Lost My Appetite

You probably know by now that Friday is my night not to cook. Our decision about what and where to eat was influenced last Friday by the fact that one son wanted to go to the rec program at the middle school at 7PM and another son and I wanted to go the benefit rock concert at the high school at 7PM. A local sandwich shop seemed best.

One guy was making sandwiches. A man and a woman, possibly the owners, were milling about doing whatever in the back of the store, but could be seen by customers. After we waited for the one guy to finish helping the people in front of us on line, he began serving the five of us. As we were waiting, the woman in back had come out front to fill up supplies in the sandwich making area and putter around doing other things. The sandwich making guy glanced over at her several times but said nothing. As he finally finished one sandwich and moved on to the second, I turned to my oldest son and remarked that his dad and brother might be done eating before we even got our food. But there was still only the one guy, and at this point it was not clear that the other guy or the woman were on duty to serve customers.

A woman got on line behind us. She asked me if there was only the one guy serving, and I said yes. Lo and behold, the woman behind the counter asked the woman behind us what kind of sandwiches she needed. At this point, I repeated my comment, directly to sandwich making guy: half my family would be done eating before I got my food. Couldn't the woman behind the counter help finish our order?

Sandwich making guy and sandwich making woman did not acknowledge me at all! The woman behind me on line was incredulous, but was also in a hurry so she made quick apologies to me and called out her order. Several minutes later, sandwich making guy was finished with all five of us and said "sorry for the delay." Too little, too late. I informed him that he really should speak to sandwich making woman because what she did was bad bad bad. This remark too went completely unacknowledged. I guess the woman really is the boss or the guy is primarily interested in collecting the hourly wage and not how well the business is actually doing.

My husband and middle son were indeed finished by the time I got to the table with my food. The kids got a lesson in customer service, should they ever have this kind of a job. This sandwich shop is definitely off the list. Decent food, decent location, oh well, not willing to put up with the service or lack thereof.