Strangers Aren't Always Bad

With an hour to kill between appointmen😆😃 decided to stop and grab a quick bite 😀to eat at a fast food joint. I won't mention the name of the place, but they serve tacos and their name doesn't start with "T". 

One of the things I enjoy the most is the fries they serve. Thy are crinkle cut 😆😃⬇️, which is good for texture (for those of us who like texture in our foods), thick enough to be sturdy for holding ketchup and long enough that you can usually get a couple of bites out of one fry. 

Not wanting anything more than a order of fries and an soda, I decided to stop and eat.

Inside, there was a woman and an older man seated at one of the tables with computers and spreadsheets out around them. I assumed the woman to be the General Manager of this particular location and the man as maybe a district manager. 

I went to the counter, ordered a medium fries, their mocha coffee thing and a breakfast wrap.

The order took a minute to get to me and when she set the fries on the tray I immediately noticed they were a little darker then they should have been.  I was about to ask for fresher fries when I noticed the guy in the back scrubbing the deep fryer. It was empty of oil and he was in there with his hands scrubbing the sidewalls. Even if I did ask for newer fries they would have had to had me wait, not been able to offer them or outright told me "no."

So, Ii sat with my meal and ate while I caught up with the news on my phone. 

As I'm leaving I notice the man whom I assumed was the district manager watching me. When I walk within 4 feet of him he asks, "Did everything taste okay?"

"No," I immediately reply. "The fries tasted old," I said. 

"Old," the woman asked?

"Yeah, like they'd been sitting there too long. Have you ever taken fries home and tried to reheat them? Like that." And not to get anyone into trouble, I followed up with, "I would have asked for fresher fries but I saw the guy actively cleaning the deep fryer so I didn't say anything."

The "District Manager" said he would buy my next meal and as he walked away to get complimentary gift card I asked the woman, "Are you the GM and having a quarterly with the district manager?"

She smiled, "No, I'm the District Manager and he's one of the owners."

Oh. 

So, I thanked the owner for asking me how the meal was, as I fully appreciate real world market feedback and gave them both some more based on my experience this morning. 

Protip: you never know who  you're going to meet when you talk to strangers.