Wednesday 25 January 2012

The Scandal of Five Pence Sauces

I am currently employed at McDonald's. It is a franchised restaurant, and one of the store policies is to charge 5p for a pot of sauce, including ketchup. This is because they have to buy it in from the corporation, and people get greedy with free stuff. You get one free with a chicken nuggets meal, that's about it.

Personally, I wish the sauces were free. Free the sauce! You wouldn't believe the amount of hassle I get every day about this 5p!

The reactions of customers to “they're five pence each, how many would you like?” are on a sliding scale:
  • Yup, here you go (my personal favourite!)
  • Oh.. ok.
  • Okaaaaay (slightly exasperatedly)
  • *Grumbles and walks off*
  • Really? ... You're joking, right? (People actually think I'm making it up for a laugh. If I were going to make a joke, I'd at least make it obvious - £5 at least! :D)
  • How long has it been like that?! I was in (insert other place here)'s McDonald's just last week and didn't get charged there! (Cue having to explain the franchise system agaaaain)
  • That's outrageous! I just spent £X on a meal! (Well five pence more is probably not going to hurt then..)
  • WELL $%@& OFF THEN! (Yes, this has happened)

I don't really have an opinion on whether or not it is “wrong” for them to charge for sauces. I mean it's a business after all. It's just the way people speak to me when I'm just doing my job that does my head in every day!

So please, if you are ever charged for sauce, please remember that your cashier is not the one making the policies!

3 comments:

cumbrian said...

Yes, I think most people appreciate that the cashier is not responsible for the policy of charging for sauce, however unfair they may think it is.

Unfortunately the cashier is on the front line and is the person who asks for the money, so it's inevitable you're going to suffer the reaction of the disgruntled customer.

Maybe it might be an idea for the people who set the prices of sauce to sit in the cashires seat for a week or so to get an impression of what the customers think?

And I can understand the customers point of view, if they just accept it and say nothing, it's assumed by the price-setters that it is acceptable when, as you noticed, some of them don't seem to think it is.

Pamela said...

I get so irritated when people take their anger out on cashiers and customer service workers--they aren't the ones making the rules! It's like when someone's mad about paying a bill and they bring in the amount in all small change, thinking they're sticking it to the company/government office, when they're only sticking it to the rank-and-file workers who have to count it.

Spankthemagicmonkey said...

Regardless of the price of sauces and that we probably shouldn’t be charged for something so small that is still no excuse to abuse staff. This kind of behaviour seems to becoming more and more acceptable with fewer consequences. I hope the person who shouted “WELL $%@& OFF THEN!” was thrown out and barred from all McDonalds.