It’s Friday night and I’m looking forward to date night – dinner and a movie. This will be fun.
The plan was to stop at Panera Bread on the way, pick up dinner for two, and then get together. Now since I wanted date night to start as soon as possible, and I wasn’t keen on standing around and waiting for my food to be prepared and bagged, I figured I would call in my order and have it ready for pickup.
The Panera Bread at Crossgates Commons was right along the way. I looked online at the menu… wow, nice foods here. I then used the online website to find the phone number for the Crossgates Commons store, and dialed them up.
After I made it through the various recordings and “if you want this, press 1, if you want this, press 2” phone maze, I finally reached a human voice.
“Hi, I’d like to place an order for pickup.”
“Do you have access to the Internet?” the man on the other end of the line asked me.
“Um… yes…”
“You can order our food by placing your order online. Why don’t you do that?”
“Well … I’d like to place a pair of orders for your ‘You Pick 2’ meals – ”
“Yes, you can do that online. If you have access to the Internet, you can place your order there.”
Wow. “So are you saying you won’t take my order right now over the phone?”
“That’s right, if you have access to the Internet – ”
Ah, there’s the hang-up button. I didn’t have time for this guy to not take my order. Classless.
Okay, let’s try the Panera Bread at Mohawk Commons.
And surprisingly, the customer service was much better. The woman on the other end of the line took my order, double-checked it, confirmed a discount coupon on my account, and let me know that my food would be ready the moment I arrived.
And it was. And it was delicious. And date night continued without a hitch.
That being said, I’m still cheezed off at the actions of the first Panera Bread. And I understand why the guy told me to order on the Internet… that way everything could be tracked and the order could be e-mailed directly to the store without any confusion or order mix-up.
Still… if Panera Bread offers the option to take an order over the telephone, why in the world would a store specifically tell me that they would not take my order?
This bothers me. And it’s something that I’m calling “kiosk mentality.”
Kiosk mentality is when, instead of dealing directly with a person, you’re dealing with a recording that SOUNDS like a person (anybody who’s ever tried to get a ticket through Amtrak knows my pain), or you’re cattle-herded to a website where you select from a non-variable kiosk of items and services. You don’t feel like you’re dealing with a person. Instead, you’re feeling dehumanized, as if you’re just an entity handing over your money in exchange for a service.
I still appreciate communication with people. I still appreciate taking care of things in the “old school” manner – mailing signed checks to my bank rather than taking a picture of them and e-mailing the picture, for example. And yeah, I know “there’s an app for that” – you can put an app on your cell phone and order a pizza or Chinese food or artisan toilet paper simply with a click.
I also understand that many of these chain fast food eateries want to streamline everything, so that they can provide tasty meals within a modicum of milliseconds; savoring a soupçon of soup without standing and steaming. Your Internet menu choices are forwarded directly to the food prep team, and if there are any variations needed – i.e., hold the pickle, hold the lettuce – you better hope that those options are available on your Internet menu, or you’ll be picking those lettuce leafs and chopped gherkins off your prepared sandwich.
And maybe I’m just kvetching over a first world problem. Like this really means anything major in our world. Maybe I should just go tell the kids to get off my lawn.
Honestly, the only thing this transaction meant to me – if it meant anything at all – was that for all intents and purposes, that Panera Bread outlet wasn’t interested in me as a customer.
They were more interested in my wallet as a customer.
Chuck The Writer 
I wouldn’t spend more than one minute doing this.
I believe it was CFarms at the shore which set up a “type your order” system at the deli. It was so amusing. Kids crawled out of the woodwork to type in their outrageous orders. Deli workers went wacky. This system didn’t last very long. I don’t check out my own groceries, notebooks, car parts, etc., either. What a foolish and crazy system. Customers working so stores can screw you out of service personnel.
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Wow! I’m surprised they wouldn’t take your order over the phone! Perhaps one of their managers will read this and rethink this policy.
I’m sort of the opposite; less face time the better. I really like being able to order everything on line. In fact, I had the opposite experience recently trying to order clothes from my mobile app. It wasn’t working so I emailed help at the catalog I was ordering from and they said to call the order in. If I wanted to talk to someone I would’ve done that to begin with! 🙂
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Mr. Kiosk Mentality at Crossgates Commons doesn’t need his $15/hour job if you can use the internet. He’s talking himself right out of a job.
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Having used their ordering system online – it is not easy. A lot faster to call in an order. Yes, you can order online – and if you know the system it’s probably easy to do so. But, no thanks.
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