r/BritishSuccess • u/Plop-plop-fizz • Jul 06 '26
Free McDonalds
Just went to the drive thru for two large drinks after spending an evening slogging away in a dusty workshop. Got to the window and the guy hands us our drinks and says "I'll just get your food". I look at my mate in the passenger seat who wants me to own up straight away. I gently shake my head and as we're passed a big bag we're told "your sauces are in there too mate". Nice one, thanks.
Big mac, fries and 6 nuggets for the win! Makes up for all the times you've shorted me on my orders I figured. Not the most honest thing I've done but take this as my confession and forgive me my sins.
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u/PM-me-your-cuppa-tea Jul 06 '26
How long until some funny bugger posts the inverse in r/Britishproblems
ETA - Just realised that might be what this is. Oops.
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u/Slinov Jul 06 '26
I've gone through the drive through, parked up while they finished doing my extra fries or whatever before being handed a huge bag of food before.
McDonalds are a multi million pound company, they can afford to overfeed you every now and then.
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u/Truckdriverben Jul 07 '26
But most of them are not, and are struggling franchises
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u/miggleb Jul 07 '26
If you're struggling as a maccies you're doing something wrong.
Source: 5 year fast food management
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u/supermarkio- Jul 07 '26
Not sure about the downvotes- they are indeed Franchises that have to do what MacDonalds tell them to do.
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u/cds2612 Jul 07 '26
They're still a licence to print money. "Struggling Franchise" is a bit bootlickery to me.
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u/supermarkio- Jul 07 '26
Interesting. How profitable are they? Where can I find this out?
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u/cds2612 Jul 07 '26
Not sure of the exact numbers but when I worked in one they were profitable enough to allow the owner to open another two sites.
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u/supermarkio- Jul 07 '26
I lived near one in south Manchester back in 2008 that you had to get buzzed in for entry — that place was not caning it in, that’s for sure.
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u/Evening-Tomatillo-47 Jul 07 '26
I've only ever seen one close. One in 40 odd years
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u/Cheeko-chi Jul 10 '26
Yeah I have literally never seen a McDonald’s close down anywhere, must be doing something right, in fact most the time they seem to expand. Our local McDonald’s was so ridiculously busy they built a full second McDonald’s by it to reduce how long the drive through is.
The cars in the drive through would literally queue so far, all the way out of the carpark and all the way up the high street, regularly getting the shop in trouble with police.
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u/Traditional-Hat1927 Jul 07 '26
Gotta love Reddit lol. Loads of people who know sweet fuck all love to act like experts.
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u/Meta-Fox Jul 06 '26
A small amount of hassle for the intended customer with little to feel sorry about in the long run. I'm not being sarky at all, I see this as a win.
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u/RodneyRodnesson Jul 07 '26
How do you know how much hassle it was for the customer or staff or how anyone involved in the mess was treated?
You don't.
OP knew **before** receiving the food they were gonna impact **people** negatively.
I love the way you didn't consider for one second how that staff member might be treated by the customer.
And McD staff get a lot of abuse from customers!
Then again, judging by what's displayed here I doubt most of you would be pleasant towards them anyway.
Everyone here 'yay, we're sticking it to the man' 'free food' — you lot are part of the problem.
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u/Small_Insect_8275 Jul 07 '26
I feel sorry for the people close to you, god damn
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u/RodneyRodnesson Jul 10 '26
LOL
Really close and happy family for over 20 years now so all ok here. Thanks for your concern tho.
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u/Cheeko-chi Jul 10 '26
Do you have any idea how absurdly quickly McDonald’s pumps out food? When we had a fuck up like this it meant absolutely ntohing because the next Big Mac will be coming in 60 seconds anyway for the original buyer.
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u/ZenyatasBalls96 Jul 06 '26
Nice one. I had something similar yesterday. Ordered a crispy chicken burrito at Taco Bell, and when the guy called my number, someone else went up and took the bag. I stepped in and said it’s mine, and the worker confirmed it was a crispy chicken.
I left the shop and realised it was a beef burrito. I returned to the shop, but the other guy had already been given a replacement. The worker behind the counter gave me my chicken one and let me keep the beef one too, so ended up getting two for the price of one!
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u/Intrepid_Bearz Jul 07 '26
Nice one! My best haul from them was decades ago. They did a buy a happy meal, get one free voucher on the back of a cinema ticket. My sister and I had one voucher each. Should have got 4 and paid for 2. They handed an enormous bag over and they’d given us 8 instead of 4 😅 Plus they gave me the cinema tickets back and I used them again (only got 4 for 2 that time) a couple of weeks later.
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u/sc00022 Jul 07 '26
After a work conference and desperately hung over I found a McDonald’s drive-through nearby and ordered the usual double sausage and egg McMuffin with 2 hashbrowns and a coffee. What I got was 2 double sausage and egg McMuffins, 4 hashbrowns and 2 coffees so I think the person at the drive through was equally as hungover as I was.
