Case Study – American Legion Miller-Stockum Post 485 Fish Fry
Services Provided:Project Management, Website/Online Store development, and Workflow Establishment
Platform: Square Restaurants
Systems: KDS, Restaurants Point of Sale
Hardware: 5 iPads (Air 2 and newer)
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forced a suspension of all in-person dining. For a local American Legion post, this meant losing out on one of their biggest annual fundraisers – their Lenten season fish fry.
Since carryout food orders were still permissible, the Legion decided to continue fulfilling such orders. A problem immediately became apparent, however, with the realization that phone ordering would be incredibly difficult, as the Legion post only had one phone line. An online ordering solution would be necessary to accommodate and manage the high number of carryout orders anticipated during the pandemic.
The Legion reached out to Blaidecton Media (thanks to an existing relationship) for assistance. Among the requirements for online ordering were:
- Full menu
- Order visibility
- Time sensitivity
- Ability to pay online and/or in person
- Ease of use regardless of technical skill
We quickly determined that Square’s Restaurant system met all of the requirements, as well as introduced additional features that allowed for a smooth transition and relatively small learning curve for those involved.
We added each menu item and price to the Items catalog (including variable products based on a chosen meal combo) and constructed the site within Square’s template. Since the site was fully within the Square platform, there was no need to establish an API integration, avoiding any possible downtime due to API connection issues.
To avoid order backups and ensure ample time for preparation and fulfillment, we utilized Square’s timed order feature for online orders. Orders were fulfilled in 15-minute increments, with a maximum of 6 orders per time slot. Since online fulfillment began at 5pm, that allowed for as many as 60 online orders per week.
Next, we established the process and workflow for all carryout ordering. All online orders, which are paid in full at the time of ordering, would go to Square’s KDS display on an iPad in the Legion’s kitchen. There, order assemblers would call out each order for fulfillment, tapping each order item as it was completed until the order was fulfilled, at which time it was bagged and prepped for pickup.
The Square Restaurants POS system was used on an iPad to place phone orders utilizing the “Open Checks” functionality; the orders were sent to the same KDS display as online orders with times assigned for pickup (20 minutes from the time of the call), at which point, the same fulfillment process begins. By using an open check, the customer then can pay for their order upon arrival, at which time the check is marked as closed.
A third iPad was used for walk-up carryout orders utilizing the same “Open Checks” feature; these orders, however, were sent to a second KDS point on a separate iPad in the kitchen. This was done to ensure that immediate orders did not get lost on the screen with timed orders. KDS #1 was strictly immediate orders, while KDS #2 displayed timed order pickups, allowing for priority assignment to orders.
At the time of pickup, two “registers” were in place – one for walk-up orders only and one for timed (phone or online) orders. This allowed for faster processing and simplification of order preparation and pickup. From a back-end standpoint, the Walk-Up orders and the Phone/Online orders were treated as two “locations” within Square to allow for further control over the two workflows.
In total, five iPads (all provided by Legion volunteers) were utilized – 2 for KDS and 3 for POS – along with a laptop to for initial system setup and configuration. This workflow has continued to be a success even after in-person dining resumed.