First Day in the Store

So I arrive the next day at one of the 5 stores that my owner/operator has, fresh faced, full of new information, ready to get down and serve my little chunk of those 47 million daily customers.

The store I went to is big. Very big. It's old too! Dust gathers in corners in big, old places. That's all I'm saying. You gotta be attentive to that stuff.

So, the store manager was informed, I'm sure, that the new up-and-coming company manager was coming to her store, and she had to make sure he got impressed damnit! Well, whether she was told this or not, she definitely did not do it.

First, I showed up at 8am to a dirty store. Breakfast rush hadn't even hit yet! The store manager, who I'll call M., told me with a heavy, worn-out sigh, that I would be working presentation for Drive Thru, which is a demanding and important position. I was up to the challenge.

I got into the Drive Thru presentation area, and it STANK! OOoohhh wheee! I mean it was horrid. I asked M. about the stench in that area and she told me it was from the drain that was under the soda dispenser. So I got a couple buckets of hot water with some soap in them, and dumped them down the drain to make the water and (hopefully) the stench flow. No dice! It stank just as bad then as before I tried to flush the drain out.

While down under the soda dispensing area, I saw an odd, white ... puddle? Not exactly. It was like a stalagmite growing from under a counter, and it seemed to be the source of the stench. So after about 25 seconds of investigating, I discovered that the machine that dispenses cream for McDonald's Premium Coffee and Iced Coffee was placed in a ... poor position. The 'catch tray' under the dispensing nozzle was located directly over a pre-fabricated square access hole in the metal counter it was resting on. And cream would spill out over or around the catch tray. And then, that cream would drop through the hole, and made a puddle that was never attended to underneath.

I broke out some steel scrubbing pads, a couple buckets of water, and cleaned that horrible, calcified and incredibly funky mountain!!!! of old cream. Stench went away!

The rest of my day was spent scrubbing all 4 walls of that uncared for Drive Thru presentation area. I learned something that day. With enough elbow grease, the yellowed walls of an old restaurant can become white again. I'm certain I'm the only person who ever worked in that store who made that discovery.