Fully agree. What's it now, like, ten dollars for the "pick two".
It wasn't that long ago it was about $5.99 for that. And that's about what it's worth, in my mind and I like the place. I never go anymore though.
I agree, too. It has been at least a year since I’ve been to Panera, but the sandwich I got had one thin piece of roast beef and a thin slice of cheddar. And it was not cheap.
It has always been my experience that chain restaurants end up going downhill eventually. I think what happens is there is always pressure to keep improving the bottom line so they are always looking for ways to take out cost. It could be one less slice of cheese on your sandwich, making you ask for a straw, or having waitstaff run eight tabletops instead of six.
Eventually the service and product will not be what it was.
I remember when Applebees first came to my area in the late 1980s. It was the place to go. It was brightly lit, extremely clean and everything just shined. Food portions were huge and you had a gleaming wrap around bar in the middle of it all with polished wood and sparkling glasses hanging from the racks above. It was actually an upscale place. Yuppies used to go there after work.
Go into an Applebees now and you have a totally different experience. It's a shoddy operation that is running on fumes. Much more downscale. Yuppies wouldn't be caught dead there nowadays.
With independently owned restaurants, the owners might be satisfied with a fixed bottom line (as opposed to always trying to increase margin). They don't have a corporate HQ spreadsheeting them to death with metrics and tying manager compensation to YOY growth in operating margin.
My husband and I stopped there for dinner after he had some testing done. I suggested we eat something lighter so he didn’t get sick after his anesthesia. He got a sandwich, which is rather small for a “whole” and chips, I got a half salad and cup of soup, and we got 2 bowls of soup to go for our daughter and my mom.
$39.
I could have made homemade soup and sandwiches for half that and had enough to eat 4 meals.
I eat at Panera every week because our Bible Study meets there. It’s very hard to figure out what to eat. What I really want is a bran muffin but I understand they don’t keep well.
I have bought a loaf of bread and had them toast two slices of it. It cost the same as a sandwich or bagel (with Listeria). We ate the bread all week.
And that's without any beverage or sales tax. Went last night and paid $10.78 just for the pick two. Used to be just under $8 several years ago.
I think the "rewards" are kind of insulting, too. You go something like 6 times and you get a measly $1 off of a beverage.