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You know... I was just thinking of another tale... if you read the "gay marriage" thread, you might have read about me being offended by a co-worker who made a stupid comment directed at a very friendly person.

Well, here's another tale of my visit to Atlanta.

See, I work for an arcade company -- we own and operate hundreds of video arcades around the country. Well, we had two mall-based arcades down in Atlanta, so in the evening after our day of meetings was done, we'd head out and visit a location, just check up on it, see if any marketing or web inspiration hit use... that kind of stuff.

So we went to this one mall, visited the location, checked out a few of the shops, and then stopped to eat at the cafeteria. Inside is this place called Chik-Fil-A -- it's a fast food chicken sandwich joint basically. Now, to understand why we stopped, you have to understand that Namco Cybertainment used to be Namco Operations, and before they moved up here to Chicagoburbia, they were based out of somewhere in Georgia, so a great many of the people up here who have been with the company a great number of years used to live down there; and they used to rave about this place. So, finally seeing one, we decided to stop and find out why they raved.

First off, the woman who took my order was as cordial and polite as if I were at a five-star restaurant. Everything with thank yous, and would you cares, and your total is please -- a very pleasant ordering experience. So I've placed my order, and I'm standing there patiently waiting.

Remember -- I'm from Chicagoburbia. I expect my order will take no less than five minutes, probably closer to ten, because it's not lunch rush, and nothing ever goes right in Chicago fast food restaurants (or at least rarely ever).

Okay, back to the story... I've been waiting thirty seconds, and she comes over, and says, "I'd like to apologize. There will be a short wait on your meal, because they're cooking more chicken patties."

I'm taken aback... I'm thinking... "Woot, fresh fast food!" And wondering, "Errr... okay, you're telling me this why...?" But I simply say, "That's no problem. Thank you."

Three and a half minutes later, my piping warm sandwiches and drink are on a tray in front of me, and she pushes them toward me, saying, "Thank you for waiting." In my head, I'm thinking, "You've got to be kidding me... this wasn't a wait... this hadn't even gotten close to inconvenient... in Chicago if I had to wait four minutes for fresh food, I'd think I should run out and buy lottery tickets before my luck ran out." But again, I'm just like, "No problem... thanks again."

She then passes me two coupons. One for a free desert, and one for a free breakfast sandwich. "Please accept these with our complements for the inconvenience." So I take them, and I thank her again. "Thank you very much."

And I go sit down, and enjoy my meal, thinking to myself, "WOW!" That, by far, has got to be my best fast food experience EVER. And I was utterly shocked that they felt they'd inconvenienced me. I kept the coupons, and never used them -- I would have felt bad using them, since in my mind, I had not been inconvenienced. In fact, rather, I felt that I had been exceptionally taken care, and would have eaten there again without question or hesitation.

Someone manages to come up with that kind of service up here in Chicago, and they'll be instant millionaires. hehe