This Wendy's is located at a hot spot near Bellevue Square Mall and at least three high-end hotels. I'm here for a corporate gig, and since my work vehicle is back at the job site, I hoofed it two blocks to get a burger at 7:15pm on a Wednesday evening. I passed up the open, high-end restaurants because, 1, I'm not rich, and 2, I'm alone. Who wants to sit and have a $50 meal solo during the height of coronavirus? Last time I did this corporate job I stayed at a different hotel and hoofed it across the street to a Jack-in-the-Box. After being shooed out of the dining room (only opened for a fellow worker), I was told I could order at the drive through, on foot. So I did; it was awkward but I got a burger.
Not here. Apparently the dining room is closed a 7! Not that I wanted to eat in there, I wanted to order at the counter and take it to go. Nobody would look at me or let me in. The signage was small and I didn't see that they closed their lobby. Still, my JITB experience led me to believe that maybe I could order at the window. I walked up to the drive-thru window, and the guy completely ignored me. Completely. Spent his time filling sauce packets. I waited patiently. He finally started to talk to me. But the window was closed and he had a mask on. I couldn't hear what he was saying. It was clear his actions were saying "just go away" but that's a despicable way to treat a customer. Finally, he walked away, and a perturbed short fat woman comes to the window. She starts gesticulating wildly but I can't hear her either through the window and mask. This goes on for a minute. Meanwhile cars are backing up in the drive through. I'm pleading with her to open the window so I can hear her, but she won't. Finally I OPEN the window.
This is escalation, I'm sure, but ignore and ignorance are similar words, aren't they? She asks why I did that. Clearly pissed, she's having none of me no matter how much i try to explain my circumstance. I get the gist that the lobby was closed at 7, so the other people they let in must have been family members. She offers no resolution and is anxious to get me to leave (I have a suggestion: let me order). I relent and go back to the lobby entrance and knock, hoping she will take a moment to talk to me. No way.
Pretty soon police show up and ask me to sit on a bench outside. They get her story, and then come talk to me. No problem officer, he understands my predicament, says I should call corporate, which is what I was looking up when they arrived. They left, I called corporate, made my complaint, and was told that a district manager would call me in the morning.
I'm not hiding. As a pedestrian, for the first time in my life I feel what it's like to be discriminated against. Any other day I can drive my car through here and get food, but no car = no service (second class citizen). Discrimination, plain and simple.
I know we are all dealing with this coronavirus in wildly different ways, but we have to work together. In my business I bend over backwards for my customers, and frequently have to come up with on-the-spot, outside-the-box thinking. Could we all have the same rules? Could we have less rules? Can we treat people as individuals, not as just another number in line?
Can truck drivers get a break? (You don't see them going through a drive-thru.) read more