McAlister's Deli and Panera Bread are two well-established restaurants in Auburn, Alabama. Both McAlister's and Panera have a variety of selections of sandwiches, soups and salad to choose from. They're chain restaurants - meaning that Auburn is not their only location. Even though Panera and McAlister's are both the same type of restaurant, the environment, decoration, and food selections are quite different.
When walking into McAlister's, you are immediately given a different vibe from the environment and decoration than you get walking into Panera. McAlister's is decorated much more like a deli, while Panera is decorated more like a modern restaurant. Both restaurants have a counter in which you order from, and then find your own place to sit. Both McAlister's and Panera get extremely busy, especially around lunchtime, and I found that McAlister's was much more efficient in taking everyone's order in a timely fashion. .
While I preferred the decoration of Panera, their service was much slower and the cashiers kept letting the line get longer and longer, until it almost went out the door. I noticed, however, that people were completely fine with waiting an average of ten minutes before ordering. It was obvious that many of the people in line enjoyed the food that Panera has to offer, and were happy to wait a long time before even placing their order. At both McAlister's and Panera, the employees were friendly when you walked in the door. However, I noticed that when I went to Panera around their busiest time of the day, they were not very friendly and solely focused on getting everyone's order taken. This is understandable, especially when over twenty people are in line, but at McAlister's, I was greeted even at the busiest time of the day. I did, however, also go to Panera at a time that was not busy as well, and they were incredibly friendly and greeted me as soon as I walked in.