Panera Bread — Restaurant in Missoula

I Enjoy my Panera on N. Reserve. I am a member of the coffee club. We have morning briefings there at least 2 - 3 times a week. Their dark roast coffee is very good, so good that they sometimes run out up front and the nice cashier has to go to the drive up window coffee maker to fill my cup. (they make more once they know its empty). I sometimes just get coffee, and sometimes I get a blueberry muffin or a bagel with cream cheese... but today I ordered coffee and a cinnamon roll. There were some indecisive customers at the register, so I ordered at the Kiosk, selecting the 'dine in' option. Normally, when I place an order with the cashier, they usually ask if I want my muffin or bagel heated, and I always say yes. The same cashier tells me that they will bring it to me when it is ready.

I took the order number tent and went to the pick up window. The nice manager put an individual pastry box on a plate. The icing on the pastry looked dry and crusty (looked cold). I politely asked if he could heat the cinnamon roll and he told me that there was a microwave in the cabinet under the coffee pots. I did not intend for it to sound snarky, but I did say that it would feel more like a restaurant if they heated the cinnamon roll in the kitchen. Had I selected 'to go' when I ordered, receiving the cinnamon roll unheated, in a to go box would have been perfectly acceptable. But I selected "dine in' informing them that I was going to eat the pastry in their dining room.

I don't know if there is someone high up in the Panera chain sitting at a desk writing up policies, or if a manager at this Panera came up with this semi-self service idea. But I do think it should be revisited.

Come on Panera, If I am going to pay $3.29 for a small cinnamon roll that I am going to eat in your dining room, I don’t want to have to heat it myself. I can go get an Otis Spunkmeyer pastry at the Town Pump gas station if I wanted to do...

Just had the worst customer service I have ever experienced anywhere. Went through drive thru and placed order. Took almost 20 minutes to get to window due to large amount of cars in line. Gave them our card and it was run through. After several more minutes the shift manager, who said his name was Joseph, asked us to.pull into the drive thru parking spot to give them more time to.prepate our order which consisted of Fuji Apple Salad,autumn butternut squash soup & a regular Mac & Cheese. After several more minutes of waiting, an associate came out with someone else's order. We told her we had been waiting for over 30 minutes for our food. Shortly after on. e of the managers came out, apologized for our wait, said they had lost the order and offered to remake it and refund our money. That would have been perfect except that after a few more minutes the shift manager, "Joseph" came out and told us the other manager was wrong and that we could either wait for our food or get a refund. We took the refund and left. I have been a Panera's reward member for years but if this is the Missoula store's idea of customer service, I am never...

Food is cross contaminated, (regularly dropping bacon into the pickles, mixing prepped foods from different days, label lying, regularly leaving milk and eggs out of the fridge and not in an ice bath. Honestly nothing dangerous but bad practice. I wouldn't be shocked if an allergic reaction happens here because how regularly I saw cross contamination within just the first few hours of my first shift.

I have more to say about my experience, and it does only get worse from there sadly.

Red flags noticed: 16* *different (multiple varieties of the same-ish thing not counted) types of infractions or "gross" behavior.

One of the cruelest things I noticed A meal costs more than 1 hour of work, there is no shift meal. they openly talk about how 1-7 employees doesn't get a meal everyday

They run late to their interviews, setting a standard that they do not value your time or you as an individual.

Employment Speedrun time any% 9 hours Tldr: their food is over priced, they let the food get icky, and they only pay...