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May 22, 2006
Press Here
There is a Donatos Pizza just a short walk from where I live. I eat there often enough to know how things work there. I know they'll ask my name when I order and I always have it ready. I know to specify "green olives instead of green peppers" when I order my Chicken Vegy Medly and, more importantly, know to listen to the order taker repeat it back to me so I know it took.
I know how the self-serve fountain-drink machine works.
For the longest time I'd eat there once a week. I always got the same thing. I never had a problem.
And then, one day, all of a sudden I had a problem with the drink machine.
The drink machine at Donatos serves Coke products. You put your cup under a nozzle and press a button just below the word Coke, Diet Coke, Orange etc. You get the picture. The important thing to know is that you don't push a lever back to get the pop flowing.
And, of course, the other important thing to know is that I'd successfully dispensed gallons and gallons of pop out of this thing. Until that fateful day.
I put my cup under the nozzle and pressed the icon for a large Diet Coke -- our machine has several icons ranging from small to super large -- you've seen the folks at McDonald's push one of these icons and then boldly turn their back on the fountain machine as the unit magically dispensed the appropriate amount of pop.
At this particular time I had an awareness that I'd never seen the series of icons before. However, like I said, I had poured a lot of pop out of this thing over time and I was pretty sure I'd just never noticed and it was something I did automatically. As a matter of fact, the only reason I noticed this time is because the button wasn't working very well. A spurt of pop would come out and then it would stop -- and this was with my finger constantly on the button.
I tried all the icons with the same result.
Eventually, using this method I was able to get a full pop.
A week passed and I was back at Donatos.
As I filled my pop I had the same problem ... briefly. Below the row of icons -- the row that would auto-dispense -- was a much larger "Press Here" button. That would have been the button I'd pressed the dozens of other times I'd eaten there. The button I would have pressed without ever thinking about the motion involved. The button that always worked. The button I think the folks as Micky D's press to top off your soda.
More time passed. Much more that a week. So much, in fact, that we're all the way up to yesterday.
I went to Donatos and found the place full -- I mean packed -- with soccer kids, soccer moms, soccer dads, some blokes from Manchester United and some old people that seem to have gotten lost on the way to MCL Cafeteria and decided to make the best of it.
I was third or fourth in line and there were people behind me. (Normally I stroll right up to the counter.)
Behind me a mother and daughter were talking. The daughter had noticed the pop machine -- we were standing right next to it -- and wondered about the icons with the different cup sizes. The mother explained that she thought they were auto-fill buttons, how they worked, and said she thought they had them only in places where the employees poured the drinks.
Always helpful, I said something like, "The auto-fill buttons don't work."
"They don't?"
"No," I said, and to demonstrate my point I reached over the pressed what would be the super-size button under the Coke label. I expected a splat of pop to come out.
Naturally, a super-size amount of Coke started pouring out of the machine and down the drain. There was no way to stop it.
"You have to keep in mind," I said to the woman, "that I am a man. How much can I possibly know? As a matter of fact it wasn't until I heard someone say 'a large with pepperoni and mushroom' that I realized I wasn't in Burger King."
FWIW, the icons for Diet Coke still do not auto-dispense.
To make things worse ... I forgot to specify green olives when I ordered my Veggie Chicken Medly.
Posted by delmer at May 22, 2006 10:12 AM
Comments
Maybe they need a machine that can dispense a pizza with green olives instead of green peppers.
Posted by: The Phoenix at May 22, 2006 1:54 PM
I'm the same way. If I get set in a routine, it takes almost nothing for something to knock me off my game and for confusion to set in. If that happens, it will invade every crevice of my being.
Posted by: Rob at May 22, 2006 2:09 PM