Best setup for coffee/food wit counter and drivethru service?

[Rockstarrbbq]

Opening a grab and go coffee and bbq location that has drive thru as well. thinking square register for both counter and drive thru window with two wireless printers.  One for barista and one for food line.  Thoughts?

[kmacmmurchy]

I think the challenge here will be using "Tickets" and KDS. I'm in the process of doing the same thing and I currently run 5 Quick Service coffee shops. In order to keep the line going and having great service we'll need to use tickets. I'm current using the iPad POS connected to a Square terminal (through wifi to make it wireless). I'm thinking with tickets the transaction doesn't have to be paid in order for the Barista to receive the order via KDS or printer. Then reconcile each ticket via the ticket and terminal as each car approaches. I'm thinking of strapping the wireless terminal to some sort of holder to pass to the vehicle for payment. I'd love to hear anyone else chime in on the subject, but I think this will work.

[ryanwanner]

Hello @Rockstarrbbq !

I think that setup would work really well for you. The only warning I have is for the wireless printers. I myself haven't tried wireless printers, but since the wireless printers would connect via bluetooth to a device (the register for you), I bet that this would make the printers only visible to the device it's connected to, quite like how USB printers aren't visible to any other terminals. If you want paper printers to be visible to every device, you'll have to install them as Ethernet printers--hardwired to the network.

My setup is a Square Stand with a USB receipt printer for the walk in settings and a Terminal for the drive up. (For the drive up I used to have a stand with the Connected Terminal but ended up making the stand a KioskBuddy self serve terminal) Both see my barista and kitchen printers, and the terminal is programmed to print receipts if necessary.

The big worry would be if the customer display or the terminal gets wet when being outside. Technology doesn't like that too much. 🙂 If you're able to keep it dry I don't see you having a problem with that setup.

@kmacmmurchyIf I'm following you correctly, you're talking about having someone ringing in the order, saving the ticket (which would print the ticket/show on the KDS), having the barista make the order, then cashing out when the order is given to the customer? I've seen a lot of Square setups that make that happen easily. As long as the order ringer puts a good description (Blue Minivan, Really Big Truck) for the name of the ticket, there shouldn't be any reason you'd see a hiccup.

You may want to look into sticky label printing as well. Individual item tickets slapped right to the side of the cup will help speed you up even more!

[kmacmmurchy]

Ok, so maybe I'm on the right track. I wouldn't likely use a wireless printer, just setup a network printer and connect through wifi, I like the KDS and may even connect it to a larger video screen in case I'm busy enough to need a prep person grabbing food etc. Yeah, I'm sure they don't like water so we'll need to be aware of that as well. Does this make sense?

[ryanwanner]

@kmacmmurchy  Perfectly. I think you're definitely on the right track

[grovetealounge]

We currently run a cafe in mid-Michigan that offers a wide variety of loose leaf teas, lattes, baked goods and breakfast/lunch items (all made and prepared in-house).  We offer dine-in, take-out, drive-thru and online ordering

Our set-up is as such:

1. Registers - A Square Register at the drive-thru window and another Square Register at the from counter for customers who come inside

2. Printers - We have a "drink printer" for the bar, a "food service printer" for our food orders, and then each register has it's own printer for receipts and also the quick, "grab-n-go" items to help move things thru faster and not clog up the barista or food service team members (these are things like quick things that can be grabbed and handed to the customer right from the front counter out of our display case or easily fill up a cup with cold brew coffee or iced tea from our tap system that also sits next to our register).  Drinks go to the bar printer and food goes to the food service printer.  We then have 1 final printer that we call the "master ticket printer" which prints out the full ticket order for each transaction.  This printer is centrally located on one of our back counters between the bar and food area which becomes the staging area for all orders.  When drinks are completed, the barista walks them over and matches them to the Master Ticket.  Food Service person does the same.  Whoever brings over the final items to complete the Master Ticket becomes the person responsible for calling the order out and handing it to the customer. If that person is slammed with orders in their area, they communicate with the Shift Leader on duty who also acts as the Expeditor and they work on getting the order out to the customer

Not register- related, but we also do have a few cheap Android tablets that we snagged for like $100/ea from Costco at strategic points behind the counter.  One is connected to a Waze camera so our staff can see the line of cars in the drive-thru and is mounted just above the drive-thru register.  1 other tablet is mounted on the wall above the Master Ticket Printer and is always set to our online order screen in the Square app.  Makes it easy to check on new online orders coming thru and also stay on top of "Upcoming" order that are scheduled for pickup/delivery later in the day

This set up has worked extremely well for us and helped us stay organized while significantly reducing the number of errors when fulfilling orders.  We are only 3 years old and are constantly evolving and revamping to get better, more accurate and more efficient.  It takes quite a bit of up-front work in the register to organize everything in such a way to make the best use of this type of printer set up, but it was definitely worth it!