Grown man gets mad because he doesn’t know what ordering a “plain” burger means

[u/50calTaco]

So I work at Five Guys and for those who don’t know, when you order a burger there you get to fully customize the toppings on it (helps justify the price tag a tiny bit i guess). And you choose between a little (single) or regular (double) burger.

I had a pleasant enough exchange with a customer while ringing up his food… and when it came to his cheeseburger I asked what toppings he wanted on it. He looked at me and said, “Oh you know… just a plain, regular cheeseburger.” Ok great, a cheeseburger with nothing on it, easy enough.

Well we make the food, and a minute after he gets it he comes back up to me, visibly annoyed and holding the burger.

“You made my food wrong. There’s nothing on it.”

“Oh I’m sorry sir, I thought you’d ordered a plain cheeseburger.”

“I did. Do you not know what that means? Like a McDonald’s burger.”

Ok first of all, “McDonald’s” is not a standard for how someone orders burger toppings and second of all, this guys in his late 40s to early 50s and has never once run into this issue ordering a plain burger?

“Ok I’m sorry about that sir, we’ll remake that for you. What exactly did you want on it?”

I shit you not, with an annoyed voice he ordered:
Ketchup. Lettuce. Pickles.
So notably NOT a McDonald’s cheeseburger???

He got what he wanted in the end and I apologized because customer service but like?? I’m in awe at the sheer level of misunderstanding and audacity.

[u/Effective-Shock2068]

I once ordered a plain hamburger and a plain cheeseburger and the McDonald’s girl said, “so, two hamburgers?”

If someone wants to think a “plain cheeseburger” is a hamburger, I mean, that’s dumb, but I get it. And I don’t blame the girl for clarifying.

But no matter how dumb either of us is, surely she had to realize I was asking for two different types of food?

[u/Emergency_Basket_851 → u/Effective-Shock2068]

Has the same energy as taquerias in Mexico City serving quesadillas without any, you know, queso.

[u/practicalgorl → u/Effective-Shock2068]

Whenever someone in retail or food service clarifies something that seems obvious, I always assume they've not done so in the past and regretted it.:') 

If bet that another customer made the same order as you at some point and did actually want two hamburgers.

[u/Ellipsoider → u/Effective-Shock2068]

What? A cheeseburger is a hamburger. Hamburger is the general category. A cheeseburger is a hamburger just as a dog is an animal.

If you had a dog and a cat, you'd have two animals. Here, since you have a plain hamburger and a plain cheeseburger, as you mentioned, it's two hamburgers.

If someone wants to think a “plain cheeseburger” is a hamburger, I mean, that’s dumb, but I get it.

It seems you've a fundamental misconception that you're blaming someone else here for (who actually works at an establishment that sells these, so it's conceivable she knows more than you).

A cheeseburger is a hamburger with cheese. At no point in time does a cheeseburger stop being a hamburger.

I don't know the extent of your interaction, but from this:

If someone wants to think a “plain cheeseburger” is a hamburger, I mean, that’s dumb, but I get it.

it seems you're the confused one. Or using your own words, you're the one saying dumb things.

[u/Pedantic_Pict → u/Ellipsoider]

If that's how you reason things out, may I ask how you manage to navigate the world on a day to day basis?

[u/Ellipsoider → u/Pedantic_Pict]

Likely quite a bit better than you.

Perhaps the cashier was checking whether or not they wanted fries, or a soda, or nuggets. It was a perfectly reasonable question.

Why are you celebrating stupidity so ardently? Your username surely does not check out. And the individual had the gall to imply the cashier was being dumb for the question.

[u/AssMuncher96 → u/Ellipsoider]

I'm not sure if anyone's ever told you, but you need to shut the fuck up sometimes. This is one of those times.

[u/GotTheKush → u/Ellipsoider]

Well yes and no?

They have it as 2 options for a reason on the menu. 

Burger is the category but you would be a bit confused if you ordered a double decker with bacon and she said "so a hamburger" because using your logic it is the same.

[u/Ellipsoider → u/GotTheKush]

It's a complete yes. A cheeseburger is a hamburger, period.

Are we really to believe the cashier, who does this for a living, has such incredibly poor short term memory that she immediately forgot that a cheeseburger was requested, despite just pushing the buttons for it (most likely) -- or is it more likely that she wanted to check if he wanted a soda, fries, or something else with the order?

It's most likely the "so, two hamburgers?" question was just a means to begin wrapping up the order and seeing if he was done with it. It wasn't a meaningless recategorization (why on Earth would anyone do that?).

What's happening here is simply that the individual did not move beyond his own perspective and instead of questioning himself he assumed the cashier was being dumb. Then he revealed this on social media where someone mentioned that he likely has things backwards.

[u/Effective-Shock2068 → u/Ellipsoider]

Goodness. You’ve spent so much energy trying to sound smart on this not-very-important topic.

Just two things, because the rest is utter nonsense:

If you are a cashier who wants to know if a customer would like more items, “Anything else?” is more effective than, “so, a hamburger?”

Speaking of moving beyond one’s own perspective, I’m not a he.

[u/GotTheKush → u/Ellipsoider]

I now see your reply 15 days late but I'll humour you and reply.

Cashiers are trained to spit back the order from the register to confirm. Her saying 2 hamburgers is incorrect still.

[u/Ellipsoider → u/GotTheKush]

Perhaps a breach of protocol but not the fundamental classification error alluded to and insulted for.