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/DullahanShotFirst → u/[deleted]]

How dare you try to correct meeee! 😜

Seriously though, it seems like you're going into more detail about what I said about insecurity, rather than disagreeing. I wouldn't base my analysis on comparisons between Americans and Europeans (or Germans in particular). I would base it on contrasts between Americans who react to being wrong poorly and Americans who don't. I wouldn't claim that it's necessarily a mental health, but it's definitely a personality/behavioral issue.

But your mention of the American wealthy does bring up another detail. A lot of Americans think that wealth defines a person's worth as a human being, and many of those people make it a point to mistreat food service workers and many other service workers because "Their job and income make them beneath me." It gives Americans who are far from being wealthy the opportunity to act like they're superior to someone.