Panera Bread — Restaurant in Spokane Valley

The food was great, just as I've always had at any branch of Panera (other than the fact that I asked for my sandwich toasted, and it was clearly microwaved instead. It tasted fine and wasn't too moist, so I won't complain too much). However, the service was TERRIBLE! I went through drive through and had to sit at least 30 minutes to get my food! 1 person was ahead of me, and it took them a very long time to get there food, then it took them a very long time to get me my food. After awhile I started watching through the window and saw the workers(most of them anyway) just standing around. It should have only taken them 2 minutes max to get my food (I ordered a sandwich that they have pre-made, soup that is a simple scoop and pop a lid on it, chips which are prepackaged, and some croutons for my soup, which takes like 2 seconds to fill a bag and twist shut). It was a girl that took my order and a different girl brought it to me and said very sweetly, "I'm sorry it took so long" and stared at me for a second. It gave me the heebiejeebies. She clearly thought she was hot stuff. I just took it and said good day, and drove off before she could bat her eyes at me, too. Eew. Once I FINALLY got my food and as I was driving away, and seeing a huge line of cars behind me, I checked the bag to clarify it was all there....but they didn't give me the croutons that I had specifically asked for when I ordered! So, I had to go back and WALK IN (who k ows HOW LONG it would've taken if I went through drive through) to ask for them. The lady behind the counter told me to go ask the guy who was prepping food for them, when she was just standing there doing nothing. I told her he was extremely busy, and she reluctantly went and got them for me. The guy preparing the bags was working very fast and efficient, though! He asked me if he could help me when I walked up to get the croutons. The customers inside were finishing their meals and leaving and a few more were ordering on the kiosk. Not sure what the workers were doing since no customers inside were needing their help. My guess is they were probably all flirting and making date night plans in the back...

I work fairly close to Panera, so I stop in between 2-3 times per week to grab a bagel or something fast before work. Over the past 4 or 5 months there has been a noticeable degradation of service at the counter and service times.

Three times over the past 2 months I've had to walk out of the lobby empty handed due to either extremely long lines with one clerk working the counter OR no clerk at the counter. After around 4-5 minutes of waiting for someone to shop up, I usually give up.

Also the service times vary WILDLY. I can walk into an empty lobby in the morning and ask for a bagel to be sliced and toasted and it can take up to 15 minutes for it to be ready.

I know the above review makes me sound like an impatient person - However I have worked in a service oriented industry for the past 15 years and DO understand that there are MANY things that can impact your service levels and times - But as of late I've had way more misses at this Panera than hits.

Update from 11/16 I decided to try again and went into Panera at 9:00am on Friday. It was a busy place. About 8 people in line with one staff member at the counter. No big deal - Wait about 5 minutes in line. I order a bagel and ask that it be toasted. They submit the order and ask me to wait until my name is called, which is the usual process. All good so far. The staff is exceptionally nice (especially Becca, she's a rockstar!)

13 minutes go by before someone comes and finds me to advise that they're out of the kind of bagel I asked for. I'm not upset at the bagel, but I am upset by the fact that it took 13 minutes to even look at my order. I asked for a different kind, which was delivered about 2 minutes later. Only when I got to work did I realize that they gave me a completely different bagel than the replacement that I asked for. Another...

I placed a catering order to feed 50 people. I requested delivery at 730 am and called the day before, and morning of, to confirm that all was in order.

At 7:23 they told me my driver had already left. At 7:50 I called back and spoke to the manager (I think she was the manager) who said “our delivery window is 15 minutes, so we’re only 5 minutes late”.

At 8:05 I called again and was told “the driver left a while ago, I don’t know where she is”.

At 8:15 I called again and asked that she call the driver and find out what’s is going on, as a very high profile client with busy employees is currently waiting to be fed. She tells me the driver will call me.

At 8:25 the driver calls me to tell me she’s nine minutes away, and apologizes (poor girl). As she’s telling me that, I can clearly hear staff whispering and can also hear our food being loaded into the vehicle.

At 8:40 the food arrives. The delivery driver is clearly distraught and frantically apologizing.

The manager dropped the ball, lied several times, then put the blame on the driver, who with a red face the entire time and nearly shaking, was forced to lie to us at the time of delivery.

I felt so incredibly bad for her. We were, of course, very kind and understanding- it wasn’t even slightly her fault. That type of management and leadership is two faced, spineless, and is frankly fireable.

If the owner reads this, your manager is terrible and that poor delivery girl should be compensated for this situation she was put in.

We, as a local company, will NEVER use Panera for any future catered events. If we weren’t in such a hurry, we would have used a local company and this is exactly...