Thread by @jmikola

A co-worker shared this article with me in our #cheese Slack channel: yahoo.com/lifestyle/emba…

As someone that has previously placed a $734.42 order for 540 tacos from @tacobell, I have some thoughts.

Recommended viewing for this thread will be the original source material for the article: tiktok.com/@emily._.stott…

In fact, don't even bother reading the article. Yahoo's website is so riddled with ads I'm actually impressed that uBlock Origin can't keep up.

Ordering at 11:30pm is squarely in "fourth meal" territory and it's commendable that the driver in question avoided peak lunch/dinner hours, but this is also possibly a time when the kitchen will be understaffed as we approach closing hours (1am in many locations).

The drive-through is absolutely not the right way to go about this. For one, you're attempting to communicate over a low-quality intercom and I'm sure the process of speaking the order and then having it read back for confirmation was an ordeal in and of itself.

And then let's consider that there was a growing line of cars behind this person. The article doesn't mention whether the party that placed this massive order remained in the queue or pulled over to park (and it doesn't come in the video), but I assume they stayed in the queue.

Even if they were adamant about placing the order from their car, pulling over to park after doing so would have allowed other folks in line to continue ordering and given the staff the option to parallelize order flow.

This metaphor may be lost on most readers, but we could use renice(1) on the bulk order while prioritizing other, smaller orders that followed. Of course, this assumes sufficient staff and prep space, which may very well not be the case. man7.org/linux/man-page…

And lastly, I think we need to address the nonsense that is trying to order "one of everything". Based on the receipt in the video, it thankfully doesn't look like that was the case here, but we should leave that sort of thing to the professionals:

While it may be true that Taco Bell's menu is essentially an exercise in combinatorics with much of the same ingredients assembled in different ways, there is a very real logistical challenge involved in such an order.

Remember that order for 540 tacos I mentioned? We planned that a week in advance and scheduled pickup for 10am, well before the lunch rush. And despite my fondness for Crunchwrap Supremes, we stuck to beef and bean tacos to keep things simple for the staff

https://twitter.com/jmikola/status/1096114933513834500

And even if the restaurant was deserted (or desserted if you want to make a Cinnamon Twists pun) and there wasn't a line of patrons accumulating behind you, do you really have high hopes for a fast food order that takes 40-minutes to fulfill? What's the end game here?

Typing this out has left me wondering if this was all just an some elaborate marketing campaign between Taco Bell and the TikTok user, who happens to be promoting their OnlyFans account on the side.

Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it all seems very late-stage capitalism.

Now, if you'll pardon me, I need to stop here and go charge my laptop. I regrettably left the Yahoo article open in a browser tab and those video ads absolutely pillaged my battery.