I would 1000% start making that order.
It’s not a practical order to fill, logistically. You won’t have 18k cups, just for starters.
Comment on Taco Bell rethinks AI drive-through after man orders 18,000 waters
theblackpaul@lemmings.world 9 hours agoI’m gonna guess you have never worked in fast food.
Window times are the metric they die by. Generally speaking, they start making your order the SECOND you order it, before you ever leave the ordering screen. Yes, even if the order changes mid order. Yes, they make, and throw away lots of food that is not paid for, forgotten, etc … TONS of food (literally) is thrown away daily.
As for the water order? I would 1000% start making that order. If the higher ups think the AI is working correct, well then who am I to question it? Nobody who works fast food is paid enough to give a shit.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
Prove_your_argument@piefed.social 9 hours ago
I worked at a pizza place with a drive through. We sold many items that were non-pizza like wings, subs, salads, burgers, desserts and side items like fries, mozz, etc. My girlfriend's family owned the place, so I was familiar with more than just grunt work and had some inside insight into the business numbers that normal workers do not get.
We would never have fulfilled an 18,000 water cup request.
If someone came by with a catering sized order in the drive through, we would have had them park somewhere and told them a relative estimate of how long it would be. Sure, maybe someone would have started on a couple of things, but we wouldn't be able to fulfill such large orders in the time it took between placing an order and the window. There's only so many workers.
There was obviously plenty of food waste, but that's baked into the cost of the items.
Vandals_handle@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
Food waste is a large greenhouse gas producer. The costs that impact the business P&L might be baked into item cost but the environmental cost is being externalized and everyone pays.
flubba86@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
No. This makes no sense. Are you seriously saying if you saw an order for 18,000 waters pop up on your monitor you’d just say “that’s fine” then spend the next three days straight filling cups?
If I were the manager of the store, I’d hope my employees would have the bare minimum critical thinking skill to ask someone first.
At the store I worked in, everyone would be given at least 12 hours notice of a catering order. We’d have everything prepped ready to go, and expect the order when it arrives. If one popped up without notice it’s definitely a bug, and we’re definitely not making it.
aeiou_ckr@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
This is thinking of the order from a managers view and not a worker that generally is paid/treated like shit. Middle managers at fast food places are on the same level as lawyers and tow truck drivers.