The decline in standards at restaurants

[LOVEthroughINTELLECT]

Quick-service restaurants, at least.

Many years ago--probably about twenty years now--at one quick-service restaurant where I worked the closing shift the manager on duty admonished me for setting some chairs on some of the dining room tables before we were closed. It was rude to customers, he said. In other words, the place should look fully operational until the second that the dining room doors are locked and all customers are gone, and anything less is rude. And it seems like no matter what restaurant I worked the closing shift at we had all of our products ready to serve until we were closed.

Well, the past several years I have noticed, to name a few things, one or more of the following almost everywhere I eat out:

1.) As much as an hour before closing time, chairs upside-down on the tables and vacuuming going on all over the dining room. Watch your step or you will trip over a power cord! An hour before closing time!

2.) Better get there well before closing time if you want iced tea. It is not uncommon now to get there, say, a half hour before closing time and find that they have thrown away all of the tea. And they make no apologies for it. Are you kidding?! The tea is often what I eat out for!

3.) Trash receptacles turned in a manner to keep customers from using them. I am not talking about five minutes before closing time. I am talking about more than an hour before closing time.


Make no mistake about it, they want to get closed and get home without delay, and the more you understand that, the better! And I guess they really want to save on labor costs.

Who wants to dine in the noise of vacuum cleaners?! Who wants to eat and talk with family and friends in a dining room where you have the legs of upside-down chairs in your view?!

Another thing that I have noticed is that restaurants are always dirty. It's not like they don't have enough help--I'll see plenty of people on duty standing around doing nothing. It's like they have no concept of people wanting to eat in a clean dining room.

Has anybody else noticed this, or is it just where I live?

 

[E.C.]

My restaurant is clean and does not have carpet therefore no vacuums thank you very much!

Besides, Tom the Janitor cleans the floors in the mornings well before the opening cooks get there.
Then again, I happen to work at a local pizza restaurant chain which is much better than the big corporate restaurants such as Red Robin, Applebee's, etc.


All that aside, the fault goes to the manager and the employee. The employee for not showing initiative. The manager for not enforcing good standards.

 

[miss-a]

Wanna gag? I stopped at a sandwich bar one night when I'd worked late and was starved. Two guys were working in the back cleaning. One came to the counter and started putting on gloves while I began to order. In the middle of the order, he picked his eye. I politely said, "On second thought, I think I'll pass, thanks," and left with visions of eye boogers dancing in my head, grateful they weren't dancing in my stomach, and astonishingly my huge appetite was gone.

Huge pet peeve. People think because they have on gloves they are being sanitary. But if the gloves aren't clean, neither is the food. YOu can't put on gloves, clean the floor and then put those same gloves in food. NO CAN DO. Caveat emptor!

 

[AlexBP]

I can't recall noticing any changes in restaurants in recent years, but if I see those sorts of things, my inclination would be to have pity on the overworked, underpaid drudges who work there.

 

[crishmael]

I've only seen something like that a couple of times in my life, and I didn't stay to eat.

 

[SplendidTree]

I really don't eat out much for this reason.

 

[LOVEthroughINTELLECT]

I was in a KFC and they were scrubbing and squeegeeing the floors. Therefore, the dining room floor and the floor behind the counter were covered with soapy water. It was an hour before closing time!

 

[ImperialPhantom]

I can't say I have experienced any of the same things that you have lately. I have seen cleaning going on when I ordered at 24 hour restaurants, but they have to clean at some point or another, right?

 

[stan1472]

Love, I've noticed some of the same myself. I do think it's rude to vacuum & flip tables around customers. And sometimes, when they're vacuuming, they act like you're in the way! Terrible service/environment IMO. I also can't stand dirty eating establishments. It seems like that is a trend lately.

 

[Aino]

Eww. That's why I generally avoid fast food restaurants though - they do have a slight tendency to be gross one way or another (and the food is another topic as well).

 

[K9_Trainer]

Fast food chains don't want to pay their employees any more than they have to. These days, its probably encouraged that they have everything packed up and ready to shut down BEFORE closing time because they don't want to pay them over time if the shift ends when the store closes.

