It happened again. I believed an advertisement.
Just yesterday I went on and on about what a scam all advertising is. Full of lies and misleading messages, most advertisements have only one goal: give consumers false hope.
Maybe it's time I start listening to myself talk.
For the past two months I have been watching new Panera Bread billboards go up all over town. On the left hand side they have a pimped out food shot of a bowl of soup with a sandwich served on what looks like a slab of marble. Hmm...I don't recall ever being served on marble at Panera 
before.
before.If not on a slab of marble you may see their glorious food perfectly placed on a piece of wood...appetizing. My favorite though? A picture of a women sitting at a beautiful table with her glasses on appearing to be working (ah yes the classic, "third place" shot) with text on the side that reads, "No plastic chairs. No plastic food."
Obviously if you have half a brain it is clear that Panera doesn't serve plastic food. This isn't a little Fisher Price restaurant that serves plastic bananas and hamburgers.
Here's the most annoying thing of all: those billboards make their food look really good. Too good. Enough to make me look at the billboard every time I drive by and think, "hmm...Panera sounds good right now."
You may recall a couple months ago I arrived at Panera at 10:31am to try their new breakfast sandwich. Long story short, I was denied because they stop serving breakfast at 10:30am. In a fit of rage I wrote Panera and they sent me a $10 certificate.
I have been holding on to that $10 waiting for the perfect moment. Today at lunch I decided it was time. I had been watching the billboards for too long, they were starting to irritate me and I was urged to give in and go to Panera again - trust me without the $10 certificate it's likely it would have never happened. 
Some things never change.
There we were like always, fighting the crowd to get to the front to place our order. Panera has intelligently designed the line with some wall directly behind it so everyone can crowd around the register waiting to order, unsure if they're in line at all. Like a herd of cows waiting to get to the trough we waited and finally it was our turn.
I ordered my Chipotle Chicken Sandwich - cost $6.59. Choice of side? Bag of chips or bread. Oh but for a $1.99 more I can upgrade to some fruit feature. Hold on a second.....$1.99 to upgrade to fruit? I can buy a pound of apples for about the same price. As you can imagine, I declined this luxurious upgrade. However, I did add a drink and my total price with tax was almost $9. WOW.
My wife got a bagel, bowl of soup and a large drink. Our grand total before using the $10 certificate was about $17. We took our pager, and went to go search desperately for a table and found one outside. (Everyone else was inside sitting in the non plastic chairs eating their non plastic food).
Vrrgbbb vrrbbbgg our pager started to go off and I went to the trough to get our food. I picked up our plastic tray kicked a few people out of the way and managed to get back outside to our table.
Here's the thing. The food isn't bad. It's really good. But my heavens why does it cost an arm and a leg to eat there!?! If I'm going to be spending around $9 to eat I can easily go to a sit down restaurant, get service and more food for only a couple bucks more.
Here's what's interesting - all of the casual dining restaurants have brought their prices down to compete with the Panera Breads of the world. Red Lobster has lunch starting at $6.99. Applebee's, Friday's and Bennigan's all have lunch specials around the same price. They all offer things Panera doesn't: service, less crowds, and no lines....and only for a couple bucks more. When will people start to realize that "fast casual" chains really aren't that amazing? In fact they are extremely overpriced for what you're getting.
The gap between fast food restaurants, fast casual restaurants and casual dining restaurants is closing.
Maybe Panera should put up a new billboard that says what they really stand for: Crowded. No Service. Overpriced Food.
I have never found myself to be a "fan" of Panera. Unless of course it was covered by a third party ATM and delivered to my table. Nontheless, I can't help but completely agree with the crowds and confusion that surround, well dressed fast food joints. Reading your other posts Chic-Fil-A (CFA) always seems to be brought into the comparison. And I hope you haven't grown tired of them as a sub topic. But their so called "line" resembles what you so brillianlty described as cattle fighting to eat from an all to busy trough. Not only have I seen and experienced this "cattle like line". But I feel I have also mastered its rude selfawareness. I say I have mastered the fast food stantion technique because, I understand...There Are No Rules! It is indeed, every man, woman, granny, and baby to themself. While I strongfully disagree with the discourtesy of no proper line. I do, quite frankly, widely benefit and dominate this no line, hopefully soon to be, Olympic sport. Continuing my commentary...I must admit Earl's Sandwich does have a proper organized line, with prices that seem to reflect your appetite and wallet. Normally starting a whole sub-like toasted sandwhich at $6. Adding soup or other sides as low as $1. With a quite comparable contemporary setting to Panera I have found there service to be considerate and enjoyable, this might be to the lack of volume compared to Panera. But is volume an excuse to ignore or cheapen the value of individual customers? I would love to hear your thoughts on those restaraunts that are attempting to grasp that almost friendly homecooked persona. But instead merely guiding their customers into a false security and fancy advertising. Restaraunts like Too Jays, Quiznos, Subway, CFA, Earl"s, and (if you have heard of it) Firehouse Subs. I'm not asking for a post or anything specific. I just think and wish these fast food Nazis would realize...How their customers are being treated and how much they ,are all, in need of a serious overhaul!!
ReplyDeletePanera reminds of Starbucks' more sadistic brother. While I frequent my hate/love relationship with Starbucks. I do marvel their ability to overprice coffee and let Teenage Girls as well as adults think they are "cooler" for drinking anything as long as sports the trendy Starbucks logo. Even though those Teenaged Girls are most likely drinking a "Mocha Frap" of some sort, which I might add is NOT coffee! Although I do my best to stay away from Panera, because of cost and their rude employees. I feel like people are going to Panera, not really for the food or the experience. But more so they can SAY they went to Panera. At least 60% of the time you go to Starbucks their employees make you feel welcomed and part of the gang. When I have visited Panera I feel as though at any moment I could be denied my soup like an episode of Seinfeld and the Soup Nazi.
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ReplyDeleteYou make a good point...ironically my wife and I were sitting at Panera yesterday talking about Earl of Sandwich. Their food is very good and cheaper than Panera....however I have noticed that it takes usually an hour and a half to get it. I posted on them awhile back, you can read it here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.greeneggsmarketing.com/2008/01/earl-of-slow-sandwich.html
However I really do need to review them again....I have also touched on Jimmy Johns, Subway etc in other posts. If you're on the site go to the search box on the left, type in the restaurant you want to read about and if I have written a post on it the search engine will find it for you....
Also I'm happy to hear that you are master of your line domain.
I love Earl's! Every once and awhile. The one at International normally is really good about getting you food out fast.
ReplyDeleteWhen Panera first opened they were great, especially their Chicken salad sandwich on a croissant. Alfalfa, huge portions of chicken, onion... it was great.
ReplyDeleteAfter a few months, though, the amount of chicken went down from 2 scoops to 1, so you're eating mostly croissant. I even found a twist-tie in mine once and took it back. I'll only go there on a last ditch effort to not eat at a fast food chain.