I thought about posting this in the vent thread but I suspect this is just as appropriate.

As I’ve posted elsewhere, I don’t eat fast food. But Mrs BamaVol does and I usually indulge her on road trips. She craves a filet-o-fish, small chocolate shake with no whipped cream and a Diet Coke from McDonalds. We had a 5 hour drive Friday on our way to Panama City Beach. I stopped at the first McD’s and spotted construction equipment in the parking lot. Sure enough, the dining room was closed (no sign of interior construction) and the drive thru had a line of 20+ vehicles. I bailed and stopped at the next, 30 minutes further. I parked and tried the door. No entry. Drive thru only. 20+ cars, so no way Jose. The dining room was open at the 3rd but there was absolute chaos inside. So I used the restroom and then got behind 5 cars in the drive thru and waited 20 minutes for food.

Possible causes? I blamed the “server shortage”. Construction may have played a role at the first. The “pay it ahead” game may have caused the slow down at the ultimate restaurant. No obvious explanation at the middle stop. I haven’t seen locked doors at a fast food restaurant since the height of the pandemic when you just considered yourself lucky to find an open restaurant with a drive thru operating.