A Jack in the Box customer says they visited three separate locations in an attempt to purchase food, but all of them were either closed or apparently abandoned. On their final stop, they found a total disaster.
TikToker Andro-Meda (@andro_meda1666) says they were greeted with an empty kitchen that was in the process of “flooding” thanks to a sink being left on, which was pouring water all over the place. Folks who responded to Andro’s video aired their own trials in attempting to order fast food late at night.
In their video, Andro records the interior of the Jack in the Box’s kitchen from outside of the drive-thru window. A running faucet can be seen continuously pouring water into a flooding sink bowl that then falls into a red bucket. The water then spills over onto the orange-tiled floor.
“So we’re at Jack in the Box, this is the third one we’ve gone to cause all the other ones have closed like an hour early,” Andro says in the video, while filming through the drive-thru window. “So we went to this one that’s like, says that it closes at midnight even though it’s 9. Nobody’s in here. The sink is flooding. Something’s happening. There’s water everywhere.”
“Not a single person is here,” she says as she zooms out to show the empty restaurant.
This isn’t the first time Jack in the Box has been called out for not having staff available to assist customers during its advertised hours. For instance, Yelp commenters have blasted the popular fast-food chain for a recurring system update that seems to affect all stores in the California area at 4 am, precluding anyone from trying to get grub at any of its 24-hour locations at this time.
And speaking about those 24-hour open times, other folks have stated that employees have claimed “system updates” are also occurring at times outside of the 4 am window. As the aforementioned Yelper referenced, this led customers to believe that some Jack in the Box restaurants just decide to no longer serve customers whenever they feel like it.
It’s not just a California issue, it seems, as an Arizona-based Jack in the Box customer also aired their grievances in attempting to purchase late-night grub from the chain. They were repeatedly told that a “system update” was going on after several attempts at purchasing food from the same location’s drive-thru on different days.
Several commenters who saw Andro’s post made quips about the floor.
“That’s the cleanest that floor has ever been,” one penned.
Someone else looked at the bright side. “At least there’s a bucket,” they remarked.
One viewer said that whoever was working the closing shift was ensuring that employees tasked with staffing the store during morning hours were going to have a rough go of things once they entered the kitchen. “From personal experience that’s gonna be the worst morning for those openers,” they said.
Others claimed the problem looked a lot worse than it really was. “There’s a drain, it will be a super clean floor in the AM,” one said while another remarked, “The floors have drains.”
The issue of fast-food locations fibbing about their available hours seems to be an issue several customers have, however. Another viewer wrote that they had similar gripes with Mickey D’s: “There’s a few McDonalds in Chandler that claim to be 24 hours but they close randomly every night. I think it’s staffing.”
@andro_meda1666 #jackinthebox #whereiseverybody #funny #noonearound #fyp #foryoupage ♬ original sound – Andro-meda
The food service industry is still purportedly suffering from staffing shortages after the pandemic. QSR Magazine highlighted some explanations as to why so many restaurants are finding it difficult to onboard and retain workers in 2023. The outlet penned that an “aging population” means for the first time in American history there are more people leaving the workforce than those who are entering it, leaving more open positions than usual at various corporations.
Childcare costs are another reason why so many people are reluctant to take on jobs that don’t pay a ton of money. QSR states that the average rate of child care is $13.85 per hour. With such rates, workers who make a comparable hourly rate end up with little income after paying for someone to watch over their children.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Jack in the Box via email and Andro via TikTok comment for further information.