7 Reasons Why Panera is a Better Place to Do Your Work than Starbucks

Every Saturday during the school year, I drive to the other end of Cleveland and drop of my son at Serbian School where he has to suffer through learning to read, write and speak Serbian — and I had to suffer through Starbucks.  But those days are gone because Panera has moved in.

The whole Starbucks mystique was always lost on me.   While I can appreciate their marketing position and strategy, I just wasn’t one of the people that connected with the whole thing.

Recently, I read that Starbucks was closing hundreds of locations and I’m not surprised.  Maybe other people have caught on as to why Panera is a better place to work for us mobile people.

1. You can order coffee in less than 6 seconds. “I’ll have a large coffee please.”  That’s six words that take less than 6 seconds to utter, comprehend and deliver on.  Imagine how many more orders Panera can fill to just one confoluted Starbucks request?!
2. FREE Wifi. I’ve reduced my Saturday expenses by over 50% just by moving to Panera.  At Starbucks I had to pay $10 for a day of wifi.  It also took about 10 minutes to log in, get my credit card in there and get online.  Every now and then, I’d lose the connection and have to go through the process all over again.  I found it expensive and frustrating.
3. FREE coffee refills.  At Starbucks, I had to pay for every new cup of coffee I wanted.  At $3 bucks a pop and wifi, I was already at $16 and that’s without my snack!
4. FREE tasty samples.  Of course I would order one of those killer WARM 4-cheese souflees and a sweet treat and a large coffee, total $7.00.  But then I’d get a refill and as I go to fill my coffee – there are free little samples of something new – that I’ll order NEXT time.
5. More electrical outlets. At the Starbucks, the space is small and hence there are less than a handful of outlets.  Of course there are people hanging out chatting AT THE TABLES THAT ARE NEXT TO THE OUTLETS!! That makes me crazy.  But where else could they go?  Panera has tables and outlets throughout the perimeter of the store.  So if one is taken, another one is available.  I also notice that Panera patrons who don’t have computers tend to sit in the middle – freeing up outlet tables for those of us with computers.  THANKS!
6. Seating AWAY from the arctic blast. Ever seen that Saturday Night Live skit where the people are Christmas shopping and stop at a restaurant to eat only to get blasted with arctic wind everytime someone opens the door.  Yeah – that was me.  The Starbucks store is so small that there is NO where to get a table with a plug that doesn’t get blasted – oh yeah – there was one – it was next to the bathrooms.
7. Soft classical music. Panera plays soft classical music that actually allows for conversation.  Starbucks did play wonderfully eclectic tunes, but they were often too loud.  So if you were there for conversation, you found yourself yelling above the music and the intermitent coffee grinding and steaming sounds.

As usual it’s all about the experience.  And I’m finding that if you’re working off-site you’ll be more comfortable and spend less money at your local Panera Bread Company.  Save the Starbucks for your latte cravings.