Have you ever walked into your local Panera Bread and noticed
that the baked goods display is a little messy?
There's a reason. Keep watching for what Panera employees have revealed about working there.
Panera Bread reportedly gives its employees some pretty sweet discounts.
According to Business Insider, they get 65 percent off of anything on the menu,
although there are some restrictions. As one Reddit user noted in 2017,
the discount can only be used at an employee's home store. As that redditor explained,
"Your discount does not apply at other stores because the discount is done by employee number
and you'd have to be in their system. You can however purchase meal vouchers which
are discount vouchers you can use at other stores or to give to family and friends."
Then in a 2021 Reddit thread, someone claimed that they were told that they can only use their
employee discount while working. Another user confirmed the policy while noting,
"It [is] extremely stupid and not the way it works at any other company I've worked
for. But it is true you don't get a discount on days you don't work."
Fresh food and fast serving times don't always go together, but Panera is nevertheless trying
to master both. Alas, employees aren't too thrilled about the emphasis on getting customers
their orders in three minutes or less. As one employee lamented in a rant on Reddit,
"This is impossible, especially with the influx of
order[s] coming in from online pick ups/deliveries/the registers/kiosks
it's insanity. The managers just keep stressing how important the service times are on us,
they don't care about anything else. I've seen numerous food safety violations daily
because of this and we almost failed our last audit but all they care about is the numbers."
Someone else pointed out that this problem is caused in part by having a minimal amount
of employees working the line. And another commenter noted in a different Reddit thread,
"You can't cut your staff down to only 3 people during the peak hours
and still expect every customer to receive their food in under 3 minutes
in a restaurant that makes literally everything to order."
So keep all this in mind the next time you're at your local Panera, and maybe cut the cashier
a little slack if your sandwich and soup order isn't in your hands within three minutes flat.
It's not just the dine-in and to-go orders that are expected to be completed in three minutes.
As one flummoxed Panera employee vented on Reddit,
"The drive thru expectations are unreasonable at best. [...] Having a vehicle out in less than
3 minutes when you are 7-8 deep and everyone is ordering hot sandwiches does not add up."
Other employees have expressed similar issues and concluded that the food
they serve makes the quick drive-thru model impossible. As another Redditor proclaimed,
"Panera food, by pedigree of what it is, takes a lot more time to prep and get out the window,
meaning it applies horribly to a drive-thru concept."
You may have noticed that no matter what time of day you walk into a Panera,
it seems like their team has been hard at work for a while. That's
an effect achieved in part by an always evolving baked goods case that is never
perfectly staged. As one Redditor detailed in their discussion of life as an opener:
"One by one I'd grab each tray, pull out the pastries, and then
set them up on their respective display according to the book."
And when it comes to bagels, Panera is strict about making sure they're
displayed rather casually, as this employee also noted,
"I'd have to toss every bagel in its respective rack. Toss, not place – they
were super picky about bagel arrangement. It essentially had to look like s--- in the
display because that was 'authentic' and got pissed when I tried lining them up neatly."
"Oh great, so much for bag-els."
You probably know that when you're looking for substitutions and extras from just about any food
establishment, you're going to have to pay extra. But the process isn't always straightforward,
as some Panera employees have revealed how there seems to be no rhyme or reason for
what they do and don't charge for when it comes to these customer requests.
If, for example, you're looking for a yummy sandwich but aren't a fan of the
recommended sandwich bread, you can swap it for Panera's other offerings at no extra cost.
You can also substitute meat in salads and sandwiches for avocado without paying more,
which is particularly helpful for vegetarian and vegan customers. But don't interpret this to mean
that adding avocado is always free. Panera associates can offer a lot of vegetables to
be added to dishes, but some of them, like avocado, do indeed require an extra fee.
"Extra! Extra!"
Panera prides itself in working with local charities near each of their stores to
minimize food waste. It's an admirable policy, but employees have explained that it's often difficult
for charities to find someone to come pick up food each night. As a result, a donation sometimes goes
unclaimed at closing time. As one former employee named Adrienne explained to Refinery29 in 2017,
"This policy may have changed, but it used to be that leftover bread was donated to
different local charities at the end of the night. It was pretty frequent (and
unfortunate) that the charities wouldn't come pick up the donation on their assigned nights,
and local shelters wouldn't take it because they couldn't verify that someone hadn't
tainted the food. If I was closing and someone didn't collect the donation,
I took it home with me instead, because I drove a pickup truck. Management was always okay with it."
Many employees have shared stories of what they've taken home with them,
thanks to managers who look the other way when it comes to this policy.
However, some have noted that it depends entirely on the particular manager,
and it's best to go about this the respectful way and ask before taking anything.
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