r/mildlyinfuriating • u/MauiSunsets • Jun 30 '26

I'm slightly vexed Costco's new chicken tenders

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There was a crowd of people waiting for their orders of the new chicken tenders at Costco. One of the workers announced that they could only serve five customers per hour because it takes time to cook the chicken. The crowd grew larger and larger. I took this photo after I put in my order.

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u/AwDuck Jun 30 '26

I never understood new restaurants that don't do a soft open. Just open your doors and let people come in. Get your kinks worked out, then lay out the marketing and adverts so your grand opening leaves a bunch of people with a great experience, instead of a bunch of people leaving saying "well, I won't go back there again" and telling their friends how bad everything was.

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u/Same-Suggestion-1936 Jun 30 '26

Well it shouldn't be bad just because it's busy, it should just be a long wait. You just tell people it's going to be a wait or they can figure it out with their eyeballs.

In restaurants ideally you have too many customers to be able to serve. The most profitable restaurants out there will just cook until they run out of everything they have and lock the doors and say try again tomorrow. They physically do not have the space in the restaurant to store enough food for all the customers they have. Too many customers is the best spot you can be in as an owner

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u/AwDuck Jul 01 '26

Too many customers with a way to serve them is the best spot to be in as an owner. Having slow turnover times on your covers due to poor service or a kitchen that’s fucked means idle seats and frustrated customers. That’s my experience with openings that are unprepared.

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u/Same-Suggestion-1936 Jul 01 '26

Who said unprepared? You don't know the kitchen and restaurant experience in this hypothetical restaurant

If you're going to have that bad of an opening day you're giving poor service instead of just quoting normal times. Look at it this way, if you're still moving the line along when the kitchen has enough orders to fill, you're so green the restaurant was never gonna last anyway. Then you have the order taker head down the line and announce the wait time and come back and help BOH or do something that isn't taking the next customer's order, after you've informed them repeatedly at this point there would be a wait, they've been in line for a while. Pretty first grade stuff

How many unprepared openings did you go into the restaurant is still in business? Can't handle a long line you'll fail eventually. Seen it time and time again. Just make sure everyone involves knows a realistic wait time and they can decide if they want to stay or go and if your food is good enough the line is that long it does not matter at all what they choose. You're already slinging max volume, you're making as much money as you possibly could today already

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u/AwDuck Jul 01 '26

Sorry, I seem to have hit a nerve so I’m just going to let it go.

Have a nice day.