i see posts here about how people are so mortified when they are acknowledged as being a regular customer somewhere that they never return. cowards. the employees at taco bell treat me like a celebrity. like royalty. i am their strange little pet customer who gets traded along as staff comes and goes. they know my car before i even speak in the drive-thru speaker. today i was 2 hours late and she ran over and squealed that she "thought i'd left them!" and that she "made my order with extra love!" and you what, she did
it's funny that this is getting notes again, because last night i went to the thai place in my neighborhood. it's run by a family and during covid times i ate there literally almost every day. later i cut back on eating out so much and hadn't been there in two years but last night we went and ate inside for the first time ever and the owner ran over to say hello and ask how i was, and repeated our old regular order. it was sweet. it's so easy to feel like you are an island, but stuff like this reminds you that you are part of a community.
I have significant experience in customer service jobs and through this post am letting nervous tumblrs know that we hate every customer except our regulars. be a regular somewhere. you might make some friends. in the very least workers will be vaguely fond of you because a portion of your lunch money is their grocery money.
there are old men at bars whom have significant credit for feeding, schooling, and clothing cocktail waitresses children just because they like drinking a few bud lights and chatting with other specific old men every day, as compounded over time. I have seen it with my own eyes (RIP mr Boston), it's a noble and easy thing to be a regular.
