According to Campus Dining, the Student Center Chick-fil-A averages $15,300 in sales per weekday, and during peak hours one customer every 11 seconds.
From 10 a.m.-noon Monday, Sept. 16, I worked there.
I arrived at 9:45 a.m., and met Lamond Brock, director of the Student Center Chick- fil-A.
"We got tore up over the weekend," Brock said. "The sort of Saturday you would expect for one of the busiest Chick-fil-A restaurants in the region."
By 10 a.m., I was outfitted with a spare 3XL garnet polo, a personalized name tag, a black hat, a pair of dark slacks and, most importantly, a pair of Tredsafe non-slip shoes.
"Grease tends to get into every part of our work," Brock said. "We clean regularly, but with that tile, it's for safety."
During my two-hour shift, I tended to skate from spot to spot rather than walk.
Once I was properly outfitted, Brock placed me under the direction of Chick-fil-A lead LaToya Smith to start my shift.
"You'll be bagging with Drea," Smith said.
I spent most of my two hours attempting to help Andrea Dowdell fulfill customers' orders. "Once you get used to where things are, it's easy," Dowdell said.\0x2028I, on the other hand, relied on packaging and carefully reading labels to successfully fill orders.
Placing and receiving an order is a visible 5-step process at the Student Center Chick- fil-A.
An order is placed, the order is relayed to the baggers, the baggers put the appropriate food into a bag, the customer pays and is handed their food.
Behind the scenes, food is constantly being prepared in the kitchen, wrapped and slid through labeled chutes, leading to the area behind the counter.
Food items, which are continually on hand by default, include chargrilled chicken sandwiches, three and four-count chick-n-strips, eight and 12-count nuggets, spicy chicken sandwiches, chicken sandwiches, with and without pickles, and waffle fries.
Special orders are called back by cashiers or baggers, and there are also refrigerated foods, such as salads and wraps, ready for order.
During peak hours, food items tend to pile up and then disappear in quick waves.
The late-morning shift ran smoothly until there were technical difficulties toward the end of my shift.
"The hot area we put food before it's ordered sort of sparked up and stopped working," Brock said. "We have excellent maintenance though, so I'm sure we'll have it fixed later today."
For the remainder of my time at Chick-fil-A, all orders had to be filled with food from one service window.
This led to frequent trips from one end of the behind-the-counter area to the other and back again.
This time period felt frantic to me, but everyone else was calm and collected.
During her trips between customers to the food, Keri Bennett, another Chick-fil-A employee, actually spent the time singing a few seconds of songs at a time.
Suddenly, it was noon, and it was time for me to leave.
I was definitely relieved to see the end of my two-hour shift.
In my temporary manager's opinion, I was too relieved.
"You really did not get the full experience," Brock said. "Today we had some mishaps, but this was actually a little slow for a Monday morning."
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