Panera Bread — Restaurant in Town of Ulster

Just wasted approximately 25 minutes of our time in the drive thru, and what proceeded after our long wait was what made us pull away, hungry and upset. When we first pulled in, there was a line, so we wait 5 minutes and when finally got to the intercom, we were told to wait, and when we asked if they were there 5 minutes later, we were told they were short staffed and made to wait 3 more minutes. When the young man finally got to taking our order, we waited another 7 minutes until we got to the pick up window. When we arrived, the window was wide open, about 3 or 4 staff members were standing around chatting with who seems to the manager in a purple shirt right in front of the window. The managers shirt was riding up and revealing her entire abdomen as she was reaching up above a shelf to stock something while chatting with one of the staff. 2 minutes of this and finally a staff comes over to us to ring us out, he tells us the total and my fiance asks if there's a manager available. The young man says there is and asks if there was something wrong. My fiance proceeds to explain that we've been waiting for 20 minutes, and that he would like to speak to a manager if possible, money ready in hand, we were prepared to pay for our food. However, instead of doing what any customer service oriented person would've done after being asked to speak with a manager. The young man proceeds to explain, again, that they're short staffed this evening and that he sees on their timer that it's been only 7 minutes since they took our order. My fiance asks if we would have had to wait this long if we had come inside. The young man says we would not have had to wait as long if we had come inside to order. He continues to argue with my fiance for the next 2 minutes while the woman in the purple shirt stands around stocking straws, listening. As a manager and a leader, it should have been her duty to intervene and show her staff the correct way to handle a disgruntled customer. Instead of us even receiving an apology for the "unusually" long wait and getting us a manager, the young man decided to take it upon himself to instigate conflict and not take care of the customer. At this point, we were baffled at the lack of customer service and concern and pulled away, hungry and upset. Makes me question if I would want to go back to...

Ive been going to the Town of Ulster Panera for yrs. Always clean. Friendly people.Even when its full, it doesn't feel overly crowded. Adequate room for social distancing when your in line to order, and during the times I've stopped there during Covid 19, I've never seen any issue between people because of. The coffee is good and refills are free. The cappachino was quite good and the price was reasonable or competitive with the going costs.. Soups are pretty good. The chicken soup was my favorite. The baked goods overall are quite good. But as always , things don't change unless they do! Several of my all time favorites aren't made anymore or they have been changed. Like my cherry cheese Danish type pastry isn't even close to a Danish and with only a small portion of cherry. Tasty. Yes, but for me, not worth the pricey cost. I know! I know! Prices are up and up and up. I dont mind paying a little more for something special or very good. I just have a struggle with paying ( for example, not Panera specifically), say $3.95 for a sm pastry that was good but not great or special, that at best with cost of overhead ect, that I really wouldn't have wanted to pay $1.95 for ( or half to pay because that's how it it ..maybe $2.50). The baked items have gotten overall pricey. More then some places and definitely a bit less then some places. Like a small bakery business up on Partition St, Saugerties, NY, where they wanted $8 for a muffin ( think it was suppose to be key lime). I wasnt going to pay that. A friend I was with got it for me because they thought I didnt have the money. I did but I've yet to meet a muffin worth $8 to me. I mean we aren't at Nordstrom. Panera is a decent clean place with nice people and as with all things in the free market ( I guess), the market prices are what people will pay to have what they want, whether its really affordable for today's Covid...

Welp looks like I'm the 3rd one star review in 2 months. Well I ordered though grub hub just bagels and a peach berry smoothie as u can see it looks like lemon pepper wings sauce it's supposed to be a blue color because of the blueberries ,it wasn't covered so I'm not drinking it anyone could've taken a sip of it there was no sticker nothing! I opened the bag of bagels and the straw was in there ! When I called to speak to the manager she couldn't understand why the straw being in the bag was a problem. Let me break it down the bagels aren't covered. Straws have plastic wrap for a reason. Straws are meant to be touched with dirty hands then once ready to drink you take the straw rip the wrap then boom!!! a clean untouched straw to drink with. If its in a bag with a wrapped sandwich, A covered soup I wouldn't care but the bagels are open. We live in a covid world everything should be touched with clean gloves and wrapped especially if I ordered it sliced and toasted why just throw it in the bag. I expect burger king to do this not expensive Panera bread. Lady manager offered to reverse me for the drink not the bagels. I refuse to argue over bagels I'm not that sycho but they need to care more about the presentation and cleanliness or people's food. Ohh and by the way if looks like someone took a sip it wasn't me there is a gap. 2nd 2 weeks ago a ordered a fruit cup they forgot it had to call I got another one and It had a hair in it. This sucks because Panera is the healthiest restaurant in this area I think. I wish they had a core life eatery out here . Enjoy the lemon pepper wings sauce...