Thinking this Panera seemed like a good place to study, I visited it three times.
The first time, one of the managers came up to me in the crowded downstairs area during lunchtime. He gave me a cookie and someone else's receipt, where he showed me the http://mypanera.com website and asked me to review the place. It felt a little weirded out that the manager singled me out, but not a big deal. I tried to go to the website to see what the website was, but had used up my internet quota for lunchtime. It turned out it was a good thing I had the cookie, because my lunch evidently was not connected to its pager and it took 45 minutes for me to eventually get someone's attention and receive a now soggy salad. After finding the ladies' room out of soap, I thought that the manager would probably be better off if I did not review his establishment.
The second time I studied at this Panera, everything was fine.
The third time I studied at this Panera, a man committed a traumatizing and illegal act next to me. I ran upstairs and encountered the same manager, from whom I sought help, thinking he would call the police. Instead, he let the man walk by us, expressed concern about the cleanliness of the chair where the man was sitting, and asked if I wanted anything. No, I didn't want another cookie. I later called the police, who told me it was too late and that the establishment should have called the police immediately.
I then went on the http://mypanera.com website to contact the company. I didn't end up using it because it required me to enter my full name, phone number, and home address - which makes me feel more creeped out by the manager. I instead emailed the company about my traumatizing experience. They forwarded my email to local management, who never got back to me. But they did take the time to request that Yelp delete my previous review about my experience.
Yelp indicates that reviews may be deleted if they refer to only exceptional circumstances; I believe that illegal incidents such as theft or assaults must occur in restaurants from time to time and that how staff deal with such issues is indeed relevant to patrons. I would write a review to praise an employee with dealing for such a difficult situation very well.
In this case, I understand that it was a difficult situation, but I think that the lack of response to this incident reflects incredibly poor management.
In sum, this Panera provides poor service and is poorly managed. read more