"HOW SHALL WE THEN LIVE?" Francis Schaeffer

Friday, May 18, 2012

Obsessed with efficiency

I hate for people to have to wait for me to finish; be it paying at the check out counter, ordering my Egg McMuffin at the drive thru or getting gas at the pump.

May I also say, I hate waiting for inefficient people.

For instance:  when you're going thru the check-out line at the grocery store, sooner or later you'll have to settle the bill.  It seems to me that with just a modicum of foresight you could be ready with your credit card, or cash, or checkbook as the cashier finishes ringing up your items.  So, when I start getting rung up, I immediately step to the swiping device for the credit card and complete the swipe while the cashier is still ringing up the items.  I'm pretty much set to go before the cashier finishes.  And then there are the others who sometimes appear shocked that the last stage of the grocery buying experience is for them to pay.  All of a sudden they're checking their pant, looking thru their purse or fumbling with their wallet as the whole process comes to a dead halt.  Now is it just me or do you also get a little irritated when people seem ill-prepared to follow thru with their responsibilities.  It's not like they haven't done this before.   OK, I admit I'm a little over-the-top with the efficiency thing but puhleese people, can some of you just add a little anticipation to your routine.  It will make a number of us much happier.

I go to work early and some mornings I order an Egg McMuffin from the local Mickey Dees.  An Egg McMuffin is relatively healthy choice if your going to have a fast food breakfast.  At 5:30 a.m., you'd think there wouldn't be much traffic going thru McDonald's and you'd be right.  But by 5:30, any servers have long since lost the ability to focus and move efficiently and then people are still having trouble deciding what to order from the clown face.  More than once I've been the second car in line and waited 10 minutes for my Egg McMuffin.
If there are 3 cars in front of me, I just drive off; I don't even bother to order.  It's not going to be efficient.

My "funniest" McDonald's fast food incident happened about 3 months ago.  There were these two young adults of a more relaxed ethnicity ahead of me in a 25 year old Ford and they are jawing back and forth with the clown face trying to make up their minds.  Finally, their order is in, they pull around the corner up to the window.  I've ordered my E.M. and wait my turn.  Well the cashier is at the window, they're all talking, the two young men have obviously made an order change and I'm thinking this could be awhile.  Suddenly, around the corner a car screechs into a parking space, a youngish lady hops out and runs over to the order window yelling her car is on fire.  Well I see steam, not necessarily  smoke and certainly no flames.  The two young guys in front of me promptly turn of their engine,  jump out of their car  and run over to the other car to participate in the fun and festivities.   I'm yelling to myself, "NOOOoooo.  Move your CAR!"  Well, that wasn't happening, I actually just gave up and drove off leaving behind an Egg McMuffin.  I really hate to do that but I had no confidence at all that I could pay for and receive my order before the inevitable fire engine arrived 15 minutes later.    AWKWARD.




3 comments:

Unknown said...
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RashmiMaharjan said...
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Joy Johnson said...

Sounds like you're having a bad day! :) LOl! I think there are tons of inefficient people out there as well. However, mine tend to come in the form of people who don't study for a major exam then complain for an hour after they get their epic, "F," that they didn't have enough time to study. Hello! If you have time to party you have time to study! Anyhoo, loved your post, just thought I'd comment. Hope you're having a good day.
Respectfully,
Joy Johnson
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/JoyJohnson