Panera Bread — Restaurant in Irvine

Managers seem focused on PROFITS, and not CUSTOMER SERVICE. I am a very regular and loyal customer at Panera bread, I probably frequent about three or four locations on a weekly basis, totaling about 10 times per week. Love their coffee subscription, and one or two other items which I buy regularly.

Having said that, I have found that the service at this Woodbury Panera location has declined steadily, especially since the pandemic started. I’m guessing because of the influx of online orders, they are super busy, however, when customers are in there ordering their food to go, or coffee or whatever it is, they are subjected to waiting for long periods of time, many other reviews cite this as well, without the courtesy of some basic friendly service.

To single out one of their managers, Payam, if I ask him how are you today, his response: ”Easy Money”. What was that? That’s right, he always answers, with the response, “Easy Money”.

And one of the reasons I find this strange, and downright insensitive, is because several times if I have found the bathroom lacking in toilet paper or paper towels, I would mention to one of the employees, and they are so busy making food orders and don’t even have time for one employee to go back there and replace the supplies in the restroom, or at least, say OK sir, I’ll get to that right away, thanks for letting me know. That seems to be all they’re focused on, is PROFITS. And not service. Easy Money. That’s the goal. The message coming loud and clear, from the managers. For the managers. I have no choice but to have this perception.

On another occasion, the same manager, again Payam, I had alerted him to a strand of “hair” which was in my salad (!)… I let him know, he looked at me, didn’t really express the concern one would expect from an employee, let alone the MANAGER of the store, rolled his eyes slightly, and said to me, “Have a nice day”, and turned away. Didn’t even offer me a free meal the next time, NOR APOLOGIZE! He NEVER said the words I’m sorry. This is the same manager, Payam. Easy Money. But I kept going there, because it’s convenient. But as I said at the beginning, unfortunately, their service and their attention to detail and sensitivity to the customer, has gone down considerably.

There are a few nice cashiers, Ariana, Haley, Yuni, Tabby, Paige, and new boy Hunter...who smile and give good service, are prompt, and appreciate your business, however, there are a couple who are the very opposite. Don’t even expect Sara to smile and notice you anytime soon when you walk in.

I don’t think I’m going here again.

I much prefer the one on 17th St. in Costa Mesa (manager Adrian), especially the one on Bison in Newport Beach (manager Eddie or Luis) I can get my coffee and food orders from there.

Just wanted to let everyone know, this is how I’ve been feeling, and I have specific examples, and there are a few more, but these are the ones that I feel strongly about, and when managers are acting in this way, focusing on profits and not even showing consistent attention and care for the customer and their needs, then the writing is on the wall. And they’re “nothing but profits” philosophy starts to trickle down to the rest of the cooks and some of...

I had a horrible experience this morning with the store assistant manager. The store was busy, but this issue is even more important when it's busy.

I had ordered online before my disabled husband and I walked in. At the display screen, I saw that both food and drink orders were ready. I walked over to the pickup counter and saw that neither order was up on the counter.

There were some drink cups on the counter. A male employee was talking to a gentleman about his order, and then another person came up to pick up his order. The male employee didn't say anything to me or look at me. I was waiting for him to look up before I said anything.

Just then, another customer walked up and stood next to me. A female employee looked at her and said, "Online?". The lady said, "Yes."

At that point, I couldn't believe that 2 employees had ignored me, so I said "yes online." Then the other customer standing next to me said, " Yes, she was here first." But then amazingly the female employee still did not wait on me. She continued to help the other person because she said it takes just a minute.

I was very upset and went back later to ask her why she ignored me. She said she didn't see me. I was standing right in front of her, so that answer didn't make sense.

I asked her why she chose to help the person who came after me, and she said she didn't intentionally ignore me, but she didn't see me. I asked how she decides who to help next. She said she had no plan, and she just helped who she saw. I asked for the manager. She said she was the manager. Later, she clarified that she was the assistant manager.

I suggested she ask who's next to prevent this from happening again. She said she never does that. She said she had no plan, she just helps whoever she sees. Apparently, I am invisible and her demeanor and choice of words made it clear that she didn't really see the problem.

She was offensive originally, and her apology was a non-apology. She said she was sorry that I felt that she ignored me. She did ignore me; my feelings have nothing to do with it. As far as I could tell, there was no real concern about preventing it from happening again.

Most Paneras no longer use the cubbies to put food out due to theft. Instead most put the food on the counter to be picked up. This Panera has gone one step further, it appears, and only puts drink cups up for drink only orders. All online orders that include food are kept behind the counter, and MAYBE someone will give you your order, but maybe not if you are invisible like me.

I highly recommend management looks at how to handle handing out online orders during busy times. Your non-plan is ineffective. Otherwise, put the orders on the counter, maybe pulled back towards you and ask for a name. This is what some Paneras are doing. That may slow down the thieves and expedite online orders.

SIP club and online ordering is great, but not if employees ignore you, unintentionally or not.

I also suggested she get her eyes checked because I don't see how she could not see me. What apparently happened is she helped a random person so that she could get orders out. In her mind the order doesn't really matter, but I think it does to...

Yet again another terrible experience..... This is now my 4th review. I showed up today around 7:30, a lady came from from the back to take my order. She then said she was going to make the order and it will be right up. This was probably the simplest order ever. A half dozen bagels sliced with a tub a cream cheese. There is no way you can mess up an order that easy right?!? Well guess what this Panera did. As I am standing there waiting for my bagels, the lady who took my order disappeared and is no where to be seen. I was watching as another associate is toasting bagels in the toaster. As she is doing so, one gets stuck in the toaster and the toaster starts smoking. She finally realizes it and goes in with her tongs and pulls out the completely burnt bagel. Instead of remaking it she puts the burnt bagel in the bag and continues to do the rest. Meanwhile this is taking her longer than normal and what she doesn't realize is behind her is a line of about 8 people who have now been waiting for over 7 minutes watching her make these Bagels. I continued to look around for the lady who was supposed to be making my order and she was still nowhere to be found. Once the toasted Bagels were done the lady calls out the order and no one responds. I then realize maybe that is my order so I told her I have an order of half dozen bagels but they're not toasted they're just supposed to be sliced. She takes my receipt and realizes that she made the mistake, so now has to go back and redo my order while now there is up to probably 10 people waiting in line staring at her and nobody coming out to assist. Not only that, but then I realized if I were to have taken that order I would have gotten home and there would have been a completely burnt Bagel in my bag that was pretty much non edible. How can someone be so inconsiderate and not remake that bagel and think it's okay to put a completely burned Bagel in the bag. I just don't understand........ I have told myself multiple times that I would never come back to this location, however I still continue to come back because my family likes bagels and it's the only location in the area. However after this experience once again now it is official I will never be coming back. It is sad because this shopping center is so busy and this is the only Bagel shop in the area. I hope this place shuts down and opens as a professionally ran breakfast business in the near future. Please feel free to reach out to me if anybody from the Panera corporate office reads this. I would love to discuss in detail and tell them they need to shut this place down. Oh wait now there is more.... I just got home opened my bag of bagels and instead of their regular fluffy cream cheese they gave me cheap store bought no name brand cream cheese in my bag. What is that about, are you kidding me??? If I wanted cheap cream cheese I would have just went to the grocery store and bought something at least name brand. I cannot believe I paid money...