I love Chipotle Mexican Grill. Sure, it's not authentic Mexican cuisine, but it's still delicious. I absolutely love going there and hearing the sizzle of chicken and steak on the grill; gazing at the sight of freshly prepared, creamy guacamole; smelling the mouth-watering combination of rice, lime, and cilantro; and, finally, tasting all of this and more as I sink my teeth into one of their massive burritos.

The lucky thing is that just about every experience I've had with this restaurant has been positive, and lucky that I love their food so much. Because unlike a few people today, I didn't turn my back on that amazing burrito just because some lady ruined some of the food because she didn't follow a simple policy.

Which is actually what this post is about. Chipotle is only a block or so from my campus, so it was worth walking to even though the line was sure to be long at the time of the day. That never stops me. As soon as I walked through the doors, all the smells and sights of why I was so drawn to it in the first place came back to me -- I knew I made the right choice. I'm standing behind this lady, about my height, dark haired, wearing sunglasses even though it had been overcast all day. In her left hand, she's got her cell phone. In the right, she has a cup of coffee. Nothing interesting, right? Read on.

Finally, the line moves froward and it's her turn to order. I'm so close to getting my meal I can almost taste it. My view of the rice is blocked by this young woman as she starts telling the young man behind the counter what she'd like, so my eyes glance over toward the meat selection, watching as a female worker replaces the insert of old chicken with freshly sliced chicken, and seconds later does the same with the steak. "Yes!," I'm thinking to myself. After all, who doesn't prefer fresh food?

My eyes move back to the woman in front as I hear a bit of conversation between her and the male employee. It turns out she had reached over the glass with her right arm to point at something, and the employee had kindly asked that she not do that. It's a simple policy. It says on a sticker in the corner of the glass "LOOK, DON'T TOUCH! Keep your hands on the other side, please. Thank you." Really, really simple. Unfortunately, either the lady doesn't seem to register what the employee said or doesn't care. She moves down the line toward the meats, just when I move forward to place my order. I had just asked for rice when yet again the woman reaches over the glass with her right arm. This time, however, her coffee didn't stay in her hand.

She knocked the bottom of the cup against the glass, lost her grip on it, and it tumbled out of her hand, falling onto the counter and burst open, spilling what looked like two-thirds of a Starbucks Grande size cup of coffee all over. It spilled very quickly onto the chicken and steak, both of which had just been put there, freshly made, not more than about thirty seconds before. The employee who put them there quickly took them away and threw it all out. More chicken would be ready within five minutes, she had said. At this time, about four people behind me left, grumbling. Of course no one really wants to wait at a fast food joint, but honestly it was only a five minute wait. And I hadn't walked here just to turn around because someone made a mistake, albeit a very stupid one.

So, what's the point of this post? I'm not at all upset that I had to wait five short minutes for my lunch (I've waited twenty before, and I still wasn't too annoyed). Actually, what I'm annoyed about is the carelessness this lady showed with regards to policy. Sure, it was a mistake, but what customers sometimes forget with this sort of thing is that policies exist for certain reasons and I bet you more often than not they're good reasons. I've been working for the past two years at Popeyes Chicken and Biscuits and I can attest to this personally. Many places -- especially restaurants -- have regulations and policies like this because they realize shit happens, and it's best to avoid these issues as best as possible. That's common sense.

Some might think it was stupid for the employee in this story to have thrown away ALL of the meat. After all, the coffee only spilled onto the top layer. However, that's not how food regulations work. Generally, a policy for this sort of situation will require the food be completely thrown away in case of contamination. Even if you, the customer, don't see a problem, the employee does. He or she has been trained to follow the procedure carefully and to the letter. There's also the other way around, in which the employee might not see a problem but the customer might. Had this employee not thrown away the whole thing then there is still the likelihood that even one customer would be pissed off they were given a certain product knowing coffee -- or anything for that matter -- spilled all over it.

Even then, that's not the worst. No, the worst is knowing that money was wasted. Yes, I understand it might have just been a little bit of chicken compared to how much Chipotle may usually purchase, but it's still a waste. In the end, the ones who get the worse end of the deal are the employees and the employers, whether or not they were to blame for the incident in the first place. Policies do exist for certain reasons, and in my experience it's more often than not because it's to help save money (especially important in this current economy) and to try to satisfy both parties -- the workers and the clients.

The long story short: Don't reach over glass with a cup of coffee. Actually, don't do it at all if you're asked not to. Simple enough.