This is the first time I've ever seen one of these in my area, and I grabbed it! I've read the guidelines and the survey and am confused about the photo instructions. Both the guidelines and the survey show food in three different ways (in the outer bag, grouped together with lids still on, and each sandwich and side individually with the lid off. But there seems to be a fourth requirement, which sounds "on paper" just like the last one, and there's no photo example.

If anyone has done one, what is the correct way to do these? This reminds me of the TRX curbside shops, where there seems to have been confusion right from Day 1 on the photos. I think the instructions are still ambiguous, although the schedulers seem to have given better directions on those.

I noticed, too, that the survey must have been modified from a Mexican restaurant shop, since tacos are mentioned in a question! LOL. They need us shoppers to review these shop materials before they go live! Seriously....

I like cheese! Where might I find such a shop?

Birdy, I have absolute faith you will perform the shop faultlessly, taking LOTS of extra photos to CYA!!!

So, I just did one of these and not sure I did it correctly, but the pics I submitted were: closed bag, everything together with lids on, everything individually with lids on, everything together lids off, everything individually with lids off, receipts.
I was not sure when I filled out the report that I had everything in the right section because its written a little oddly, but they accepted it without comment and didn't ask for anymore pictures or clarification.

Edit: I also took one of the side of my sandwich (like an Arbys shop, so you could see the ingredients) and submitted that as an extra pic at the bottom. When in doubt just take more pics lol.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/28/2022 01:39PM by rarararara.

For what it's worth, it's a ghost kitchen for IHOP! I remember the old Tom and Chee and they used to have shops and they were fairly good but most of the stores have closed.

Well, I missed a photo, but emailed the scheduler to explain that I was confused and why. The guidelines aren't written very clearly, plus they have an example of the individual item with lid off, but it's next to the instruction that means they want you to take a shot of all items together in one photo with lids off. They don't really itemize in words or in photo examples what they want. In fact, there's no example shot of the photo I missed. I did read the guidelines and survey, of course, but it sounded to me like they were asking for the same thing twice.

Anyway, the scheduler was great and said my shop would be accepted (although it hasn't been reviewed yet).

I suspect this project was put together in a real hurry; there is wording from what was clearly a prior restaurant project that wasn't deleted.

I think they need to use a numbered list for the photo requirements, with a corresponding photo example showing exactly what they want. In this case, the shot with all items together with lids off wasn't shown. There are four photo requirements (the last one being for each individual item, so there will be more than four photos, of course), but only three are pictured.

Texas Roadhouse needs to do the same. After all this time, they still don't have those photo requirements specified unambiguously!

@rarararara, you did it right and were smart to take extra views! I wish I had, but my husband and son get annoyed when I take too long to take the photos--because they're hungry and don't want the food to get cold. Of course, we do have a thing called a microwave....

I know the TXRH directions doesn't show examples of the photos needed, but I've never had any issues.

1. Food in containers, lid closed.
2. Food in containers outer lids opened, inner lids (side items, sauces, condiments) closed.
3. Food in containers, both outer and inner lids opened.

@JasperJohnson wrote:

I know the TXRH directions doesn't show examples of the photos needed, but I've never had any issues.

1. Food in containers, lid closed.
2. Food in containers outer lids opened, inner lids (side items, sauces, condiments) closed.
3. Food in containers, both outer and inner lids opened.

For a long time, there were contradictory instructions from guidelines to survey. Looks like they finally got those aligned, since last time I did one, just recently, the instructions were clear. But when they first rolled this shop out, several shoppers had questions about the photos. And the instructions from the schedulers were sometimes at odds with the other materials.