I think everyone would be surprised at the local Wendy’s near my parents’ (my first job, actually).
For years, we could not trust them - to be timely, OR get things right. If we did drive-thru I insisted checking the items forward a bit of the window. Yes, almost always, something wrong. Which is why I always wanted to go INSIDE so it was much easier to check and complain.
They were populated by border-south types.
Then, a couple years ago, a wholesale change happened. Noticed the people changed more to the urban type. And yes, service IMPROVED!
This may seem backwards but in our case, it’s true. Guess the border-south people just couldn’t understand the language (and often neither could we).
Oh, but none of this compares to the perpetually abysmal (25 years) KFC near us.
One thing to remember is the service always gets worse at fast food places when the unemployment rate gets lower.
they are scraping the bottom to staff these places and it shows. In 2009 you could get pretty decent service. I look for more automation to replace.