Panera Bread — Restaurant in Kingsport

I usually have really good experiences at Panera, especially since I became a sip club member. I'm on a long haul trip today and decided to go a bit out of my way (18 minutes) to get a charged lemonade for the trip. Usually, I just walk in and a walk out, no problem. But at this Panera, they have the charged lemonades behind the counter. No issue. I placed my order through the app for rapid pick-up and it said it would be ready in about 10 minutes. I'm okay with waiting because things get busy.

But this was absolutely ridiculous. I've been a barista in a high volume coffee shop for two years. The biggest issue I saw was that none of the staff were communicating with each other or asking each other for help, and appeared to almost be hiding in the kitchen away from the customers. I also overheard one of the employees say that several people took their break at the same time. What??? Anyone who has worked in a business like this for any period of time, KNOWS that about 9:30-10:30am is the second morning rush.

One of the girls picked up all the rapid pick-up drink orders, carried them away, and then started taking orders at the counter. Who is supposed to fill those orders while she's holding them and taking orders? She didn't tell anybody that she had them. It delayed all of those orders by about 5-10 minutes, which should be their turnaround time.

Nearly thirty minutes after I placed the order, I walked out. I have a certain level of grace toward customer service and food employees since I empathize, but this was absolutely ridiculous. I ordered a drink I could've easily poured myself in less than a minute, but I never got it.

This location needs to do some SERIOUS retraining. Primarily on being able to communicate with each other and ask each other for help. All the employees appeared to be in their own little world and moving at a snail's pace. I was visibly frustrated and at the counter waiting (not even looking at my phone) and the employees almost purposely avoided me, when I should have been asked for help in less than...

In terms of food quality, this place is a solid 3/5, maybe more. In terms of actually giving you the food that you unambiguously ordered (since it was online and there is no room for misunderstanding what the customer wants), it is a 0/5. While I've had decent ordering experiences here before, tonight was just so egregious that I feel compelled to say something about it.

I ordered a mac and cheese broccoli soup, fruit cup, small Asian sesame salad, and chocolate croissant 4 hours in advance of my pickup time. When I arrived home to devour the salad and nourish my nutritionally deficient body, I discovered on the bag (with my name on it) that the order said it had been "modified" ... beyond recognition. What I got was a broccoli and cheese soup (most forgivable--I'd count this as "modified" from the soup I ordered), two random slices of bread, a grilled cheese sandwich, a turkey bacon avocado sandwich, and an apple. All good stuff, but definitely not what I ordered and not what I wanted (and frankly, not what I needed nutritionally either).

I received absolutely no indication that my order would be "modified" in this way, no indication that there were ingredient out-of-stock issues with specific items or anything, and definitely no apologies. It is...

Panera used to be one of my favorites but for whatever reason I hadn't been in for a while when I dropped in a couple of weeks ago. The menu has changed quite a bit and no longer had the chicken and wild rice soup that I used to order. There appeared to be fewer soup offerings than in the past and macaroni and cheese was added to the "Pick 2" menu, which had also changed quite a bit from my last visit. I wound up ordering one of the turkey sandwich offerings and mac and cheese with bacon. The sandwich was the same quality I've always enjoyed but I wasn't overly impressed with the mac and cheese. For the price (about $12) I didn't feel it was a good value, as $6 seemed steep for a half-sandwich and the mac and cheese definitely wasn't worth $6 to me. There was a special for desserts for $1 that I was going to purchase until I learned you had to also purchase a beverage to get the deal. Since I had water, I declined, but as I browsed the bakery on my way out, it seems the selections there have decreased as well, so perhaps it was for the best. The meal was decent. Nothing terribly wrong with it, but it didn't meet my past expectations of...