That is quite possibly the most ridiculous thing I ever heard. All she did was explain that it would be very prudent to put a sign up so that other customers would be forewarned, there is absolutely no need for that type of rudeness.

and a little bit funny. but I'm a bastard sometimes.

I must be doubly scornful of the Panera employee, in order to compensate for the inadvertent chuckle.

Bad Panera employee. You suck.

Do people really say things like that without some sort of provocation?

don't people realize they should just stfu sometimes at work?

That's horrible. :-/

I would be leary of eating anything from a place that insulted me. It doesn't say in the article, but I hope she didn't get any food from there.

No... it's not funny. It's pretty damn annoying that some pimply faced kid who doesn't know squat about nutrition or life would think it's appropriate to lecture on these matters to a grown woman struggling with one of the most annoying incurable illnesses known to mankind.

I hate idiot kids.

Sounds like that employee's last day. He was probably waiting to say that to a customer for months/years.

Ok I seriously promise I am not a blame the victim type poster. In fact Im not blaming the victim at all.. it was a really rude incident.. however.. what kinda guy sends his sick wife out to go stand in line for half an hour.. Cook the woman soup man!

@swalve: Yes

Emperor, I agree!!

While people should not say stuff like this while at work, or really anywhere when in public. That being said I do not believe that all these stories about people being insuled just at random. I do not think we are getting the full sotry here, there has to be some provocation.

I'm going to toss out a guess that the manner in which she complained was deserving of the reply. You reap what you sow....I've seen people complain before, and really most of the time they are the bigger asses and act a bit too uncivil...while the retort was not right(2 wrongs do not make a right), I bet had his wife taken it up with the manager in a civilized way this would not have happened....then again I could be wrong...I was not there.

Wow.
I think that about covers it.

EmperorofCanada has it right. But regardless of the jerk husband...

Wow.

@milty45654: There is no manner in which a customer could complain where this is a deserving reply. If you cannot hold your tongue and be polite to a customer - especially in a service buiness - you need to find a new job. Hopefully one with no human interaction at all. This employee was being PAID to do a job that does not involve calling his customers fat.

BTW, y'all are missing the "I" in your "Nsults" tag.
Also, Suggestion to Starve Yourself != Diet

That being said I do not believe that all these stories about people being insuled just at random.

@floyderdc: You believe that customers will be rude for no reason but can't believe employees would be rude for no reason? How does that even make sense?

Ugh, what a dick move. I know people say these things (out loud, even) but it never fails to shock me.

OTOH, thanks, lady, for dragging your germs out and exposing everyone in Panera. People like me who have thus far avoided the flu this season really appreciate your efforts. (Also thanks, lady's husband, for not buying her some goddamned soup so she could stay home and recuperate.) It's one thing to go to the doctor or even the pharmacy when you're sick. Otherwise leave your sick ass in the house.

@EmperorOfCanada: The article doesn't really state that he sent her into the store. For all we know, she could have been at work on her lunch break (not feeling well, but not sick enough to take a day off) and he could have been talking to her on the phone.

You believe that customers will be rude for no reason but can't believe employees would be rude for no reason? How does that even make sense?
Because unlike the customer, an employee is paid to be professional and courteous as a default position.

This is not to say they can't be provoked into telling a customer to eat a flaming bag of fuck, only that it shouldn't be the first response.

"unconscionable"?

Why is it that it's politically incorrect to state a fact? "I can see just by looking at you that medically speaking, you are "morbidly obese"!"

It's not like it's something they were born with - it's a choice they made, and they can unmake.

Mind you, this is coming from someone that decided to both quit smoking and lost 130 pounds, so it's not like I haven't done it myself.

I just don't get the whole 'it was the employee's last day and s/he's been waiting for ever to say it to someone.' Maybe the shop has a shitty customer base, but every time I've quit a job, my gut instinct has been to tear the management a new one, not the customers. But I like to burn bridges like that.

People probably say stuff about me all the time, but NO ONE would dare say it to my face.

[www.cbsnews.com]

I'll refer back to this 60 Minutes piece that another poster (props AHWANNABE) dropped on another Consumerist article. ([consumerist.com])

After I saw it, I am convinced that whenever anything like this happens, this is what it all comes down to.

I think there's more to the story, but not necessarily on the good side for the store. She ordered, and paid, THEN they tell her 5 minutes later that they don't have that soup? If it had been out 'all day', then why didn't the order taker say so?

What's up with Panera, anyway? I stopped going to the one in my neighborhood after the third time the cashier tried to short-change me. A different cashier each time, that is. And they're always training someone. Evidently, pay and/or management is so bad, the place can't keep help for very long. Even before then, I had learned not to order Jones soda. Doing so resulted in the order-taker going into the kitchen and emerging about five minutes later with the statement that they're out of that particular flavor.

The really annoying thing is that the Atlanta Bread Company (which had great food and service) about five minutes down the same road as Panera went out of business last year.

@SWFL_Dan: Are you kidding? "Stating a fact?" Come on now.

@Rectilinear Propagation: "You believe that customers will be rude for no reason but can't believe employees would be rude for no reason? How does that even make sense?"

Actually, I think these are probably VERY connected. The more I have to deal with rude people during a given day, the shorter my patience gets, and the more likely I am to be rude back. I assume this is something that happens to most people.

@SWFL_Dan: I can tell for a fact that you're a dick, but you probably wouldn't want it pointed out, either.

I recently had a bad experience at Panera bread recently, and let me tell their customer service department could care less. I sent in a 2 complaints on their website, and didn't even get so much as an automated response.

