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WENDY’S RESTAURANT REVIEW, EVERETT WA
By swenson | October 31, 2008
You know there is a problem with a fast food restaurant when they require a key to use the bathroom. That tells me they’ve given up. Because when you require a key to the restroom you begin scaring away customers who don’t want the inconvenience or embarrassment of having to ask for such a key. Clean customers who pay good money without making a fuss or causing problems in the lobby. If you want to think ghetto then you attract ghetto–messy customers stinking up the lobby and turning off even more decent patrons.
I haven’t been to Wendy’s in awhile because I have to be careful about eating dairy, however I was in the mood to take a risk today. Wendy’s food has always been one of my favorite guilty pleasures. I got fat on it when I was working a dayjob and freelancing at night and didn’t have much time to cook. Grabbing a biggie-sized meal–a bacon burger, fries and a Dr. Pepper–was heaven to me. Kind of like getting a fix if you were an addict.
Later on I lost the weight and had to give up Wendy’s for the most part. It wasn’t easy to shed those fast food pounds. But I don’t mind indulging occasionally.
So when I do go to a Wendy’s I expect it to be a relatively nice experience, taking into consideration that everyone is being paid minimum wage. Wendy’s in Everett Washington is tolerable but not nice. I’ve visited three times now and every time it feels dirty. The front counter person is usually unkempt and not professional in their service–on two occasions the counter person complained to me (for some reason people always feel comfortable confiding in me)–the lobby doesn’t seem wiped down regularly even though business was slow, and now you have to ask for a key to the bathroom.
But the food still tasted like Wendy’s and I can’t complain there. Bad for me–yes, still a guilty pleasure though.
My advice for the franchise owners is if you feel the need to lock the bathroom door to avoid problems then sell your business. It’s poor management to require a key for a restaurant restroom and have everyone coming up to the “food” counter to remind those hungry guests that someone is about to expel fluids and waste–very ghetto mentality. And I didn’t see that using a key was doing any good on monitoring the bathroom either. I saw the counter person hand it off to someone who hadn’t even ordered food.
What needs to happen is there needs to be more transparency on who’s coming and going into your restaurant. That may require knocking down a blocking wall or restructuring your restroom. And so what if someone uses the bathroom who is not a customer–for the most part that’s not going to be the case. You’re only concern is to keep the bathroom safe. That means probably expanding the bathroom beyond a one person deal so that employees can do an hourly sweep of it to make sure drug addicts aren’t holding up in there. Privacy is what they like to do their thing. Don’t allow it.
Get a clue Everett Wendy’s. You’re making your restaurant inhospitable to patrons.
Topics: Junk Food Reviews |