I have been patronizing this particular DD for well over five years now and have always noticed one consistent thing. The employees who work there have invariably displayed cantankerous and overall disgusting attitudes towards customers, as well as toward their fellow co-workers. I just figured that this DD was an unmistakable magnet for people who simply hated their jobs. In fact, the turnover rate has been so significant that I had simply given up on trying to remember everyone's name. But the one unequivocal name I have remembered throughout my DD sojourns, is that of Amber. Amber is the current manager there.
When I first visited this DD five years ago, Amber was the assistant manager. She worked under the manager, an older woman whose name escapes me at the moment. Amber would unfailingly complain to anyone who would listen about how unhappy her manager made her feel and how toxic of a work environment said manager habitually cultivated. One day I heard Amber state how she wanted to seek employment elsewhere because of the hostile work environment at DD. A few days later she was conspicuously absent from her assistant manager position.
I subsequently walked into the Wawa located directly across the street from this DD and saw Amber wearing a Wawa shirt while being trained by another Wawa employee. I said hello to her and she informed me that she quit DD because of that manager she resented. She followed up that sentiment by spewing some unpalatable criticism candidly describing her time spent at DD. She convinced me that she was in a better place now.
Within a few months, that DD manager was inexplicably gone, along with several of the regular employees. I saw a bunch of fresh faces and heard chatter that Amber would shortly return. Within a brief period of time Amber was again working at that DD.
I never had an unpleasant experience with Amber, that is, until 3:10 this afternoon. While waiting on line to place my order I noticed that Amber was rather terse and outright ill-mannered towards the customers in front of me. When it was my turn to order I said hello and she did not respond at all. I then went ahead and placed my order and she didn't even make eye contact with me, nor did she acknowledge me with a simple smile. She didn't even say thank you to me or to any other customer while I was there. I felt indignant by Amber's discourteous and significantly impolite disposition and vowed to myself to never return there. Instead, I will give my business to a DD that truly deserves my business, the one that's actually closer to my residence, the DD in Asbury Park.
To the franchise owner of this offending DD in Neptune, I am reminded of a powerful quotation from Sam Walton, Walmart's erudite founder. "There is only one boss: the customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else." Adios Dunkin Donuts in Neptune. You're fired! read more