Panera Bread Gets Social Media Love for Helping Dying Woman

Trending Now ^ | 8/15/12 | Melissa Knowles

[mom4kittys]

A Panera Bread location in Nashua, New Hampshire, is receiving kudos for going above and beyond to help an ailing woman. On Aug. 7, Brandon Cook, whose grandmother has terminal cancer, wrote a post on Facebook about how his local Panera went out of its way to make his grandmother her favorite soup. A day later, his mother, Gail, shared the post and tagged Panera in it. Apparently, Brandon's grandmother is not a fan of the soup that was being served at the hospital, and really wanted a bowl of Panera's clam chowder. Only problem: The chowder is served only on Fridays. So Brandon called Panera and was told by the manager, Suzanne Fortier, that they would make an exception for his grandmother. When he arrived at the store, he was given a box of cookies as well as the requested chowder. Brandon's post ended, "It's not that big of a deal to most, but to my grandma it meant a lot." The post has gotten more than 550,000 likes on Facebook and more than 24,000 comments. One local user wrote of the store, "I can tell you as someone who goes in there every morning, every single person that works there would have done the same thing." Brandon and his family are completely shocked by the social media reaction to their story. They said they never expected such an outpouring of love and support from strangers. Brandon even told a local news outlet that if his grandmother knew what Facebook was, he'd love to tell her how many friends she has. "My grandma's biggest fear was dying with no friends. I wish I could show her how many 'friends' she has out there."

[SaraJohnson]

My son worked at a pharmacy while in college and he helped sick and confused people when he could. He was not the fastest guy because he helped people around their medication mistakes, snarls and questions when he could, but he was a smart, professional, human guy.

The store manager didn’t like him but the regular customers and Pharmacist did. The manager wanted a fast and empty robot. The Pharmacist wanted a professional. The manager made his life there miserable. That’s what happens when you are normal in life but directed by an empty vessel overlord. You have to do your best to find your place at work without becoming a psychopath. The Pharmacist passed him off to a friend of his at another pharmacy.

(I learned later that the fifty something manager wanted to “date” him when he first started working there and did not get her way. LOL Nervy bi$ch with way too my self esteem. :)