Panera Bread — Restaurant in Peoria

I’ve ordered from this location twice before each time with less than mediocre experiences. I decided to give it another try because I have Covid and this was gonna be my first meal in 2 days all I wanted was a little soup that my husband didn’t have to make to give him a break. I ordered online and had my daughter go pick up. I called the store and let them know she was there. They proceed to tell me they ran out of bread bowls and pause. Ok, well do you have any other bread? No. Just (whatever 2) but those are sandwich bread. And there’s no other bread or anything else? No like I said we ran out of everything. Ok, can you just refund me the bread bowl? You have to come in with your debit card. Can you just refund me my whole order? Sure! It will take 3 days to get back to your account, probably like Monday cuz it’s the weekend. (The happiest she sounded to help me). Sorry about running out of the bread. (Btw…the cancellation email states 7-10 to process back to your account.)

I’ve been in the food industry for 20 years and have never left negative reviews because I understand things happen, but this Panera consistently serves disappointment for dinner. Both times prior they were out of something. The first time the guy at least offered a drink (out of bread bowls that time too). As I said, I get it. I work in food. And when I say I work in food, I mean I work in customer experience. This experience was not it. My daughter made an unnecessary 45 min detour to pick this up for me so I could give my husband a break. My husband, also a chef, let his separate DoorDash’d meal go cold so he could then get to the store and grab a few ingredients to make me soup because he is just that good even though I insisted I would DoorDash something else. After his long week of work, getting my kids to and from school, and all the housework all while trying to keep me quarantined and nurse me through a door, the reason we ordered was to give him a break. A simple phone call or email letting me know you were out of something, could have saved this whole experience, but truly, it was the lack of empathy given that lead to this review and the reason I will never patronize Panera...

7/22/2017 WORST CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE EVER. I work at a local Starbucks so I completely understand the retail job life and I am always polite whether I am right or wrong as the customer, for that reason. Unfortunately, the way I was treated here was completely inhumane. I ordered a French toast bagel toasted WITH cream cheese and a couple other food and drink items. When I was given my food, the bagel did not come with cream cheese, so I went up and asked to have some. Without hesitation or even concern, one of the employees wearing a bright pink shirt that day said "You didn't order cream cheese." He didn't check my order through his system or anything. Completely unacceptable. I did not print out my receipt (why would I need one with such a simple request?) so I went and input my same order onto the system again to see if it charged the same amount onto my credit card. Sure enough, the same amount WITH cream cheese was the same charged to the card so I went up to another employee politely asking for cream cheese explaining the situation. He treated me as if I was an inconvenience, not concerned as a worker to his/her customer as well. He was even clearly too lazy to go to the back and get plain cream cheese asking me if I wanted reduced fat cream cheese already available in the fridge behind him. After he hands me the cream cheese from the back, I return to a cold, not-so-toasted bagel. Panera bread also does not have plastic knives available to their customers, so you have to get them from the workers at the front, where I was treated as an inconvenience AGAIN for a knife to put the cream cheese that I PAID for on my bagel. After all said and done, I barely eat my bagel soon realizing they're both bottom pieces of a bagel. I will NEVER return to this location again nor do business with Panera Bread again. I really hope an employee from this store reads this and realizes the disrespectful business you share with your customers. May I be the ONLY customer to ever walk through your doors and be treated like that.

IF YOU'RE A CUSTOMER READING THIS print your receipt no matter the order, so you can put them in their place when they try...

You guys would get more stars if you weren't consistently out of product. A couple days before Thanksgiving I came here after work for a broccoli soup and sandwich. You were out of every single type of bread except for two different breads. By the time my sandwich was being made, you were down to one type of bread. That's understandable. I get it. Restaurants run out of food, especially near closing time. However my husband went up to the same location, near Arrowhead Mall, and you were out of broccoli soup. You were also out of baguettes. Someone made my husband's order then proceeded to place it behind the counter and not call his name loud enough. He sat and waited for twenty minutes. If your employees see that an order has been sitting on the counter longer than five minutes after the owner's name has been called, wouldn't you go investigate? When my husband got home with his sandwich, made on the substitution bread, imagine his surprise to find the bread was smaller than a Wonder Bread slice! You guys should be ashamed of yourself, considering the prices you charged. His total should've been compensated to reflect the lack of product put on slices of bread that small. Which brings me back to the point of being out of product. You know you're busy, MAKE MORE FOOD. I know that soup comes in a bag. And you guys definitely don't get a daily load of soup. So if you're out of product, or if you realize you're running out of product close to dinner...