That's a shame because I really like their food. However the location closest to me seems to not really give a shit about anything.

She should have sneezed and blown phlegm all over *everything*.

I tried Panera's website complaint form after buying two items to take home, one of which I was overcharged for and one of which was seriously stale. No reply at all.

Clearly Panera doesn't want repeat customers.

@SWFL_Dan: Perkaps you should change your moniker to "STFU_Dan".

I'm going to go out on a limb here and probably guess that she probably provoked this by projecting her dismay and any other frustrations onto the person who made the comment to her in the first place. When I was younger working in food service, there was never a shortage of fat bitchy women taking their attitudes out on you. Did anyone consider that she probably had this exchange with the person preparing the foods at the other end of the cafe instead of the dimwit who cashed her out and should have said they didn't have anymore in the first place. Does anyone really believe that this woman was completely serene when she made her complaint, and probably didn't deserve at least something to bring her down to earth!? There's always two sides to the story. I'm not saying that it was appropriate for an employee to say that to a customer... but sometimes an $7 an hour job isnt worth being treated less than by lines of people all day. In fact it never is worth it.

Luckily the Panera near us seems to be able to keep competent staff.

I have noticed this with more chains, that one location can be fairly well run and friendly while another one is chaos staffed with apathetic a-holes.

I still got to say that my most memorable a-hole employee experience was at one of the Chicago Oasis Starbucks. You would have thought Ed Debevics owned it. Only they weren't kidding.

Why is telling people to quit shoveling food in their mouths if they are overweight taboo - but telling people to quit smoking is not?

Because unlike the customer, an employee is paid to be professional and courteous as a default position.

@apotheosis: True, but giving a jerk a paycheck doesn't guarantee that they won't continue to act like a jerk.

I can see someone wondering if she was rude first but I don't understand the idea that she must have been rude first. Some people are just jerks and don't need to be provoked.

@B: Wow. Oversensitive much? Guess you aren't having much success on your diet?

Don't hate just because I lost the weight :)

Honestly, if you're a teenager and you don't care about your job and you want to quit anyway, you mine as well go out with a bang.

I was going to see if I could get hired at a Panera just so me and my friend (that already was working there at the time) could have baguette duels, or play bagel horseshoes.

I suppose insulting customers has a chance of getting you sued though.

@FitJulie: I'm with you too. Sick people need to stay home and stick with their Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup. Half my friends are down with the flu.

not the best way to say to someone they should lose weight. i wonder if the husband agreed with the server. she probably was rude first. all my customer service jobs had a lot of tongue biting involved. generally even a bad day doesn't get that kind of reaction without some sort of provocation. you tend to get fired after a certain point.

and who stands in line 25 mins at panera for soup when they're sick? grocery store.

If this punk would have said this to my girlfriend I'd of went down there, busted his nose right in front of everybody, spit in his face, and went directly to jail, IF the cops would have gotten there quickly. If not, perfect.

@Erskine: What's up with all the ad hominem anyway? If you'd like to explain to me why being fat is something that a person has no control over, please feel free to try. As I've mention, I used to be fat. It's not like being of a specific race, sexual orientation, gender or anything else. Put down the fork, go for a walk, and get on with it.

I live close to a nice, large Panera. Their food is tasty but their employees are awful, especially the ones preparing the food. They can't even get something simple like "no onions" right. Once I ordered a salad with chicken and forgot to check my order before I left the store. Got home and found that all I was given was a salad, no chicken. So I walked back to the store and found the manager. I tried to explain to him that I like Panera, but that his particular line cooks were really bad at getting orders right. He offered me a cookie. I told him that this does not really solve my problem. He looked at me like I was crazy... apparently the cookie trick gets most people with complaints to go away.

@fourinxchange:

Somehow I don't think your argument holds much water. If everyone who comes through the door in your store is a jerk, maybe you're pointing the finger in the wrong direction.

Also, NO, you do not get to be jerk because your job sucks. If you hate your job, get another one. If not, shut up already.

I think someone needs to have a "STFU-you-should-learn-when-to-shut-your-cockwash" sandwich from Panera Bread.

@Daniel-Bham, @SWFL_Dan: Really? You actually need someone to explain to you that telling someone to starve themselves is rude?

As for smoking, that actually affects the people around you. At bare minimum it smells bad and people have allergies so asking someone not to smoke isn't out of line. Walking up to a smoker and going off about how and why they should stop completely is just as rude because, just like your weight:

1) It's none of their business. They are a stranger not your doctor or someone who actually cares what happens to you.

2) You know this already. It's not exactly new information that smoking or carrying too much weight is bad for you.

3) They don't know anything about you. Why should the Panera employee assume she shovels food in her mouth when she was ordering CHICKEN SOUP?

I can see someone wondering if she was rude first but I don't understand the idea that she must have been rude first. Some people are just jerks and don't need to be provoked.

Look, I'm not saying there aren't a few yahoos in public-facing positions who are perpetually a step away from going all William Foster on randomly-selected customers for no reason.

I'm just saying percentage-wise, they're probably in the minority.

@SWFL_Dan: You know. Part of the problem that I see on this thread is simply this:

WE DON'T KNOW IF THE CUSTOMER IS FAT!

She might be a fit supermodel, but the tool behind the counter knows that many women are somewhat self conscience about their weight and decided to go for the single-blow knockout rather than engage in some verbal sparring.

So, rather than deciding that the customer is clearly a flat slob that really needed to be told, in any form, that she should try losing a few pounds, how about some empathy for a person?