 

[Obzocky]

1.) As much as an hour before closing time, chairs upside-down on the tables and vacuuming going on all over the dining room. Watch your step or you will trip over a power cord! An hour before closing time!

2.) Better get there well before closing time if you want iced tea. It is not uncommon now to get there, say, a half hour before closing time and find that they have thrown away all of the tea. And they make no apologies for it. Are you kidding?! The tea is often what I eat out for!

3.) Trash receptacles turned in a manner to keep customers from using them. I am not talking about five minutes before closing time. I am talking about more than an hour before closing time.

...

A lot of those employees will not be paid for more than 15 minutes past closing time, some are told to have the shop ready to close at closing time. Not after, you clean an hour before hand to minimise the work you need to do once the shop is closed. You get it done to be as efficient as possible, no-one wants to work for free, no-one wants their employees staying over.


You know what some employees will say?

Who comes into a restaurant an hour before closing, do they not realise that's the time you come in for take-out, not to sit in. That hour is the difference between getting out on time (and being complimented by managers for efficiency) and being called up for being lazy and slow.

We used to start close-up an hour before actual closing, sectioning off areas no-one sat in so we could clean them in preparation for close. It's what you have to do. You clock out when you're told to clock out, you have a set time to get it all done so you do it when you can.

After official close we had 15 minutes to mop, hoover, tidy, stock, clean, put away and lock up. 15 minutes in a big shop. In those 15 minutes we had to go down and clock out no later than 3 minutes over our official clock out time. So we did it one, two hours in advance. Closing, cleaning, tidying. In those 15 minutes you can do a quick whizz around and everything is snazzy.

Depends which side you're on and the working conditions you're used to. I wouldn't think anything about being cleaned around because I understand they have to start closure way before official close. It's how some places run things, just like sometimes you wont get the best service until an hour after opening, when everyone has time to get everything settled and sorted out.


At least they're cleaning.

 

[Oddish]

One time when I went to eat out with my best friend. She decided to have a huge meal and two pieces of cake which is a lot but she has a fast metabolism. The waitress came along at one point and said "You eat like a machine, don't you? I am really impressed". My friend laughed but it was really awkward. It was totally unprofessional.

 

[Oddish]

I was in a KFC and they were scrubbing and squeegeeing the floors. Therefore, the dining room floor and the floor behind the counter were covered with soapy water. It was an hour before closing time!

KFC...

 

[LOVEthroughINTELLECT]

It's like people are saying that I don't get it.

Well, I worked the closing shift at several different quick-service restaurants when I was younger. Everywhere I worked we had this thing called "pre-close"--things that we did before the store closed that set the stage for getting all of the final work done within an hour or so after the store closed. The owner of one of those places would give you a tongue-lashing if you uttered the word "pre-close". He wanted the focus to be on serving customers. Pre-close was, in his mind, at best a necessary evil.

Whatever we did before the store closed was designed to expedite everything that had to be done without making customers feel like they were in our way and without making customers feel rushed. We certainly were not allowed to do anything that ruined a customer's experience and perception of the place, such as having the dining room floor covered with soapy water.

Those are not my standards. They were other people's standards that I was expected to uphold.

The point is, judging from my experiences as a customer the past several years, those standards apparently no longer exist.

 

[E.C.]

It's like people are saying that I don't get it.

Well, I worked the closing shift at several different quick-service restaurants when I was younger. Everywhere I worked we had this thing called "pre-close"--things that we did before the store closed that set the stage for getting all of the final work done within an hour or so after the store closed. The owner of one of those places would give you a tongue-lashing if you uttered the word "pre-close". He wanted the focus to be on serving customers. Pre-close was, in his mind, at best a necessary evil.

Whatever we did before the store closed was designed to expedite everything that had to be done without making customers feel like they were in our way and without making customers feel rushed. We certainly were not allowed to do anything that ruined a customer's experience and perception of the place, such as having the dining room floor covered with soapy water.

Those are not my standards. They were other people's standards that I was expected to uphold.

The point is, judging from my experiences as a customer the past several years, those standards apparently no longer exist.

Than don't go to a restaurant with carpet. No carpet, no vacuums.