Closing Time.

One of my favorite things to blog about is the many ways that businesses in my daily routine are poorly run. Mainly food establishments that close early or don't know how to turn off their OPEN sign. I save special places in my memory, alongside the most wonderful moments of my life, for those times when I'm turned away from a restaurant mere minutes before their official closing time. I treasure these moments of injustice, in the hopes that one day I can maybe do something to help stop them. Yesterday, I experienced quite the opposite.

Jamba Juice closes at 9:30pm on Mondays through Thursdays, and I went in like five minutes before they were about to close, and before I even set foot inside, I was filled with a surge of dread. These people were almost done with their work day, and here I was to unexpectedly make them do more work during the home stretch. But I was surprised to find that all the employees were in a cheerful mood, and only too jazzed to approach the cash register and ask their last minute customers, "what can we make for you?" One of them even remarked that the mountain outside was dark, but that yesterday, they had a nice light show (referring to the massive Griffith Park fire that took days to put out). And that's when I realized how twisted it was that I had been conditioned to feel wrong about entering a food establishment right before they close. There is no difference between the 8am customer and the 9:25pm customer, and these Jamba Juice employees seemed to get that.

I recently stopped going to the KFC on Hollywood because one night they decided to close the register early to count the cash, and were only accepting credit transactions. I had a card, but was forced to watch a father and son be turned away because the only thing they had was FEDERAL RESERVE NOTES. DOLLAR BILLS. LEGAL TENDER, ACCEPTABLE ANYWHERE IN THE COUNTRY. EXCEPT THIS KFC (I considered telling the guy that he could give me the cash and I would put it on my card, but I don't think I had enough in my account at the time). So I started going to the KFC on Central, until one night, when we arrived 10 minutes before closing time and the guy said I couldn't have a famous bowl, because he didn't want to prepare more mashed potatoes and gravy so close to closing time. This is why my default KFC is now, ironically, the one on Hollywood. Also, the one on Central had a B instead of an A. I don't want to think about what they got wrong on inspection day. Perhaps it has something to do with their "walk-thru" window, which is like a drive-thru window, except it's just a window that opens out into the parking lot from the kitchen. And it's labeled "walk-thru." Wierd, right?

Well, the point is, these KFC assholes have their shit wrong. Jamba Juice has it right. Every customer should receive the same care and attention, no matter what time of day it is.

Cheers,
Diego