White Castle: THE CRAVE

I was in New Jersey the other day with a friend looking at places to live post-graduation, when all of a sudden, we had a craving for White Castle. Neither of us had ever had White Castle, but we saw "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle" a couple of nights before, so we were dead set on finding it! Finally, after an hour of driving, we found it. Upon devouring the little burgers called sliders. I came to two conclusions. 1) White Castle serves the low-end of the fast food market (if there is a low-end). White Castle serves food in pure quanity. There is no question of this when most of the value meals have multiple burgers, drinks, and orders of fries. I got the #3 10 burgers, 2 orders of fries, and 2 drinks. 2) Related to the last statement, I would not be eating White Castle for a ver long time because I felt like I was sick from eating too much. Upon riding shotgun in a pronated position back to Philly, I decided to call the White Castle customer service line. What happened next was nothing short of amazing.
I dialed THE CRAVE hotline and in one ring the phone was picked up and I was talking to Steph from White Castle HQ. I was not expecting to talk to an actual HUMAN BEING! (at least not until I had gone through a few minutes of menus) I couldn't believe it. I was so stunned, I began stuttering like I was in high school trying to pick up a cute girl at the dance. Finally I was able to compose myself. I simply told Steph that I liked the burgers. That was all. Just saying that they were A-OK in my book.
With the burger-induced coma I was slipping into while riding back to Villanova, I couldn't help but think how preconditioned I am to talking to or listening to some answering system. It amazes me that I was caught so off gaurd by an actual person (that was ready to talk and not transfer) answering the phone.
I suppose the takeaway from this experience is that if you don't have a product with quality that is superior to your competitor's. Compete on something else. I think White Castle has decided to provide superior customer service.