Get ready to go thirsty.
Panera is removing the “unlimited” from its popular Unlimited Sips Club promotion — a deal that started back in 2022. For $10.99 a month, customers used to get the full lineup of self-serve drinks, including hot and iced coffees, teas, fountain drinks and lemonades.
It originally included the extremely caffeinated “Charged Lemonades,” but those were later axed from menus after customers claimed the chain was responsible for several deaths and hospitalizations.
The chain will say sayonara on August 19, as the subscription beverage program will become MyPanera + Sip Club — sans unlimited.
While it’s no longer a free-for-all, members still get a maximum of 30 drinks per Redemption Period. And no one is grandfathered in, as Panera said, even if you enroll today, your membership will be subject to the current terms.
The cost will stay the same — for now — at $14.99 plus tax or annually at $119.99, plus tax. The other rules will also stay remain as members will still be able to grab one drink every two hours, with no delivery fees on eligible orders.
Guests can still expect their extra birthday week treat, too.
To ease into the rules, Panera is (unofficially) offering the sips program for $5 a month for three months. The same rules apply: you must be MyPanera member and at least 18 to register.
Customers are unleashing on the soup and sandwich behemoth, canceling their subscriptions after learning unlimited sips now come with a cap.
“Now that you’ve subscribed to our Sip Club, we’re going to make a bunch of changes, eroding the value, but we’re going to keep you locked in – @panerabread Got the message, Panera. Sip Club sub canceled,” a former Sips member wrote on X.
Another angry customer wrote, “@panerabread way to shaft sip club subscribers! Less drinks at the same price. If you plan to reduce our benefits from paying to the sip club then you better be reducing our subscription prices too. Or you can kiss a lot of subscribers goodbye.”
The move comes shortly after the company took flak from its own employees over the new Salad Stuffers — a fresh spin on the chain’s signature bread bowl. Dubbed “a bread bowl for your salad,” workers claim the new item takes perfectly good bread salad ands tosses it right in the trash.
Panera’s latest menu item allows customers to put any of their half-salads inside a baked Italian Stuffer Roll for about $8 to $12, depending on the item and location.
Despite its chief marketing officer, Mark Shambura, saying guests in testing “couldn’t get enough” of the new roll, customers and employees alike had other, differing opinions.
“The core of the bread is thrown out, and a good chunk of the salad gets tossed in the trash, too,” someone claiming to be an employee at the chain wrote on Reddit’s Panera forum.
“These are a huge waste of money and food. … I wouldn’t recommend spending your hard-earned cash on them,” another wrote on the post.
Read the full article here