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| - A Model of Inefficiency. My daughter and I had been eagerly waiting for the new Dickey's BBQ joint (3rd St. & Greenway) to open, so we took her 2 daughters and went on Sunday when "Kids Eat Free." When we arrived, the line was to the door and barely moved in 20 minutes. During that time, we had ample time to study the menu and note that the ice cream machine was out of ice cream (in a brand new restaurant?).
When we finally got to the very cramped ordering station, the two servers seemed harried and confused. One took our order and then slowly proceeded to chop and then painstakingly measure out each ounce of meat. The other server attempted to fill to-go boxes behind the first server, which involved lots of close encounters as he scooped up meat and crossed back and forth behind her.
Finally, we were allowed to go to the next station to get our sides. There were 3 girls there (I'll call them A, B and C.). A asked what our sides were. My daughter replies mac & cheese and baked beans, so A fills a cup with baked beans and tosses an empty cup to C to get the mac & cheese because it's too far for C to reach the cups. Then A asks me what my sides were. I replied cole slaw and potato casserole. Ten seconds later A asks me again what my sides were (she had apparently forgotten within the last 10 seconds), so I repeated myself. She filled a cup with cole slaw and handed a cup to B, who scooped up the mashed potatoes and put them in the cup. Then B leans across in front of A to get chives and cheese to top the potatoes. Then A asks which side we wanted for my daughter's 2 children. We respond mac & cheese, so A tosses a cup to C to get the mac & cheese. For the other side order, we responded French fries and were told that they were out of French fries. (A BBQ joint without French fries?) Disappointed, we got chips instead.
Squeezed between the 3 girls and the cashier was an older, grim-faced woman whose apparent sole job was to hand the trays to the customers. An older gentleman stood next to her coaching the cashier. We had ordered 2 adult meals, 2 kids meals and 4 drinks. The kids meals were free. Simple, right? You would think I had asked the cashier to calculate the square root of Pi. After several minutes of button pushing, she finally produced a receipt, so I handed her my debit card and we escaped to the relatively quiet outdoor patio. In total, it took about 35 minutes to order and get our food.
While devouring our food--which was all quite tasty, by the way--I noted that the cashier had not fully discounted the kids meals, leaving them both 20 cents short. My daughter and I joked that the sign should have read, "Kids Eat Free on Sundays for a slight surcharge of 20 cents but don't expect any ice cream or French fries!"
Seriously, we learned later that this new location has been open for two weeks, so they should have worked out the bugs by now. To see a franchise restaurant this poorly managed was upsetting. If they don't bring in a decent business manager who will streamline the ordering process, reduce the staff, expand the prep area, manage commodities and equipment, they will drive the customers away. We saw lots of folks in line simply give up and walk out.
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