Generations Blog

As I mentioned last time, I frequent a Panera restaurant close to my office. This store is also within spitting distance of a large high school. For some students, Panera is becoming an alternate cafeteria.  This leaves Mark, the manager, with a dilemma. On one hand, he wants the students’ business. On the other, he doesn’t want them to take over the store and dissuade other customers from coming in for their coffee and pasties. So he has devised what appears to be an effective solution. Mark will spend as much time as he can wandering the seating area during the high traffic times for high school patrons. He chums around with customers and wipes down tables, but he also keeps an eye on every one those 15- to 18- year-olds. They know he’s there and he knows they know. If a table gets rowdy, he’s not afraid to be direct. “Look,” he says. “We appreciate your business and want you to come back. But you’ve got to keep it down and head back to school when you’re finished with your food.” He doesn’t lecture. He doesn’t editorialize about lazy, good-fer-nuthin kids. He just provides some parameters and they respect that for the most part. If they don’t, he’s not afraid to kick them out by simply standing at their table and saying, “It’s time to go.”

With the thousands of eating establishments across the street from the thousands of high schools in this nation, I have to wonder how everyone else handles this situation. But the bottom line here is that one can strike an effective balance between encouraging the youngest generation to patronize your business and maintaining control at the same time. It’s called consistent parameters and we should all work harder to provide them.