Service Industry Rant

# Hours Awake - 3
# Cups of Coffee - 1
# Inches of Rain, Year to Date - .2

A couple of weeks ago I was in SFO trying to get onto a flight back to Los Angeles. Now, I know the air travel industry is ripe for the picking but we'll deal with that another time. My grip comes from the Burger King in the terminal and actually every fast-food restaurant and increasingly regular restaurants as well. My question is for the Ad-wizard who came up with changing the sizes on all the drinks and (if available) fries. We went from having small, medium and large which I thought was a pretty good system to Medium, Large and Super Size (Jumbo, Ultra, Humongo, etc.) Two problems here: the first is that the sizes didn't actually change and we just ended up paying more and (psychologically) getting more than we were before. But we really weren't, we were just getting fisted by the Ad companies again. Did they really think we wouldn't notice? Did they really think we wouldn't see that our old 12-ounce small was now a medium? Well, the truth is yes. They did, and we obliged. Everyone just decided that they must have become bigger drinkers over night and that was it.

I was hung over from the night before and all I wanted was a coke. Of course, the only place to get one was at Burger King because they can justify charging the most for their drink (you get that extra special cup with the crown on it). Problem was, once I got in line, the overwhelming aromatic goodness of their fries took over any chance I had of just getting a soda.

When you get to the front of the counter, you notice that they only offer sizes of medium, large and King-Sized. I only wanted a small fry so I ordered it just like that. Didn't phase the cashier cause she knew what I wanted and I'm sure she just hit the medium button. Next I ordered the "large" Coke. According to their menu I should have been in the middle of the road, just where the old school medium used to be. She must have assumed that I was saying f your new system, I order what I want cause you can't fool me with your fancy new faux bigger sizes, cause I ended up with the Pokemon Collector cup which you could smuggle an infant in. This is not what I ordered, I thought to myself. But what can I do? I could go back and demand the smaller size and point out how stupid their new system. I realized pretty quickly that any complaint I lodged would fall on completely deaf ears not to mention the fact that it was an awful lot of tasty good Cokeness coming my way.

I took the Coke and only had a little difficulty arguing with the flight attendant about my number of carry-ons. She had a point and I had to classify my new Pokemon collector’s cup as a personal item.

-s