Panera Bread

This place is first and foremost a bakery, not a restaurant. Yet, this is the favorite lunch place of a friend of mine who suggests we eat there whenever we meet, a few times a year. Their choices in baked goods is impressive. In other categories not so. Service can be slow. Food is so-so, prices average. There is no table service, yet you are expected to leave a tip at the counter when you check out. Isn't Panera paying their employees? Strange.

Since the pandemic hit. Panera has been slowwwwwwwwwwwww with everything. You’re waiting at least 20 minutes for whatever you decided to order and they don’t care about the Doordash drivers and will only spend their time on the rapid pick up orders. There’s plenty of staff that’s behind the counter making the food so therefore “work shortage” isn’t the issue. There’s a older lady there the only one there that wears her little Panera hat and she was very very very rude to me when I tried to figure out why the order I was picking up wasn’t ready 30 minutes ago before I even got there. The staff tries their best but they definitely crack under pressure and hiring people just to hire them because it’s still not making a difference.

Order ahead or go somewhere else. I wish Panera offered its employees a fair wage so their “staffing shortage” didn’t cause such terrible wait times for customers. 40 min wait just to place an order on the only kiosk that wasn’t taken down. Employees were handling things well, but obviously working under unacceptable conditions.