Things Just Aren't What They Used To Be FTLComm - Saskatoon January 24, 2000 I have cranked down the window and giving the drive up menu my full attention. "Can I take your order please?" Coming from a nasty speaker is this whining voice. "Just a moment please." I furtively look over the various items. "I would like a Teenburger." "One Teenburger, would you like fries with that." "No, just a teenburger." "Would you like a drink with that?" " No, I just want the teenburger." "Will there be anything else?" "No, I just want the teenburger" "That will be (mumble mumble mumble), please have the money ready, drive around please." I ease the van forward around the building and stop by the drive through window. The window slides open and a hand is reaching out . "How much was that again please?" "Will that be everything?" "How much was that again please?" It took three inquiries about the price to determine what this person wanted was between three and four dollars. There was the sound of a fan inside, the heater from the van had already been turned off and there were no visual clues, a boom microphone obscured the individual's mouth and there was no lip reading. I dropped two two dollar coins in the outstretched hand and moments later there was change in my hand and the window slid closed. About a minute slipped by and the window slid open and hand hovered inside with a paper bag. At last I had my "teenburger" A&W was one of the first fast food places to open in Regina, a "drive-in" restaurant. Burger Baron and Chicken on the Way were also about the same time to open but it was A&W that was the magnet. The Burger Baron food seemed to all smell of onions and the meat was usually burnt so it was a natural to go to the A&W. But for a teenager guy, the two most important things in life were now clearly defined. Getting your drivers license was number two, because you could always get a ride from someone who had a license, and number one was going to A&W. A&W had car hops. Now when you were sixteen or seventeen contact with a member of the opposite sex who was older then you, even a few days older, was simply not an easy or comfortable thing to do. In the fifties speaking with an older woman (eighteen) was out of the question unless you enjoyed being insulted. Let's face it, no one I knew had ever met a polite girl. That's why A&W was heaven. A girl, a real live girl, would come up to your car and she would take your order and do so with a smile and she would be polite. No matter what your car looked like, or if you were having a bad hair day, or had run out of Brylcream, she would be nice to you and bring you food. Wow! The food of the early drive-in days was remarkable. The teenburger was the creme de la creme of hamburgers, it was huge, had a sesame seed bun, some bacon, tomato, lettuce, it was a banquet. Just thinking of one makes my mouth water and it was that thought that led me to drive up to a drive through window and order a teenburger. What I got of course was a bun the circumferance of a coffee mug, I could find little evidence of meat in it, the only bacon was probably cut out of a magazine and it had one total flavour, MUSTARD. The thing was just a sloopy yellow mess, no other flavours or descernable incredients could be identified, just mustard. Three bites and the yellow thing was gone and I was heading the van toward some place else to find something to eat. I realise we can not go back and capture our youth or the wonders of growing up. The fast food industry has instructed their sales people to follow the printed responses that are posted on the wall in the drive up booth and they are trained to ask all those questions, more then Regus Pelbin. The reason is a simple one. People don't like to say "no". Every parent knows the horror or the period children go through known as the "terrible twos" every child enters this stage and discovers the word "no". Every parent rewards their child when they respond with a "yes". Smiles, extra cookies, all sorts of wonderful things come to those who say yes and the message and lesson stays with you all your life. Just saying the word "yes" forces the corners of your mouth upward into a very fast smile and to the individual you are talking to the automatic response to that instant little smile is a returned smile. It is nice to be smiled at, who knows maybe it might even get you a cooky. Playing on this response, fast food outlets demand that their people ask you to buy more things and the odds are in their favour that you will agree and say "yes" just to get that returned smile. In the world of communications the faster the message is given the more likely the message will be received and an automatic response given. So here is a trick that will help you deal with fast food clerks demanding that you buy fries and a coke. Instead of responding with a flat and definitely negative "no" say "no, thank you". You will have to practice this a bit but the result is quite remarkable. "Thank you" produces a flash smile on your face, it produces a similar expression in English, German, French, Italian and Spanish. Each phrase indicating "thank you" causes the mouth to form a smile, the French one even gives your lips a tiny pout. When you give this phrase the clerk, was as a child like you, taught to respond positively to a smile and will smile back, even though you have not responded with an agreeable response to spend more of your money, the response was so drastically different from the downturned lips of "no" that the clerk will accept that "no thankyou" with a flash of responsive joy. I have noticed in other retail situations, people have learned to deal with the disappointment in the faces of sales people and respond with "no not today" which gives a similar smile. Many people will even mix their "no" with a facial gesture similar to a laugh to temper their negative response. Women are far more likely to do this then men, as they seem to have more then double the capability of handling and responding to automatic facial gestures. Amazing games are played, a male salesman will approach a female customer without fear of rejection, because he senses that she will reward him with a smile especially if she is going to turn down his advance to sell some product. To him it doesn't matter the positive facial reward was the goal in the first place. In the public setting just watch people and notice the way they put to work the lessons they learned when they were in their terrible twos and how the positive things they put to work when they were four are used over and over until they die.