Panera Used To Feel Upscale — Now Customers Compare It To Fast Food

Whether you stop by daily for a coffee and a bagel or you visit once in a while for a You-Pick-Two, you can agree that Panera Bread has changed a lot. From its modern redesign and branding to the overall portions and quality of food, customers are nostalgic for the days of old-school Panera, which was generally considered an upscale, fast-casual chain. These days, though, it's seen as an average fast food joint with high prices, rather than a comforting, community-oriented place to share a meal. 

If you were lucky enough to have eaten at the very first Panera Bread, you likely ate a slice of bread or a pastry that was fully baked in-house. Bread has always been central to the chain's name, and in-house, scratch-made bread was a core facet of the Panera brand. Nowadays, however, the bread and pastries are never made from scratch. Instead, the bakery receives shipments of par-baked items that are finished off in the store. 

While some employees have admitted this makes their work much easier, many customers agree it has affected the taste and overall quality of the baked goods. One Reddit user noted, "All I can say now as a customer [is that] the bagels suck now. The dough is so hard [it] makes it hard to chew." In a more somber comment, another wrote, "Fresh baked bread is one of the only things that still made Panera relevant. As a customer, this is probably the beginning of the end for me."

Panera prides itself on serving delicious, healthy meals, and while some of its sandwiches and soups have remained fan favorites, the execution makes them comparable to any old fast food chain. One Reddit user posted a picture of a Bacon Turkey Bravo they received with the caption "Disappointed." They also noted, "it looks like my sandwich was literally thrown together. And the littlest presence of the avocado is hilarious." A former employee noted that seeing posts of sloppy-looking Panera products made them "so sad" and that the chain's decline "makes [them] feel like [their] work was wasted." It also doesn't help that Panera has always been pricey. One Reddit user wrote, "10 years ago the food was the bomb and the prices were decent. Now it tastes like reheated cafeteria food at a 500% markup." 

The sloppiness and overall disappointment in Panera's products are only part of the reason folks compare it to a fast food chain; many also mourn the design aesthetic and branding of the original Panera Bread. While updating logos and general design features is part of any big chain's evolution, it's no secret that many fast food chains have had bland modern redesigns that feel stale, soulless, and depressing. A Reddit user described the updated Panera locations as "designed to get you in and out," rather than stay a while and enjoy the cozy atmosphere, and the same goes for many fast food chains, from McDonald's to Starbucks. However, not all of its locations have been remodeled just yet, so if your local chain still possesses those classic, cozy features, enjoy them while you can.