I worked at the last of the "old school" McDonald's in my town. It did not have electronic registers, like all the other ones in town. It was also the first one to close in my town. We did orders by hand as well. For me, I memorized prices of common orders, say Big Mac, large fry, large drink. At first I used a calculator. Soon, I could add without it. There are a lot of things back then that are different now. Firstly, we had 5 cash registers. And they were ALL open during lunch, and usually lines of people at each register, 5 or more deep. When that store closed, I transferred to a freeway store. It had 13 cash registers, and during holidays, it was bedlam. 20 people deep in each line, ALL DAY LONG. And we weren't even the busiest at the time. That honor went to Barstow, CA, and Lyon's Ave near Magic Mountain. I worked for corporate stores, started in 1981. You could smoke in the stores then. We did so in the back room, the office, even the lobby. The whole idea back then was to get people in and out FAST. You ordered, and before you even payed, your order was on your tray or in your bag. Back then, Drive Thru was evolving. At the first store I worked at, DT sales were barely 20% of total sales. By the time I was done 7 years later, and being promoted up to first asst, I worked at stores where DT sales were close to 60%. These days, I bet its higher than that. Back in my day, when you called shots, you also backed up the registers. So, you were giving the grill people instructions, wrapping the food and putting it in the bin, and also grabbing food, drinks, and fries for the order. I remember, it was kind of a ballet, you used to literally slide across the floor. It was called hustle, and management loved that. Today, there is no hustle. It doesn't exist. You ALWAYS have to wait for your food. I remember when Taco Bell was getting bigger, and our Ops Manager at the time was worried about them, and rightfully so, because they could serve food fast. But now they suck, too. But one thing I do remember is McDonald's was organized. They had their system down by '81. Oh sure, there were bad days, but in general, the way the business was run, there was a procedure for everything. Back then, I was proud to work there. Then, things started going downhill. New managers with new ideas came. And when Ray Kroc died, that was it. Kroc would roll over in his grave if he knew they were holding patties in a "warmer". That's the WHOLE reason the burgers are so nasty now. They were much better coming right off the grill. Also, clamshells. I was there when they first started experimenting with them. They were actually attached to the existing 4' grills. And the first things we used them for were McRibs, because those things took like 20 minutes to cook in the beginning....oh, I could go on and on. Thanks for bringing back the memories.
ST1300rdr267 karma
I worked at the last of the "old school" McDonald's in my town. It did not have electronic registers, like all the other ones in town. It was also the first one to close in my town. We did orders by hand as well. For me, I memorized prices of common orders, say Big Mac, large fry, large drink. At first I used a calculator. Soon, I could add without it. There are a lot of things back then that are different now. Firstly, we had 5 cash registers. And they were ALL open during lunch, and usually lines of people at each register, 5 or more deep. When that store closed, I transferred to a freeway store. It had 13 cash registers, and during holidays, it was bedlam. 20 people deep in each line, ALL DAY LONG. And we weren't even the busiest at the time. That honor went to Barstow, CA, and Lyon's Ave near Magic Mountain. I worked for corporate stores, started in 1981. You could smoke in the stores then. We did so in the back room, the office, even the lobby. The whole idea back then was to get people in and out FAST. You ordered, and before you even payed, your order was on your tray or in your bag. Back then, Drive Thru was evolving. At the first store I worked at, DT sales were barely 20% of total sales. By the time I was done 7 years later, and being promoted up to first asst, I worked at stores where DT sales were close to 60%. These days, I bet its higher than that. Back in my day, when you called shots, you also backed up the registers. So, you were giving the grill people instructions, wrapping the food and putting it in the bin, and also grabbing food, drinks, and fries for the order. I remember, it was kind of a ballet, you used to literally slide across the floor. It was called hustle, and management loved that. Today, there is no hustle. It doesn't exist. You ALWAYS have to wait for your food. I remember when Taco Bell was getting bigger, and our Ops Manager at the time was worried about them, and rightfully so, because they could serve food fast. But now they suck, too. But one thing I do remember is McDonald's was organized. They had their system down by '81. Oh sure, there were bad days, but in general, the way the business was run, there was a procedure for everything. Back then, I was proud to work there. Then, things started going downhill. New managers with new ideas came. And when Ray Kroc died, that was it. Kroc would roll over in his grave if he knew they were holding patties in a "warmer". That's the WHOLE reason the burgers are so nasty now. They were much better coming right off the grill. Also, clamshells. I was there when they first started experimenting with them. They were actually attached to the existing 4' grills. And the first things we used them for were McRibs, because those things took like 20 minutes to cook in the beginning....oh, I could go on and on. Thanks for bringing back the memories.
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