When it comes to investing in technology, many restaurant operators ask themselves the question: “Develop or buy?” While there are several reasons why a brand might choose proprietary solutions over partnering with technology vendors, the decision primarily boils down to the freedom to choose exactly what you want in your technology stack.
When seven-store Jeff’s Bagel Run opened its New York-style bagel shop in Orlando just before the pandemic, founders Jeff and Danielle Perera worked with Square as their first POS system. In March, the company hired one of its top investors, uBreakiFi founder Justin Wetherill, as Jeff’s Bagel Run’s first president, with the goal of taking the brand national.
To do this successfully, they decided to develop a bespoke tech stack, because running a bagel shop is different from most other food service operations: The back of the shop needs to constantly communicate with the front of the shop, and the bagel bakers need to know exactly how many bagels to make throughout the day to meet demand but also not make too much product. In short, Wetherill and Aaron LeClair had to figure out how to automate the bagel-making process to a large extent without compromising on quality:
“We knew we had to automate the process as much as possible so the people in the store could be human and provide good customer service,” Wetherill said. “Our intention is to make a pre-baked product that looks simple from the outside, but a lot of what’s done in our stores is quite different from what’s done in the rest of the industry. Our bagels are rolled daily, left to rise overnight and baked the next day. We try to bake them as close to real-time demand as possible so they’re the freshest, hottest product possible. They’re baked continuously throughout the day.”
Today, the only non-proprietary technologies in the stores are payment processing integrations and third-party delivery partnerships. The custom tech stack is divided into two applications: One has an in-store operations platform that includes a POS system, kitchen display system, inventory management, and metrics and dashboards. The other component is the customer-facing app. The POS was launched last year, while the mobile app will launch in early 2024.
The front and back are fully connected and integrated, so front-of-house staff always know how many bagels are in the back. A front-of-house staff member can easily add available bagels and spreads through the interface. They can also see how many bagel orders are in the queue and how many bagels are currently in the basket and oven. For example, if a store runs out of dough, a staff member can simply pause the mobile app and all third-party delivery orders with the push of a button, without having to manually notify customers that they are temporarily out of bagels.
The machine learning model can predict how many bagels a store needs to make on a given day, reducing the chance of running out of dough.
“You can see (predictions) down to the individual bagel flavors and see what the machine should be producing that day,” LeClair said. “Then we continually update that model based on current sales. Then we have our baking system that dispenses each tray. Then all the employees have to do is start preparing each bagel flavor, put it in the oven and start baking… Then the front-of-house staff knows those bagels are fresh and hot, and they can communicate that to the customer and get them excited about that experience.”
The point of this system, LeClair said, is to reduce waste, improve the employee experience and enhance customer service. Throughout the process of building the custom software, the team was able to make adjustments and changes in real time based on employee needs.
“When we launched our espresso drinks, we did Starbucks-style and wrote names and orders on the cups with markers,” LeClair said. “It got crazy, so we decided we needed a system for self-adhesive labels. We immediately took it a step further and started developing a system with native integration with our system and printers. If (outside partners) had done that for us, it would have taken a year or two, but we did it in a couple of months.”
With more than 40 locations planned, mostly in the Southeast, Jeff’s Bagel Run is poised for success and expansion with just the right technology the business needs right from the start.
Contact Joanna at (email protected)M