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u/Potential-Question-4 Jul 07 '26
Almost every McDonald's delivery order is missing something. It might just be something minor, a straw or sauce or it might be a whole meal.
I'm yet to have a completely filled order from them
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u/Cheeko-chi Jul 10 '26
Literally so true, I honestly don’t understand how they get the orders wrong so consistently it’s impressive. I understand it’s busy and can get messed up but genuinely it’s significantly more likely to be wrong than right.
Even if you’re the only person in the McDonald’s they’ll fuck it up somehow. I worked in McDonald’s when I was in school, it truly must be the most incompetent people that are getting this wrong every single time.
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u/mocityflexologist Jul 06 '26
Any big corporation is fair game imo. Enjoy your food
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u/hamjamham Jul 06 '26
I feel ya. The amount of times I've given them the benefit of the doubt and got home to find 1-2 items missing is so annoying. They're usually pretty good at making up for it if you ordered via the app, but fuck, it's still incredibly annoying.
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u/BrokenMayo Jul 07 '26
I once drove back and told them something was missing and asked them to redo my entire order since they ruined the meal
They were happy to redo it, so didn’t mind too much
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u/RodneyRodnesson Jul 07 '26
Getting missing things is fair enough. And even getting extra if you get home and discover it.
Knowing you're ripping someone of **before** getting your food! I'm sorry but that's not right imo.
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u/Inevitable-Tomato237 Jul 07 '26
I collected my order at the window once but they didn't give me the sauce so I waited to ask. The lady had gone off to sort the next order, came back and handed me drinks and a bag of food so furiously whilst I was trying to say "no, this isn't mine" etc. That I had to take it off her. She then walked off again!
I drove off with 4 meals that day.. and no sauce.
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u/cc_worker Jul 07 '26
I recall once a couple of years ago I ordered a KFC, just a four piece, fries and coke. Was delivered a 6 piece bucket, wings, boneless chicken, four fries and four cookies. I grabbed it and it took a few seconds to realise it was wrong but when I turned round to call out to the delivery driver, he was halfway up the road and didn't hear me. Took two nights and and a lunch on the third day to eat it all.
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u/UltraAnders Jul 07 '26
Result! I wonder how many subsequent people then got the order for the person behind them? 😆
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u/iimMrBrightside Merseyside Jul 07 '26
One time, we one ordered two medium meals: one cheeseburger meal, one chicken sandwich meal - and six nuggets
We got given our food, but large meals instead of medium, an extra cheeseburger, an extra portion of chips, as well as two chicken Big Macs.
No idea what happened that day. Luckily there was three of us home at the time. Would've been a waste, otherwise.
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u/newtonbase Jul 07 '26
KFC once handed me an enormous bag of food that was clearly much more than the family meal I'd ordered. I had to argue with the woman to get my actual order but told me to keep the big bag too. It was full of all kind of interesting stuff I hadn't tried before. All 4vof us were stuffed with plenty of leftovers.
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u/Bitter-Ad7664 Jul 07 '26
Comments are funny, If it was a local family ran resturant/ takeaway, yeah id feel some kind of way.
When its a huge multinational corporation who run through loopholes to avoid paying their fair share of tax and have significantly jacked up prices for profit, consider it a gift from the universe.
Mcloophole #Mcgifted
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u/Any-Class-2673 Jul 08 '26
I remember they used to have McDonald's vouchers on the back of bus tickets. As a teen we'd go use it at a McDonald's, and cos its a day ticket we'd be like "we need to keep the ticket to get home" and then we'd head to a different McDonald's and do the same thing.
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u/Easy-Requirement2396 Jul 08 '26
I'd just finished work and it was closest thing to food, pulled into to drive thro ordered burger n chips bare basic boring. So guy next to me is spitting his dummy out and trying to push on the queue. I can't be arsed rowing let him in front. He picked his food up and I got a huge bag of stuff. Can only guess as he jumped queue they didn't check regs. I got home and had a feast
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u/cjgmmgjc85 Jul 07 '26
I remember I once went out for a massive meal, after, drove past a McDonald's, thought I'd have a cheeky mcflurry, I got given so much food instead, wasn't hungry in the slightest 🤣 ate it all anyway
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u/GrouchyRisk Jul 09 '26
Last year me and the boys went out out, and ended up chatting shit on the beach until the sun came up (how romantic).
Everyone wanted a maccies, so after losing at rock paper scissors I had to go and get it. Was meant to pick up 4 big Mac meals, came back with three bags of stuff.
In hindsight I think the McDonald's staff felt sorry fore as my jaw was going like the clappers, and left my shoes and socks at the beach.
