16
February
2018
|
12:39 PM
America/Chicago

This Whataburger event has all the pride, intensity, and spirit of your favorite sporting event – plus food

If you can’t get enough of the world’s big sporting news, you’ll love this story

If, like us, you just can’t get enough of the drama on the ice and the slopes this year – here’s a treat for you.

Whataburger has its own competition. In a kitchen.

Take a break from all that skiing and skating to learn more about how your Whataburger teams cook and compete at the biannual WhataGames.

Every other year, Family Members from Whataburger restaurants across the company come together to compete in WhataGames, three days of intense competition.

Family Members go head-to-head to see who can deliver best on Whataburger’s promise of hot food hot, cold food cold, and the biggest smiles in the business.

This is serious business. Winners take home $5,000 cash. Each. Other medalists can win $2,500 or $1,000. But for these Whataburger warriors, it’s really about kicking some burger booty.

Here’s an inside look:

Order up! In the photos, it looks like any other Whataburger restaurant, but it’s not! For WhataGames, the company shuts down a restaurant and brings in fake guests to place orders and test the competitors on their accuracy and friendliness.

The competition is designed to feel like an intense one-hour lunch rush – something the teams handle in their home stores every day. Orders can be dine-in, take-out, or drive-thru.

Teams are judged for getting the orders right – and for doing it with a smile.

Someone always orders fries with no salt, just to make things complicated for the fry guy. See the judge in the background? She’s keeping an eye on things to make sure procedures are followed and food safety comes first.

When the orders come out, the judges don’t get to eat them. Instead, they examine everything. Did the Grilled Chicken Sandwich come with a side order of avocado? Did the Patty Melt come with extra sauce? They even weigh the orders of fries to make sure the portions are correct.

After an hour of non-stop orders, the buzzer goes off. And the teams celebrate. They’ve been training for this moment for months!

There are other competitions too. Teams show off their knowledge of Whataburger history and culture in a game show, complete with lights, theme music, and a host.

Guests want their home restaurant to look their best, which is why the Whataburger Maintenance Services Crew is such a big part of the Family. Select technicians get to compete in the games too.

While the restaurant folks were filling orders in one restaurant, the maintenance techs were having their own challenges. The company closed another restaurant down and broke things inside – from dining room booths to ceiling tiles to shake machines – and then challenged the techs to find the problems … and fix them.

The Family Members who compete say the games are really stressful. But they still have a lot of fun. Check out these giant dice!

And these gigantic French-fry skis!

And this game, which is all about working together as a team.

The teams take this competition seriously – but they have a lot of fun too.

And the Whataburger Fan Zone is there to cheer them on every step of the way.

The Fan Zone is a group of Whataburger Family Members who put on everything orange they can find, and come out to encourage the competitors. Pom-poms definitely required.

And when it’s all over, each member of the winning team takes home gold medals. And $5,000. Each. Yes, every person wearing a bright orange shirt in this photo just found out they are $5,000 richer. (Second and third place aren’t bad either. Each silver medalist gets $2,500 and each bronze medalist score $1,000. Cash.)

But the best part of WhataGames is the way friendships get stronger as you compete side by side.

And best of all? Getting to tell the other teams you’re the orangest of the orange.

 


 

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