A woman on TikTok is urging users to frequent local restaurants after she allegedly paid $12 for a bowl of tomato soup and a cup of iced tea from Panera Bread.
The TikToker, Rosemary Watson (@rosemarysvoice), posted a nearly three-minute video ranting about the “overpriced” meal. Her video seemed to resonate with viewers as it garnered over 727,000 views and nearly 9,000 comments in one day.
In the video, Watson said she “apparently [doesn’t] get out all that much” because she had no idea that her lunch would cost $12 at Panera. She says she rushed home after lunch to research why her meal was so expensive.
What Watson found out was that Panera is owned by a company called JAB Holdings, which owns several restaurant and coffee chains like Krispy Kreme and Keurig. The company’s coffee holdings are worth $7 billion, she claims.
Watson says she doesn’t usually frequent chain restaurants, but when she does, she is usually “cursing.”
@rosemarysvoice Inflation Talk & Reimann Gossip. #idiotic #panera #soup #cost #inflation #luxurycars #crazyprices #billionaire #buylocal #smallbusiness #corporategreed #coty #greenscreen ♬ original sound – ROSEMARY WATSON
“Go to local places, people, OK?” Watson says in her video. “Let’s not be dumb about this anymore.”
The TikToker adds that JAB Holdings is owned by the Reimann family in Germany. She says they also own Coty, a multinational beauty company that owns multiple beauty brands. Watson is convinced that with their wealth and fame, they shouldn’t be charging her $12 for soup and tea.
“I’m not a finance guru. I’m a lady in a bowl of soup,” Watson says. “But everything I’ve read says there’s a lot of companies out there that are just having record years, that they’re really doing OK, that they’re making big profits.”
The TikToker sounds incredulously outraged as she continues, “And we’re all idiots, sitting in soup that’s way overpriced. And, we don’t vote to tax these people. Like, how dumb are we?”
Multiple viewers commented that the chain can only charge that much for soup if consumers continue to pay those prices.
“If we stop purchasing they’ll be forced to change. I’ve drastically cut down my expenses & honestly don’t miss any of these companies products,” one viewer commented.
“They charge that much because people pay that much…. Time to cut them off! [smile emoji],” another viewer commented.
Some viewers called out Panera Bread and the quality of their food specifically.
“Paneras is really expensive hospital food! [laughing emoji],” one comment with more than 13,000 likes read.
“Worked there once upon a time. It is ALL frozen bags. No kitchen. YW,” another comment said.
Some TikTok users said they cook at home now to avoid overpriced restaurant food.
“Cooking at home now, rarely eat out. This is a big part of why. Overpriced and not always great,” one user wrote.
Another user commented, “I made an entire pot of roasted tomato soup for less then $12.”
The Daily Dot reached out to the creator via TikTok comment and to Panera Bread via email.
