Once Was: The Shared Experience (of Ordering Food)

January 07, 2024

Once Was: The Shared Experience (of Ordering Food)

I noticed the green helmet first, up the hill a ways, at the base of that nasty, sweeping switchback, the one that is often loose, always steep, and frequently littered with broken glass. There are not a lot of green-helmeted heads out there, and I reckoned I knew who this one belonged to, so since I was already off my bike I reasoned I might as well shuffle off to the side of the trail and wait for the rider to descend the remaining short distance. Soon enough, Paul, riding his gravel bike on this day, came along. I hadn't seen him out on any trail (or road for that matter) in quite a while, so we both commiserated about our mileage deficiencies, and caught up on our respective lives for a few minutes before we continued on our respective ways.

supposed to be a pic of the two highest peaks in SoCal (in the distance) but it was a little too bright, and instead I got a pic of towers of power

My entire life has been lived according to the code of the loner. I don't mind, and I wouldn't trade the solo riding I do, but I also like riding across people I know out on the trail and, taking it a step further, there is alway a great group of riders right around the corner to join in with. Looking back a ways, one of the things I liked most about racing (and all the training that went with it) was the camaraderie and the shared experiences.

Later, after the ride was done, I had an (unsuccessful) errand to run - that camera thing and, since I was out and about, I figured I might as well get something to eat. There was a Taco Bell, and I walked on in. There was already a guy waiting at the counter, and looked kind of annoyed. I waited, and waited, and gradually took on that same annoyed look. Finally, the drive-thru operator came over and sort of helped the first dude who was, apparently, just picking up a phone-in order. While the other guy went back to waiting, the employee asked how he could help me. Expecting him to take my order I told him what I wanted, but to my surprise he says, "oh, we don't take orders in here anymore. You have to use the mumble, mumble." I couldn't make out the last part of what he said, but guessed it was something like, "you have to use the drive-thru." I said really? in the most annoyed way I could and turned to leave. That's when I noticed the touch screens along the wall just inside the door. You've got to be kidding me! I threw my hands up and said forget it.

From there I went over to the Hitch, intending to switch my tacos for a burger. When I walked in through the front door, what do you think I saw? No people, that's for sure. They had all been replaced by touch screens. Oh, F**k it I said to myself, not being so rude as to say it out loud.

You know what, if a business can't be bothered to provide the courtesy of having someone there to greet and take my order, then I will not be patronizing that business. I know, gas stations have been doing this for years. The difference? I still need petrol once in a while. Taco Bell? No.

There was a Noodle World just across the parking lot, and when I walked in the front door, the person there had a smile and said "welcome!" Now there's a business model I can support. It made all the difference in the world. Once upon a time, employees, the ones who greeted patrons as they walked in the front door were the public face of a company. These days, it seems as if companies prefer to use impersonal touch-screens, overpriced celebrities, and football players of dubious acting ability, as their public face. Is this a good business model? Replacing the humble (and low-paid) employee with high-priced and annoying celebrities?

I gotta tell ya, and maybe I am alone on this, but I will repeat patronize a business as a result of the experience I have had there, not because that business got some overpriced celebrity to show his, or her, face on far too many advertisements which, in any case, I have forgotten about two minutes after I have seen them.