But I don’t want a home-cooked potato cake. I want a potato cake such as only Arby’s can make, the one they have listed on their menu as being available for purchase. If I wanted a potato cake made at home, I would be at my home in the sticks making a potato cake, not at Arby’s trying to buy one.
Just because you don’t understand the difference doesn’t mean you need to hang around in this thread whining about people talking about the thread topic. The mature thing to do would be to shrug your shoulders and either enjoy the silly postings or find somewhere else to look for profundity.
I don’t know how Panera operates, but I’m willing to bet that the dough for their bread bowls is frozen at some point. If that particular dough is out of stock at the regional Panera warehouse, there’s not much any of the Panera locations can do about it except reorder that particular dough.
Exactly, this is just simple whinging on the internet and it’s not like we are “TEH BOYCOTT! ARBEE’S DISCRIMINATES AGAINST THE HUNGRY” and waving placards and everything.
And having advertised food available is better than not having it available. For instance if they had no food available at all, ever, (but were very clean), it would be understandable to not want to visit that store again. If you agree to that, it’s just a matter of where to draw the subjective line.
I’m guessing that when most of us discover that said joint is out of bread, chicken, what have you that we don’t go on a rampage squirting ketchup packets in the air and punching people in the face. I’m guessing most of us sigh like it’s the worst day ever and say “fine give me the soup with some bread on side” or “Really? That sucks. I’m good then. See ya later.”
That doesn’t mean that we don’t like to come on here and gripe about it.
Some of us have had to deal with the griping all day at work and don’t really enjoy reading more griping afterwards when it’s a situation that we can’t control. It would be great if what was on the menu was what the store had but that just doesn’t happen sometimes and I figure if I can manage to not roll my eyes when I can’t get some item, everyone else can, too.
Wow, this Thread took on a life of its own! I am happy to see that at least some people feel me on this.
The Arby’s sidetrack was mind-blowing. Who knew the SDMB was the ultimate source of Arby’s info on the internet! I am happy to have a place to bring all Arby’s inquiries in the future.
I suppose none of the examples can compare with KFC being out of chicken.
Echoing this. Currently working there (unfortunately.)
The night bakers only bake a set amount for the day. They cannot take into account any abnormalities the next day including, say, a whole soccer team full of kids coming in just for bread bowls, or a little old lady suddenly deciding that she wants to buy twenty bread bowls. It’s happened before. Same with bagels, bread, you name it. On Christmas Eve the store was completely out of everything by the end of my shift.
You’d still be amazed at what gets thrown out at the end of the night. I think Panera would rather not add to their losses.
What is the big deal about them, anyway? Never had a desire to eat a whole loaf of bread with soup. Plus, you only get a cup of soup in the bread bowl. I’d rather order a bowl of soup (cup and a half) with a hunk of bread on the side.
I knew it! I figured, with Panera being as large as it is, they have to have some kind of production-based bake in place, much like mine. If I’m allotted only X loaves of whatever bread from the previous night’s pan-up and I sell out of all of them at, say, 2PM, that’s usually it unless we have somebody on the afternoon/evening shift who knows how to bake. Which, more often than not, we don’t.
Bakery stales can be astronomical. As the adage goes, you’ve got to make a hell of a lot of bread to make a little money. Bread ingredients are also cheap, relatively speaking.
It’s like around 9-10 or so I’m talking about. Shortly before they close the inside and switch to drive-thru only. Sure, they have to clean it sometime, but why not 3am, or something?
Given that they’re almost exactly the same thing that some chains serve as hashbrowns, that’s understandable. See McDonalds.
They quit making regular fries, only curly fries or potato cakes. I hate the overspicing of curly fries, I want regular fries. Potato cakes are too much fried to potato.
Nitpick: “profit margin” is not the same thing as “price markup”. The price markup is what they charge above and beyond their direct cost for the product. They have to pay 33 cents for it, they charge a dollar. Or whatever. Profit margin is what you get after you take out all the other expenses - water, electricity, wages, etc.
I think it’s totally acceptable to expect a restaurant to actually have the items offered on its menu and be open the hours they list they are open.
It’s one thing to occassionally run out of an item on a peak demand day, its another to regularly be short on something. To have an unofficial policy in direct contradiction to their official stated policy is pretty shitty.
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Then why would you stick your nose in a thread that can be expected to have a deal of griping? A thread about a popular restaurant chain running short of a popular menu item? How long until the griping begins?
I imagine it’s a staffing issue. They have a certain number of workers on shift till 10 pm or whatever, when the lobby is open, because they have more registers to cover. After they close the lobby, they only have the drive thru, which reduces the staff need. Ergo, the people going off shift clean the machine before they leave.
Maybe not the best policy from the customers’ perspective, but the manager makes the decision on his own needs.
The managers have to estimate how many bread bowls, bear claws,etc that the night bakers need to make for the following day. My wife works at Panera… I think they call that estimate a “Pan up” . Sometimes they fall short, apparently. I suppose it’s not an exact science.
Oh the HORROR of not getting a bread bowl! :rolleyes:
In my mind, Panera was never about the bread bowls. It was the delicious, un-bagel like, cinnamon-crunch bagels. Or soup and bread on your way home from work And those doggone sneaky, high-calorie shortbreads.
My life had a big diet changeup for the better so I tend to just get soup nowdays. But I do remember the texture of those cinnamon-crunchy things.
OP, why not, next time you’re in Panera and they have bread bowls, buy 8 or 10, take them home and throw them in the freezer? Then when you visit Panera and want soup in a bread bowl, just BYOB. Soblem prolved.
