Next door to the church where I work, there’s a McDonalds. More than I should, I go there and eat. Actually, going there at all is more than I should.

For some reason, the forces of nature have converged against this McDonalds. Any day of the week, or the weekend, any time of the day, this place is horrible.

There are always a lot of people working there. Or maybe I should say, there are always a lot of people wearing McDonalds uniforms, standing behind the counter. All these extra bodies aren’t helping the process. There are linguistic issues with many of the workers (a nice way of saying many of them struggle with speaking English). In addition to the language issues, there just seems to be a general confusion.

When it’s busy, I can count on waiting a long time to order – there’s no organized plan to how people stand in line, and there’s always lots of confusion as to who’s next. When I finally order, I can count on waiting a long time while 25 or 30 people discuss my order and try to figure it out. Note – I don’t order anything complicated. This same problem happens whether I order a #3 (Quarter Pounder meal) or just a cup of coffee.

When it’s not busy, I can still count on waiting a long time to order, and a long time to get my food. I’m not sure why.

This McDonalds is not very good. But here’s the thing…

I KEEP GOING THERE. WHY? BECAUSE IT’S NEXT DOOR, AND IT’S FAMILIAR, AND I DON’T WANT TO GO THROUGH THE EFFORT OF GETTING IN MY CAR AND GOING SOMEWHERE ELSE, EVEN THOUGH IT MIGHT ONLY TAKE ONE OR TWO MINUTES LONGER, AND EVEN THOUGH I WOULD MOST DEFINITELY HAVE A BETTER EXPERIENCE.

In this situation, change would clearly be a good thing. The process of ordering and getting my food would be less frustrating, and I’d probably have fewer stomach problems later. But – for some reason, I’d rather put up with a confusing ordering process, wait a long time to get my food, and feel queasy after I eat it, than change.

Is there a lesson here?