Truman Chips: MB and Kellie

And the plot thickens again.

MB had a birthday party a couple of weeks ago, and we ended up ordering pizza. I only had a $50 note, and he didn't have change, so I offered to buy him lunch. Seeing as his office is somewhat close to the Fodder-blog-famous Truman chips venue, I thought it would be worth adding another sample to my experiment. As an added bonus, his wife, Kellie, also came along.

Note: The same person served us as the person who served me and Ally a couple of weeks ago. I'm not too sure about the cook, as it's hard to tell by only seeing a side-profile or his back most of the time.

So here are the results:

MB - White, male, no Truman chips
Kellie - White, female, no Truman chips
Me - Asian, female, no Truman chips

Yep, you read that right, no Truman chips! Interesting data point indeed.

However, there is a potential confound. The order of the burger orders: MB, Kellie, Me. Kellie went to get us a table, while MB and I waited for the orders. MB's order came out and he went to get it. Then Kellie's order came out, and MB grabbed that, too, as he had her ticket. But then the food prep guy came out and asked for Kellie's order back. At first we thought maybe he thought MB had grabbed someone else's order, as it was a female who placed it, but he explained that he had given him the wrong order, and he wanted the burger back to double check. When he returned, we found out that he had given him #51, which was my order (at this point, there was only one bag, so no Truman chips). So I show him that I have #51, and he asks if I want my burger now, so I say, "Sure, why not?" Then we wait for Kellie's order.

I'm somewhat astonished at the lack of Truman chips, but oh well, back to the drawing board. Only the burger that I did receive wasn't my burger. It was the burger I ordered, but with extra bacon! Maybe I've progressed from Truman chips to Truman bacon? Unfortunately, they put cheese and mayo in the burger, so I couldn't eat it and had to go and get a new one. I felt bad about that, as it was peak lunch time at that point (we went at around 12:30).

Two extra data points, as I'd been talking about Truman chips so much at work, two of my co-workers also decided to come. DComics, who couldn't go last time, and another tester, J.

DComics - White, male, no Truman chips
J - Asian, male, no Truman chips

MB has a new theory, that the burger place knows about my experiment, and they're purposely messing with me to get me to keep coming back. They have to have the semblance of a pattern, so that I won't think it's just random, but it can't be too obvious, or I'll figure it out right away and stop going. He had an alternative theory in that 1 in every X people get Truman chips, and I've been lucky each time, but I think that's statistically unlikely. Though you never know. MB had another theory - that the staff think I'm lonely because I usually go alone (or at least try to appear alone, as to not confuse the test data, but they don't know that!), though this time I was clearly with a friend, which meant they didn't need to give me Truman chips. But lots of other people go alone!

And before you think we can write off the lack of Truman chips to it being the peak period, as we were eating, I noticed a guy walk out with two bags, one big one and one small one, just like I have when I get Truman chips! Demographic-wise, I'd say he's the opposite of me. From what I could see from the brief glimpse, he was white, male, and dressed in a suit, as opposed to my Asian, female, super casual (jeans + hoodie) appearance.

I don't know what to do with this data. Maybe it proves my secret code theory right. They saw me talking with MB and thought maybe I had been compromised as I had "bumped" into someone, and couldn't complete my chip delivery mission. So they called in a back-up (the suit guy).

Perhaps the order screw-up messed with everything. Perhaps my Truman chips luck has just run out. Either way, lunch just ended up with even more of my co-workers signing up to be part of my experiment. I don't even know if it's worth going to the gym any more, if I'm going to eat so many burgers and chips. I'm 5 for 6 now.