Kentucky Fried Chicken

This afternoon saw me running around doing some errands. A friend had helped me in the morning. I was going by a local KFC franchise and decided to stop again at his house and surprise him with lunch.

It had been years since I had eaten there. I decided I should go in rather than use the drive-thru as I was unfamiliar with the current menu and didn't want to slow down any of their processes.

I went inside and stood back to examine the menu. It appeared the line wasn't moving very fast so I stepped inside the ropes. A woman waiting near the door announced from the pick-up line that I may be in for 'some wait.' I wasn't in much of a hurry; I was hungry; I was there so I thought I would just deal with it. I couldn't have imagined how bad it would be. It was 23 minutes from start-to-finish. The most astounding part? Twenty-three minutes and they didn't get my order right! Unbelievable!

Before I had a chance to witness the poor service I was a bit stunned by the prices. The most shocking was $1.69 for a 12 oz. soda. The 8-piece/2 side dinner I was about to order ran a shocking $18.99. I ordered such a dinner 'Extra-crispy' recipe; a side of potato wedges and a side of cole-slaw with one soda. My total for one dinner/2 sides, one soda with sales tax was over $21. A little bit more than I wanted to spend for lunch; but, again, I was there.

I had plenty of time to study the menu. Over five minutes passed from the time I stepped into the line until I actually placed my order. I then took my place waiting with others in the 'pick-up' line. Five minutes into this wait a woman advised me there were not enough pieces of the 'extra-crispy' recipe to satisfy my request; it was going to be eight minutes. She tapped and handed me my soda. She asked if I wanted to wait. It had been interesting to watch the crew as they stumbled their way through order after order. Confusion clearly reigned as orders got mixed up between the drive-thru and the counter and the staff was obvioulsy unprepared for what seemed to be just a steady flow of customers. One couple got out of the line before ordering seeing how things were advancing. I decided to wait and watch and made my way as far to the left as I could be.

An older woman found herself to my right as those of us waiting simply moved slowly to the left. It was obvious to me that the confusion was obvious to her, too. She knew I was waiting eight minutes; told me she was a church organist and hoped she got her order before the sermon on Sunday...lol. The gentleman who had taken my order reappeared behind the counter and began preparing my order. I watched as he pulled the potato wedges from the heat tray and put them in a box. He grabbed the bucket and began to retrieve the chicken. He realized there weren't enough pieces and approched me. He told me there wasn't enough and asked if I wanted to substitute 'original recipe' instead of waiting. Knowing that my potato wedges were getting cold I wanted to to say, 'Yes.' I really had seen enough. The woman who was working nearby snapped, 'NO! He is waiting.' He then emptied the bucket as the potato wedges cooled on the counter. The woman waiting to my right finally got her order, tapped me on the shoulder and told me good luck. Suddenly, they called to her just as she was making it to the door. There had been an error. Her order was destined for the drive-thru; they were continuing to wait for a specific item she had ordered. We both laughed as she returned to her waiting position. I welcomed her back. She joked again about the sermon on Sunday morning.

Somehow, in the on-going confusion my cold potato wedges made it to a different order. It got to the point that it was amusing that when my chicken was finally prepared and packed up there were now no potato wedges in the heat tray. Luckily, they were done quickly. My order was packed up; handed to me and I bolted for the door.

Imagine my dismay when, after twenty-three minutes in the store I arrived at my friend's; unpacked the meal and saw that my cole-slaw had morphed into instant potatoes and bland gravy.

It's been many years since I stopped there.

Now I know why.