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For Worse

During J's winter break, we stopped by the neighborhood McD one evening on our way back from an errand. She wanted an iced-coffee, we decided to add large fries to the order - to relive childhood memories. This was an occasional and beloved treat - always to share. I have not stepped into a McD since the pandemic started so this was the first time in a while. 

Ordering was by a touch-screen menu and  there was no one inside. We picked up our order in a few minutes and were on our way. J exchanged some pleasantries with the young lady at the cash register - maybe a kid like her on break from college, earning a few bucks and we were out. Fast food has become even faster and even less personal than it used to be, I commented to J on the way back home. Looks like that is the least of the problems with fast food since the beginning of the pandemic:

Customers have become more critical and angry towards workers in the service industry, and suddenly "people think it's perfectly okay to be intolerant, demand things, and just be unreasonable," he said, to the point where his work is "almost untenable."

This shift in customers is in part thanks to the rapid advances in technology used by fast-food chains, like online ordering, and people becoming accustomed to being at home and having everything delivered, the worker said. Many customers are "starting to treat fast food as their personal catering service," the worker said, with extreme modifications to every item and no empathy or understanding for overwhelmed workers.

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