I park my car, and I’m walking into a restaurant. I see a smashed Coke can or a broken beer bottle. As I near the entrance, I notice some dead plants with cigarette butts and candy wrappers nearby. I reach for the front door. The glass has smudges on it because the hostess isn’t wiping it down constantly. Those observations take a minute or two at the most. But I know what that restaurant experience will be like before I even walk in the front door. I can tell you right then and there whether I am going to have sharp service, sharp food, sharp everything. And I’m barely through the front door.
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