Panera Bread just fixed a huge problem that's haunting Starbucks
Hollis Johnson
Panera Bread has managed to cut its wait time to order food from eight minutes to one minute, thanks to the company's efforts to boost mobile ordering, the Wall Street Journal reported. Today, online orders make up more than 25% of sales at the fast-casual chain's company-owned stores.
However, fixing the chain's mobile ordering system wasn't an easy process.
"It's about a systemic solve," Blaine Hurst, Panera's president, who was heavily involved in the development of Panera 2.0, told Business Insider earlier this year. "A lot of people say, let's just do this, let's just do that. I believe you have to look at the whole system - or it will break."
To create a systematic solution, Hurst and Panera CEO Ron Shaich spent about 100 hours a week in a Massachusetts Panera locations, observing and pin pointing exactly what was causing bottlenecks.
Hollis Johnson
Shaich told the Wall Street Journal that what they found was that there wasn't one thing that needed to change, but instead "hundreds of little things" to adjust. Changes included everything from adding ordering kiosks in stores to simplifying kitchen display systems.
While Panera reported in April same-store sales increased 2.6% in the most recent quarter, thanks in part to digital sales growth, it took a while for the hundreds of tiny changes to pay off.
"I took three years of flat earnings and a lot of heat as we made these bets," Shaich told the Journal.
That's reassuring news for a chains like Starbucks, which is currently facing problems after betting big on mobile ordering. The coffee giant is testing solutions such as pick-up shelves and texting customers when their order is ready, after partially blaming a drop in traffic early in 2017 on bottlenecks caused by mobile orders.
NOW WATCH: This smart watch has mechanical clock hands
- Ahmedabad makes it to the top 8 global destinations for slow travel; See the list
- Ghost shopping malls surged 59% in 2023, 16 retail centres shut across top cities
- Top-selling cars in India in April 2024 – Tata Punch continues to dominate
- Apple Let Loose event today – What to expect, where to watch the live stream and everything you need to know
- Happiest Minds Tech Q4 profit up 25% to ₹72 cr, co hopes to see growth in GenAI vertical
- Nothing Phone (2a) blue edition launched
- JNK India IPO allotment date
- JioCinema New Plans
- Realme Narzo 70 Launched
- Apple Let Loose event
- Elon Musk Apology
- RIL cash flows
- Charlie Munger
- Feedbank IPO allotment
- Tata IPO allotment
- Most generous retirement plans
- Broadcom lays off
- Cibil Score vs Cibil Report
- Birla and Bajaj in top Richest
- Nestle Sept 2023 report
- India Equity Market