Twitter user Josh Raby went to his local McDonald’s drive thru at 1am to get himself a milkshake. What he received was a dramatic tale of love, loss and redemption that began with “Holy shit hello, you are at McDonald’s.”
While we at Snacktaku are on top of all things taste and texture related in the world of fast food, rarely do we take the time to consider the excitement of procurement. As Josh Raby’s tale demonstrates, the true adventure is often found between feeling hungry and handing over your credit card.
Here is the tale as Mr Raby told it.
“Hey holy shit hello, you are at McDonald’s, and I am begging your patience.”
— Josh Raby (@JoshRaby) April 11, 2016
So I sit for a minute, then he finally returns and says “please tell me your order”
So I say “milkshake”
I don’t know why that’s all I said— Josh Raby (@JoshRaby) April 11, 2016
He is gone for several minutes. When he returns he says flatly “we aren’t going to be able to do the milkshake. I do have many apple pies.”
— Josh Raby (@JoshRaby) April 11, 2016
Josh began his visit with a common error with those well-versed in McDonald’s practices. The ice cream machine is the first to go when the evening slows down. If you ever find a McDonald’s that keeps the machine running into the early morning, hold it and never let it go.
Throughout the encounter Josh questions why he is still at the drive thru. Any fast food exchange that begins with “Hey holy shit hello,” bears seeing through to the bitter end.
“I am not ok. Would you please tell me your order so I can try to punch it in? I will be very slow, but I will get it.”
— Josh Raby (@JoshRaby) April 11, 2016
I tell him not to worry, I am not upset, and at this point for some reason I order a chicken sandwich
— Josh Raby (@JoshRaby) April 11, 2016
My chicken sandwich order confuses him. Several minutes are spent repeating what I want on it, watching the screen as he tries over and over
— Josh Raby (@JoshRaby) April 11, 2016
At one point I guess he gave up because the screen just went black for a while.
I hear a deep exhale.
“Dude I lost my wife”.
— Josh Raby (@JoshRaby) April 11, 2016
Wow. My immediate thought is that Josh had stumbled upon a McDonald’s employee that had recently suffered the loss of a loved one and had no choice but to continue working. That’s pretty much exactly what happened, only not the way any sane person might think.
Anyway he finally gets it and then says “I really do feel bad about the milkshake situation. Can I sell you an apple pie?”
— Josh Raby (@JoshRaby) April 11, 2016
“Fine. I will buy an apple pie.”
“Apple pies are cheaper than milkshakes anyway.”
“Ok, thanks”
— Josh Raby (@JoshRaby) April 11, 2016
This is called “suggestive selling”. First you suggest that you might have a dead spouse, then you go for the pie sale. Works every time.
“What? Who did you find?”
“MY WIFE. SHE WAS WATCHING ME FROM BEHIND THE BOXES!”
— Josh Raby (@JoshRaby) April 11, 2016
“Can you give me my total” I say because honestly I don’t know if I want to understand his marriage or if I even could and I just want to go
— Josh Raby (@JoshRaby) April 11, 2016
I am picture this poor McDonald’s employee, despondent to the point of tears, fumbling through Josh’s order while his wife peeks impishly from behind a stack of boxes. Josh didn’t know if he wanted to understand their marriage. I feel no one could truly understand it.
“What is the discount?”
“2 apple pies for only 2 dollars. You should take it.”
(Note: One apple pie is $1.19)
— Josh Raby (@JoshRaby) April 11, 2016
“Give me the extra pie”
“She says thank you”
“Tell her I said no problem”
Why am I talking to his wife like this why
— Josh Raby (@JoshRaby) April 11, 2016
Immediately we are given proof that marriage strengthens a person. One leftover pie? Nonsense. Together we can sell at least two of the pies we were going to have to throw away shortly anyway.
At this point I am half expecting his wife to be a hand puppet.
Both of these people are in their mid-40s
— Josh Raby (@JoshRaby) April 11, 2016
I say “it’s fine” to which he says “FINE just stands for FUCKED UP, INSECURE, NEUROTIC, and ERROR-PRONE”
— Josh Raby (@JoshRaby) April 11, 2016
I am then treated to a story about how they met at a McDonald’s that is very short and is really only “we met at McDonald’s in 1993”
— Josh Raby (@JoshRaby) April 11, 2016
Did you know “Fine” is an acronym? Fun fact: It’s not. Also, Josh will probably never be fine again. At least he wasn’t getting the worst of it.
He hands me my bag, leans out the window and says “you get to drive away” then promptly shuts the window and sits on a stool, head in hands
— Josh Raby (@JoshRaby) April 11, 2016
The word “hero” is bandied about a lot these days. The man at the second window is the true hero.
And so, more minutes later than anyone else would have the patience to wait, Josh drove off into the night, the proud new owner of two pies, an amazing story and a chicken sandwich, hold the lettuce.
My chicken sandwich was wrong, by the way
— Josh Raby (@JoshRaby) April 11, 2016
And a chicken sandwich with lettuce.
The folks at Buzzfeed reached out to Raby to confirm his story, and he assured them he was not making it all up. People have suggested that the apple pie boxes are unused, but considering they had leftover pie in them the store was desperately trying to push, it’s doubtful they would have left much of a mess.
To all the online publications asking me to confirm this dumb story I respectfully submit the following pic.twitter.com/arDMusgUwi
— Josh Raby (@JoshRaby) April 11, 2016
Comments
24 responses to “Late Night McDonald’s Visit Turns Into Touching Tale Of Love, Loss And Redemption”
I have no idea what the fuck any of the above is about.
its twitter…no one knows what anything is about
I mentally did what I would do in real life with this article…
Said fuck this shit and drove through the garden to escape.
What……the fuck…….did I just read?
What was loved? What was lost? What the heck was redeemed???
Dude he lost his dam milkshake, and we all lost 5 minutes of our lives.
How do we move on from that…. :'(
I seriously have no idea, the things we are subject to on this site is worrying. I hope someone is thinking of the children.
What a classic Romeo and Juliet story – I can’t stop crying…No wait, that is just my brain oozing out of my eye sockets after it exploded from trying to understand what the fuck I was reading. BUT I do feel like an apple pie – so I think that’s the meaning of life? Also, anyone that reads this are the true heroes.
Wtf did I just read?
Hey, and IF this is true, know what the real scary part is? That guy – the crazy rambling guy behind the Macca’s window? He gets to vote, and his vote counts as much as yours.
*slow claps*
Thank you Kotaku. Incredible start to the day.,
Think the order might be wrong, none of it makes any sense.
About a third of the tweets are missing, that’s why…
Great story.
Eh, Trapped in the Drive-Thru by Weird Al is far more entertaining, and interesting.
So after being confused I actually went and read this on twitter and, if I read it right, his wife was hiding behind the boxes and he couldn’t find her; end of. This post misses two or three rather important tweets which gives context to others.
Hahaha I loved this! This made my morning
The ongoing debate about the ‘worth’ of this post notwithstanding, what’s a chicken sandwich in seppo-talk?
It’s just a burger right?
Presumably the hands used to grope his wife were the same ones used to handle his “apple pies”.