Don't Mess with Success...
I was at the mall during lunch today. While I was there, I noticed that a coffee/juice kiosk was closed and everything was gone, except for the sign. In February, I stopped by and got a fruit smoothie. This kiosk always had about 2-3 people waiting in line, I remember this because I was trying to figure out why it was so popular? They had two 20 year olds working behind the counter, they were taking care of the customers and getting the orders out, the smoothie wasn’t bad either.
In May, I remember walking by and seeing three older women working behind the counter. Gone were the freshly baked cookies, rice crispy treats, etc. and in place were all packaged snack items. The kiosk was now cluttered with every packaged snack item you could think of, not sure if the customers knew where to order. These women had boxes everywhere and were trying to find places to add more snack items on the counters. I could tell they had no experience taking care of customers, as they made the lonely customer wait for service. Saw the writing on the wall…
My guess is that a new owner bought the business and put in family members to run it. The thinking was probably, “How hard can a coffee business be to run?” Gone were the two 20 year olds working behind the counter and the energy they had by make coffee and smoothie drinks. Take out the freshly baked cookies and put in prepackaged cookies that you can get from a vending machine, how hard is that? Too many times I see a new owner come in and make drastic changes. These changes confuse the customers and they move on. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it… Wonder how much it cost them for a few months of being business owners?
In May, I remember walking by and seeing three older women working behind the counter. Gone were the freshly baked cookies, rice crispy treats, etc. and in place were all packaged snack items. The kiosk was now cluttered with every packaged snack item you could think of, not sure if the customers knew where to order. These women had boxes everywhere and were trying to find places to add more snack items on the counters. I could tell they had no experience taking care of customers, as they made the lonely customer wait for service. Saw the writing on the wall…
My guess is that a new owner bought the business and put in family members to run it. The thinking was probably, “How hard can a coffee business be to run?” Gone were the two 20 year olds working behind the counter and the energy they had by make coffee and smoothie drinks. Take out the freshly baked cookies and put in prepackaged cookies that you can get from a vending machine, how hard is that? Too many times I see a new owner come in and make drastic changes. These changes confuse the customers and they move on. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it… Wonder how much it cost them for a few months of being business owners?
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Every few months, we'd get a new menu item to sell (and learn to prepare). Besides the classic triangle potato cake, we also had onion rings and fries. In addition to the classic roast beef (which weren't even BEEF by the way), we also had turkey, ham and special "combo" sandwiches.
Even at fifteen years old, I wondered, "why don't we just stick to ROAST BEEF?" Even though the meat was a "beef-like" molded paste, when cooked in the oven it tasted pretty darn good.
The special sandwiches came and went, and to this day... every once in a while I crave a good old Arby's Roast Beef Sandwich, with extra Horsey Sauce of course!