Panera Bread — Restaurant in Mason

What did we get at Panera? Nothing. This Panera is not an actual restaurant any more. Panera management has abandoned search for employees and just closed dining inside the restaurant. Oh, yeah, if you want an expensive cold sandwich from a dark-kitchen takeout-only stop by the highway, Panera could be a choice. However, we have stopped at 7-11's and Speedway gas stations and enjoyed a superior dining experience than at takout-only Paneras or other dark kitchens. Most of those were cleaner than the Kings Mills Rd. store. We know restaurant managers have been scrambling to hire people - for many months. If the management is still suffering that, it tells us they are still not paying enough to attract employees. That is just bad management.

It is an interesting exercise: within Google Maps, search for "Panera Bread," scroll through various locations. Check the ”star ratings” for various locations: we see many people rate Panera restaurants from 2.9 to 3.9 stars. Yes, some locations do worse; some locations do a bit better. My understanding of the crowd wisdom of these ratings is the overall average Panera rating in SW Ohio runs around 3.2 stars. Perhaps even 3.4 stars? This informs us of the management and goals of Panera franchisees: Middlin'. The apparent goal of Panera franchise management is to run a pretty good, middlin' store. Apparently that means not too clean, food - not too bad, employees - not too trained. Customer experience: middlin'. Not so bad they hate us. Just good enough the suckers come back for another mediocre sandwich or soup. When we extend the exercise to other names, it gets more interesting. Try a Maps search for Mcdonald's locations, then check the star-rating of individual restaurants. We see many people rate McDonalds restaurants from 2.8 to 3.4 stars. True, some locations do worse; some locations do better. My understanding of the crowd wisdom of these ratings is the overall average McDonalds rating in SW Ohio runs around 3.2stars. Next, try Wendy's. We see many people rate Wendy's restaurants from 3.5 to 4.1 stars. Again, some locations do worse; some locations better. My understanding of the crowd wisdom of these ratings is the overall average Wendy's rating in SW Ohio runs around 3.7 stars. These summaries are overall impressions. I'm not taking the time to average the score of each store in a region, cause, who really cares? Not the managers of these middle-of-the-pile businesses. The overview serves to inform diners of what we are headed for. Your mileage may vary, and your personal summary of ratings will vary. My own summary is that customers' top-ranked franchise in G-Maps is Wendy's. Followed by Panera, then McD's. So, going to Panera sort of ends up being a trip to a less-clean McD's. Somewhat fresher, better-seeming food, in a dirty facility with leas well-trained employees.

Our final observation in this exercise - in the G-Maps app, Google "Mexican Restaurants." Then scroll down through the several locations. Surprise! Most of even the bad Mexican restaurants provide a superior customer rating than the best franchise fast-casual stores! The Mexican restaurants ratings range from 4.1 to 4.6 in our area. If it weren't for the nap I require after the obligatory Margarita, a Mexican restaurant could be our next favorite lunch stop when traveling. Safe travels. 🙂 ...Allow extra time for a good lunch and...

I rarely pick Panera as a place to eat because personally I feel it is overpriced for what it is. But every now and then my kids want to go there so we do. Today my daughter wanted this for lunch my wife and I took her there for a late lunch. We walked in and there were no more than five customers in the store. The people in the store were already sitting down and had gotten their food so I thought this would go quick. We ordered a couple bowls of soup and a cold sandwich, so nothing needed to be made from scratch. We used the Kiosk and the little pager. We followed the steps on the screen. After sitting at the table for a while I got up to see what the holdup was. Where is our food? Our food was just sitting there. When I asked if the only order that was sitting there was done, they looked at me like I had three heads. They did not use the pager system to let us know the food was ready. They did not bother to go around the five tables where people were sitting to find out who did not get their order. I told the manager the pager never went off. He said well it does not look like it is working. I told him it lit up when I took it off the stack and gave me the number to put in kiosk for my order. They did not seem concerned about customer service. In this time of the pandemic when on the news you hear restaurants are struggling to get by you would think customer service would be the highest priority. I guess this explains why the three times I have been there its always empty. I won’t be going back anytime soon but if you do, I suggest standing up by the food counter so you know when you meal is...

I placed an order online for pick up at 1:20pm. I got a text message at 12 saying my order was ready for pickup but didn't know, I was at work and can't use my phone. I didn't notice until 1:20 at my lunch break. When I got there to pick up my order I told them something went wrong because I placed my order for 1:20 (the food has been sitting out for an hour and a half now). I was told the food was already made and that if I wanted it remade I'd have to place another order... I'm not paying for my food twice because there was rather an issue with the site or an issue in at the location. He told me he couldn't remake the food. I'm 7 months pregnant. I'm not eating food that has been left sitting out and risk getting sick. He seemed unhappy when I asked for my money back. Now I'm pregnant with nothing to eat and very upset with the handling of this situation. I understand mistakes happen but to be given the option to rather eat old food or spend another $18 on food I already paid for is shocking to me. I've had a few issues here before but never like this. Very poor...