u/SpaceTime2079

TL;DR

A McDonald's employee tried to give me a Diet Coke that another random customer sipped off who ordered a regular Coke and had it replaced. Gross.

So, it's been a busy day working at home for me and I just didn't feel like cooking dinner. So I order on my McDonald's App and select to pick it up in their mobile order curbside pick-up lane. I get there, put the number and a reasonable 15 minutes later, a girl working there brings my food out. All good so far. They have a few orders and they give the order to the car next to me first. They hand her her food and a drink. She takes a sip and says, "I didn't order diet Coke." So, she hands her the regular Coke that's also on her tray. She then comes to my car, hands me my food and then tries to hand me the diet Coke the person in the car next to me took a sip off. I mean, who would do that??? That's just gross! I asked her if that was the same diet Coke the lady next to me sipped on and she said, "I'll get you another one." A few minutes later a different girl comes out and explains that the other girl didn't speak English well. I'm not sure what that has to do with anything, but that's what her reasoning was.

It's Absolutely gross that this employee would ever consider giving a drink another customer sipped off to someone else.

I have tried several sets of closed back headphones for critical listening during post production tasks.

I keep coming back to my trusty old Sony MDR-7506's that I've used in music production for 30+ years and audio podcast production for nearly 10 years now.

I feel like I can do better. I'm just curious what everyone uses for critical listening tasks. What say you?

TIA!

Like most people, I enjoy saving a few dollars by shopping at stores like Walmart. I also have very low expectations for the overall shopping experience there. To be fair, though, every now and then a Walmart surprises me and ends up being a relatively pleasant place to shop.

Tonight wasn't one of those times.

I just went to the Walmart in Federal Way around 10:15 p.m. because we're leaving tomorrow on a 10-state road trip, and one of the kids couldn't find their flip-flops. Apparently, they were left at their dad's house. He'll need them for the trip, so I headed to the only store I knew would definitely be open and likely have flip-flops at a reasonable price.

The store was packed with customers and severely understaffed. The checkout lines were long because only two cashier lanes were open. On one side of the store, all of the self-checkout registers were closed, and on the other side, it looked like only about 10% of them were open.

The store itself was dirty. The shelves were a mess, and many items were out of stock. Experiences like this remind me why I do most of my shopping outside of Federal Way. Aside from Trader Joe's, I usually shop in Milton, Puyallup, or Redmond when I'm staying at my partner's house. Those stores are simply cleaner, better staffed, comfortable and in general, seem to be far better managed. Their parking lots aren't full of garbage, and you don't regularly see people slumped over from fentanyl use nearby.

This Walmart is poorly managed. Why are so few of the self-checkout registers open? Why is the entire store such a mess?

Don't get me wrong—I don't blame the employees. They're just doing the best they can with the resources they're given. But the management, and this part of Federal Way in general, paints a sad picture of what's happening in the area.

I can't wait until my lease is up in March so I can move to Redmond and live there full time. This town—and this Walmart in particular—has become a depressing place to live and shop.

Be better, Walmart. Be better, Federal Way.

• I deliver DoorDash as a side hustle, a way to exercise and something to do while listening to sports games and podcasts.

• The job as a driver is to pick up the customers order and deliver it to them. That's the entire job. We do not have a food handler's card. We're not supposed to do anything but deliver from the store to the customer It's Point A to point B. Full stop!

• It's actually against DoorDash rules and is a contract violation that could lead to that driver being deactivated from the platform or basically, what amounts to being fired for this vialation.

• Admititly, it's probably very unlikely that this will happen, but nevertheless,it's in the contract for a reason. And it's absolutely possible that it could result in a Dasher being fired over this if a customer complains about their drink or claims it was tempered with. It also puts DD and the driver at risk of claims like this. Customers try all sorts of things to try and scam free food. Not most customers, most are awesome people in my experience, but a large enough minority that it's a legitimate concern as a Driver who drives DD.

• It's also a rule that the health department takes pretty seriously, FWIW.

• So, I picked up an order earlier tonight from the Federal Way Wingstop. I was handed a cup to fill a drink. Now, it's not a huge deal, but again, it's against my contract with DoorDash as a driver to do so and against the King Country Health departments rules for me to do so. I had to wait in line to fill the drinks. Again, not a huge deal, it just took a few minutes. But, we're not paid by the hour. Time is money and me taking my time to do what is a task a Wingstop employees should do just doesn't sit right.

• This Wingstop is one of the only places in Federal Way that so this. Most businesses follow the heath codes and the contract with DoorDash and other delivery partners. Not the Federal Way Wingstop!

• As a customer, do you want unvetted delivery drivers who may or may not do basic things like wash their hands after they urinate filling your cup and doing other food handling things? I am a driver and I wouldn't want a third party driver handling my food beyond picking it up and dropping it off, if I ordered delivery myself.

• Again, I'm not saying this is a huge deal in the grand scope of things. I politely mentioned to the staff that it was against my contract as a driver and against King County health codes for a person without a food handlers permit to fill the cup. They just told me it was their "policy" as she stood there watching me wait in line to do their job.

• If I were any of you I'd either not order from Wingstop at all or I'd pick up my order myself. But even then, ,if they aren't following even these simple rules like 99.9% of local businesses do, what other corners are they cutting? What other health code rules does management seem not worthy of them following?

Edited for typos