We’ve all been stuck waiting for our food to be delivered at a restaurant, and perhaps some of us have even had the urge to march back to the kitchen and pick it up themselves.
Well, one man did just that at his local McDonald’s. Tired of waiting for his ice cream cone, Robert (@robert.jeanne) snuck behind the counter and poured his own soft serve while his wife recorded him in a viral video.
The video opens on footage of Robert standing by the pickup counter at a McDonald’s, shifting from foot to foot. Staff members bustle around the kitchen behind the counter.
“My husband wanted ice cream,” the on-screen text reads. “But he had to make it himself because they waited too long.”
After a few seconds, a staff member approaches Robert and he leans over to say something in her ear. She straightens up and heads back behind the counter, laughing a bit and telling him no.
“Are you sure?” Robert asks as she leaves.
“I’m sure,” she responds.
“Y’all are no fun,” Robert calls after her. The video then cuts to him speaking with another customer.
“I might help myself,” Robert tells the other customer, holding up his McDonald’s receipt. “It’s already paid, we’ll see how they’re gonna get it to you.” He creeps towards the counter, then stops and turns around.
“Want a good laugh?” he asks the customer behind him. The customer’s reply is indiscernible, but Robert winks and gives them a thumbs up in response. “Don’t tell,” he says.
The soft serve sting
Robert spends a few minutes joking with the other customer, stating that the employees keep getting in the way of the ice cream machine, and telling the other customers to scatter when he says “run.” Then, he meanders up to the counter and snatches a bright yellow safety vest from behind the counter and puts it on.
Vest on, Robert slowly moves in towards the ice cream machine. He eventually sneaks behind the counter, makes a hasty, deflated ice cream cone, takes off the vest, and heads back to his original spot in the lobby.
On his way to the door, Robert jokes with other customers who witnessed the operation.
“It’s free—well, I paid for it, but I can get you one,” he says, pointing at his melting vanilla cone. He raises the ice cream in cheers towards the counter. “Thanks!” he says. “For fast food, it ain’t fast. Good, too!”
The video ends with a triumphant photo of Robert standing in the McDonald’s, eating his ice cream.
Many commenters laughed at Robert’s antics and commended his handling of the situation.
“Honestly as an employee I would’ve loved this,” one commenter said. “He wasn’t weird or rude he just nervously made his snack and left what a king.”
“I love that he did the high visibility sneak in,” another user added.
Other users criticized the McDonald’s staff for making Robert wait so long.
“Why didn’t the girl who told him no just make the d*mn ice cream real quick?” one commenter asked. “It’s takes less than 30 seconds to make a cone.”
Why are McDonald’s wait times so long?
While Robert’s gaffe pokes fun at the long wait times sometimes experienced at fast-food joints, it also points to a larger labor issue.
On the McDonald’s website, the fast-food corporation answers the frequently asked question: “Do you have a time limit on serving time?”
“We do not set time limits on completing orders due to the vastly different busy periods,” the company responds. It states that due to the changing nature of orders, they don’t have a specific time limit protocol to manage wait times. McDonald’s note that they “do have internal measures though to help [them] deliver better service,” though they don’t specify what those measures are.
McDonald’s posted this policy in 2018. A few years later, the entire fast food industry faced a labor shortage due to the pandemic. Some outlets speculated that the shortage put pressure on McDonald’s “internal measures” that the company still hasn’t recovered from.
The Washington Post published an article in January detailing recent child labor violations committed by various U.S. fast-food franchises, including McDonald’s. The Post hypothesizes that these franchises overworked underage employees in response to the pandemic labor shortage.
“Since the widespread labor shortages of the pandemic, fast-food companies have illegally scheduled thousands of teenagers to work late and long hours and to operate dangerous kitchen equipment,” the article reported.
@robert.jeanne # Mrs Lewis loves Mr Lewis 4-ever
♬ original sound – Robert ❤️ Jeanne
As of January, McDonald’s “has averaged 15 violations per 100 stores since 2020, ranking among brands with the highest rates of violations.” McDonald’s franchises’ continued reliance on precedents set during a severe labor shortage could indicate that the company is still struggling to keep up with customer demands.
The Daily Dot reached out to Robert via TikTok comment and direct message, and McDonald’s via email.
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