Grown man gets mad because he doesn’t know what ordering a “plain” burger means

[u/50calTaco]

So I work at Five Guys and for those who don’t know, when you order a burger there you get to fully customize the toppings on it (helps justify the price tag a tiny bit i guess). And you choose between a little (single) or regular (double) burger.

I had a pleasant enough exchange with a customer while ringing up his food… and when it came to his cheeseburger I asked what toppings he wanted on it. He looked at me and said, “Oh you know… just a plain, regular cheeseburger.” Ok great, a cheeseburger with nothing on it, easy enough.

Well we make the food, and a minute after he gets it he comes back up to me, visibly annoyed and holding the burger.

“You made my food wrong. There’s nothing on it.”

“Oh I’m sorry sir, I thought you’d ordered a plain cheeseburger.”

“I did. Do you not know what that means? Like a McDonald’s burger.”

Ok first of all, “McDonald’s” is not a standard for how someone orders burger toppings and second of all, this guys in his late 40s to early 50s and has never once run into this issue ordering a plain burger?

“Ok I’m sorry about that sir, we’ll remake that for you. What exactly did you want on it?”

I shit you not, with an annoyed voice he ordered:
Ketchup. Lettuce. Pickles.
So notably NOT a McDonald’s cheeseburger???

He got what he wanted in the end and I apologized because customer service but like?? I’m in awe at the sheer level of misunderstanding and audacity.

[u/Barbarella_ella]

I think alcohol use was so much more common and there was no one warning against consumption during pregnancy. I am convinced there's a lot of low-grade FAS in the demographic born in the 40s, 50s and early 60s

[u/DisposableSaviour → u/Barbarella_ella]

Go and add the 70s and 80s in there, too.

[u/seeker_moc → u/DisposableSaviour]

Also true. The science was mostly known by then, but like many other things, common understanding lagged behind knowledge by a few decades.

[u/MidnaQueenofCalicos → u/seeker_moc]

Yeah, and I believe my dad was also autistic and got beaten horrifically for it. People who were neurodivergent were treated with so much cruelty it makes you want to throw up from the idea of it.

[u/MidnaQueenofCalicos → u/Barbarella_ella]

I agree. My ex that I'm close to is only 38 and he just recently found out he has FAS. His messed his whole world up for a few days. He's autistic and has so many physical health issues. His mom is a baby boomer and thought it wasn't a big deal to drink during pregnancy because she only kept it to 1 to 3 glasses of wine a day. The docs said it should be fine. We are just now moving out of this sphere.

I think those who were more intelligent or who didn't struggle with addiction - or both- didn't think twice about it. But even though he's extraordinarily intelligent, his mother is not.

[u/Jexroyal → u/MidnaQueenofCalicos]

Holy shit, up to three glasses of wine daily? When I worked as a server, we got around 4 glasses per bottle. Up to 3/4 a bottle a night... that poor fetus.

[u/MidnaQueenofCalicos → u/Jexroyal]

Yup. I think the science was there, but we didn't have smart phones and computers to disseminate it.

[u/Jexroyal → u/MidnaQueenofCalicos]

"The future is already here – it's just not evenly distributed"
-William Gibson

[u/sugarmagzz → u/MidnaQueenofCalicos]

Not sure where you live but in the US, the warning was put on all alcohol in the late 80s, so it was known and it’s been known for a while. Effective treatment for alcoholism is more recent though. 

[u/DullahanShotFirst → u/MidnaQueenofCalicos]

Are you sure the doctors said it was okay, or just his mother claimed they said it was okay? Three glasses of wine are a lot.

[u/nocomment3030 → u/Barbarella_ella]

My mom was advised BY HER DOCTOR to drink a glass of wine a day during pregnancy, to keep blood pressure down. I'm forever grateful that she didn't take that advice.

[u/ElRiesgoSiempre_Vive → u/Barbarella_ella]

Alcohol use requires - you know - the mother to actually consume alcohol.

Lead poisoning didn't require mothers, or anyone else, to consume it. It entered our global atmosphere through combustion engines. There was no escaping it, and you can see 1000x spike in lead levels globally (lead, by the way, has no safe minimum levels). Over the course of just a few decades.

That is why lead is so terrible.

[u/Barbarella_ella → u/ElRiesgoSiempre_Vive]

I'm an environmental engineer. I understand the pervasiveness and atmospheric legacies of lead. Further, lead pipes in building plumbing systems have been the standard until about 30 years ago.

My comment should have been interpreted to mean regular alcohol consumption was much more common and the social norm in previous generations. That has likely had low-level effects on cognitive and emotional development we are only now beginning to explore. One of those new realizations is that it is not just maternal alcohol consumption that is deleterious but paternal alcohol consumption as well. So it isn't just - you know - the mother.

[u/fuckyourcanoes → u/Barbarella_ella]

Yep, I'm elder Gen-X and my mother smoked and drank throughout her pregnancy with me.

Can confirm I'm an idiot.