Why would a restaurant let a clerk who has no concept of how to input orders into a cash register begin his training during lunchtime on a Saturday while the regular cashier is on a break?

Maybe they were training him that day to handle pressure and irate customers?

Guess what! I went to this Popeye's Chicken in NY and the lights were out on a Saturday afternoon and all the chairs were on the tables. Either they are closed for some unknown reason or the restaurant is out of business. Why am I not surprised.

I have over ten years retail management experience and I think there is no excuse for this. It is frustrating for the employee and the customers. From a customer service standpoint, this is an absolute disaster.

Sounds like that restaurant was just really short-handed. And possibly, the regular cashier threatened to walk out if they didn't get a break at that exact moment. The food-service industry deals with a lot of young employees who are not very job loyal or not very considerate of their supervisors or co-workers. Not that all young people are this way -- but it seems like many of them are there for the money only, and don't care about customer service or doing a god job.

Same reason you teach a kid to swim by throwing him into the deep end. Sink or swin.