Thumper Thinks Out Loud

Gastric Lesson Learned:

Taco Bell food simply isn’t worth a long wait.

Now I realize that’s probably on the list of “Well, duh, if you have to be told that you should never be allowed to breed” things, but there are some people who will sit there and wait for extremely long periods for their chicken quesadilla and double decker taco.

In a fit of oh, hell no I do not feel like cooking the Spouse Thingy and I ran down the road to Taco Bell (ok, we drove. Thumpa does not run. Not unless there’s copious amounts of chocolate involved) to indulge in a little festive artery clogging.

We placed our order, got our drinks and sat down to wait.

Old guy next table over: “I hope you brought your breakfast and lunch with you, ’cause this is gonna take a while.” After a few minutes had passed, a woman walking by informed us she had been waiting for 32 minutes. There was another older gentleman looking not so gentlemanly.

Now, the Spouse Thingy said to me but not loud enough for anyone else to hear (paraphrasing here) that it takes someone a few chips shy of a taco salad to wait 32 minutes to complain. I reasoned that, perhaps, she had been so involved with her kids that she hadn’t noticed how long it had been. Either way, she’d been waiting a long time for her food.

They lost her order.

They lost the older guy’s order, too. He got his money back and left, and I’m sure he’ll never be back. Which is a shame, because if you’re ever in dire need of uncorking your personal system, Taco Bell can do a mighty fine job in assisting that need.

She waited.

We got our order (with free cardboard cinnamon thingies) and ate. She was still waiting. It was deduced that something was wrong with the cash register at which she had placed her order. In fact, it smelled bad. Like it was about to erupt into a giant fireball. One of her kids was clearly agitated and upset, wanting to stay as far away from the counter as possible; he announced quite clearly that in the event of a fire, he was taking the nearest exit.

We were almost done, and she finally got her order. It had probably been 45 minutes from the time she initially placed the order when she was apologetically handed a bag of food, with some added freebies.

However.

There’s always a however.

She did not get everything she ordered, and found herself back at the counter to let them know it was incomplete.

She never yelled.
She never blew a gasket.
She even laughed.

She did tell every single person entering the store how long she’d been waiting, but she laughed.

I was impressed with her attitude, but there’s a lesson to be learned here. Never wait more than 10 minutes for your food at Taco Bell. Never. Well, unless it’s the lunch rush and you’re in the drive-through line stuck behind 29 other cars. It’s perfectly acceptable to go to the counter after 10 minutes and inquire about your order, if you’re polite about it.

If you’re polite, you get free stuff.
And free is always good.
Even when it’s Taco Bell.