That said, one of the things I find myself complaining about most often is Schwemm's. I know for a fact that I'm not alone in this; almost anyone can give you a horror story about feeling mistreated, not getting what they wanted or waiting forever for a bagel with cheese. Customer dissatisfaction seems to be the norm. There are plenty of times where everything works perfectly fine, and I start feeling guilty about complaining about the place all the time. But then the grill will close 45 minutes before closing, right before I order my bagelwich, or I'll stand at the front of the line for five minutes waiting for someone to ring up my iced tea, and my frustration is reawakened.
Though I've heard quite a few stories about bad treatment or service by Schwemm's employees and certainly experienced some myself, for the most part I don't blame them at all. Most of the people who work there are reasonably nice, some exceptionally so (leading to another I'm-such-a-spoiled-brat-for-whining guilt trip for me). Still, I can't ignore the fact that so many of us often find ourselves so frustrated with the service. Something is clearly wrong.
Most of the problems, I think, are a result of the way it's run. There is a pervading sense that they don't need your business. Of course, this notion makes complete sense; they have no competition and, given the location, it's extremely convenient. As often as I complain about the place, I find myself going back again and again. Still, no business should operate with the attitude that they don't need or value their customers. I don't know if it has something to do with the way it's operated (is it part of Valentine, part of the College?) but it doesn't appear that they value business at all. Maybe that's just a function of the unfalteringly high demand we starving college students represent despite relatively high prices and consistently unsatisfactory service. Certainly it has a lot to do with their complete lack of incentive to give good service.
While I may feel bad complaining about individual cases where I don't get the bagelwich I want, I do feel justified in complaining about policies that simply don't make sense. The other night some friends and I purposefully arrived at the campus center a good 50 minutes before 2 a.m., their supposed closing time. After watching the people ahead of us order things off the grill, we were told that the grill was closed (as we watched them turn it off). I can completely understand that it's important for the student workers to get out of there when their shift is up at 2, but I don't think the solution is to start closing everything early. In the "real world" to which we always refer, closing time at a business is when they intend to stop providing their service; Schwemm's has little concept of this practice. Beyond this, closing one part of the place early means one employee is occupied cleaning up the grill and wiping tables. This leaves an overwhelmed staff of often just one worker in charge of handling a line full of impatient students. I'm sure it would be possible for them to hire some more help for those crunch times where the staff seems so overwhelmed. Students are always looking for jobs and the added help would almost certainly allow for more sales, while alleviating everyone's frustration.
Without any legitimate competition, Schwemm's can operate however it chooses to. Aside from opening a rival shop somewhere on campus, there's no way to change this. Still, I think Schwemm's could make a few policy changes that would benefit everyone. An effort on the part of Schwemm's to care about customer satisfaction would make a lot of nights a lot more pleasant.