How civilizations begin to break down
I was driving from New England to South Florida. Was near the last leg of my journey with my dog, Mollie. We stopped at a LaQuinta off Interstate 95 in Savannah, Georgia.
The TV didn’t work. When someone came to fix it, they were perplexed. Didn’t have a clue what was wrong.
Meanwhile, the front desk person gave me another room (before I could escape and find a different motel).
I was hungry and tired. So was my dog.
It was rush hour or a little after. Lots of traffic out now. And, lots of places to grab a quick bite.
With Mollie, I couldn’t really go to a sit-down restaurant. Fast food was in order. But first, I fed Mollie.
There was a McDonald's a short distance from the motel. Don’t remember if Mollie was with me, but I think she was. I seldom left her alone in a motel room to do errands. So, we drove over to the McDonald’s.
When I walked in, I could sense something was wrong. People were standing around waiting for their orders. They didn’t seem happy.
The woman behind the counter appeared to be the night manager. A guy in the open kitchen area kept calling for her frantically. No one was ready to take my order.
I looked and considered my chances for getting a quarter pounder with cheese. Didn’t look good. The manager was semi-apologizing to a customer for the back-up and being short-staffed.
I decided to not bother ordering, for even if they took my order, my chances on getting my hamburger in the near future were not good.
Plus, I didn’t necessarily trust the guy in back doing the cooking who kept hollering frantically for the manager.
Nearby there were other fast food outlets. When I walked into each, I knew they were also in dire straights. In fact, they were worse.
Staffs seemed to be totally in a state of dysfunction. I wouldn’t be able to get any “fast food” this night.
Next door was a Hardee’s, a sit-down restaurant. I apologized to my dog Mollie for taking so long as I left her in the car. I thought that perhaps I could order something to go.
Went in. The woman who came over to help gave me the menu but acted as if it were a major assignment. The manager came over. As I perused the menu, I knew I didn’t have time to wait. And, I wasn’t certain how effective this place would be either.
Didn’t seem to be much happening. I ordered a big coffee to go. Was tired. When I got back to the motel, the coffee was lukewarm. Couldn’t heat it up in the microwave because it was in a Styrofoam cup.
Nevertheless, I had some of the tepid coffee and whatever odds snack bars I had left, which were slim pickings.
What surprised me and perhaps shocked me was that this very busy area had fast food outlets that were in total disarray. My guess is that these places couldn’t find the help they needed to get the job done.
Plus, the help they could find were either incompetent or simply over their head with a busy place with not enough employees.
It’s the first time I’ve been to a McDonald’s and was unable to place an order.
A great brand was out of commission on that night in the outskirts of Savannah, Georgia.
It made me realize that civilization as we know it can break down when there are not enough competent people to do the jobs we all take for granted.
