Meat + Poultry - March 2009 - 6

COMMENTARY
Not settling for selective service

MEAT&POULTRY
®

he headline said it all: "Florida who continue to patronize restaurants
woman calls 911 after McDon- of any concept should be treated like
ald's runs out of McNuggets." diners at a five-star eatery. Now is not
The story of how a McDonald's cus- the time to issue mandates or parade
tomer who ordered and paid for Mc- company policies that could turn off
Nuggets only to be told the eatery even one customer. There has been
had run out of the items by an em- a well-documented shift among conployee who refused
used to refund
sumers that has seen
se hoards opt
for fast-food over the waitthe customer's money
oney is weird
er-with-a-menu,
fastnews at its finest.
t. The cuser-with
tomer went on to
casual
options.
o call 911
ca
and report the incident
T his shi f t
ncident
has forced
as an emergency,
y, and
news outlets everythe operators
erywhere published
of fast-casued
the transcriptss
al concepts
and replayed
to get creative
the 911 tapes of
with their
dine-in
th
Latreasa Goodmenus while
promotw
man's complaintt
ing carry-out
options
carry
to the operator.
and pushing value meals
W h i le norand meal sharing
mally I would
for value-conhave been mild"Florida woman calls 911 scious diners.
ly amused by
T his wi nd fall
after McDonald's runs
such a stor y
for many of the
and would have
fast-food chains
out of McNuggets."
written it off as
is also an oppora case of poor
tunity to make
judgment, worthy of consideration for service the most important thing not
a Darwin Award honorable mention, on their menu boards.
Sub-par service nowadays, regardthis one stuck in my craw. While a
911 call might have been an extreme less of what part of the food industry
reaction to a mild inconvenience in you serve, is a black eye to the entire
this situation, I would suggest this food chain as it gives the customers
serves as a reminder at the least - and and consumers that you've worked
for some companies it is a wake-up so hard to get in front of, a reason to
call. In an economic era when food go somewhere else where they will
processors, retailers and foodservice happily sacrifice a little quality for
operators are facing unprecedented a little savings. Just as a food-safechallenges in maintaining their mar- ty-related product recall is regarded
ket share, a common-sense approach as being bad for the whole industry,
to service should be a given, but too providing poor service is also a coloften it isn't. In the case of the over- lective punch to the gut of the entire
reacting McDonald's customer, the food-supply chain. Delivering quality
employee was reported to have said service along with quality products
the store's policy was that all sales throughout the industry during chalare fi nal. Sorry, but in an age when lenging economic times should be a
many chain restaurants are literally call everyone answers.
giving away free meals for a day (including IHOP and Denny's) in hopes By Joel Crews, Editor
of generating traffic, those customers jcrews@sosland.com
6

MEAT&POULTRY

March 2009

www.MEATPOULTRY.com

EDITORIAL STAFF
Editor

Joel Crews
Executive Editor

Keith Nunes
Senior Editor

Bryan Salvage
Contributing Editors

Richard Alaniz
Steve Bjerklie
Dr. Temple Grandin
Steve Krut
Bernard Shire

Larry Aylward
Dr. David Theno
Steve Kay
Leo Quigley
Richard Stier

Graphic Designer

Mike Gunther
PUBLISHING STAFF
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Publisher

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Publisher Emeritus

Mike Alaimo
BUSINESS/PRODUCTION STAFF
Audience Development Director

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Circulation Manager

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Vice-President & Chief Financial Officer

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Design Services Manager

Sadowna Conarroe
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Becky White
Marketing Communications Manager

Carrie Fluegge
Classified Sales Representative

Lily O'Kane
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Steve Piatt
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Marj Potts
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Nora Wages
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Sharon Alexander
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Meat + Poultry - March 2009

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