Panera Bread — Restaurant in Clearwater

I wanted to send a little note to whoever is in charge to let you know how wonderful my experience in my local Panera was. I found out a couple months ago that my father was diagnosed with throat cancer. Though he fought a good fight, I found out today, October 5th, 2012 that he is not doing very well. He doesn’t know where he is at this point and they think he won’t be with us much longer. I went to lunch at the Panera on Gulf to Bay and US 19 in Clearwater Florida. When I walked in, the entire restaurant was beautifully decorated for breast cancer awareness month. Seeing “Cancer” everywhere kind of choked me up, however, and had the girl at the register looking at me like I was crazy. I apologized to her and explained that I had just found out that my father was indeed dying from cancer, and I began to tear up. Not the girl at my register, but the girl at the next register beside us came around the counter to me with napkins for my tears and a hug for my soul. I cleared the tears long enough to find out her name was Pam. Pam stood there with me for a few minutes just hugging me, letting me know that people do still care. I don’t know that it is protocol for your employees to do something as touching and genuine as this and if not it makes it that much more touching. People working with the public, as I also do, all too often hear only bad comments and remarks from customers… No one really ever takes the time to tell the bosses and the employees themselves when a good job is done or when a truly remarkable act of humanity occurs and touches someone as Pam did me. Just a hug from a stranger made me feel so much better. I thanked herI hope this reaches the right people and Pam gets some kind of recognition for being such a wonderful person. She has the qualities any company should relish and use to their advantage. Many, many people could learn from Pam. Thank you Panera for having such a great employee! I will be a long...

So, I have read some of the negative reviews and can't speak to those so I won't. I WILL say that MY experience from start to finish was a pleasure. I have been in several locations throughout the Tampa Bay area and am always disappointed and so I have low expectations when entering any location......this one was no exception. I entered and chose to go to the restroom first. Upon opening the door, the bathroom smelled FRESH and CLEAN and it also LOOKED clean. Heading to the order counter, I then started noticing how clean and organized the restaurant was which is unusual from other locations. The display case was incredibly well organized and displayed. I almost had to wonder if I had drifted into another bakery by mistake. When the gentleman(Jamis) began serving me, he was friendly, professional and communicated well. At the time, I had no idea he was a manager. As I was being served, I was able to view the back of the restaurant which appeared clean and free of debris. I then spoke with Jazmin who was also a manager. I seriously had to ask her if this location was part of Panera Bread or was it independent of all of the others and she assured me it was part of the company, which surprised me. The food was also delicious! To be honest, it was as if I took a step back in time back maybe 8 years ago when Panera Bread was EXCEPTIONAL at every location. This final note goes out to ALL Panera Bread "executives"............Get your act together in all of the other locations, whatever it takes. It appears that the "leadership" is intact in this location, independent of some of the negative reviews. Clean up your restrooms. Hire friendly employees if they are front line serving your guests. Hire and train LEADERS and not MANAGERS. Kudos to this...

I will NEVER return to this particular Panera again!! POOR, RUDE MANAGEMENT!!! We arrived at 10:50 and ordered breakfast (including the egg sandwiches, bagel, Danish ring, coffee and iced tea). Also ordered scrambled egg in a cup (which cashier said was available, for 97 y/o mom). Order was taken but cashier for some reason messed it up and had to start it over again. She had to wait on the 'manager' to come to void the sale and he then re-rang my order again. This process took 15 minutes! After paying, he then told me that 'breakfast was over' and they had no eggs left. So, when I arrived breakfast was available, but because of their mistakes, it's no longer breakfast time! Which I pointed out to him. His response was a robotic 'Im Sorry'. He couldn't have cared less. I told him we were there for breakfast, so void my order and we would go across the street to Perkins. When he voided the order, he actually shorted me by over $10.00, which I had to point out to him. During his refunding me the money, an employee came over to talk to him, which he again attempted (I called him out on it) to make me wait while he dealt with the employee. The whole process from walking into the restaurant to leaving took 25 minutes!!! Take a look at the other recent reviews for his management and the store. Believe them! If this was an isolated incident, you wouldn't be seeing all these negative reviews for management, food quality, lack of food items, cleanliness and more. I highly recommend you visit...