Our Counter is NOT a Giant Trashcan

I hate getting receipts, personally. Whenever I purchase food at restaurants-- sit-in or fast food-- I always toss the receipts. Although some Panera locations have beeper systems or call names when food is ready, we shout out a number. The cashiers only give the customers ONE receipt with the purchase information and your number as a reminder at the bottom.

It never ceases to amaze we how:
1. People cannot remember their numbers to the food counter from the cash registers AND
2. How, although the numbers are in large print at the bottom of the receipt, people still come back to the cashiers to ask what there number was again. Just a tip, the cashier deals with at least 3 people a minute; they probably don't remember either.

This is annoying for several reasons, the most important being that when people don't know their numbers, they don't pick up their food. When customers don't pick up their food, it sits on the counter. If it sits too long, the customer complains it's cold and then we have to remake it. Then we are full cycle back to the issue of wasted food. Phew. So please, I am begging you, KNOW YOUR ORDER NUMBER...and for the love of God, listen when the consolidator is calling a number.

We already have enough problems on the food line with people trashing up the counters with their receipts. At our store, we used to have a very tiny basket that people would throw their receipts in if they didn't want them after they picked up their food. We were told by corporate to take the basket down for aesthetic reasons, so naturally, we did. Now, people are left utterly confused about what to do with their receipts.

Rather than keep them, they have decided to throw them on the part of the counter we place the food. So to recap: Food everywhere from people not picking up, receipts littered everywhere (resembling the blizzard of '96), confused people disoriented because they don't know their numbers, angry employees getting red-in-the-face screaming the numbers...

Stop the cycle, throw the receipt in the trashcan and just know your number, or in cases where they take your name... I suggest you remember that too.