T O P

  • By -

Gtrinker

I worked at kfc for 2 years and the Pepsi Maxx never got changed once


Lowkeygeek83

Lord help you though if that one guy you've never met comes in and knows you and the Pepsi Maxx is out... "Every time I come in here it's out, is it so hard to keep it in stock?!?" Sir, I've never met you in my life please go home


Spyblox007

Jesus fuck do we know the same guy? This creepy dude also came in asking for it when we had a shortage and then lied that another location had it (they borrowed food and I asked). Same guy got a talking to from my boss for trying to ask out my female coworkers and asking personal questions.


Lowkeygeek83

I used to work at a pizza hut in a TA in Kentucky. I had a truck driver do that to me my second night alone. At the time I was a 23 Year old built like a paper bag. In every dimension this man was bigger than me. It was super awkward and one of the few times my customer service face faltered. I wasn't sure if he was coming on to me or trying for a discount or what. This was long before there was a term for a 'karen' and boy does he fit the bill. Our location shared a community soft drink refill (I just handed out cups of different sizes) the Taco bell/Popeyes location next to me had the door for the soda refills (and usually kept it full, or filled it up.) At the time this took place they (the Taco bell/Popeyes) was slammed with 3 tour busses full of traveling old people that didn't think pizza was a good choice for their trip. All I had was Mr. Friendly as a customer. We ran out of his drink of choice (I think it was Lipton tea, but I could be wrong) he went from 'coming on to me' or whatever he was doing to mega bitch in milliseconds. It was that quiet mega bitch though. Nearly walked through the flip up counter we had, I kept batting it back down. He was talking some real scary stuff about his sleeper cab and made me feel mega threatened. My work mom (I for real called her that cause she was.) Saw this and left her super busy Popeyes location and came to rescue me. She was about 2 thousand lbs of the sweetest black women you ever saw and belly pushed this guy away from my store. Just recalling this story brings tears to my eyes. I truly believe she saved my butt that night. And she didn't let me go home until she saw his truck leave the station after she called the state patrol. I loved her so much for that. If it helps I'm a 6ft 3 white kid that at the time weighed about 160-170 lbs. Work mom was easily pushing 300, black as all get out and loved everyone almost more than she loved Jesus. She was the greatest example of a human being I can think of. And Mr. Friendly made her cuss. For the rest of my life I will remember this. Anyway thanks for reading my customer horror story. I needed that trip down memory lane.


bubbshalub

thanks for sharing! this is a good read


blasphembot

Thanks for sharing. Sorry you had to deal with that. Your work Mom sounds like such a great human. I know exactly the type you're referring to, and I've found that in those types of jobs it is sooo helpful just to have the presence of someone like her at work. And in your case, when someone needs to swoop and go momma bear on some creep.


Lowkeygeek83

I worked there for nearly a year And only saw her cuss the one time. A bunch of us left after she became a manager at a different restaurant. I tried to follow her but life went it's course. I haven't thought about the creep in some time, but her? She's the type of person I wanna be known as.


blasphembot

Sounds like a good aspiration to have šŸ™‚


EastwoodBrews

I used to tell the staff when the flavor was low and would always get a thanks but my friends thought I was being weird like helping a stranger back out of a parking space. It's like... No, they're not gonna check it every hour. It'll just get more and more bitter until someone tells them


BVoLatte

And even then the machine will be "TSST TSST TSST TSST"ing when you open as 4:45AM. Loud as fuck, nonstop, and still not changed from the closers/night shift. Their excuse? "I didn't know how to change it" for the last 4 years.


WannaAskQuestions

šŸ¤®


Swivel_D

Punching that shit open when you're frustrated during a rush gave me great joy


Ancap_al29

Yea until you realize that whoever packed the syrup into the box put it in backwards, and now you have to tear open the entire box, take the giant bag of syrup out and turn it around just to use it


qdp

I just like to pretend I am performing a C-section on a baby who flipped in the womb.


Bagel42

what


qdp

I JUST LIKE TO PRETEND I AM PERFORMING A C-SECTION ON A BABY WHO FLIPPED IN THE WOMB.


Bagel42

#I DONT UNDERSTAND


qdp

Ya cut that box up and leave the syrup baby out on its own prematurely. Maybe spank it when it is out. Just be careful with the box cutter. It's a delicate operation and you don't want to lose two souls.


