McDonald's Forgot to Give Me the Pickle!

True Story: If there is one thing in the world that I love to eat and I know I shouldn't, but I do anyway is McDonald's cheese burger. Back in the day, my mom use to give me one dollar for lunch (ok, so I'm giving my age away here) but, back then that was enough money to buy one cheese burger after school on the way home. I looked forever to it everyday. That was even I started to eat my burgers a little bit differently.

I ripped and dipped my burger into McDonald's infamous, barbecue sauce, which generally comes standard with any order of chicken nuggets. In any case, this morning as I was driving by the golden arches, I started to relive those school days and ordered my favorite value meal; otherwise known as the number 2, the two cheese burger meal. I asked for BBQ sauce as I always do and to my surprise, the service technician said it would cost me 10 cents per BBQ sauce; she said, "BBQ sauce only comes with chicken."

What kind of sick company takes away the pickle? If you are unfamiliar with Bob Farrell's Give Em the Pickle philosophy, understand that pickles are those special or extra things you do to make your customers happy. It's a hand written thank you note with every order shipped. It's walking the customer to the item they're looking for rather than pointing. It's giving a different condiment to a hungry customer, even though you know that condiment doesn't go with that meal. It's whatever small deed or service makes the customer happy. If you are in business for yourself or work in customer service, if you want to keep your customers happy, give em the pickle.

I know that a good portion of McDonald's are independently owned as franchises, but even still, people have come to expect certain small gestures that make a world of a difference to all customers. Ray Kroc would be turning over in his grave if he knew what's becoming of his dream.

I imagine that the costs of not giving away one additional BBQ is simply another way to save money. What I dislike is the lack of consistency. This isn't the first time its happened to me. It's just the first time that I've become irate about it.