Waiting

I hate to eat alone. For as solitary an individual as I am, that is one thing I dislike doing by myself. Which is partly why I eat my big meal of the day at lunchtime and why I eat like crap when I am at home. Frankly, I don't even care if the other person is eating. I just like the company when I eat.

Today, I could not entice anyone to lunch with me, so I decided to call a favorite place, Gina's, and order something. Since I was calling, and I know how long it takes them to make one, I got a Calzone. The guy taking my order said, "Give us about 20 minutes to get it done." I already knew that, but it was good to have confirmation.

So I waited 20 minutes. I then cruised over (took about 6 minutes) and paid for my meal, which took another 3-4 minutes as I had to wait in line for the next cashier and there were a couple of people ahead of me.

And then I waited.

About 15 minutes later, as I was growing visibly upset with the wait, they finally completed it and gave it to me with a perfunctory, "Sorry for the wait."

No, damn it, get it done. You took 35-40 minutes to get a 20 minute task done. If that has become the norm, then how long do other people wait for their meals?

I helped make Gina's a popular place. When they first opened up in this location, they weren't doing all that great. Yes, they had the University crowd, but that was it. I spread the word about it, emailing friends, making suggestions, ensuring that a large number of people here at work knew about it. With me, and others like me, we made it a popular place to go for the business crowd that surrounds the school.

And Steve, the owner, appreciates it. Whenever he's there, I get a discount off my meals and the best service. However, when he's not, everyone gets poorer service now. They are too crowded. They cater to too many different things.

For example, the last time I took friends with me there, I was the only one who got his meal. The other two people finally had to badger the workers for their meal and get it to go-- we had wasted an entire hour there without eating! Their excuse? A large phone order for pizzas. Yeah, so? The point is you have people in your store, now, who have actually paid, and who will likely not come back and will give you a bad review if asked by anyone because of the bad service. The orders you lose due to the bad in-house service far outpaces the good service you provide to the phone in order for pizza. You have to keep some of the oven and food prep area and people free to continue to work on the steady stream of college kids and professionals you have coming in for lunch.

Now, don't get me wrong; the place is clean, it has good food and generally good prices, and it is nice to sit outside on a day like today (80 and sunny) and have a good lunch. And the food is far superior to any you'd get a fast food joint. But, and here's the kicker for Gina's, I would rather pay for and eat the fast food if I can get it in under 10 minutes and be on my way. I don't want to be waiting 35-40 minutes for my 20 minute meal. I have better things to do with my time.

Next time I can corner Steve and talk with him for a bit, I will mention it. I'm sure he's noticed that a lot of regulars aren't so regular any more (I haven't seen any of the other people I frequently bumped into there in quite a while).