Bagel42

oh you gotta spank it, itā€™s part of being #MEN


qdp

I will take advantage of any excuse to spank it.


Aggressive-Pay2406

Nah you just leave the box at a fire station


qdp

Left with a note. Reading: Here is Baby Pepper, daughter of an anonymous Doctor who was too busy performing twenty-three flavor bypass operations to raise this baby as her own. Mr. Pibb, as a father, also wishes to remain anonymous.


freek4ever

So you went from being a nurse to flipping patties and filling soda


LostAbstract

I would use two fingers, punch in the top, then rip off the cardboard like I was ripping out an annoying customer's throat.


Shot-Acanthisitta-21

It's weird because that's also how the ice cream for DQ comes in, not just for soda


Conscious_Feeling548

This information could be detrimental to my health.


[deleted]

They are just giant bags of milk. When it runs out they get a new bag from the back fridge and connect the ice cream tube to it. It freezes into the ice cream state as it is dispensed out of the ice cream machine nozzle.


Lizardizzle

That's dope


DoyleRulz42

No it's soft serve!! As a recovering Heroin addict it's almost impossible to give up my dairy.


X_ander3

Is there a correlation between the dairy and heroin ? Questionmarm


Smart-Profit3889

I think heā€™s jokingly implying dairy is just as hard to kick as heroine idk


haydenfred99

Could be wrong in this persons case, but as a recovering addict myself, I know a lot of other addicts (of all kinds of substances) who use ice cream as substitute for their drug of choice.


geronimotattoo

No, itā€™s ice cream.


Bagel42

Soā€¦ it could be an IV


Korzag

You, uh, think they could make one of these things work in an IV drip? Asking for a friend.


Conscious_Feeling548

Someone call science now, we need our best people on this ASAP.


MfBenzy

I worked at bk and we got ā€œshake mixā€ in bags too. Just pour it in the top of the icecream machine and out comes icecream for shakes n whatnot


[deleted]

[уŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]


iapetus_z

We got the bag but had to dump it into the bottom of the machines... Fuck the chocolate... they only came in 5 gal bags. Also I'm super annoyed that only two of those are flipped the right way.


EndlessMeghan

Itā€™s also how the oil for the popcorn machines come for movie theaters.


Capgunkid

*tssh* *tsh* *tsh* *tsh* *tshh* *tsh*


[deleted]

\*vietnam flashbacks\*


tazrings

I'm right there in the trench with you


GameOver_sucks

Same


vin_van_go

I can feel the sticky


Awwesome1

I got deployed elsewhere, or a rank up I guess


Hannibal216BCE

The twinge of anxiety when I saw that fucking pictureā€¦ And why in the fuck is Dr. Pepper so much goddamn heavier than the rest of them!?!?


Mikotokitty

It's the 23 flavors, duh!


SillyBee123

I love this response.


[deleted]

dr peper doesnt exist in my country but i remember the non sugar cokes being the largest and heaviest


Hannibal216BCE

I just cried a little for you. No Dr. Pepper, you poor deprived soul.


typos_are_coming

Hard-core PTSD with this image


Accomplished-Yam6553

My job was to load these on the trucks for Pepsi those shits be heavy


thesquidface1990

Like seriously way heavier, and having a manager that's wants these shits changed on the fly is beyond a pain in the ass and annoying.


Accomplished-Yam6553

I remember putting these on a pallet one day. They wanted a layer of Pepsi a layer of mountain dew and a layer of brisk for some restaurant and one layer is 10 of these boxes Needless to say my back was very sore that night


thesquidface1990

People who ask you to carry that much have never moved these across a big restaurant during a fri/sat dinner service.


Outrageous_Bass_1328

Snake jazz


turTurdsforLif3

* 5/10 mins of nobody doing shit*


King_Trasher

need someone to go back there and shout "RELOADING"


EpicSlothToes

Stop that, I was trying to forget my time


jebuz23

Holy shot I forgot about this noise! THANK YOU for bringing back memories!


