Au Bon Pain is one of the more expensive places to eat around Blacksburg (considering what it is). It isn’t your normal college sandwich shack.
This Au Bon Pain has a section of pre-made sandwiches and a place where you get can get a freshly made sandwich. If I am in a hurry, I will stop at the pre-made section and pick something up, knowing that the quality is not as good as the freshly made ones. Fair enough. I know what I am buying.
This time I wanted a sandwich that was on the menu. It was also a sandwich that was available in the pre-made section. I decided I had time to wait for a fresh one, so I put my order in and waited in line for about 10-15 minutes (they were busy). I’m not big on having the wrap shell getting soggy, so waiting was no big deal.
So what happens? When it comes time for my sandwiches to be made by the crew, a supervisor appears from the kitchen and hands the sandwich makers two sandwiches that were wrapped up in plastic just like the ones on the pre-made shelf. They cut the plastic off the wrap with scissors (I saw them do this), and then they send the sandwich to another crew member to be wrapped up in paper as if they just assembled it from scratch.
Au Bon Pain, if I wanted a soggy pre-made wrap, I would have just picked up the pre-made version and left 15 minutes ago. I wanted freshly prepared items and instead what I got was deceived.
In addition to this, the wraps were small and light. I decided not to say anything about that and just to be sure I wasn’t biased at this point, I decided to try a little experiment. I took the wrap to my friend, who immediately pointed out how small it was. There was virtually nothing in it (them) and my friend thought they were basically appetizer sized. We both decided we were still hungry after eating the entire thing. At the price Au Bon Pain charges, this was crazy.
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