You Get What You Pay For
After the MBA professors sort out what went wrong at Enron, AIG and Fannie Mae, I hope they’ll take a fact-finding trip to the Taco Bell/KFC franchise on 14th Street near U Street in Washington DC. Though I can barely stomach the food, I stopped in there several weeks ago so that I could quickly eat something before meeting friends for happy hour. What a disaster. The incompetence impressed me so much that I’ve been back three times to observe the workers. Just now I waited 45 minutes for a bean and cheese burrito, a hard shell taco and a water. It’s fascinating.
As an In-N-Out loyalist, I’ve had occasion to observe the best in fast food workers up close. Hell if I can figure out what enables them to speedily deliver perfect fresh burgers and fries sans freezers or heat lamps, whereas the folks I’ve been observing can’t even manage to shoot the sour cream gun so that its contents are dispersed evenly throughout the burrito, rather than clustered so that your first or last bite is all sour cream. I’ve never worked fast food, but I am a frequent observer and regular participant in burrito assembly that doesn’t even benefit from the latest in condiment projectile technology. It ain’t that hard.
Funny thing is that the guy manning the cash register appears to be a model of competence. He takes orders quickly, gives accurate change promptly, and smiles as he hands you a crisp numbered receipt. This is where the process breaks down. Behind the counter are five employees whose attention is divided among the Taco Bell products and KFC products — that is to say, if anyone has clear responsibilities for any aspect of food assembly it isn’t evidence from the chaos the customer observers. The kitchen staff bumps into one another, shouts frantically, is always forgetting to put new biscuits in the oven, etc. The way they move you’d think it’s everyone’s first day, but I’ve seen the same faces again and again. A task like removing a plastic bag from a bundle of same, putting several tacos inside and handing it to a customer in exchange for his receipt lends itself to increasingly dexterous movements over time. Here there is a lot of fuss needed to separate the bags, a lot of fumbling with the food, and awkward receipt exchanges.
Worse than anything, however, is the sheer time elapsed. The average Taco Bell customer is conditioned to expect their food will be delivered promptly — it isn’t a surprise if you order a soft taco and are handed same immediately. The 14th Street location is filled with exasperated customers waiting for their Mexican Pizza or Chalupa or KFC variety bucket, and there is a certain camaraderie that develops as these folks make eye contact with one another, roll their pupils up in their head, and listen to one another’s stomachs growling.
I’m sure I’ll return again to observe some more — I’d really like to understand the place well enough to know where the actual breakdown is — though of course if the service becomes significantly better, I’ll definitely stop patronizing it, as there are far better options nearby whether measured by food or atmosphere. Perhaps some DC business consultant will read this, get curious, and visit for him or herself, in which case you should e-mail me. We’ll go together! I’ll even buy.
On the subject of business school case studies.
As Noah points out in his latest post, the business of entertainment is somewhat in flux right now; CWF/RTF and all that. I count myself as an early, vociferous and somewhat successful proponent of self-distribution, and have become accustomed to hearing all the reasons that our approach to self-distro works for our films, but can’t work for other people. (These reasons are more or less the same reason we used to hear for why our work was distribution-proof. Go figure.)
Anyway, yesterday it hit me. Only in entertainment to people look at the exceptional result and then start coming up with reason to dismiss it. At places like Wharton, they look at the exceptional result and then try to figure out how to replicate it, or at least learn from it.
Beyond the fact that the entertainment business is populated by risk-averse assholes (and sorry, that includes journalism,) I don’t know what deeper meaning can be gleaned from this. PEG had a really nice post about some French outfit that has three years cash in the bank and takes no prisoners, but the TAS search function sux and I can’t find it. I wouldn’t mind if Pascal made another post about these French muck-rakers. I remember being inspired, and I can use all the inspiration I can get!
— Tony Comstock · Jul 3, 07:42 PM · #
The easiest way to search on TAS is by clicking on the author’s name on the right sidebar, which brings up a list of all the posts they’ve written. The one I think you were looking for: http://theamericanscene.com/2009/02/13/le-canard-enchaine-a-model-for-investigative-journalism-in-the-internet-age
— Conor Friedersdorf · Jul 3, 08:10 PM · #
That’s the one! Thanks Conor!
— Tony Comstock · Jul 3, 09:33 PM · #
Best research method for me: type “theamericanscene”, all one word, into google. Then search for as many words as you can remember. Use proper nouns, turns of phrases, author name, and uncommon words like ‘stotting’. Then click “more from this website” after you commence the search to access all the results.
