Panera Bread — Restaurant in Rocky River

I work at Cleveland Hopkins airport and my husband orders from the Rocky river location 2-3 times per week for me. Today I sat and ate my lunch and was alittle upset my sandwich was not made correctly, and the location forgot my chips. I always order the you-pick-2. Never had any issues with them prior. I assumed my husband possibly ordered something different. Upon confirming with my husband, he said he physically called this location immediately after placing the order and spoke to a man named David. At which point, he confirmed it would be taken care of. Clearly, it was not. My husband called this location and then asked to speak to a manager. We were placed on a brief hold and greeted by "David" who claimed to be a manager. My husband recognized him immediately and said "perfect, you're the gentleman I spoke with earlier". He proceeded to tell him about my sandwich being incorrect and my meal not containing the chips. David was very rude and short with my husband. I sat and listened in horror on the other line in complete disbelief that he could be a manager and be so unconcerned and unapologetic. David made it as if it were my husbands fault. When my husband did nothing wrong. I've been working for a very long time and have been a supervisor for several years. I attempted to give him my feedback and was rudely cut off and spoken over. In management, that's a huge "no no". If a customer is expressing their frustrations with YOUR location you take ownership, you apologize and you make it right. The care or lack of care during this pandemic will either leave your business to flourish or make it perish. After I asked for his last name to write corporate he rudely told me "no, he doesn't give last names"and then hung up on my husband and I. Completely unprofessional and doesn't deserve the title of "manager". I'm honestly scared for our future if these are the people we are putting in charge of running these establishments. I wanted to leave a review as well as write corporate about...

Food is made well here, though I need to dock some stars as to more accurately portray my experience. For one thing, forget about the drive thru at this location. They have one, but they don't use it. I have a hunch this is due to staffing issues - which means the people who own/operate this location probably need to offer more attractive wages to get people to actually apply. People want to work, but they also need appropriate compensation in order to do so.

Another reason for the docked score here is I think one of the employees here just straight up lied to me. See, this review is being written at the start of 2022, so we have Covid Omicron floating around and everyone is getting sick. While at this location the first person I was talking to was not wearing their mask properly and was only wearing it up to their nose. I asked them to fully wear the mask to which they responded that they have asthma. I didn't want to cause problems so I asked for someone else and placed my order and the more I thought about it the less this excuse made sense. My best friend has a severe case of asthma and while her and I lived together she never said anything about the mask conflicting with their condition. I pinged her today to see if maybe there is a case where someone with asthma might be exempt from wearing a mask, and in her words, a mask wouldn't be a problem unless they were straight up having an asthma attack. I have a strong enough suspicion that this employee was lying to avoid wearing a mask correctly, so I am rating this store accordingly. Also, just saying, if we are in a pandemic regarding an airborne pathogen and you are unable to wear a mask properly then honestly you should just stay home and keep yourself and others safe...

I'm leaving this review because I know this kind of thing matters to some people. I have been at this Panera at least twice a week for the last couple of months. The staff have always been wonderful, especially the older ladies who work in the morning. I have never not been acknowledged before this incident. For the sake of clarity, I have to mention that everyone involved in this exchange was white, except for me. I came in, got in line behind an older woman and her granddaughter and waited. Not long after another woman stepped in behind me, asked if I was waiting, to which I said yes. I can't remember if the woman behind me asked or the older woman just overheard our brief conversation, but the older woman in front of me turned and stated that they were not ready to order and were not waiting and then ushered me forward. I stepped up to the registers. It was busy, I've worked service jobs before, and I didn't wanna make my own breakfast that morning, so I waited. Not too long after that a woman, who was likely a manager, asst. manager, or shift lead came up and before I could greet her she looks around me to the older woman and her granddaughter, doggedly ignoring my presence. I'm large; it takes effort not to notice me, and shouted over my head asking if the two of them are ready to order. I was honestly confused, but then another employee addressed me and asked if I was ready to order. I slid over, placed my order, got my food, and left. I will not be back. And I'm very much aware that means diddly squat to the actual employees, they don't get paid enough to care. However, for those who scoure the reviews wondering if places are safe, if you are welcome, just know that might not always be the case at this...