Cranky Al's — Restaurant in Wauwatosa

I came to know Cranky’s through my co-workers at a local hospital. On 2/3/23 I decided to place my own order online. I spent over $25 dollars on donuts.

On 2/4/23 at around 10:35 I came to pick up my order. I am a single mom to a 16 month old toddler. Of course he fell asleep in the car. On the window I see “curbside pick up” so I decide to call the business number.

A young lady answers and before finding out why I’m calling she says, “it’s gonna be a bit of a wait, and we aren’t taking telephone orders” before placing me back on hold.

I wait for about four minutes. She returns to the phone line. I explain that I am right outside of the building on the side (about 10 feet from the door). I explain my toddler is sleeping and it would be a hardship for me to come inside the building. I asked if someone would kindly bring the donuts to my car.

The young lady tells me that they “don’t really do that.”

Confused I say, “it literally says curbside pick up on your windows.” It appears the employee is not aware of this.

The young lady speaks to a fellow employee in the background. Who says, “they need to be right outside the building, we’re not like walking down the street.”

The original young lady returns to the phone and says, “this would be a one time thing, we only do that if there’s like a disability” I immediately tell her, “I do also have a disability” but I know It PROBABLY came across as “yeah sure you do.”

I thought being a mom who would struggle in with a toddler would be enough. This was not a “disability card” moment. Just a coincidence.

Funny thing is I’m a single mom who also has cerebral palsy, that primarily impacts my legs, motor ability, and walking.

I wasn’t kidding when I said me getting out of my car on the busy street of 69th and north, opening my trunk, pulling out my umbrella stroller, waking my toddler, getting him in the stroller (in the path of traffic),crossing the icy patches outside of the store and climbing the two stairs (that has no railing) with my stroller …IS A HARDSHIP.

I know there’s run-ons in this blurb, bear with me

I explained I was parked in a black car directly outside of the building on north Avenue (in front of the three hour parking sign).

The young lady tells me again, they don’t do this, and they are very understaffed, but she’ll get my order. I offer to get partially out of the car so she can at least see my brightly colored jacket. She’s not outside the store yet, but she tells me she doesn’t see my car. I again say I’m right in front of the building directly across from the auto service business on North Ave.

Feeling tears from I say, “Never-mind, I’ll just come in, but I’m gonna call Management because this is ridiculous, especially when it says you offer curbside. It was an order pick up. In the time she spent telling me that cranky’s would not accommodate a single mom, she could have kindly grabbed my order and been back in the understaffed store in under a minute.

I ended up making my way into the store, got my large box of donuts from the young employee in the doorway, and walked (with my physical limitations) back to my car. I almost dropped my box of donuts three times on the 10 foot walk back to my car. I felt absolutely humiliated. I have been disabled my entire life, and I have never had an experience like this.

I won’t be purchasing here again, and I won’t even enjoy a cranky’s baked good if a co-worker brings them into the nurses station again.

I am reasonable and understand the employee shortage. I didn’t mind waiting. If you don’t offer curbside service, please change your signage.

There was no place on the online order form to indicate curbside order ahead of time.

Thank you all...

UPDATE: The owner replied. Here is my suggestion for the business: I have had a circadian rhythm disorder for 9 years. "When you wake up in the morning" - I don't, that's the problem. By the time I'm up, I cannot 1) Come in person 2) Call on the phone to order 3) Order online. So, I have no options. That means only once in a blue moon can I get these donuts (hence 3 years I spent chasing these down). Please add an option to your online ordering that customers can order for DAYS AHEAD. Why is the only option to order for 24 hours in advance? I'm not complaining about the 24 hour cutoff - the business needs to consolidate orders ahead of time to reasonably make them - I'm saying the ordering window is too tight. I would like to be able to order donuts at 9 PM for two days ahead, for example. THAT should be an option, but isn't currently on the website. If I could order days ahead, I could send my husband or friends to pick them up. I hope this can be considered.

Excellent vegan donuts. But not entirely happy with the experience. The hours are very bad. And the ordering process is insanely bad. You can only come here at the crack of dawn otherwise they’re closed, if you come later in the morning they’re sold out of everything, the line is out the door, and if you want to pre order? Yeah that has to be done at the crack of dawn as well, because they “don’t accept orders after noon” for the next day. So unless you literally have alarms on your phone + a calendar appointment to set aside time 24 hours in advance, at like 7am the day ahead, you won’t be able to order your donuts. So while the donuts are good, I have been trying to come to cranky als for the vegan donuts for about 3 YEARS but they were closed, sold out, or not accepting orders every single time! I had to chase after them for 3 years!!! And so I wouldn’t come back. Like I said, the hours and the ordering are waaaayy too horrible. But they have plenty of customers so I guess they won’t be changing their infuriatingly bad setup anytime soon. Coming to cranky als just makes...

Been in here plenty of times over the years, at least since 2015 or so and I'm hit or miss on them. They have pretty solid donuts, not the best I've ever had (RIP to Hankersons in West Bend) , but normally a really good (and unique) rectangular crueller and some interesting flavor choices.

There's a few things that keep me away however. Whenever I go, I usually get there right as they open or less than a half hour from it. There's normally a few people parked out front waiting, and that's no big deal. ...but what's disappointing is the selection some days. A handful of choices only and it seems like never plan on making enough of anything besides vegan selections, I feel like I have to fight with another person in line because there's only a couple left of any particular variety, mind you, I get there early. Either that or they're slow to put out a new pan.

Make more donuts. You very clearly have the customer demand for it.

Maybe that's more difficult to solve than I imagine, but you know what's not? The display cases are set a super far distance behind where you place your order so you really can't see anything that they're picking out for you. How about some acceptable glass, bakery display cases up front so I don't have to peer around several busy employees hoping to catch a glimpse of your selection? This creates chaos when people are picking out their doughnuts because no one can see anything!..so you will naturally have people taking a lot of time in line because they have to pull our their eagle eyes.

More or less, I'd enjoy coming here more if they actually made it easy to walk in and simply get a few doughnuts, but I feel like my blood pressure is elevated from the process every time and I'm already adding cholesterol to the mix. Get some better display cases, keep them well stocked, and I think you'll see...