They say all good things come to an end, which mainly makes me feel “They” need to stop doomscrolling and go outside.
However, one thing I don’t remember them touching upon is how some good things don’t just end, they wither. And that withering often comes from a serious of decisions.
For instance, take Panera… and if a bunch of you just reflectively reacted “No, please no!” you know where this is going.
Back in the day, Panera wasn’t my favorite place nor the cheapest, but it did have something I didn’t fully appreciate until it was gone: a reputation for quality.
Panera’s bread was good, which meant its sandwiches were, at worst, perfectly decent. It occupied a chain restaurant space that wasn’t fast food, wasn’t subs promoted by spongmonkeys (yes, that’s what they’re called), and wasn’t too fancy.
But the last time I was in there, the food was all meh to bad. It was shocking: I could taste the cost-cutting in the ingredients. I haven’t been back… and in the scheme of things I guess it doesn’t matter too much, but I was irritated that it was no longer an option.
So take a gander at this 12-minute video and lament the loss of a marvelously adequate restaurant chain, perhaps pouring out a “Charged Lemonade” in their honor. Trust me, you don’t want to drink it.
“Back in the day” as us old people say, Panera was, as you say, a welcome option to fast food. Even before Panera… in the days of the St. Louis Bread Co. I mean, there were actual vegetables involved in what they sold. They had one particular chicken sandwich which was a can’t miss for me on most days. Alas, not long after the name changed to align with corporate geo-generic policies, the sandwich went away. I’ve tried them a few times each year just in case they mistakenly meander back to where they once were. No luck.
Yeah, I’m guessing there’s a whole battery of efficiency experts on guard against that kind of un-optimized meandering.