Change is hard! Everyone says so, and change has come to Panera Bread in the weeks we have been away. The barista counter, where you could watch your smoothie or latte being made and chat a bit with the maker, has been blocked by a dark wall. No more eye contact, no more friendly back and forth at this once happy spot. Two of the four person booths, which seemed to have been pretty constantly in use, have been converted to two person booths to make room for a dark little nook containing a bench and a pile of baby chairs. This new bench construction is again unfriendly to light. The message here seems to be that Panera is becoming a darker place. Finally, the wide and accommodating recycle/waste/silverware/tray bins, have been replaced with a garbage receptacle less than half the size of the original. And this my friends is what has truly pissed us regulars off! Why, you ask?
Why? Because the comfortable trash containers we grew to know and love have been replaced by tables holding what look like miniature ATM’s installed in front of ballpark containers for scooping mustard, relish, and onions. Now, we are told that in the near future, maybe June, these tables will become order kiosks, where you can step up to the little screen, order your bagel, pay for it, pick up a buzzer, and wait for it to buzz the arrival of your food. I’m still not sure what the mustard/relish like installations are. I guess the idea of this is to make it easier to order. Maybe it will work. I wonder, though. The kiosk/table pictured above sits directly to the right of the place where people who wish to order from live people line up. Another kiosk/table with a little garbage can next to it is directly to the left of the line up area. Possible result: kiosk lines bumping into regular order lines from both sides. . . creating Panera Mayhem.
Funny, true story: On Sunday morning, I was going for coffee and a regular customer, I don’t know his name, but he is the man with the big hat and scarf, plopped his cup and tray down on the order kiosk-to-be. Trying to be helpful, I said, “They’ve moved the garbage can over there.” To which with red face the man said to me, “Then they can damn well move this over there, too!”
I guess that little tale is symbolic of the difficulty of change. For the Panera regulars, the philosophy would probably be “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! Maybe the kiosks are necessary to up the bottom line. So be it. They won’t disappear. There’s a large investment in those unpopular facilities. But the walls blocking the customers from the staff need to go down. Come on, corporate, let the light back in! Don’t you realize that a big reason that many of us regulars come to drink from the Panera Dark Roast Grail everyday is that we like the people who work there, and we like to interact with them. It stinks to say good morning to a wall!--Greg Ellstrom
