Fast-food menu boards that SCREAM

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Is it a sensory sensitivity when some (most) commercial fast-food restaurants have those brightly lighted menu boards which jumble product images, sizes and prices in nonsensical ways? Having spent a lot of my professional life in marketing, I know exactly that these menu boards are designed to present the most profitable items in the biggest and most pleasing ways (allowing customers to just point at the picture of the item that they have been convinced they want) while the least profitable (and, usually, healthiest) items seemingly require a customer to be an expert in the games of Concentration and Tetris.

Or is it just me?

It's not just you. I rarely stop at fast food places anymore, but when I do, the menu boards are really confusing. I've always had to stand back for a minute to let my eyes adjust and figure it out. And the clerks always seem impatient and try to rush me into ordering. It really stresses me out.

But some of the places I used to go to, I always ordered the same thing and they would remember it when they saw me coming. lol Which I hated because I would rather enjoy the illusion of being an anonymous customer.

And don't get me started on drive thrus, trying to read a lighted menu board in full sunlight while the speaker is screeching at me and cars are pulling up behind me.

All true! Once, I actually got so confused by the rapid-fire questioning by a clerk that I stopped talking for several seconds and then said, "I'll be back." I went outside, drove away, collected my thoughts and returned several minutes later. They were a LOT less hectic the second time around.

I think the biggest menu-board offenders include Subway and McDonald's. The menu-boards at Firehouse Subs are actually simple and logical.

Yeah, I get lost in those damn menu boards for a few moments. I always hate it when I walk directly up to the counter upon entering the restaurant, and they say, "Can I help you?"

"Sure, you can help me when I've spent a few minutes deciphering this visual f*cking nightmare you call a menu board." (That's what I'd like to say, anyway.)

I'd rather they just tell me they'll be happy to take my order whenever I'm ready. Actually, I believe that has happened in a few fast food establishments I've been to.

I get lost on normal food menus let alone fast food ones, not that I eat fast food anyways. Though I'm really really good at Tetris but that doesn't help.

I was at Taco Bell the other day and it took me a minute to examine the menu and decide what to order. I finally gave up and ordered my usual Crunchwrap Supreme with Fries Supreme.

My mother and I don't go to restaurants where you have to look up and not down at the menu that often, but when we do she still doesn't seem to understand how confusing it is for me. She also asks me what I'm going to have before we enter the place and I always tell her I don't know yet until I see the menu, even though I usually order the same things. I also get muddled looking at table menus sometimes. Actually, I sometimes have trouble reading fast food menus because the print is small and I'm a bit nearsighted.

That's kind of like me. Whether it is a fast food place with the menu on the walls or a sit down restaurant, if I have been there several times and know what I want, I still like to check out the menu to see if I might want something different that time. I never actually do, at least not at that moment.

Sometimes there will be a new special displayed for a while, but when I finally decide that I would like to try it, it is no longer offered.

I'm with you on this one. I reckon KFC is the worst - I always takes me forever to find what I'm after. I try to suggest to the pimply teenage git that perhaps I could have a different thing in the feed rather than whats on the board but that just seems too bewildering for them. I have worked out the drive through though - I go inside stand back and work out what I want and then go through the drive through prepared - they seem to give quicker service in the drive through than over the counter.

I've had this problem too, the cashiers seem very impatient to me (I don't know if they really are, I cannot read body language and facial expressions at all) plus the boards are so bright and everything is bunched together. When I used to eat fast food I would just remember the number of the meal on the board or the specific item(s) I wanted to order.

I do this too, usually a plain hamburger and fries is #1 then it gets complicated from there so I just look for #1, check the wording or photo and give the number. Those boards are hard to focus on because there is so much going on in the restaurant as far as things to be distracted with, then sometimes made worse when the letters are misaligned, missing or modified. The other stupid thing about having them so far away from the customer is if your near-sighted and don't have a vision aide you can't read them.

The whole fast food concept is flawed from product to marketing, maybe that is why I don't go anymore.

Yeah, I get sensory overloaded from that (in general too, but more so in that situation).

Even at restaurants with waiters/waitresses that take your order I feel rushed at times, I have no idea why, even when they seem nice.

I stand about 10 feet (3 meters) back from the counter and read the menu until I have my fast food order memorized. If the person at the counter asks "Can I help you?" I say "Maybe" and keep looking at the menu. When I am ready I step up to the counter and order. If the person is rude or cant understand me, I ask for the manager and have the manager take my order.

I am the customer so I am allowed to be myself. If the manager does not like it, they can discuss ADA discrimination with their corporate office.

yep, whenever i go to fast food restaurants i always stand away from the line when i order so, i won't hold it up when i get to the front, and have the clerks and all the rowdy costumers harass me. of course there's always the possibility that someone will be bothered by me standing there and ask "may i help you" or something of the sort. latter happens much more often when there's very little people in the restaurant.

also, i have poor vision (20/200 in one eye IIRC) and don't take my glasses everywhere in public, and i forget them sometimes. with the stark bright colors and tiny text, it's so hard to read i almost have to lean over the counter just to see.


terrible. and the speakers tend to be of awful quality too. i can never find myself working at at a drive thru, i can hardly understand less than clear speech as it is without having it be all garbled.

It is hard to deal with and if I get fast food, it is something I remember from ordering before. The worst situation for this is found at Walt Disney World in Tomorrowland in the Magic Kingdom. Cosmic Ray's Starlight Café is a bright lit crowded chaos bin with the worst signs and that animatronic singer is awful.

Yeah! Those menu boards do confuse me. There's too much to focus on. It takes a while to find something I want on them, and then I get nervous about holding up the line and just order the first cheap items that come to mind.

Another thing that really bugs me about McDonald's is the automated voice greetings on the speakers. Why the hell do they bother?! It's very jarring when a guy says "welcome to McDonalds, try our new McAtherosclerosis Burger today, how can I help you?", and then as you're replying to him, a totally different voice (the REAL drive-thru worker) interrupts and greets you all over again.