Saturday, January 5, 2013
When I saw that J.CO donuts was under construction near our office building in Eastwood City late last year, I felt happy. I have been hearing rave reviews about these donuts and I wanted the chance to try them out without me going out of my way just to do so.
When the store finally opened this week (not sure what day, when I went back to work on the 3rd, it was already open), I promised myself that I will not let this week pass me by without me trying even one donut flavor.
I finally had my chance after shift this morning. I knew that the place opens at 7am so I convinced two of my officemates to go with me after work. We arrived at around 7:30 and we were blown away by the line! What the eff??? We were not expecting the line to be that long since it's only been 30 minutes since the shop opened. We decided to go ahead and wait in line, initially planning to grab a box for takeout then have coffee and a donut in the shop.
Fast forward 1 hour and 45 minutes later... yes that's how long it took us to actually get to the cashier and pay for our donuts. After waiting that long with our aching feet, we decided to forgo the coffee and just get our takeout boxes. It's no wonder that despite the blockbuster line, most of the seats were unoccupied: people must have felt the same way that we did, that after enduring such a long wait, there's no way we can take staying in the shop just to get our caffeine fix.
Anyway, while waiting I quietly observed and tried to analyze why it takes too damn long to get your donuts. Here's my analysis and some recommendations:
Root Cause:
- They are understaffed. With the volume of customers that they have, they should have more staff to make the donuts and assist the customers.
- The staff at the counter are disorganized. Seems like they dip the donuts randomly instead of specific people having a task assigned especially for him/her.
- Too few people who actually assist customers: majority of the staff in front are making the donuts.
- The donut supply cannot keep up with the demand of the customers: most of the time, most of the trays are empty, resulting in customers having to wait before their order gets completed.
My Recommendations:
- Hire more staff! I think this particular branch can benefit from additional 2-3 heads.
- Assign people specific tasks so that confusion can be eliminated and it will be easier to troubleshoot issues.
- Create a separate queue for 'short orders', meaning for those who only want to buy 1-2 donuts or just coffee or just froyo. I think this will create more profit since people who just want a quick sugar or caffeine fix are easily turned off by the long lines. I for one will NEVER EVER consider wasting anything above 15 minutes just for 1-2 donuts. Cupcakes, I might reconsider, but donuts, no thanks.
- They might consider using the number system like they do in Globe business centers or banks. That way, people have time to sit down and relax while waiting for their turn, instead of standing in line and getting tired and disgruntled in the process.
One more thing, the male cashier on the morning shift at the Eastwood branch got on my nerves big-time! After enduring the waiting time of 1 hour and 45 minutes. it would have been a major consolation to be at least assisted by friendly and patient staff! But NO! This person appears to be very impatient, his friendliness VERY FORCED, and looks very unwilling to assist customers, and bordering on rude. The girl who assisted me and my friend with our orders messed up and bulked our orders in one number, though we never told her to do that. This cashier guy started punching our orders and when I informed the him that we will be paying separately, he talked to us accussingly as if it was our fault that the girl messed up, with gritted teeth and clenched jaw and all! What the eff? We did NOT need this after enduring the LOOOOOOOOONG wait. Although I was already cranky, I managed to control my temper by reminding myself that it's sooo not worth it. I even heard this guy say in an aggressive way, "Ayaw nyo ba ng order nyo???? Ano ayaw nyo????" when a customer took a bit of a while to get her order when her number called. C'mon, with that snaking line, how can this guy expect the poor customer to be in front of him in an instant? Very irritating! I recommend transferring this cashier guy to the kitchen or cleaning because he's one of the reasons why I was a bit turned off by the shop.
Anyway, here are pics of this morning's 'interesting' experience. Verdict will come after the pics:
(That's the head of the line)
View of the middle part of the line from where I'm standing from the end.
After 30 minutes, reached 1/3 of the line and this is my view of the end of the line.
Comfy chairs... wondering why the seats are not filled despite the blockbuster line... I found out soon enough.
Random shot... says free wifi... wish they would print the password so that customers need not go to the cashier to ask for the password.
Wow, they're also selling their own drinking merchandise like Starbucks.
View of the merch up close: I'll bet they'll also come up with their own planner for 2014.
Menu / pricelist of donuts and coffee. The dozen box is good value for money.
People busy making the donuts.
Caviar donuts!
Their bestseller Alcapone donuts.
The box.
Almost unboxed
And the unboxing! I chose the following flavors to try: Alcapone, Oreology, Tiramisu, Chocolate Caviar, Creme La Fame, Forest Glam, Funilla Glaze and Glazzy.
So I guess the question now is, are the donuts worth the almost two hours wait? The answer is a big fat NO. Granted that the donuts are good.... very good in fact.... great even, but they were not that divine for me to waste even 30 minutes on it. But that could just be me, since I do not have a burning love affair with donuts like I do with cupcakes and cheesecakes. If you are a certified donut lover, then I guess then the wait time will be worth it. It all boils down to personal taste: I just happen to fall into the small minority that still do not get what the fuss is all about.
Up next will be my review on each donut I actually get to eat.
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