Open Letter to Einstein Bros. CEO

Jose Alberto Dueñas
CEO
Einstein Bros. Bagels, Panera Bread, Caribou
JAB Holding?
1720 Bellaire Street
Ste:  Skybox
Denver, Colorado 80220
Subject:  Policy of no seats at Einstein Bros. Bagel Stores
Dear Mr. Dueñas:

Have  you and the corporate members of your team lost your minds!  I just returned from my local Einstein Bros. Bagel Store only to find that there is still no seating.  NO PLACE TO SIT!

If we were in the middle of the pandemic that was experience for the past few years, I could understand the need for no seating.  We are not!  We are beyond that horror.  And, yet, your Einstein store in my neighborhood still has no seating.  The wonderfully crafted community table in the store is a sham.  No chairs!

 

Are you aware that older people have habits?  Many live alone.  They like to get out of their living quarters, each day, to talk with others like themselves.  They like to have a hot drink and a bagel or some other item.  They like to see friends and newcomers and make them feel good as a part of their community.

You have taken this enjoyment away from all of your customers who fit into this category, as well as your younger customers.  You also have taken away the opportunity for your staff to get to know their customers.  What a disappointment you have set up for both kinds of these people:  customers and employees.  I have been told by employees at my local Einstein’s that they miss getting to know their customers.  Customers had become their friends; a particularly sad situation for their customers that it is now just get in, get out, and be on their way!

It occurs to me that it may not be long before the chairs are removed from the Panera Bread stores.  And, the Caribou Coffee stores.   Or, the Starbucks.  Or, do you mean to continue this punishment of only the Einstein patrons.  Why not simply have a drive through?  In addition to their in-store seating, Dunkin’ Donuts has one for those people who want to “grab and go.”  Yes, it seems that a drive through would be best.  No pretense that you care about your customers.  No thought to how the customers – especially, the senior citizens, might enjoy a visit to your Einstein store as a regular part of their day.

Shame on you and your decision to remove the chairs so that no one can sit, relax, and enjoy your food and other customers.  My local store has one wall where some bench chairs have not been removed.  Why not take all of those bench seats out; be consistent, at least.  In that way, there will be no place for the elderly, the handicapped, or any other person to sit while waiting for their order to be prepared.

While I prefer the bagels from Einsteins to any other bagel that I can find, I think that I’ve now paid my last visit to one of your stores.  As long as I:  1) cannot sit while waiting for my order (I am, after all, old at 85, and could use somewhere beside the window sill to sit and wait for the order); 2) have no place to invite friends or neighbors to go and have coffee and a bagel; 3) get to know the employees and enjoy their company while in the store, I think I’ll just get my bagels from my grocer.  Hard and chewy, they may be.  But, at the grocery store, I don’t expect to sit.

Oh, excuse me.  The Starbucks at my grocer has chairs and tables.  Why?  If you are being consistent, are they still there?

 

I’m sorry I won’t be seeing the employees and my friends at my local Einsteins.  However …

 

Sincerely,
My name and signature
and e-mail address

 

 

 

On another note:  Your website is so confusing that I was unable to define exactly where to send this letter.  So, it if it reaches you, it may be a miracle.