Skip to main content

DIY POS ft. Panera

** WILL RELOCATE**
Have to put that in because this is the post that shows up on Bing/Google search when you search this blog title.

Panama City, Florida is becoming a new place.

While the mall won't return, instead opting for 2 department stores, a Planet Fitness, and a movie theater you have to enter through a back alley, other places nearby are being remodeled after extensive damage from Hurricane Michael.

The Books A Million is beautiful and the Target is sleek and modern. A lot of blue metal and wood. The Panera has also followed suit.

It's a shame it took a Category 5 storm to drag the city into the 21st Century, but better late than never. I'm happy for them, and will be even happier when I am living in another city.

Remodels can't fix a mismatch of opportunity.

Today is Panera's day. Gone is the charmingly late 90's decor, jumping 2 decades in 2 weeks with sleek, white rustic touches, a lot of glass, and a lot of natural light. I dig it.

Pictured; Not the natural light.


But! This isn't an interior design blog, it's a technical one. That's why I decided to try the self-order machines.



It's why I'm in tech. Because new, shiny things!

This is not a new remodel - When evacuating to Jacksonville, FL, their Panera restaurants already had this new, sleek style and self POS system.

They also had a delicious grain bowl. Like Freshii, but cheaper. 

There were 4 kiosks. It's very similar the app you find on your phone, and the checkout on the desktop site. Sure enough, the receipt went directly to my e-mail. It's using the mobile order app while on the premises - Though there was the option to dine in.

At the checkout, the card swiper and POS system seemed a little out of synch. I had to swipe my card twice, as the POS indicated for me to swipe when the card machine wasn't ready. 

The card reader was deciding what to do ("Please wait...") for so long, my order almost timed out.


That's my breakfast sandwich! 

Overall, it's a quick, interesting experience that should definitely cut down on the lunch rush line - There was still an employee at the register for the human touch.

 How secure is it? Are payments going directly to the local register logs? The keyboard that pops up is iOS - send a lot of input to the device, you could probably crash the app and have access to other sections.

Are they connected to the Panera Wi-Fi network available to customers? I'd put it on a seperate one that's not broadcasting its SSID.


EMPLOYERS: This is me keeping abreast of new technologies. Reminder: I will relocate!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Connecting IoT Devices to a Registration Server (Packet Tracer, Cisco)

In Packet Tracer, a demo software made by Cisco Systems. It certainly has changed a lot since 2016. It's almost an Olympic feat to even get started with it now, but it does look snazzy. This is for the new CCNA, that integrates, among other things, IoT and Automation, which I've worked on here before. Instructions here . I don't know if this is an aspect of "Let's make sure people are paying attention and not simply following blindly", or an oversight - The instructions indicate a Meraki Server, when a regular one is the working option here. I have to enable the IoT service on this server. Also, we assign the server an IPv4 address from a DHCP pool instead of giving it a static one. For something that handles our IoT business, perhaps that's safer; Getting a new IPv4 address every week or so is a minimal step against an intruder, but it is a step. There are no devices associated with this new server; In an earlier lab (not shown), I attached them to 'H

What Do You Need? [List of Offered Services]

2023 Version is here, at this handy Notion Page.

Building, Breaking, and Building A CRM with Retool

 I like no- or low-code solutions to things. I've often wanted to simply push a button or move some GUI around and have the code implement itself.  I've thought about building something that's like a customer relationship management (CRM) system for keeping up with my network better than my little spreadsheet where I click links and then go like something. The general idea in this CRM Development is:  To have a GUI to add people to a NRM (Network Relationship Management).       Attach it to a database (MySQL is what I went with eventually using Amazon Relational Database service, but you can use PostGRES, and probably others).     Make sure components are connected to each other in the retool interface. This video is a good start. Watching the tutorial video, heard some SQL commands and went 'Oh no 😳" before going "Wait I know basic SQL", which is good, because you'll see.  When you get set up, there's a plethora of resources you can use -- Incl