Being from the Northeast, part of my morning routine typically includes a trip under the Pink and Orange sign of Dunkin' Donuts. Trips to any type of fast food, coffee shop, or convenience store will inevitably give you reason for pause. The service gets progressively worse, the [people behind the counter] get more and more "interesting", and for some reason the wait seems to get longer every day.
Whether I visit the drive-thru or the counter, my order is pretty standard, pre-meditated, and delivered clearly, concisely, and in some semblance of the English (perhaps an issue) language.
PC: "G'Morning. A Large [hot, iced] coffee, black, with 2 Equal, please."
Occasionally, I'll throw in a flavor shot. I might even double my order. I do not, however, deviate from the formula. I tell them what cup to grab, what temperature, and what to put in it. I intentionally order in that sequence because that's the sequence in which they will perform the tasks required. I do not speak quickly, and I intentionally annunciate (I remember my previous experiences). Further, I generally visit the SAME shops. Usually more than once a day. Now I'm not saying remember me, but shit, remember past orders that you've screwed up (MINE).
Somehow, I don't think the Franchise owners and Management take into account how important coffee is when they go through the hiring process. Seriously.
Ok, now on to what motivated me to write a post about my morning routine. As I placed my order in the drive-thru the other morning:
PC: "I'll just have a LARGE, ICED coffee, BLACK, with two(2) equal, please."
The tinny, electronic voice comes back with:
DD: "Would you like to try our new flatbread sandwich?"
PC: "Nope. Just the coffee. Thanks."
Now, I've noticed this is common practice just about every place you go. Little buttons that say "If I don't offer you a strawberry-mango smoothie, IT'S FREE". Drive-thru attendants "Want to try a muffin today?" That poor little "Ding-fries-are-done" kid offering "an apple pie with that". I get it, it's what they do.
But has anyone EVER been inspired via drive-thru to try something like that? Much less a "flatbread sandwich" from a coffee shop? Honestly? I've never heard something from that little speaker that just tickles me enough to say "Well, the picture turned my stomach, reading the description nauseated me, but now that you MENTION it, and I hear you asking me if I wish to try it, HELL YEAH, I'll take TWO!"
06 July 2008
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6 comments:
The bigger question is did they get your coffee right? I've found that it's hit or miss at most Dunkin Donuts lately. Mainly because English isn't a first or in some cases, even a second language.
A few year ago I ordered my usual large with skim milk and two Sweet and Low. Simple enough, right. Only the nice, but clueless young lass behind the counter made me a coffee with milk and about five sugars. Not little sugars, not packets, but five shovel fulls of sugar. I politely asked her to make it correctly and once again she dumped half a ton of sugar into the cup. Finally a supervisor came over and asked what was wrong. The server told him that I wanted the coffee "too sweet" and she was just trying to make it the way I wanted.
Then there is the time my partner made a male server CRY because he couldn't get a large tea, black, one tea bag, with three Splenda right in three tries.
BTW, I made the mistake of ordering a flatbread once. Just once. It wast tasteless, in both senses of the word.
While I've only been inspired to get 2 apple pies for a dollar from McDee's on a dark and stormy night... the DnD flatbread Southwest Chicken sandwich is actually pretty good in the taste department.
Negative. At the drawing board in Quincy, Massachusetts, Dunkin Donuts founding fathers did not include bootleg quesadillas in their recipe for success, dammit. Coffee, and Donuts. That is the blueprint. It was strong enough to all but push Krispy Kreme out of double D's backyard.
Fred the Baker is rolling over in his grave. Never was it said "Time to make the flatbread southwest chicken sammiches." No. It's "Time to make the Donuts." So there.
The flatbreads are an obvious retaliation to the afront of a sandwhich Starbux started serving, and which was attributed to a number of DnD franchises failing (instead of just poor management).
Of course now Starbux is set to close 600 stores and laying off 12,000 employees because they ONLY had a second quarter profit of $108.7 million dollars. Such is the demon of corporate mongering.
Still... at 3:00am when the options are a 7-11 Burger Bite or a DnD Flatbread... I'm going with DnD.
Maybe they should call it "Dunkin' Flatbreads" if they really want to push the flatbreads.
My favorite (intentional?) eff up by the Canadian equivalent (Tim Hortons) was when they made my 2 egg and cheese breakfast bagel on
a) a blueberry bagel and
b)a cinnamon raisin bagel.
Nothing says delicious like egg, cheese, bacon, and blueberries in one greasy package.
Of course I never realized this was the case until I was 2500ft UP THE MOUNTAIN and tucking in to enjoy my lunch!!!!
So, uh, you ever going to post again? :)
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