Panera Bread

More like a 2.5 but it does the deed. A new Panera location conveniently opened at the Carolina Medical Center and it looks really nice. Once you walk in, there is an array of pastries for you to ogle your eyes at and feast (to ruin y’alls diets). Another aspect of this location that I like is the fast track ordering when you can order via an iPad. Also, it has a screen near the pickup area so you know when your order is being prepared and when it is ready to be picked up.
The biggest con to this location is the lack of outlets. There was only 2 seats in the whole Panera that had an outlet next to the table. For a destination that tends to tend to the café wifi warriors, that is a big no no. It was also unfortunate that when I went to refill my coffee cup, there was no coffee in 2 out of the 4 dispensers. Hopefully this is an one time thing but all in all, Panera is there to feed you when you’re in a hurry.
Pros:
Convenient ordering system
Cons:
No outlets
Lack of coffee

We spent about 10 minutes ordering at the self-​register, ordering food for all the extended family we have visiting while at the hospital.
To our surprise, the register was not accepting the credit card at check out. We asked the cashier about it, and was told that ‘sometimes they don’t work’, and that we can try another card to see if it goes through.
We tried 3 different cards multiple times, and the machine would not recognize them. Then we tried to buy a gift card at the cashier, so we could just input that number.
At this point, Jennifer the manager comes out to see what is happening. She tells us that the gift card would not work either, and that she would need to take the entire order all over again if we wanted our food.
I asked her what the problem was with the kiosk and she said it occasionally doesn’t work. So I told her that we’d just spent ten minutes messing with it, and that she should consider turning it off, or putting up a sign that it isn’t working. She scoffed at me, and said that it does work sometimes, so why would she do that?
So we go through putting in all the various custom orders with Jennifer, and our credit card is declined. We try another card, and it gets declined. Third card goes through and we call the bank to ask why card declined. They shut them off due to ‘suspicious activity’ at Panera Bread…
So I explained all this to the manager after the fact, and her only response is — «what do you expect me to do about it?»
I’ve come to expect more from these restaurants, and can’t believe how careless and unconcerned the management is at this restaurant.

My onion soup was pretty good.
The sandwich was OK. I am not a fan of sandwiches.
I would kind of liked the water cup to be a little bit bigger. 2oz. is not enough water for a meal.