Have Panera cafes always been sort of gross or have they gotten worse?

[Anonymous]

Panera is so gross. The food, the restaurants. The Tenleytown one is particularly vile.

[Anonymous]

Always been gross imo.

[Anonymous]

Way worse. I get diarrhea everytime I go. I thought it was a coincidence, is the answer to the obvious question why did I go back.

[Anonymous]

Panera is being sued as they didn't say their lemonade had more caffeine than some energy drinks, and a college student from Penn died after ordering it.

[Anonymous]

https://www.inquirer.com/news/panera-bread-charged-lemonade-lawsuit-sarah-katz-death-20231024.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They don’t care about the stores. Most of their revenue comes from catering, drive thru, to-go, and large door dash orders.

I would agree with this. I’ve had a similar experience as OP recently. The dining area was nearly empty but dirty with tables that still had dishes on this, self serve coffee was cold, had to order on a screen, food to a long time. Yet the kitchen is slammed with online orders- which is why it takes forever. I will avoid.

[Anonymous]

It's like every other place. You can't make employees care. If your name isn't on the door and your reputation on the line, you aren't invested in the business.

[Anonymous]

I have been to many Paneras in many locations. It's one of the faster places that kids and parents in my family can agree on. The majority of the locations I have been to are not like what is described.

The individual locations are managed by an on-site manager and AM. You should alert the manager when the issues are bad enough that you would consider leaving without your order or leaving without ordering. It is up to the management team at that location to maintain the restaurant and they clearly aren't doing their job. I have been to both locations in Laurel often enough that I've become friendly with the managers and managers have been fired and replaced for less than what OP is describing. So, if you have the time, you should mention it to the manager so they know that they are not doing their job.

[Anonymous]

Definitely gotten worse -- and I've been in Paneras in MD, VA, PA, OH in the past couple of years.

Cleanliness, food quality (<-- especially this), customer service. It used to be a go-to for our family, now we skip it entirely.

[Anonymous]

Agree - we went fairly frequently about 10 years ago and thought it was fine for what it was. Have been to a few in our areal lately (looking for late night sandwich or salad that might be reasonably healthy) and both were awful.

[Anonymous]

They must be paying bottom of the barrel wages because my snap judgment is most working there are unhygienic, on welfare and sadly, presumably living in squalor. Night and day from the high standards of say neater and presentable Chick-fil-A employees. Corporate greed is a race to the bottom. Panera execs and Wall Street bankers obviously don't eat there, it's just unhealthy slop for proles made my bottom caste serfs.

[Anonymous]

Their unlimited coffee subscription was literally free for two (2) months and the quality and in-store experience was so terrible it wasn't even worth pulling over on my way to work. Cancelled it after a few days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They don’t care about the stores. Most of their revenue comes from catering, drive thru, to-go, and large door dash orders.

I'd bet anything they aggressively try to shrink their stores in the near future. It's basically just a huge liability. Might as well just have (bigger) kitchens.

[Anonymous]

The only time I've accidentally stepped in poop on a bathroom floor was in Panera.

[Anonymous]

It took my nearly 15 min to order on the computer with 3 kids talking in my ear. I miss employees.