It happened again. At another Wendy’s.

I went to Wendy’s on a Friday night, 6:15 to be exact, wanting a hamburger. But what I got was very different.

I walked in and there were two cashier kiosks. One was occupied by an old man conversing with the manager who I assumed was waiting for his food and the other was being used by some guy with a bevy of 10 at-risk kids that were jumping all around and yelling at each other.

Thinking there was only one cashier taking orders, I stood behind the wild kids. After 5 minutes (yes, I timed it), they left. At the corner of my eye, I still saw the old man there talking with the manager, now with a stoner couple behind him. I still thought there was nothing going on there, so still waited.

Another 2 minutes.

So to recap at this point, I have waited 7 minutes, being around noisy kids, stoners to the left, old man who looks like he doesn’t know what is going on to my left, and not once was I acknowledged as a customer. Not a nod, not a ‘one second’, nothing.

Then the old man left. With no food. What?

Apparently the old man was ordering the entire time. The manager was helping him with this order. For 7 minutes. You have to be kidding me. This is not fast food at all. I cannot believe we as a society have to waste time due to this selfish idiot old asshole.

Oh, and on my side of things, the workers were scurrying around getting the loud kids their order ready, all the while no one ever made eye contact with me.

The stoners now step up, laughing the entire time, having no idea what to order. The cashier steps up and laughs with them. Really? Again, I was stonewalled.

During this time, the burgers and nuggets were finally assembled for the kids, and then no one returned. I was left alone there with about 5 different employees (including the manager) not even noticing I was there.

After 12 minutes of being ignored and the stoners still laughing, I gave up and left.

Awful experience once again.

It is a good thing that Seattle makes us pay these guys $15 an hour now.

Side note: as a teacher with a Masters degree, I made $20 an hour.