This woman said a Panera drive-thru worker treated her like a “beggar” despite her being a paying customer who’s also part of their rewards program.
In a wildly viral video with more than 6.3 million views (plus five more follow-up videos), Zolaf (@_zolaf) showed the appalling way her local Panera was handling business.
“Panera Bread!!! This is how you conduct your business?!? Handing customer foods out the window like we are beggars? No regards to Health code?” Zolaf wrote in the caption.
What happened at this Panera?
Things started off normal with Zolaf ordering a tuna salad and broccoli cheddar soup, plus a drink and brownie. And she made sure to give them her rewards number.
At the window, she goes to tap with Apple Pay, but the worker, weirdly enough, took her whole phone with a gloved hand into the restaurant to make the payment.
“Why are you touching my unsanitary phone with your one glove and taking it back into your restaurant where you prepare food?” Zolaf asked.
Zolaf gave her the benefit of the doubt, assuming maybe that worker only handled payments and not food.
The worker eventually hands her bag of food, and Zolaf lets her know she’s missing her drink. As she checks her food bag to make sure everything is there, she sees the brownie is missing, so Zolaf lets her know that’s missing too.
The worker seemed annoyed but went back for the brownie.
We’re not sure if this was out of sheer pettiness or not, but she hands Zolaf a bare brownie with her gloved (yet unsanitary) hand.
Zolaf is taken aback since common knowledge dictates that you always get handed a food item in some kind of packaging, even if it’s minimal.
The TikToker started recording the incident, and she noticed that the drive-thru worker had gone back in and was talking to her manager for what felt like 5 minutes.
“That when she pulls up with her condescending motherf*cking tone,” Zolaf says about the manager.
The viral moment
In the viral video, Zolaf asked the manager if she thought that was an appropriate way to hand a customer a food item. The manager apologizes and asks if Zolaf wants anything else—making no effort actually to solve the problem and saying that the worker handed it to her with a glove.
She asked the woman several times to take the brownie back and for her money back.
Instead, the woman laid the receipt on the brownie and told Zolaf that she could “get out of my drive-thru.”
The receipt on the brownie made Zolaf spiral even more because if she’s supposed to eat the brownie, they shouldn’t be putting a dirty receipt on it.
“Get the f*ck out my drive-thru,” the manager told Zolaf.
At that point, Zolaf threw the brownie at her and told her to “take this sh*t.”
In a follow-up video, Zolaf says she didn’t intend to hit her, just to get the brownie back into the restaurant.
The manager retaliated and threw the brownie back at her.
Zolaf, who hadn’t eaten all day despite it being almost 7 p.m., showed herself chucking the bag of food out.
“I’m not eating this sh*t. If you’re doing this in front of me and violating health codes in front of me, what are you doing behind my back?” she asks in the clip.
“If you’re not fazed by the fact that your employee is handing me things like this and you’re not fazed bed by it, that just tells me your conduct is literally disgusting,” she continues. “You have no safety regulations happening in that kitchen, and I do not want to eat that food.”
@_zolaf Panera Bread!!! This is how you conduct your business?!? Handing customer foods out the window like we are beggars? No regards to Health code? Story time coming… never in my entire life did I experience such poor and unsanitary service! #panerabread #drivethru #serviceindustry #minnesota #fypage ♬ original sound – _zolaf
Panera’s response
“I did get an apology from Panera in my DMs,” Zolaf shared.
She also got a direct email apology from the director of that site, who shared that disciplinary action would be taken after they did a full investigation on the incident.
While Zolaf appreciated and accepted the apology, she said the director didn’t address the issue of proper sanitation in the restaurant. For that reason, she won’t be returning to that location.
“Extremely alarming,” Zolaf says, especially amid the rise in COVID cases.
She also submitted a complaint to the local health department and was able to get a refund for her order.
What to do in this situation?
If you suspect a restaurant near you isn’t up to food safety standards, your city should have a hotline or online complaint form from the local public health authority.
This usually triggers an investigation.
Commenter reactions
“I literally work at panera bread, this is insane,” a person said.
“They literally have cookie bags,” another pointed out.
“Worked at panera a couple different times.Every pastry item has a box or a sleeve bag that we must put them in . @Panera Bread yall need to look into this location,” a commenter wrote.
“The toss back was everything,” another added.
The Daily Dot reached out to Zolaf for comment via Instagram and TikTok direct message and to Panera via email.
Update 1:41pm ET Sept. 17: In an email to the Daily Dot, a Panera spokesperson shared the following: “We quickly got in touch with our guest to apologize for this experience, which does not reflect our high standards. We issued a full refund and also addressed this directly with the bakery-cafe team at this location.”
Internet culture is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here. You’ll get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.
