Panera Bread — Restaurant in Sturbridge

Is it just me, or is it the case that wherever you go these days out to eat, the portions are getting smaller, but the price is ever increasing?! Last night, I had opted for the pick 2 (half sandwich and a cup of the broccoli cheddar soup). My daughter got the Mac n' cheese. I do have to say that the Chicken Avocado BLT half sandwich was good and the soup was acceptable. I also tried my daughter's food and it, too, was decent. But, a little perspective, the soup comes out of a bag and so does the Mac n' cheese. The sandwich was fresh but made it as far as 4 bites before it was gone. Soup and Mac n' cheese was on the verge of being luke warm. By the way, my pick 2 alone was about $15 plus a drink ended up being closer to the $20 threshold. My daughter got a fountain soda as well and a cookie for dessert. All in all, 1 kid and 1 adult totaled almost $40. I walked away hungry which is a feeling that shouldn't be entirely surprising after a Panera visit. But, am I wrong to expect that if I'm paying nearly $20 for my meal then I should at least be full? I'm not an over-eater (if that is what you're thinking) and I'm not an extremely large guy, nor am I trying to make weight on a wrestling team. Basically, be warned. Panera is part of this corporate America outlook on being fiscally conservative and the consumer has to literally eat whatever they offer with a smile because why? Because you're hungry and have decided to give them another chance thinking, hoping that the experience has improved. Example, the price goes up, quotas are set for what portions should look like for each meal under the guise of quality over quantity, and costs are cut for the restaurant in order to gain a greater profit from the consumer. My daughter, for some reason, loves the Mac n' cheese...but I had to tell her last night, "I don't think we'll be making this trip from North Brookfield anytime soon." By the way, the restaurant could also use a good vacuum and a little more of a consistent approach to wiping down tables (it was hard to find a clean top). We all have a choice, and mine moving forward will be to go somewhere where the portions and quality match the cost a bit better. Like, for example,...

11/05/2019 - Shortly after my first trip to this store I encountered "Something went wrong" when trying to order food on the new kiosks. I'd say! Panera Bread hired the worlds laziest coders. We got away from numeric and abbreviated errors from software in the 1970s. The script jockey responsible for such a descriptive, well thought out and articulate error as this obviously didn't get started until very recently. The ordering kiosk should be considered the customers first interaction when walking in the restaurant and if doesnt work, the rest of their experience will be soured.

This occured on my first and last visit to this location. I went through the process of trying to sign up several times and each time it would end with this error. After giving up and going to the conventional register instead of the non functional order kiosk I did encounter a helpful clerk. They tried to look up my Panera account by phone number but it didn't seem to work for them. Perhaps she was getting "Something went wrong." The Paneras in Boston and East Longmeadow don't seem to have these IT problems and find my account just fine.

After getting my food I noticed not one but several slices of tomatoes. I had asked for no tomatoes. You can't expect customers to have a good experience and expect them to return when they get annoyed with an IT issue after they barely get in the door. Once a meal starts off this badly no matter how good the food is it likely won't be enough to change their mind. Fire whoever made and programmed those kiosks instead of spreading non functioning gimmicks to other much better Paneras. I like Panera Bread and will continue having a fine meal at there other locations. You'd figure a new store wouldn't have...

Saturday morning, 9/14/24: This appeared to be a new Panera Bread. It was near our motel and even closer to the I-84 West ramp. So we were looking forward for a quick breakfast and then hitting the road. But the bright, exciting, early Saturday morning service sucked!

There were only 2 or 3 customers in the place. We placed our breakfast order without any problem. But then we were told our order will take a while because they were “really backed up this morning.”

“How could that be?” I responded. “There’s no one here! Only 2 or 3 people!”

Their response? They had a bunch of online orders plus catering! So we waited 2 or 3 times as long as would be expected for an empty Panera! But my frustration didn’t end there.

Two bites into my bacon, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwich, I discovered I didn’t have any scrambled egg on the sandwich. So I took it back. More delay. More waiting.

It seems pretty sad, that early on a Saturday morning, with only 3 or 4 customers in the entire store (counting ourselves) Panera can’t get a simple, two sandwich order right! There’s no telling how messed up their catering order(s) will be! Screw their regular, walk-in customers on whom they built their business over the last couple of decades.

This morning’s experience was a far cry from my first introduction to The St Louis Bread Company 30 years ago in the...