"...and the loss of Credibility"

Last week I had gotten off work a bit early, and decided to grab a bite to eat before heading home. I pull in to one of our local Subways, get myself a sub, grab the free paper, and sit down to relax for a bit. This is all happening during an off-peak dining period, so the place was empty except for me.

As I'm sitting enjoying my late dinner, a rather unremarkable middle-aged woman comes into the store. Seeing as it's pretty much deserted, I'm up for a bit of a diversion from my meal and newspaper.

Woman: "You people really should have a drive-thru for this place. I hardly ever stop here because it's such a pain to come in. If you had a drive-thru, I'd come here a lot more."

Worker: "Actually, Ma'am, we do have a drive-thru. See, it's right over there."

Woman: "Well, you should put it on your sign that you have a drive-thru. You'd get a lot more business that way, if people knew you had a drive-thru. It's just good business."

Worker: "Yeah, ok. What can I get you?"

This woman then goes on to suggest about 3 more improvements that would immensely benefit Subway and the restaurant market in general. I cannot recall the exact suggestions, but they seemed somewhat logical.

Now consider, for a moment, that she is talking to the natural world equivalent of Bumblebee Drones. (No offense towards fast food workers, having been one myself for a long time) Anything you tell these workers is not going to be passed up the management chain. Your suggestions are not going to change the face of the sub business. Most likely, they will be immediately be forgotten by everyone involved, including myself, and I was paying a fair bit more attention to this whole scene as it played out.

In the midst of delivering her sermon on perfecting Subway's business model, the worker helping her asks:

Worker: "What kind of cheese would you like on this?"

Woman: "Oh, give me the white stuff."

Fascinating.