Panera Bread

There's other places to get it other than there. It's not too bad [censored] yourself out to move some yuppie out for cash, and you don't have to get an attitude over it.

I had been going to this Panera bread since 2008 because I had ties to the neighborhood, like having friends who worked at Thresholds nearby so I could have lunch with them.
In late June 2012 it coincided with my income going down that they changed to the "Cares" concept, it seemed like a good idea, pay what you can and the yuppies in the neighborhood will kick in more out of liberal guilt.
I would go everyday, suck up the free air conditioning but it became miserable fast. The regular staff was replaced by bullies. Customers kept approaching me with drugs or offers to help them steal packages and fence them off the doorsteps of condo owners in the neighborhood. I know the neighborhood and all the street people in it very well and there's at least 10 people who appeared right after this concept opened and are still lurking around committing crimes, attached is a photo of this guy who has somehow maintained this odd haircut despite being homeless after a year. I have seen him do something that is something less than strongarm robbery but somewhat above aggressive panhandling. It is their fault he is in Lakeview, as well as many others.
People unmedicated and psychotic interrupting with gibberish. A couple always came by and insisted that I let them play videogames on my phone or just plain invading my space.
I had just wished it was still a for profit since all I ever really get is a bagel and a pop when I pay full price.
The counter staff was hostile. The person who ambushes you at the door to explain the "concept" is typically a thug and no matter how many times you went in they made a beeline towards you to hammer you over the head with it.
Soon loudmouth guys who could never afford Panera would be in there all day yelling about sports and ghetto behavior, when it used to be broke college kids with laptops and yuppies and cute girls in yoga pants.
I stopped donating, I would jam a penny or a nickel in the slot. The kid in the back, with his bloodshot eyes, psychotic stare and reeking of weed, would be angry and call you for your food. I don't know if it says on the screen back there how much you donated or they just started treating everybody like crap or what.
They put a four digit code lock on the bathroom. The only improvement when they changed to PaneraScares was that they stopped blasting jazz at ear-splittig volume.
After I started getting diarrhea from eating there, I had to revert back to using "proper" poor people services where you wait in line for hours and hours and get verbally assaulted and mistreated and such. I met with the manager and explained my concerns, and the same as the statements she gave to the press, she was incredibly arrogant about her restaurant, the concept and how it affected the neighborhood. The main thing I was and still am angry about it was a good refuge from elsewhere with all the big tables and ambiance, and now it was just a glorified soup kitchen and base for criminal operations. I told her I wasn't coming back, she didn't say I was banned or anything.
I go back nearly a YEAR later, I did not know I was banned though I had heard they were banning people left and right willy nilly. This place never needed bouncers, off duty police officers or brainwashers standing around before. I go in, the little illegal alien cashier gets this nervous look on her face like she just crapped her pants, some manager I had never seen before comes out and is instantly rude, hostile and disrespectful and explains that I was banned. I had really just wanted a pop and to see if a guy I know who I had heard was back in the neighborhood was there. The head brainwasher, bouncer, some fat little hispanic guy quickly came over and stood an inch from my chest like he was going to hurt me. I asked him what he was going to do and he just tried to intimidate me.
There was almost NOBODY in there save for the guy who uses an old laptop and is always looking at Yahoo! mail at the table near the toilet and "Mina", who is this old neighborhood lady who wears 1970's glam outfits and talks to herself constantly. One of the last times I was a patron one of the new "Clients" had made her cry and Devin "I eat my feelings" Mitchell the manager was pretending to be a social worker and trying to calm her. Devin, who appeared after it converted to "PaneraScares", often walked around and butted into conversations, especially ones between actual social workers and their clients. Just because you give away day-old sandwiches and stale coffee does not make you qualified to deal with the mentally ill, Devin.
The way I acted this past year or so until the little fat guy got in my face did not warrant the level of hostility or rudeness I was subjected to. If they did it to me, they'll do it to anybody.
The main point I am trying to make is we didn't have these problems before they started this communist experiment. I do still need help now and then but I could've gotten it elsewhere and not have lost this place in the neighborhood. Now they've wrecked their brand, most people hate them save for a few paid schills on Yelp who accuse people of classism and racism and all the usual tired liberal talkpoints.
I have heard that the new "bouncers" hassle near everybody who goes in, whether they are paying full price or not. Why get treated like crap to get salty, overpriced food? This concept needs to close and we can have something else open up in that spot. It really has a dirty animal stench in there now. The restaurant next to it closed 8 months after PaneraScares opened up and Chipotle looks pretty empty at times too, this crap is wrecking the whole block, even Walgreens is moving a few doors away.