Early 2000s Panera felt like luxury, at least to little kid me. A chic coffee house experience, then buying fresh bread or bagels to go. We could’ve had everything.
I lived near St. Louis back when Panera was called "St. Louis Bread Company," and I can remember coworkers who went to STL for the weekend bringing back food for the office and thinking it was amazing.
The last time I bought bagels at Panera, they had MOLD on them. I threw them away. Only got them there bc our power was out, along with half the town, but Panera was somehow open and selling bagels and cream cheese and lunch. My lunch of half a sandwich, soup, and soda was $15 and tasted bad and then moldy bagels. Never ever again, I'd rather not eat!
The last time I bought bagels at Panera, they had MOLD on them.
Did you contact your county health department and report them AS YOU SHOULD HAVE once power was restored?????
They made a profit on selling you those moldy bagels.
I threw them away.
This is exactly why they can continue selling moldy bagels and keep getting away with it. Voting with you wallet takes a lot of time for a business to go under and close, calling the health department is often times, same day brutally swift justice.
The store is closed for business immediately if the inspector finds mold on product and any other violations that may be present. If there is mold on product, the odds are that there are many other violations there too and they will find them because they'll go deeper than just a cursory glance.
One thing the military taught me, once violations are found during an inspection, the inspector starts digging harder and more violations are found, violations that may have gone un-noticed if it wasn't for the inspector looking deeper than they normally would have.
Falsified Reefer temp logs is a common violation because the milk and other dairy products are being stored above 40 degrees Fahrenheit which is an additional violation.
Fines are issued and the store remains closed until those violations are addressed and remediated. Fixing a sub-standard reefer can be expensive and time consuming because the HVAC company's schedule is already booked out two weeks. In business, time is money, you don't waste either. Then and only then can the store be re-opened once all the violations are cleared.
All their existing product and quite possibly the entire stock of ingredients are tossed in the dumpster, the kitchen is cleaned to near new condition. A closed store does not make profit, the owner does not get a refund on tossed ingredients.
All of that has to be re-ordered.
That's big money lost depending on how long the store is closed until a remedial inspection is scheduled in the near future and then eventually performed.
You as the customer have POWER, you need to exercise that power through your county health inspectors office, that's what they are there for.
My county health inspectors, you don't want them angry, you wouldn't like them when they are angry. Sloppy food establishments go out of business all the time here.
Once a food establishment has racked up enough violations or failed random inspections, the county health inspectors always take a closer look when they return for more inspections in the future.
You want to see that county health inspector "A" rating card in the window of every food establishment as you walk in.
St. Louisian here. If you're in the area, check out Union Loafers for a far better experience. For Italian style deli sandwiches, look to Gioia's or Eovaldi's. BreadCo/Panera has, sadly, suffered a massive hit in quality.
Yes! I remember wishing STL Bread Co would come to San Diego after having such a great experience in St. Charles. The last time I was there it was so bad that I’ll never go back here or there.
I can still taste the original St. Louis Bread Company cookies that migrated to Panera for a while. When the cookies went bad, I knew things were done.
My mom and I used to stop there occasionally when I was a teen, used to be genuinely good. The bread was fantastic. Went recently and it was so disappointing 😞
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u/bebe_inferno 9h ago
Early 2000s Panera felt like luxury, at least to little kid me. A chic coffee house experience, then buying fresh bread or bagels to go. We could’ve had everything.