The fast food restaurant workers are friendly in Dickinson, North Dakota.  I have wondered about this for several years, because the waitresses and bartenders in the non-fast food restaurants in Dickinson are unfriendly.  This doesn’t make any sense.

I have been going to Arby’s in Dickinson for almost five years.  I never, ever, had a bad experience at this Arby’s in Dickinson.  No one at the Arby’s in Dickinson was ever unfriendly to me, and all the employees always appeared to get along with each other.  They never once got my order wrong.

I have eaten less at Wendy’s in Dickinson, than I have at Arby’s, but for the past five years I have never a bad experience at Wendy’s.  The employees have always been friendly, and they have never gotten my order wrong.

At the Burger King in Dickinson, most of the employees now are black, and many of them are from Africa.  In the past several years, they have gotten my order slightly wrong once.  They have always been friendly.

At Arby’s, Wendy’s, and Burger King in Dickinson, I have not had one bad experience in five years.  The employees have been friendly when I am ordering my food, when I am waiting, when I go and sit down and eat, and when I leave.

What does not make any sense, is that the fast food workers don’t get paid very much money, and they don’t get any tips from customers, yet they are friendly to customers, whereas the waitresses and bartenders at restaurants in Dickinson are unfriendly, and they expect to get tips from customers.

Some examples that stand out in my mind, are some of the bartenders that they used to have at The Players Club in Dickinson.  One night, on the street in front of The Players Club, the police had someone pulled over for DUI.  When I walked inside, I said to the bartender, that the police stopping someone for DUI right in front of the bar was probably not good for business.  The bartender said, “That’s what you get for drinking and driving.”  I thought, that was a stupid thing for a bartender to say, that he thinks his customers should be stopped for DUI.  It is not illegal to have drinks at a bar and drive home.  Some of the other bartenders they used to have at The Players Club were kind of scowling, sneering, and miserable in their job, and they made me want to never come back.

This is when I first started to think, why are the people working at the drive thru in Wendy’s so friendly and smiling, and the bartenders who make most of their money on tips from customers so unfriendly?  The drive thru workers at Wendy’s aren’t going to make any additional money by being friendly, yet they are friendly.  And the bartenders would make more money and have more customers if they were friendly, yet they are not friendly.

All of the workers in the fast food restaurants seemed to be focused on their jobs and getting the food out.  Many or most of the waitresses and bartenders in Dickinson appeared to be sullen, bitter, and angry both about their work circumstances and their personal lives.

If you want to have a pleasant, drama-free dining experience in Dickinson, I recommend going to Arby’s, Wendy’s, Burger King, Dominos, or Taco Johns where the employees do their job, get the food out to you, and you can go and sit down and eat in peace.  At the restaurants with waitresses and bartenders in Dickinson, you get treated like you are their enemy and the source of all their difficulties.