I’m on the road and thirst or a coughing fit overtakes me after talking for 6 1/2 hours straight…
I pull to the illustrious “2nd” window and say something along the lines of: “I forgot, can I also get an ice water?”
Blank stare from the woman a little older than me. I thought… oh, I didn’t say “may I”…
So I didn’t think she understood that I didn’t want the bottled water that they charge $1.00 for so I repeated myself.
She retorts with: “I can’t.”
I’m thinking, she doesn’t understand that I want an ice water in a paper cup with a lid and a straw and she doesn’t have to make change.
So I start to tell her again and she interrupts me: “It’s computerized.”
What’s computerized? The water?
She goes on to explain that the drinks at this particular Colorado Springs McDonald’s on Academy and I-25 (I put that in for the benefit of anyone that drives down there so they won’t make the same terrible mistake I made)are computerized and come down a conveyor belt that automatically fills the cups to just the right brim level and that unless I ordered it at Ronald McDonald’s mouth when I pulled up then the ice water is not in line and it would throw everything out of order if she tried to fill a paper cup with water!?!?!?!?!?!!?!?!
I looked passed her at a sink sitting there with a faucet!
It’s not like I was asking for Perrier Water or something, all I want is a drink!
I said: “You’re kidding me, right?”
She said: “No.” With apparently no extra need for explanation.
Where’s Sam Walton when we need him? “The customer is always right…”
So now the workers can’t count back change without looking at the computer display and they don’t even have to lift those heavey 12 oz cups and push against that little silver spoon thingy to refresh us with beverage? A computerized conveyor does it for them. And God-forbid that we would interrupt the Computer and throw it off line!
What’s next?
Computerized bathrooms with locks that scan to see if our bladder is really full or we are just faking it and won’t unlock the door for us until the proper ouncage is registered.
“You can’t go yet, you’re not full!”
This is Dave Rhoades reporting…