The McShuffle

Online: 5.0 minutes Order Wait: 2.25 minutes Quality: McShuffled!

So here I am, on one of the slowest McMoments of the week, yet I still have to wait. With only two people in front of me, I was on line for 5 minutes. After I placed my order (Fish Sandwich, medium Coke), I had to wait over 2 minutes for the food to arrive.

The human interaction was almost non-existant, but the food turned out very fine. The big deal was how they dealt with their slowness. It was the same old thng - but today (induced, no doubt, by my responsibility to this blog) I named the technique that I dislike so much. I became a victim of the "McShuffle".

The McShuffle is performed by ringing up a customer, grabbing their drink, placing it on the receipt on the counter, and shuffling it (and the customer) off to the side. The next customer is waited on and the whole thing repeats itself. When a good McShuffle gets going, there can be 5 or more customers piling up on the side counter. The real downside is that the McShuffle creates a dissatisfied group of customers commiserating about "fast" food in front of all the new customers.

The McShuffle, in theory, is a good thing. It gets people waited on quickly. I just don't like getting pushed off to the side into what feels like the Island of Misfit Toys waiting for food. It just feels bad to get "McShuffled".

If they are depending on the new Just-in-Time food prep technique, then why does it take over two minutes to get a standard sandwich? I've waited 5 minutes for a basic hamburger in the past!

Comment if you've been McShuffled. Let your voice be heard - and share how it made you feel.