Just when you think the poor Taco Bell franchise in OK hometown Lawrence, KS, can slink out of the national limelight, lightning strikes again! To wit, the following plucked from the Wall Street Journal: *************************** 'It Keeps Counting'

After nine months at a Taco Bell franchise in Lawrence, Kan., night manager Tiffany Swan Holloway vows never again to work in fast food. Her small night crew had a hard time keeping up with the chain's 60-second window-service goals and a constant stream of cars that usually numbered in the hundreds, says Ms. Holloway, who recently quit the $7.75-an-hour job. And then there was the timer.

"It beeps and it keeps counting," Ms. Holloway recalls. "Nobody liked to be on drive-through."

Customers are another problem. Wendy's trains cashiers to hold their arms out the window, offering change to the dollar, thereby pre-empting customers from rooting around for coins and wasting valuable seconds. But "they're looking anyway," laments cashier Pastor Tequimila on a recent day here at the Darien Wendy's. His station today is blowing its budget by 25 seconds per car.

Big orders can gum the works, too. At the very instant that some McDonald's executives -- eager to show off their speedy new toll-transponder technology -- arrive with visitors at a southern California franchise, plans are foiled by the driver of the minivan just ahead, who wants a dozen Happy Meals. "It might take a little longer," a store manager informs the executives.

'Quality Is Our Speed Limit'

The biggest price of speed, however, is accuracy. The same study that showed Wendy's on top in speed ranked it 11th in accuracy, something Wendy's would like to improve. "Quality is our speed limit," Mr. Tomney, the Wendy's manager, likes to say.

A customer who arrives home only to find something missing or wrong with his order is unlikely to take much comfort in how quickly he zipped through the line. University of Kansas student Clint Toland and his girlfriend recently drove through a Taco Bell to get a late-night meal of nachos with meat but no beans. Back at home, a discovery: beans and no meat. "My girlfriend was in a bad mood because she was starving," Mr. Toland says. "I'm never coming back again." ***************************** No chalupa, no sex!

-- Swampfox (wmikell@earthlink.net), May 18, 2000

Answers

The same Taco Bell franchise is in the news... again!

-- Mook (everett@psi.edu), August 03, 2000.