Adventures in Fast Food and the Underbelly of Society

Last night, I witnessed something both horrifying, and strangely humorous. It was like some sort of wreck – it was terrible, but I just couldn't look away. I was at a late night Taco Bell run with some friends, and during this time, what began as simple curiosity quickly developed into a full blown social observation. 

From where I was sitting with my friends, I could see around the counter and registers, and directly into a realm no human should ever have to see – the main part of a Taco Bell kitchen. On the left was a little cubby for the drive through window, behind it some horizontal cooking stations. On the right, separated by a small walkway were some prep counters and a fridge/freezer lining the wall, complete with sour cream guns. Above these counters were some shelves holding stacks of tray liners, condiments, and boxes.

Apparently, these were some cumbersome, and not-very-well liked clamshell boxes.

You see, at one point after we had gotten our food and were maybe half done with our meal, some orange and white clamshell containers (maybe the Big Box containers?) fell onto the floor. The worker currently assembling an order ignored this and continued making the food. This is the point I decided to watch and see how this predicament would play out, since the stacks had fallen face down, but were still orderly and clean except for the bottom two or so. I mainly wanted to see if they would throw the bottom ones away, or if they would try to just keep them all.

Now, I will note, they were not very busy at all, but it was a bit late and what little motivation the workers may have originally had was likely dwindling. So I could understand that the worker might not pick them up immediately. However, the situation that developed was increasingly strange, and a bit concerning. I truly believe that during my stay I witnessed the last hint of a young man's soul slip way into the void, to be replaced with a minimum wage machine powered only on insanity and canned guacamole.

He initially ignored the boxes, but I assumed he (or at least someone) would pick them up pretty soon. At least...relatively quickly? Right?

Wrong.

After the first drive through order was complete and on their way, a couple more cars came through and made a slight “rush”. 

Of course, I say “rush”, but if the crew had been moving with anything more than the breathtaking swiftness of a dying sloth paired with the hearty disinterest of a comatose man watching the grass grow, it likely wouldn't have been so overwhelming for them. Still, during this time, instead of performing the simple task of picking up the 2 small stacks and just placing them back up on the shelf, they all opted to step over or walk around the boxes instead. Time and time again a worker would go out of their way to walk around the boxes on the floor, then another worker would step over them, and go around them again. There would be a break in the incoming orders and the boxes would be ignored. This intriguing and systematically inefficient ballet continued for a while, maybe 10 minutes or so, while I just watched. I was quite curious by this point, and was honestly rather amused at their willingness to completely change their route rather than pick them back up.

Eventually, there was a glimmer of hope. They had all been standing around for a while, so finally one of the workers approached the stacks. However, instead of picking up these two, orderly, easy to carry stacks of boxes, – again I stress, he only had to put them on the shelf DIRECTLY OVER HIS HEAD – he begins kicking them. I was confused at first, until I realized what he was doing – he began pushing as many of the boxes as he could underneath all of the counters. By this point, all the remaining containers were out of their stacks and in a mangled heap on the ground, half shoved under some machinery. After a minute, someone opened the bottom part of some sort of a top and bottom fridge/freezer combo, and I saw that the boxes were all shoved against/under the fridge. So when the employee opened it the containers just kind of slid around with it and were halfway in the fridge and just entirely in the way now. The worker, somehow, did not seem to notice nor did they care.

Later on, after a lengthy period of everyone just completely ignoring the mangled heap of containers on the floor (I was beginning to wonder if they all had developed some sort of group blindness), I witness something truly incredible.

3 people in a row walked right passed them, during a time of no customers, and doing absolutely nothing. As usual, the first person passed by, nothing. The second person passed by, nada. The third person – a moment of brief hesitation! – and then nothing.

Then! It finally happened! A guy had been hanging out in the drive through texting or something, when he finally looks up. He has spotted the boxes. He is approaching the boxes! After 45 minutes he's finally going to do something with them! He's walking, he's walking, he's picking them -- well, he's picking two of them up. Two, why just two? Wait, where is he taking those boxes? Those boxes that have been kicked and scooted around on the floor for over half an hour. Oh no. Ohhhh no, is he trying to SERVE FOOD IN THOSE? At this moment, I am completely just in shock, when, he goes out of my line of view.

I still don't know if he served them, I prefer for my own sanity to assume that he didn't.

This is because soon after, when the rest of the employees returned from whatever shady thing they were doing in the back room, I see drive through guy throw a box across the kitchen at another worker. A couple minutes later I see a box that appears to have been scribbled on, so I really hope that's what he used the boxes for. A little later, I also saw a box go flying across the walkway to and sliding into the space between a counter and the floor like the winning shot in a game of air hockey.

After about an hour of eating, chatting, and watching, we finally decided to leave.

The boxes were still on the floor.