you wanted it, you got it

that’s it. that’s the whole tweet

My manager said heart checks are coming up and the last one we had was earlier this year. I’ve been here for less than a year.

I went to my Panera at 1PM today which is rare for me as I’m usually there around 10 or 5. The place was packed. I ordered the Greek Salad with chicken and I was very satisfied with it, better than it’s been.

Psst…..What’s the scoop with the upcoming C10 next Wednesday?! If anyone knows anything, give us the details!!! (From a TL in TN)!!! Let’s Fall and Ball!!!!!!!!!

I think this is annoying. It should be at least one drink per day.

Got a box of 4 cinnamon rolls. How long will they be good for? Storage tips?

I got this after completing a post purchase survey and making a complaint in the comment. My issue is I don't get those sip club Saturday offers, and never have in the 4 weeks since subbing.

Last week I made a direct customer service complaint about this and got a $5 credit.

I'm sure this isn't everyone's experience, but it is a possibility. Or maybe they are just getting worried about survival and still have hope.

I lucked out tonight. This is a cup of soup and it’s filled to the top instead of only half and I got a decent size baguette. The soup was hot and not too thick. Not pictured is a large iced tea and a chocolate croissant. My total was $7.48 with my sip club and I used points for a free pastry.

Hi all, does anyone know what kind of almonds are used in the farmhouse salad? I’ve recently gotten very obsessed with them and would love to have them at home.

It’s weird! It’s uncomfortable! And it’s weird! 💀💀💀

What is your favorite coffee order/customization? I have the sip club, so I’m looking to find my new coffee order!

Let me describe the average experience of being a Panera Sip Club member trying to pick up a drink through the drive-thru.

I open the app, claim my Sip Club drink, and place the order a few minutes before arriving. This isn't a complicated order. It's an iced tea, lemonade, or some other beverage that requires approximately the same amount of effort as watering a houseplant. No food. No modifications. No requests. No "extra this, hold that." It's already ordered, already paid for in the case of Sip Club since it costs exactly $0.00 at pickup.

Then I arrive.

There are a few cars in the drive-thru, but nobody is actually at the window. Perfect. My order already exists, my drink is probably already made, and I can see employees moving around inside. Naturally, I pull up to the window.

This is where the ritual begins.

Instead of simply handing me the drink, I get told I needed to stop at the speaker first.

"That's so we know you're here."

Which is interesting because at this exact moment I'm six feet away, staring through the window. We are making eye contact. I know I'm here. You know I'm here. The tea knows I'm here. At this point, the speaker isn't providing critical intelligence. My location has been discovered.

The reason I skip the speaker is because I've spent enough time trapped behind people treating the drive-thru menu like they're preparing for the bar exam.

Someone pulls up ten feet before the menu board and begins a deep period of reflection. Several minutes pass. They're studying the menu as if Panera released a brand-new cuisine overnight and they need to evaluate every option before proceeding.

Eventually they reach the microphone.

Then negotiations begin.

• "What's on that sandwich?"
• "Can I substitute this?"
• "What soups do you have?"
• "Does that come with chips?"
• "No tomatoes."
• "Actually, light tomatoes."
• "Wait, let me ask my husband."

At some point I expect legal counsel to be involved.

Meanwhile, I'm sitting there waiting for a prepaid iced tea that required no discussion, no customization, and no employee consultation beyond locating a cup and operating a drink dispenser.

By the time I reach the window, I've sometimes spent 15 to 20 minutes waiting for what is essentially flavored water.

Which brings me to the obvious question:

Why is it called Rapid Pick-Up?

What exactly is rapid about it?

The line isn't rapid. The pickup isn't rapid. The only thing moving quickly is my anger.

And why not have two pickup windows? One for mobile orders, Sip Club drinks, and simple transactions, and another for people ordering lunch for an entire office while conducting a live sandwich negotiation.

Right now, the system treats "I'd like my prepaid lemonade" the same as "I'd like seven sandwiches, four substitutions, three allergies, two soups, and can you explain the difference between every bagel."

Then whenever someone points out how absurd this is, somebody inevitably says:

"Just go inside."

Ah yes. The perfect solution.

The drive-thru is slow, so don't use the drive-thru.

The Rapid Pick-Up lane isn't rapid, so don't use the Rapid Pick-Up lane.

Brilliant.

The point isn't that other options exist. The point is that when you call something Rapid Pick-Up, customers shouldn't need to abandon that option to experience anything remotely rapid.

TL;DR:

Panera's "Rapid Pick-Up" drive-thru often isn't rapid at all. I order a simple prepaid drink before arriving, yet still get stuck behind customers placing large, customized orders and then get lectured for pulling directly to an empty pickup window instead of stopping at the speaker first. If my order is already in the system and the window is open, the process feels unnecessarily inefficient. At that point, calling it "Rapid Pick-Up" seems misleading when getting a pre-ordered drink can still take 15-20 minutes. The issue isn't that there are alternatives like going inside, it's that the supposedly fastest option frequently isn't fast.

I’m a former employee who worked at Panera for a little over a year while I was in high school. I worked through COVID and noticed that a lot of the food service practices started to decline. We used to have a church come pick up our leftover bakery items and bread, but during COVID, they only showed up a couple of times a week. We also started making fewer fresh baked goods, so we’d run out of certain items more often.

One time, my manager was out of an item that had already been sold, so she went through the bags of bread to find what she needed. Eventually, this became a habit. Whenever we ran out of something, they’d resort to using day old bread that had been sitting in the back all day.

The bagels were even worse. At the end of the night, I was expected to throw all the leftover bagels into one bag. So if someone ordered a cinnamon crunch bagel, it could come out covered in sesame seeds, everything seasoning, and whatever else had been mixed in.
This was years ago, and I know things may have changed since then, but I’m curious if anyone else’s store did this too. Is this still happening? 👀

So I ordered at the kiosk, and the "give us feedback" screen came up. And I really wanted to give feedback about my favorite behind the counter person. He always greets me by name, I get my coffee in a mug not a paper cup, like I like, and sometimes when I am sad in the morning he makes my day.

Instead of a thing to type in there was a QR code. Great way to get people to give feedback. People love to scan in a QR code and open an app to give feedback.

Anyway, I did so, because Jeremiah is really an asset to the store and I wanted to let management know. And the questions - three of them, were all about "My experience with the new kiosks" and then an open ended question "what's the one thing you would like to share with us about the new kiosks?"

There was no place to give feedback about anything else about the store. What the hell? I wanted to give feedback about an employee, and I was not able to.

And no, I'm not going to poke around the website and all that. I just came to get coffee and an overpriced bit of carbs.

Don’t mind my child’s sandwich eating skills. This shows a very small diameter sausage patty on their bagel sandwich.

I LOVED the pumpkin muffins so much and I'm so sad that they discontinued them because they were actually one of my favorite foods and if anyone has the recipe PLEASE I NEED IT. or like a close copycat because I have tried and none of them are that good.