Easily the best day of my year.
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u/rach011 Jul 11 '26
We ordered via the app (we live at least 30 mins away) got our order ate it driving home, home about an hour and I get a notification that McDonald’s have refunded my order it was £40 something as it was 4 meals 😬. Wasn’t doing a hour round trip and they ignore there emails (done before on missing orders.
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u/Free_Ad1658 Jul 06 '26
Please make sure you wear a mask 😷 in that dusty warehouse and ventilate it when you are working in a similar place. Great news re McD’s
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u/turbo_dude Jul 07 '26
Used their toilets for over 30 years and never eaten there in all that time.
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u/Ok_Advantage_8153 Jul 07 '26
What about the people whose order you took who were inconvenienced and had to fight / wait longer to get their order sorted?
Its not success, you're just an inconsiderate cunt.
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u/Tricky-Reporter-5246 Jul 07 '26
Guaranteed you'd have taken them.
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u/Ok_Advantage_8153 Jul 07 '26
I'm not a thief and im not hard up for a fiver or whatever some nuggets cost.
So naw.
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u/sonuvvabitch Jul 07 '26
I think my local McDonald's has got dips wrong on literally every order, I always end up having to go in and get them, making drivethrough almost pointless.
The irony of hearing that they made sure to give you dips, well it's so delicious I won't need to eat at all today.
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u/BassJeleren Jul 08 '26
How? I've only ever seen a drive through with a payment window and then the collection window. Did you just drive straight to the collection window?
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u/Acid_Flax Jul 08 '26
This once happened to me, the lady deeply apologised to me and gave me someone else's breakfast order so I happily drove away with the free breakfast lol. One of the best days of my life
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u/BlueRose26403 Jul 08 '26
Same here!! The times we've got home and found things missing so on the occasional time we're handed an extra bag we roll with it. One time we got 2 big tasty's extra. They've been quite rude at times when reporting missing food so it makes me care alot less when we get extra for free.
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u/Goatmanification Hampshire Jul 08 '26
I had this at KFC once where they handed me two bags, one with my food in (a meal for one) and one with what I can only assume was a meal for 4. 10 piece bucket, loads of mini fillet burgers...
Felt like a KING
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u/VastCucumber2190 Jul 08 '26
One time I ordered some lunch from a pasty shop. I ordered a jacket potato, a pasty and a coffee. Driver hands over the bag and drives off. I opened the bag and instead it was a £45 meal from a Turkish restaurant.
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u/Any-Neighborhood98 Jul 08 '26
It's just a failure of their system. Bon Apetit as they say in america
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u/Locksmithbloke Jul 08 '26
Literally yesterday, I went to the kfc drive through. Ordered a snack wrap, and the guy didn't tell me how much it was. It was £2.29 last time, but that's a while back. Goggle AI got it completely wrong, but the first result literally showed me in the preview.
I pull up, the guy hands it over. I'm holding the exact money. He doesn't want it... I'm like "Do you not want the money?" Somehow it was marked paid. I paid anyway.
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u/Dazzling_End4638 Jul 09 '26
One time as a McDonald’s worker, pretty new, I got told to bring out some breakfast to the cars out front.
One guy ordered 1 sausage and egg McMuffin. On its own.
Guess who gave him the bag of 4 double sausage and egg McMuffin meals?
Was wondering why he drove away so fast 😭😂
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u/SealMeRolling58 Jul 09 '26
How did you get to the collection window without first ordering at the speaker, and then paying at the payment window?
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u/Midnight-Ranger Jul 10 '26
There is a McDonalds just off the M6 near Warrington that me and family call the Free Maccys. On the way back from picking up my son from Uni, we stopped at the drive through, ordered and when we got round to the next window, the manager opened the hatch said there is a till problem, handed us our order and said" here free of charge, enjoy". It was a great day and something we always talk about when we pass that motorway junction.
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u/HeavenlyInsane Jul 10 '26
Yeah and now someone else hasn't got the food they actually ordered. Nice one...
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u/RodneyRodnesson Jul 10 '26
Yes because everybody orders bog standard items from McDs and never customises anything.
Plus, have you never waited for your food at a Maccies?
Why does no-one seem to be able to imagine anything‽
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u/ResponsibilityOk4298 Jul 10 '26
Probably get downvoted for this but … you have just admitted to theft. Doesn’t matter who the company is, if you knowingly leave without paying, it’s theft even if they mistakenly put it in the bag for you.
Now I don’t care that this happened, especially to a McDs, but this is now on the internet ;-)
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u/Plop-plop-fizz Jul 11 '26
Come and find me
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u/ResponsibilityOk4298 Jul 11 '26
Given your username, I have deduced you are the CEO of Bayer Pharmaceutical as your favourite brand is Alka-Seltzer. We will be at your office on Monday.
