Kudos to staff for dealing with Adult Babies for Customers

After celebrating the first sunrise of the new year at Muizenberg, a group of friends and I went to Macdonalds in Tokai for some coffee. There was a big group of people outside the store as it was 6 am, and the store only opens at 6 am. After placing our orders, we noticed a woman at the counter being very aggressive with the staff. She demanded that her food be ready in 15 minutes and demanding items that were no longer on the menu such as hotcakes. The staff were extremely polite and tried to explain that they were prioritising customers in the drive-through first and that there was no hot cakes on the menu. They also explained to her that they were waiting for the morning staff to hand over to.

This woman was insistent and then accused the staff of eating the food and hurled insults at the staff who had been working the night shift when her order did not arrive in 15 minutes. They gave her some of her order in order to appease her, but she just went back to the counter and began screaming at the staff saying they did not give her the full order. She demanded the rest of her order screaming that it was her child's birthday etc. I am sorry but if she wanted something special for her child's birthday at 6 am on New Year's Day (a public holiday mind you) then she should have made breakfast for her child herself.

Another group sitting at a table who were also watching this encounter then joined the woman and all began shouting at the staff and threatened to take the food being given to customers in the drive-through and to injure the staff. The staff were quite intimidated by the horde of people behind the counter hurling abuses at them but said that their manager was coming soon, and would speak to them. While this was all happening, Chandre (a staff member) came to our table to confirm our orders and explained that it was coming soon.

The manager came in not long after that and was also sworn at by all these customers. He offered refunds to those complaining but was just screamed at by one angry man. My table's order was called up, and I could see Chandre placing my coffee on the counter. The angry customer then picked up the coffee and threw it at the staff behind the counter. Another customer and I told the man that what he was doing was unacceptable. He was then escorted out. The staff behind the counter were actually shaking while being surrounded by coffee. The cherry on the cake was the woman who was initially screaming said what the man did was perfectly justifiable. I explained to her that he basically committed assault and she wouldn't like it if she had hot coffee thrown at her or her children. Her response was "oh so they can treat us badly but we can't do anything about it?". I explained to her that this staff worked all night and is paid next to nothing so she needs to cut them some slack, and she carried on her tangent that they need to do their jobs and must she be expected to make the food herself. The angry man then stormed back inside threatening to set "these people straight" charging behind the counter. He was taken out by his friends, and we saw them speeding away in their car.

I am not sure where people like this get off but I am baffled by such behaviour, all which happened before 8 am. All of these people had young children with them. What kind of example are they setting for their children by treating other people with such violence and aggression? The angry woman's group left not long after this, and left a complete mess where they were sitting. The area was covered in tomato sauce, chips, packets etc. It was actually revolting that they couldn't even clean up after themselves.

This behaviour was honestly unacceptable because everyone in the store was waiting for their food. Yes, it is perfectly acceptable to be upset that we had to wait for so long to receive our food but that does not justify throwing boiling coffee at the staff or swearing at them. If they were unhappy, they could have simply asked for a refund as another woman did. My heart breaks for those who work in the service industry who have to endure dealing with people who throw such tantrums. People like the man who threw the coffee need to be arrested. If they hadn't spent so much time arguing and threatening to attack the staff, perhaps the staff could have been working on actually preparing the food instead of standing together out of fear that one of them might be attacked by a clearly not stable customer.