One of the first real jobs I had back in high school was at the Burger King on W. 8th Street near the West Erie Plaza. It was your typical summer, after-school job. We made burgers, we took orders, we unclogged the drain in the parking lot that always got stuck, flooding the parking lot until it was nearly knee-deep.
I read this weekend that BK location has closed down. It’s lease was up and it didn’t bring in the revenue other stores do. When I told my wife, she said “I like that one because it was always empty,” which in hindsight, is probably part of the reason they closed.
In remembrance of it closing, I thought I’d share a few of my favorite stories from working there, circa 1993-1996. I have enough stories to start a whole blog, but here are a few favorites.
One of the perks, if you can call it that, of working at the Burger King was the generous employee discount on meals (the snazzy uniforms were free.)
After a couple of months, you had tried everything on the menu and had exhausted every strange combination of condiment and toppings you could put on a Whopper Jr. Our remedy: complain until our manager got us food from any place that was not named Burger King. We enjoyed pizza, tacos and more. Yes, we felt a little strange walking into Arby’s in our BK garb, but whatever, it was good.
We had two dumpsters behind the restaurant, one for garbage and one for cardboard boxes that we had to flatten daily. It was the perfect place to recreate the trash compactor scene from Star Wars. ‘Nuff said.
I need to tell this one to you in person, but I’ll try to be as clean as I can here on the blog.
One day, I was working the register and someone ran into the restaurant and into the bathroom. I didn’t think anything of it, until the person ran back out of the bathroom and right out the door. Strange, but not out of the ordinary.
The smell hit us a few moments later, and when I opened the door between the kitchen and the restaurant, the footprints made it clear what had just happened.
It was everywhere. To get this amount of coverage, I imagine you would have to be standing up on the Scrambler at Waldameer. That’s the only way I think you could manage to cover every corner of the restroom.
The district manager, who was lucky enough be visiting the store that day, asked me to do it. 17-year-old me would rather have been fired then clean that up. 32-year-old me probably would have helped, seeing as how I’ve changed some nasty diapers over the last 7 years, but that day and with that mess, I didn’t help. I feel bad about it now. Sort of.
So goodbye, West 8th Street Burger King. We had some great times there, and you’ll be missed.
I really want to hear your favorite summer job story. Post a comment or fill out our contact form and I’ll post them this week. You can be anonymous if you want.
I worked at a Roy Rogers when I was in high school. To this day I still wash my face once during the day because of the thought of grease.( we did fried chicken there too) I remember my my complaining when i drove her car to work ( normally I rode my bike) that the steering wheel was slippery. ewwww…
One fast “food” (a term used very loosely) joint down, how many millions to go?
geesh.. another bk in erie bites the dust? there was the one on 12th and french, the one in harborcreek, and now this one? does that now only leave the really disgusting one on broad street, and the one on upper peach? slim pickings for an eastsider like myself.
I was craving a BK burger on Friday and was in the West Erie Plaza region & discovered BK was closed….so I huffed it on up to Peach St., since a Whopper JR. was heavy on my mind and the gal who took my drive thru order (and who has been with them for 12 yrs at a non manager level) said that the BK had been closed for 2 wks now since she had worked at that local…..there is still a BK on 26th & Peninsula if you are going the right direction to pull into that place and I think there is still one out in Fairview, but that is it for BK folks. Kind of sucks for people who don't care for McDonalds any more.
For my teen years, I had worked at the Pizza Hut that I think is now a Mexican Restaurant across from the BK on Peach St., and I had worked at Elby's Big Boy where Walhgreens is now, at the intersection of Cherry & Peach St….I even worked the Big Boy's restaurant location they had in the Millcreek Mall. Remember those icecream & cake desserts they had with fudge poured all over them? Wow were they a treat & a tummy full!!!
I can actually say – I never had to work fast food. Personally, I don't eat it so it does not bother me when they close. I think we would go a long way to decreasing obesity in this country if it were not available.
I don't know about anyone else but the bk dude creeps me out – I think the spongebob/sir mix alot commercial is offensive and the bk king dude should be discarded. I say this as a fan of Spongebob too.
Yeah, exactly what is it about that Burger King dude that is so creepy? Not sure what, but it sure is something…
I have no idea, but it really creeps out my wife. She really dislikes it. I have to say i am not a fan of it either – Funny though I have a hard time remembering the previous ad campaign. “I think it was hold the pickles hold the lettuce special orders don't upset us”. Inane, but at least it wasn't creepy. At least that is the one I remember. There might have been another.