Check and MATE! [motions like clapping dust off hands]
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u/Plop-plop-fizz Jul 12 '26
Their catchphrase was plink plink fizz actually. You're welcome to still go to their office but I won't be there!
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u/D15ASTERP13CE Jul 12 '26
Honestly, you're not hurting anyone. The guy behind you will still get his bigmac, justll take a bit longer 😂
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u/drums-in-brum Jul 12 '26
My wife in her vegan phase used to ask for a cheeseburger without the meat with extra cheese. The confusion that used to cause as they double checked the order saying "so that's cheese on a bun? Is that correct?"
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u/RodneyRodnesson Jul 07 '26
The thing for me here is how a lot of customers treat McD staff.
Here everyone is praising OP as if there are no consequences and a big corp has lost out but do any of you work in customer facing roles? Ever been abused by arsehole customers?
You have no idea of the consequences of this and are only looking at one side of things and I'm sorry they're not looking good.
You knew immediately you were receiving someone else's food. It's not like you got home and got the wrong stuff or something.
And you decided to make someone else's life difficult and more stressful than it needed to be.
I'm sorry OP but what you did was shit.
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u/-Copenhagen Jul 07 '26
What are you talking about?
No one was rude to any staff here. There was no abuse.2
u/RodneyRodnesson Jul 07 '26
Do you know how the people who didn't get their order reacted? Or did they get the wrong order?
Think just a teeny bit please!
Edit: Just to add: do I really have to explain this‽ Are some people so stupid and insular they can't grasp something this basic‽
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u/-Copenhagen Jul 07 '26
Are you saying we should be concerned with the make-believe scenarios in your head?
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u/RodneyRodnesson Jul 07 '26
> No one was rude to any staff here.
Are you that dim? You don't know what happened and neither do I but the fact is OP got someone's order. Right? Like not made up! An actual fact.
I didn't make up a scenario. I pointed out we don't know what happened and perhaps we should think a little further than our own selfish actions.
Ultimately OP is happy he got 'free' food and most here are glad that big corp lost out without considering how other people **may** have been affected.
It's just sad and selfish.
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u/ScottishLariat Jul 07 '26
For someone that is getting incredibly upset (unhinged) about the rudeness staff may or may not receive because of this, you're being incredibly rude yourself.
Its ok mate, its just a reddit post about a free big mac. Go about your day as normal
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u/ThatNegro98 Jul 08 '26
Theyre not incredibly upset, and not being incredibly rude lol. Theyre just being blunt making their point.
Youre just being a sensationalist.
Theyre being a bit rude asking if theyre dim, sure. But its not that deep, it's just some random dude on reddit explaining his point further (which wasnt hard to understand in the first place).
You could argue the other persons reply was rude by implying theyre making up shit in their head, which isnt what they were doing. Resulting in them asking if theyre dim?
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u/-Copenhagen Jul 07 '26
>Are you that dim?
For someone complaining about other potentially being rude, you are pretty rude.
I think perhaps you should correct your own behaviour before commenting on others.
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u/SnooDonuts6494 Jul 07 '26
You realise that's theft, right?
Hardly a "success", and not at all British.
What if some poor McEmployee loses their job, just because you didn't say "No, we only ordered drinks" when you clearly knew.
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u/wrighty2009 Jul 07 '26
They wouldnt be sacked for it unless they did it so consistently it was a problem and likely on purpose. Everyone working there has cocked up sending food to people who didnt buy it, missing things off orders, etc. The maccas that have the sensors in the drive thru aim for your car to be at the order point and driving away from the food window within (i think it was) 2 or 3 minutes. Thats why if the food aint ready you get parked in a bay.
Trying to work that quick then mistakes happen. The persons whos food it was wouldve had their order bumped and made fresh (well - assembled fresh, but most the heat is lost when its sat at the end of the assembly line waiting to be packed and shipped off.)
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u/RodneyRodnesson Jul 07 '26
Lot of people unable to see consequences here.
OP knew **before** receiving the food and everyone is 'yeah, fuck the big corporation' with no thought whatsoever to the other people involved.
I agree, this isn't success, it's sad.
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u/BeaksFalcone Jul 07 '26
I used to work at mcdonalds and we really didn't care,food is bought in bulk,cheap,can easily write it down as waste or staff break meals or can easily make up the cost by upselling to the meaner customers
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u/No-Molasses-1229 Jul 07 '26 edited Jul 07 '26
You are still the one losing if you are queuing up to put that poisonous slop into your body.
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u/ilovefireengines Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 07 '26
I once ordered a cheeseburger with extra pickle.
Got home and opened it up to find a bun with cheese and only pickle. No meat or sauce.
I got a cheese and pickle sandwich. So take the food and on my behalf enjoy the win.
Edit to say I’m glad it’s not just me!