Panera Bread — Restaurant in Olympia

I used to work here. It's been over a year, so I'm going to be honest now. They serve moldy food. They don't care. I was a freshman in college, and I worked here for maybe 2 months. In that time, I was harassed and gossiped about by the coworkers for being Transgender, and they were all around always in a bad mood. I just wanted to work and go home. Not gossip. LOTS of gossip.

The worst thing I remember was I made a banana strawberry smoothie. I was extremely tired and didn't even notice the box of bananas until afterwards. I made the smoothie, and gave it to this lovely woman. Then I looked in the box because it was getting low, and saw BLACK MOLD all over the bananas and sides of the box. Meaning more than just that smoothie had been sold with mold all over the nanas. I was disgusted and told a manager, wanting to alert the woman to the fact she had a moldy smoothie. The managers HUSHED ME and told me not to speak too loud as they disposed of the bananas. I was discouraged from telling the women and giving her a new smoothie. I was confused and at the time didn't say anything out of fear of being fired, but if I could go back in time I'd have went and caught the woman anyways. Who knows how many smoothies like that were sold and how many things were out of date after that.

Yes this was a year ago, but I don't think that matters. If they'll do it once they'll do it again.

The co workers were entitled, and disrespectful towards me on multiple occasions. The soup is litterally the only good thing I trust about this place. I love panera, but I will never order a smoothie or drink from this place. Just go to Starbucks or something like that. They're all overworked, they're all moody and gossipy and they would make fun of customers in the back. Cleaning was NOT a priority in this place, even if there was enough people to do it. No detail work was ever done. I work in a place that puts Panera to SHAME.

Please make sure you check your smoothies and drinks here.

Not to mention the Avocado they use, while good, is cut up in a way that makes it blocky and impossible to stay on...

I typically love Panera and have nothing but great experiences here. Tonight's visit was extremely upsetting. Initially the service was good. We visited half an hour before closing. We asked if they would be ok if we dined in since they were closing soon and expressed we would be happy to order to go for their convience. They said it was completely fine, they still had half an hour until close. I noticed the manager was still on duty at this point in the evening.

After we received our food and sat at our table to eat it, the staff began being extremely loud. They were burping loudly and saying "nice one!" Expressing that no one else better not walk through the door, loud enough for someone who might be in a bathroom with the door closed to hear I should add. Louding singing, rapping, making very strange and off putting noises. They even had some very vulgar comments at one point which I will not repeat but will say they were sexaully related and not censored. They repeated this phrase a few times, asking "are we home alone?" To the other staff to see if any patrons were still in the restaurant. They staff replied they were not alone but the phrase was repeated anyway. This type of behavior lasted our entire meal.

I tried to see if the manager was still on staff before leaving but I did not see him behind the counter. I will be calling to complain as well.

I hate to be the one who drops this but I work in customer service, very high up in the customer service industry. This was some of the worst service I have ever had to endure. My company even does business with Panera and I would highly considering dropping their service due to this awful instance. I do not wish to associate with people who feel it is ok to act like this while in a professional environment, while at work, or while customers are present in their establishment.

I am very apualed and hope these employees who worked the closing shift on 6.16.2017 get a very stern talking to about...

After checking the reviews over the past year, it appears the long wait times and the dirty environment have continued into being systematic issues. At this point, filthy walkins, expired sauces and long drive thru wait times are indicative of checked out owners not spot checking their investment, a store manager failing to be a good steward of the owners investment, and subordinate managers being poorly developed and led.

Panera's fastfood plus. It's comparatively "healthier" with a social image somewhere between McDonalds and Outback. It's audience have higher expectations for it than for Tacobell or Sonic. Those establishments can serve slop because it's at slop prices. Panera cannot.

My impression from working at this store over a year ago is this. The owners are in their golden years and checked out. The current store manager runs it well enough to survive but far below it's potential. She despised having a drive thru and it shows. Leaving the store run by a glorified front-end manager.

The culture is free roaming. There is very little direct command and accountability within the store, kitchens or shifts. I recall one manager telling me "If they don't listen, they don't listen, nothing I can do" in regards to an hourly employee. It's an odd highschool-like environment with adult managers roleplaying as the cool kids. Very odd and inconsistent. It also makes every day tasks way more difficult than it needs to be and the quality suffers because of it. Flip through the recent reviews and see for yourself.

In the entire time I worked there, the departments which had their head screwed on right, was catering and bakery. Mostly because catering was empowered/owned by an intelligent hard working individual and bakery was owned an actual passionate baker. While the Front-End and Drive Thru departments, more diverse general task departments, had ghost managers and lord of the flies leadership structures....