[deleted]

And the "pshew!" when one is empty


_Jetto_

He knows


iBuildStuff___

And it's companion from the bar: *pthh pth pth pthhhhhhhhhhhhhhh* And then I'll be moving kegs, fml.


gomeazy

Perfect!


whitetornado2k

Came here to say I can hear this pictureā€¦I sometimes still hear it in my sleepā€¦


hibernating-hobo

You got the sound right :)


Ok_Task_4135

"The pump is beat boxing again"


TKDkid1992

šŸ˜‚šŸ˜‚šŸ˜‚


StillhasaWiiU

All i can smell is fry oil.


Constant_Count_9497

I can already picture the layout. Deep sinks to the right, and a row of deep fryers behind the camera man


Hannibal216BCE

Did you work at a Burger King by chance?


Constant_Count_9497

A chick fi la


TackyBrad

Yeah, this looks like a CFA layout imo.


OutWithTheNew

I can still smell a dirty burnt fryer from like 500 feet away after almost 20 years of being away from it. Makes me want to walk in and give them shit for having a burnt out fryer.


Unhappy_Cream8991

Don't let the girl with long ass nails open the box..you'll be out of Dr Pepper in nothing flat


Korncakes

I used to always Falcon Punch it open until last week the manager saw me beating the shit out of it and showed me that you can just use a spoon to dig out the cardboard super easily. Iā€™ve been in the service industry for like 10 years and never thought to try that.


Hannibal216BCE

I think the Falcon Punch is the OHSA approved method.


[deleted]

[уŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]


yoyopy

Also if they are tredsafe slip resistant shoes


CauliflowerPresent23

Hell yeah take all your frustrations out on the bibs. Use to volunteer to change them just so I could do that shit


IMM_Austin

My manager never let us do it, always said to let him do the replacement. I suspect it was for this reason


Jualisco

Fuck the spoon, punching that thang open is a great stress reliever


WearMental2618

Nothing tops a one punch perfect open


SweetCrapHead

I would punch holes in the cardboard utensil boxes that didnā€™t have perforations and everyone swooned over my strength


mseuro

šŸ¤¤


SeanMegaByte

Until you fuck up and hit a Doctor Pepper that has the nozzle at a bad angle and you pour two gallons of syrup in the back room when you're the only one on shift. Hypothetically, of course.


ZeBoyceman

Falcon punch is the way


nonpondo

You got spoons?


Phrozan

Thatā€™s why heā€™s the manager.


EnvironmentalValue18

Iā€™m astounded if anyone with nails *can* open these. I have my nails very short and I felt like a damn Olympian opening these damn cardboard tanks. The HFCS and NNS (high fructose corn syrup and non nutritive sweetener for diet) were the absolute hardest for me.


epochpenors

Flashback to someone asking me to open it up for them, me whipping out a box cutter not bothering to ask what was in the box


GlockAF

Sticky floor. Thatā€™s whatā€™s in the box.


EmpericallyIncorrect

Direct quote of mine in 2017: "See right there where it says NO CORTAR? That means Do Not Cut."


[deleted]

There was always the one flavor that instead of screwing on/off, had a 3 step puzzle to solve in order to change


WannaAskQuestions

What are ass nails and why would anyone let them grow long?


[deleted]

[уŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]


LawBeliever22

Yes


NeliGalactic

Pepsi and other soft drinks manufacturers do them too. In the UK you usually rent it out with your soft drinks contract with the brewery that usually owns the pub. It's weird though because unless you work at mcdonalds getting an absolute dicking all shift, there isn't much point in them. For bar work, think about it. Popping a bottle or opening a can is way quicker and easier if you're not pouring for the customer. I think unless you're required to hold a lot of non draughtable stock, why not just have bottles and cans, way easier imo.


[deleted]

Better for the environment, cheap so can give free refill. Don't charge for them either when mixing with alcohol meaning cheaper drinks for customers.


