It's Time to Drop the Habit
Sep. 29th, 2024 07:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerOne of the restaurants in my regular rotation the past several years has been The Habit. It's a hamburger chain that grew out of a few successful family-run burger shops in Santa Barbara. Some number of years ago... maybe 10?... they started franchising across California. Having actually been to the original stores before they started franchising I was excited to see them opening up in the SF Bay Area.
That's the good news. The bad news is that they've been going downhill recently. Several months ago they discontinued one of my favorite orders, the ability to add grilled steak to a salad. They basically dropped grilled steak entirely from their kitchen, so in addition to not being able to get a grilled steak Caesar salad I also couldn't get a grilled steak sandwich with avocado.
Service levels have been deteriorating, too. I started visiting the Habit less often after one particular visit a few months ago when it took them 30 minutes to cook my food. (I'm aware that people often complain "I've been waiting at least an hour for my food!" when a check of the clock shows it's been, like, 12 minutes. I checked the clock. It was 30 minutes from the time marked on the register tape until my food was ready.)
Today I found the the service levels dropped even lower, with no employees willing to take orders in person anymore and customers instead directed to use self-order terminals. Then there was this bullshit at the end:
Yes, a tip. It's asking me to leave a tip. After employees refused to serve me and I had to serve myself, the automated system asks for a tip.
Oh, but that wasn't even the final straw. The final straw was, uh... next to the literal straws:
Pepsi. They fucking switched to Pepsi. I hate Pepsi— as do a lot of other people, apparently, as the brand's slogan might as well be, "Is Pepsi okay?" That's what staff at restaurants serving Pepsi are required to say if someone orders "A Coke". Or, in my experience, even "A cola."
I've seen a few other restaurants switch to Pepsi. It's always been a cost-cutting move. Pepsi runs cheaper than Coke. It kind of has to, because people like it less. And to me it's the final straw of breaking my Habit habit.
That's the good news. The bad news is that they've been going downhill recently. Several months ago they discontinued one of my favorite orders, the ability to add grilled steak to a salad. They basically dropped grilled steak entirely from their kitchen, so in addition to not being able to get a grilled steak Caesar salad I also couldn't get a grilled steak sandwich with avocado.
Service levels have been deteriorating, too. I started visiting the Habit less often after one particular visit a few months ago when it took them 30 minutes to cook my food. (I'm aware that people often complain "I've been waiting at least an hour for my food!" when a check of the clock shows it's been, like, 12 minutes. I checked the clock. It was 30 minutes from the time marked on the register tape until my food was ready.)
Today I found the the service levels dropped even lower, with no employees willing to take orders in person anymore and customers instead directed to use self-order terminals. Then there was this bullshit at the end:
Yes, a tip. It's asking me to leave a tip. After employees refused to serve me and I had to serve myself, the automated system asks for a tip.
Oh, but that wasn't even the final straw. The final straw was, uh... next to the literal straws:
Pepsi. They fucking switched to Pepsi. I hate Pepsi— as do a lot of other people, apparently, as the brand's slogan might as well be, "Is Pepsi okay?" That's what staff at restaurants serving Pepsi are required to say if someone orders "A Coke". Or, in my experience, even "A cola."
I've seen a few other restaurants switch to Pepsi. It's always been a cost-cutting move. Pepsi runs cheaper than Coke. It kind of has to, because people like it less. And to me it's the final straw of breaking my Habit habit.