— Sargent · Jul 3, 10:26 PM · #
There’a Taco Bell/KFC in the Marina here in San Francisco and they’re also mind numbingly slow, though, for my money, the most incompetent fast food restaurant I’ve ever been to is the Wendy’s at East 33rd and 5th in Manhattan. God awful and it always vaguely smells like puke.
But three cheers for In-N-Out. I almost went to the one at Fisherman’s Wharf today (the ONLY reason to ever go over there…besides the Irish Coffee’s at the Buena Vista).
— Mike P · Jul 3, 11:07 PM · #
The Taco Bell on the corner of 71st St. and Michigan Rd. in Indianapolis. I once lived in an apartment a block away. My roommate and I, after trading stories about the bad service, did an experiment. He went to that Taco Bell, I went to one a few miles further away. I got home first.
— cwk · Jul 3, 11:42 PM · #
Conor,
Have you spent any time employed in the food service industry? Perhaps you could take a page from Plimpton or Ehrenreich. I’d be very interested to hear more about your conditioning after a month working for each.
— SamInMpls · Jul 4, 02:40 AM · #
It was probably staffed by NYU students.
The new taco bell in the suburbs by my house actually has pretty good service. The old one, not so much.
— lsijdf · Jul 4, 06:20 AM · #
When I was 16 I worked at Sonic as a grill master, and we didn’t have any heat lamps for the burgers. The trick is to have 8 or so burgers on the low side of the grill, dethawing then heating. Then, when the order comes in over the loud speaker, throw it onto the hot side. Takes about two minutes from order to wrapper. One, if you know what you’re doing.
— Kristoffer V. Sargent · Jul 4, 06:46 AM · #
SamInMpls,
The closest I’ve come to working in the food service industry is manning a cotton candy and snow cone booth at an annual fair hosted by the parish that ran my Catholic high school. They were long, busy shifts, and I enjoyed figuring out how to make things run efficiently, though I’m sure if I’d have been forced to do it for very long I’d have hated it. Still, I’ve always found that doing tedious work well is actually less awful than doing it poorly. I think that would make a really boring book. But I’d write it were I given an advance!
— Conor Friedersdorf · Jul 4, 08:42 AM · #
On the whole, Washington D.C. has notoriously lazy and incompetent service workers, compared to, say, Chicago. As John F. Kennedy said, Washington combines Southern efficiency and Northern charm.
— Steve Sailer · Jul 4, 08:57 PM · #
I hope you’re listening to this while you’re waiting in there: http://downloads.pitchforkmedia.com/Das%20Racist%20%26%20Wallpaper%20-%20Combination%20Pizza%20Hut%20And%20Taco%20Bell%20(Wallpaper.%20RMX).mp3
— Liz · Jul 5, 10:41 PM · #
As a Taco Bell aficionado and a current DC resident, I can relate perfectly to your experience. Last time I went to that Taco Bell I waited 28 minutes for my food (which, by the time it was delivered, was lukewarm and dry instead of “cruncheweezy” and hot). I have only had to throw out a chalupa three times in my life. I was not pleased.
After much consideration, I think I’ve decided that the abysmal service is a combination of obviously poor management, not having a drive-through, and the choice of YUM Brands (the holding company for Taco Bell, KFC, Long John Silver’s, Pizza Hut, and some A&W stores) to combine their restaurants. This third was on the surface a brilliant marketing decision (double saturation! double brand recognition! families don’t have to choose between the delicious brands!) but actually results in confusion. Employees don’t learn to specialize in any one entree or even any one brand, and the kitchen layout is so complex as to be unconducive to quick maneuvering. Also, because of the location of this particular TB/KFC (or “Kentaco Bell,” as they are sometimes called), I’ll bet that the KFC gets a lot more business than the Taco Bell part.
The solution: YUM should create an incentive system for store managers to serve as many customers as possible, as modified by the population density of the area.
Alternatively, they could just hire more people and train them more effectively.
Taco Bell for life!
— Adam · Jul 6, 09:00 PM · #
May I suggest the novel “Clockers” by Richard Price? The managerial nuances of a quasi-failed franchise eatery play a significant part of the story. And it’s a great book in other ways too.
— Aaron · Jul 8, 03:15 AM · #