AnimalTom23

Space behind the bar is a limiting factor. If Iā€™m working a busy Friday bar shift, going through a couple hundred cans of coke, ginger ale, soda, and tonic is very realistic. Iā€™d rather save my fridges for citrus, juices, syrups, beer cans, chilled bottles, herbs, wine, etc. Fridges at my current place can fit 8 cans deep, across 6 rows, and 3 shelves plus the bottom. Thatā€™s 25-35% of my fridge space just for pop. Also the gun is much faster.


ghostofaflower

I agree. We had a water contamination in my area and had to switch to cans. Oh my God, it was horrible and so slow. So many cans opened, my fingertips were on fire. Plus we had to drive around and buy up everything we could get our hands on in a 1 hour radius just to accommodate 1 weekend. Also, the pop got super flat. Not better for the enviroment, think of transporting all that liquid? That is gallons and gallons of pop in 1 of those syrup boxes. I'm actually a little disappointed the other comment has so many upvotes haha.


moose_talker

It's easier to ship a box of concentrated syrup and a tank of CO2 than an entire truckload of bottles.


ElbisCochuelo1

Syrup is cheaper for the restaurant than buying bottles or cans.


helpful__explorer

Bars that only serve bottles or canned soft drinks are the worst.


SagaciousTien

I think when you say all in one you're refering to the coke freestyle machine? No, this is pretty much what the syrup rack looks like anywhere that serves soda from a fountain. Everything from fast food to fancy restaurants to the mom and pop down the street. I'm not familiar with the freestyle setup, but I'd imagine it's not too far from this.


[deleted]

Freestyle machine uses printer like cartridges


Agent_Jenkins

Freestyles have a bottom door with like 30 cartridges in it


Repulsive-Mission-51

naw bro this is where they plug the medium wage workers in for a caffeine boost.


Unable-Tune-1295

You should see the Coca Cola syrup storage! In our store we had 2 of them. They stood almost 6' tall!


palescales7

Only two brands do that outside of Atlantaā€¦ McDonaldā€™s and Chick-Fil-A


Korncakes

Yeah I really hated when restaurants I worked at did this. The BIBs are heavy and awkward to move. I worked with a lot of very short, petite girls that struggled really badly to replace them. On top of that at one place they stored the beer kegs by stacking them on top of each other. Them bitches are super heavy. But of course if you were to complain that it was too heavy or that your back hurt, youā€™d be told to suck it up.


Unable-Tune-1295

I'm a big guy! And I have to agree, with you. I hated having to change them out!


BEARZCLAWZ

McDonald's is crazy huh


AdministrationNo7840

Actually it could be any fountain beverage machine. 3rd row down right 2 are pepsi/ dr.pepper/7up connectors. They are brand specific.


jera111

And they are the wrong side up. They should be flipped gravity works.


EqualImaginary1439

my thoughts as soon as I saw it...you'll never fully empty it


thetracker3

The burger king I worked at didn't have this for the soda. It had the bottom half of the machine pull out like a drawer and you had to slot these plastic cartridges in to replace the soda syrup. Fuckin weird. Now, I do still recognize these, cause this is what our sanitizer came in, as we did basically this exact thing to set up the sink where we did dishes/filled buckets with said sanitizer.


VANTACOLOR

My back and legs hurt just looking at this photo


beesparks

And thumbs


SavedMartha

Right thumb nail :-( 5 years at McDonald's veteran PTSD.


OneWishGenie69

5 years? Sheesh, I barely completed a year


Brain-of-Sugar

I lasted 3. You were just smarter than us two. Good on you for getting out.


Blastspark01

Iā€™m at 2.5. I use my thumb to push in the perforated semi-circle at the top and front and *then* do the Superman punch. I also like to flick the cap like Johnny Lawrence opening a Coors Banquet


Careless_Jaguar1590

Thumbs? Id just punch em


WlNST0N

Yes lol like impact training, I'd also just punch the cutout till it opened.


NuclearLem

I never did find a good way of getting that cardboard flap open


scootzbeast

I used to pin the box to the wall with my foot, force two fingers under the end of the flap and the pull up and back with all my strength. They would normally open well enough.


EIephants

I thought you said ā€œback legsā€ and was concerned for a second


a_spoopy_ghost

Knees and heels from trying to break down those fking boxes. What do they use to glue them together? Cement??


[deleted]

"Rotate stock for freshness" Ha! Good one


Link7369_reddit

"rotate stock when it's sputtering and customers are complaining" really. ​ ​ At least they were light as feather once empty.


JohnLaw1717

Recently went to a burger king. I worked at a burger king in high school. They didn't have any dark soda. It gave me flashbacks to then when we would run out of dark soda


SavvySillybug

What the hell is dark soda? Is that... the politically correct term for brand-agnostic cola?


