Thursday, September 15, 2016

Hall of Fame

Let's contrast this with Chick-Fil-A.


Bright menu boards full of photos and descriptions of all food.  Lines clearly marked.  Food is usually brought out to your table or given to you at the side of the counter.

Let's look at those backlit menu boards:



A bit glare-y to photograph, but easy to read and understand.

Hall of Shame

Panera Bread.  Wonderful food with attention to detail.  Lousy menu for comprehension and bad customer flow in store:


The menu board is full of narrow type that does not describe any item on the menu besides the title.  Asking questions like:  "What is on the Fuji Apple Chicken Salad?" will cause an employee to hand you a flyer with all the items in full detail.  They keep these behind the counter.

There are two ordering stations.  The above is the lunch and dinner counter.  The side station is for pastries:


This does improve flow somewhat, but the menu boards are impossible. 

Once you order, there are three pickup counters.  The pastry station, the drink/smoothie station, and the main item station.


If you ordered a meal, a pastry, and a drink, there are three spots that you must visit.