So far, I've really enjoyed Pressed and have had an amazing experience, which is exactly why I…read morewanted to introduce my husband to it. Unfortunately, our visit on Friday, 8/28/26 was incredibly disappointing.
The young woman working the counter seemed either very new or simply in need of additional support, because something was definitely off operationally. First, the vanilla machine was down, so that option was unavailable. Of course, that was no fault of hers and completely understandable.
However, when my husband and I walked in, we were the only customers there. I'm still fairly new to the Pressed community and didn't have my membership barcode readily available. I was spending about $40, so I asked if she could look up my account using my phone number. She told me she couldn't. That honestly felt absurd and unnecessarily unhelpful. At places like Jamba, Starbucks, and countless other businesses, there is usually some alternative way to assist a customer when they don't have their barcode immediately available.
Nonetheless, we placed our order. By the time we finished, two additional parties had come in, and she proceeded to take their orders before preparing ours. Fine. I understood that she was working the counter alone, and when someone is managing both the register and fulfillment, customers have to allow them some grace and time to balance both.
The problem was that she never seemed to make that transition.
As she continued taking orders, more customers entered, and she simply kept ringing people up without preparing any of the outstanding orders. The small lobby became increasingly crowded while completed orders remained nonexistent. My husband and I had an appointment and were already pressed for time. At one point, he tapped me and asked, "Is it always like this? Is she ever going to start making the orders so people can get out of here?"
I finally asked her about the wait and mentioned that our order still hadn't been started. She told me she "needed to take all of the orders first." I asked, "Is that Pressed policy?" She said yes and continued ringing up several more customers before finally beginning our order.
That made absolutely no sense to me.
If that is truly Pressed policy, I would strongly encourage management to reconsider it. If it isn't, then this employee needs additional training on how to manage the counter efficiently when working alone. There has to be a reasonable rhythm--perhaps take two orders, fulfill two orders, then return to the register. Continuing to accept order after order while an increasingly crowded lobby waits for anyone's food to actually be made is inefficient and creates unnecessary frustration for everyone.
As a business owner myself, I would have cringed watching the customer experience unfold this way. It wasn't simply that the location was busy; it was the lack of effective multitasking and workflow that created the backup.
I've enjoyed Pressed enough that I'm not writing off the brand because of one poor experience, but this visit definitely missed the mark. And unfortunately, it was my husband's first impression.
His final assessment was: "All this for some non-dairy ice cream? I'll pass."
Not exactly the introduction to Pressed I was hoping to give him.
I especially like that this version makes it clear you're not attacking the employee personally--you're calling out the lack of training, workflow, and customer service, which makes your complaint much stronger.
Hopefully the next time I return, Cam will be there. She was a great front face for Pressed.
I have to give Pressed a 2 stars for today. Subpar service, no vanilla, and long wait time.
Hopefully next time will be better, and I'll get it points.