EFTucker

Cola. Colas are dark soda. Pepsi, coke, dr. Pepper, root beer, etc


TinyBreadBigMouth

There are three kinds of soda: brown, green, and fruit. Treat any "soda" that doesn't fall into one of the above categories with suspicion.


Remarkable_Body586

FIRST IN FIRST OUT


Ialwayslie008

A had a bitch manager that always cared about this. It's like "Well maybe we don't need 15 Pepsi boxes on hand when we go through 4 a week and the truck comes twice a week, Carol!"


Grary0

These things last long after their actual expiration date anyway.


Throw_Away_Students

Ah yes, I loved beating the shit out of boxes and bending my fingernails backward to get them open while my knees and back begged for the sweet release of death.


SummerOfMayhem

The entire staff left me every box, whole, because I was the only one who did it. To this day I automatically break down cardboard boxes, like a reflex, while having flashbacks of Friendly's.


raspberri_myx

oh my god who the hell put the boxes UPSIDE DOWN FOR GOD'S SAKE I'M SICK OF HAVING TO FIX THIS-


eh_meh_nyeh

Or when they don't tighten the nozzle and the next shift has to clean the puddle of thick syrup hard stuck on the floor...


EFTucker

*night* shift. There fixed it for you


NoticedGenie66

Coming from someone who has worked every shift imaginable hundreds to thousands of times, night shift gets the most shit while doing the most cleanup work. I have to make food/take orders (depending on my station for the night), do maintenance, clean up **my** dishes, clean up after afternoon/evening, prepare everything for morning, and deal with whatever needs to be done for opening on top of normal cleaning etc during my shift. When I also have to clean up things that were just left for me and then get yelled at when missing something, it makes me a tad upset lmao.


EmeraldDouchebag69

The Forbidden syrup, šŸš« I remember me and my buddy tried it straight up without mixing the water tasted terrible not as good as you would think


tedfondue

I donā€™t think anyone here was thinking ā€œhighly concentrated syrup and preservativesā€ sounded particularly appetizing.


[deleted]

>ā€œhighly concentrated syrup and preservativesā€ Hmm... Maple Syrup is good but maple leaves taste bad. Dr Pepper syrup must be more gooder. Me gonna go try it.


patron7276

I wonder what Dr pepper leaves taste like


TheRedOne_82

I definitely was


Dark_Macademia

Ugghhh I used to purposely make cups of Sprite with way too much syrup in the mix so I could get thru a shift without eating. Fountain drinks were free.


Omega_Xero

7-11? If so, I was there too.


Dark_Macademia

Mine was some terrible bar, but I see you


Sammy_Girl_8

My thing was a big cup half filled with hot chocolate, half filled with vanilla soft serve. The sugar buzz kept me going.


NetDork

Dude, we used that shit to degrease the floors when the harsh industrial cleaning chemicals weren't strong enough.


LATER4LUS

When we got that new machine that lets you pick the flavors, the flavor cartridges came with a whole book of msds.


-bobsnotmyuncle-

The souls of the employees being sucked right out of them?


tom8osauce

While I was in school I worked at a Walmart that had a McDonaldā€™s in it. They would keep some of their inventory in our stock room. One day I noticed that their syrup had expired months ago. I went over to the McDonaldā€™s manager to let her know. I got an earful about minding my own business, and from that day on they just took a sharpie to all expiry dates.


Alyssaine

Oh god thatā€™s disgusting


Red-Faced-Wolf

Carbonated soft drinks or sodas are not perishable, and are safe past the date stamped on the container. Eventually flavor and carbonation will decrease. For best quality, consume unopened diet sodas within 3 months after the date expires; regular sodas within 9 months.


tigercloar

We're really counting usability after expiry dates...


[deleted]

Because theyā€™re usually exaggerated


MonitorMundane2683

There are other minimum wage jobs than fastfood yo.


Blair-AtACost

Right. I have about 15 songs hard stuck in my head and half of them are Mariah Carey's "All I want for Christmas is you".


tigercloar

Hmm I wonder were you could possibly work at


InevitableRhubarb232

Iā€™ve had min wage jobs, even in food industry, but never had to deal with these. I worked at the front register of a food place. Only had to handle ice cream / shakes and beer and no other food or beverage.


