Tuesday, March 23, 2004

Hot Dogs

Here's a pet peeve for me. You're at the stadium enjoying a game. You decide to head to the concession stand for a hot dog and a drink. You agree to also pick up some extra items for your friends or family.

So you wait in line, and finally order 3 or 4 hot dogs, a few sodas, and some nachos. The hot dogs are nicely wrapped in foil, keeping them warm. The problem is that you want some ketchup and mustard for your dogs. No worries, right? You'll just grab a few packets and head back to your seats.

But, no...

You find that to get mustard and ketchup, you need to walk to the condiment station. There, you wait for the other folks to finish so you can elbow your way in. Then, you have to unwrap all of your hot dogs and squirt the mustard and ketchup on them. But the mustard is usually on the opposite side of the table from the ketchup. And one of the two is usually empty or otherwise non-functional. Once you get the condiments dispensed, you then wrap your dogs back in the supplied foil.

When you get back to your seats and unwrap your dogs, the mustard and ketchup is no longer on the dog, but all over the foil.

Annoying! Is it really that expensive to provide ketchup and mustard packets so folks can apply their condiments at their seats?

Interestingly, Surprise Stadium (where the Royals play their Spring Training games) implements the condiment station described above, however, their hot dogs are served unwrapped in a paper basket. That's a little better, since the unwrapping/rewrapping/unwrapping process is eliminated.

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