Today's Yelp Review Doozies

Every day lately I've been going into Yelp and looking at reviews, sending messages, and just getting to know what Atlanta offers (seven years late).

So, yes, there are always those reviews that have pretty bad things to say about places, whether for dining or just a service generally.

Today, though, took the take. These four were in pretty decent succession of each other, and some of them left me just shocked.

David B - Kacey's Home Cooking

In this one, the manager flat-out and unprovokedly told them to get out. I mean, what? I understand, people have lives, and having someone come in relatively close to closing time might not be the most ideal thing. Having worked in various customer-facing and serving positions, I totally get it. But dude…

Jessica B - Shaking Crawfish

This one is probably the draw between laughing at how ridiculous the service was and just throwing one's hands up in frustration. I mean, the people laughed at the fact they were about stealing the customers' money. 🙄

Leah B - Burger King

This one is probably the tamest of the four because it was the most passive. Simultaneously, it's probably the saddest because the service person – basing this on the review – seemed to not care she'd spilt a drink all over the customer and her car. I mean, now she's got soda she has to clean out of her car somehow, and it's full of sugar, the soda!

Nina L - QuikTrip

Then this one, it is anger-producing, partly because it involves multiple people. There seems some racial profiling in it, as well as some misogyny, some assumptions about the writer, some sexual harassment… It's just a complete clusterfuck, and I don't blame her one bit for just walking out… I've messaged her she should bring it to corporate.

And I mean in Oklahoma!

Nametag It

It's not the first time I've wondered, but I've been wondering when television commercial producers had decided to start putting nametags visibly on their characters, or even giving the characters names in-commercial (like Maxwell the Pig).

The first one I really remember paying attention to is Annie from Popeye's Louisiana Chicken, and from there it's been everything from Matt of Carmax to these new commercials (of I forget which car company) where they have splash screens of the characters' names when they've completed the obstacle course of supposed "hard customers".

This comes to me because, partly, I wear a nametag at work and partly because I – based on apparent work standards – have to "introduce" myself to every customer. I can't help wondering if this is a change that had occurred — if at all — around the same time commercial characters started getting names. I can sort of get it as far as those characters go, since, I suppose, those that do have names are in a sequence of commercials either in format or in "storyline".

Logically, it's begun to make sense for me too, the self-introduction (though it's so intensely contrary to my self-effacingness most of the time): when you come back, you know me as more than just the ugly, big-headed, Spanish-speaking burnt-Black dude in glasses. At the same time, the vast majority of the people I deal with don't (seem to) come back due to their being transient, or if they do it's either I've not dealt with them sequentially or I've just forgotten them completely.

I suppose it's partly an exercise to get me to like myself more. Who knows?

Welcome: my name is Kris and I'm here to assist you today.