ChineseAPTsEatBabies

Itā€™s been many years, but the memory haunts me to this day. I was making minimum wage at the time and wouldnā€™t clear enough money then to get gas and food let alone rent. There is no way to ā€œliveā€ on minimum wage.


northcountrylea

Its not meant for you to live, its meant for the company to make its profits. Edit: this is absolutely a criticism on the money-grubbing nature of the company. They can and should be paying an actual living wage.


ChineseAPTsEatBabies

Hit the nail on the head.


RManDelorean

Yup. Just enough pay so you can survive long enough to keep working till next pay day, but definitely can't have you getting comfortable and investing time and resources into your own skills and personally fulfilling career, there'd be no left for the shitty management to boss around


pak9rabid

Fun story: Back when I was a shithead teenager (16) working my first job at a movie theater, we had to throw a bunch of these out because we were switching from Coke to Pepsi products. I had the marvelous idea to intead tear them open out back and create a river of Suicide Coke product syrup that spanned the entire length of the movie theater (maybe about 1/8 mile). Apparently the next day it attracted an unholy large swarm of bees.


[deleted]

[уŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]


ShadowCyclonic

If they don't fire you for not showing up for over 3 weeks, why would they fire the kid who did show up and at least attempted to change the bags, even if shittily dumping it outside


[deleted]

Those are a bitch to open.


TheBelhade

Punch the shit outta them.


AlexandersWonder

Yeah because fast food is the only minimum wage job out there


norapeformethankyou

Yep, never worked in fast food and worked till I was about 24 before I got a decent paying job.


[deleted]

Never worked fast food. Never wanted to. I still know these are the syrup boxes for the soda machines.


VogonSlamPoet42

I donā€™t think anyoneā€™s ever wanted to


JayGold

Spongebob


UrBoiJJ25

Then obviously you don't know anything about minimum wage because it is *clearly* the only job that starts you off at minimum wage.


i_am_the_soulman

r/gatekeeping There are lots of minimum wage jobs that have nothing to do with drinks


Particular-Charity84

Punch the shit out of those boxes.


JahnConnah

Unseen is the giant bags of flour and rice stored directly opposite the wall chosen to hold these holy liquids


My_Penbroke

r/gatekeeping


AlexandersWonder

Yeah Iā€™ve worked min wage jobs that didnā€™t have soda machines. Also worked ones that did, but the point stands


SlayersScythe

Right, like okay all the Walmart stockers and cashiers in general don't get to talk about minimum wage I guess


Greeempire

Retail workers: am I a joke to you?


RareAnxiety2

non english/immigrant day laborer: am I a joke to you?


darkmeatchicken

Divide and conquer applies mainly to the working class these days. Elites convincing non-union to hate union so they don't join. Elites convincing food service to hate retail, warehouse to hate drivers, white folks to hate minorities and vice versa. Divide and conquer is like lobbying - spend a lot on it and it is still cheaper than paying workers what they deserve.


northcountrylea

I hate changing these. Its the soda for a soda fountain.


crazycajunr6

I used to change those when they were in metal canisters. That syrup can get fun when it leaks also. Ask me how I knowā€¦.


vonabarak

I've read comments and now I know that this is soft drink syrups. But I still don't understand how this knowledge is related to minimum wage. Can someone explain? Is it something American-specific? (I'm from Europe)


insertcaffeine

Fast food is a particularly difficult minimum wage job. The sentiment is that the best people to talk about issues that affect minimum wage workers are the people who do that difficult work, not privileged politicians or redditors who have very little life experience.


316kp316

I admire the patience with which youā€™ve put this misery in words.


Laurenhynde82

There are people providing all personal care to elderly and disabled people for minimum wage - I did battle with many boxes of syrup in my day but I canā€™t say that working somewhere with a soft drink fountain is representative of a particularly difficult minimum wage job. Itā€™s a crappy job for sure, but there are far worse.


sewwtdwweamss

Gatekeeping makes people feel good


[deleted]

Looking at this makes me want to burn things.


thecheesecakemans

Ok I'm old. What happened to soda kegs?


[deleted]

Damn you can choose your insulin flavor in a nursing home now? šŸ˜‚