OK, you folks at Panera, I have a question for you. I love your homey little atmosphere. It's well documented that you're one of my favorite places to eat and go on-line.
And I love the little gas-powered fake fireplaces you have in every store. They give the place a warm, inviting air on a cold winter night where curling up in front of the fire with a warm beverage, a warm cup of soup, and a warm laptop is just ideal.
But why, pray tell, do you run the things when the temperature is 96 degrees outside?
At my favorite Panera, the best chairs in the house — the comfy chairs next to the spare power plugs — are right next to that stinking fireplace!
Oh, there are chairs just as comfy on the other side of the table, chairs that can just as easily reach the spare power plugs; but those chairs are right next to a comfy couch. They clearly form a conversational circle. It would seem to me to be a violation of
your courtesy request for a lone laptop user to occupy one of those chairs.
Please, in the months of summer: turn off the fireplaces!
(But hey, at least I get my Largo IC Mango in
under nineteen minutes...)
UPDATE: Panera responds. Which is one more example of how they're a smart, customer-focused organization. (
Somebody else hasn't rsponded yet...)
An excerpt:
As a franchise organizaiton, there are somethings we can change and some we can not. I will however investigate the fireplaces being on in the summer. This to seem silly to me as well.
Even before I received this very polite response, I had decided to add a specific category for Panera. It's in jest, because I post about the place so often (and at the place as well — and by the way, the fireplace is kinda warm right now); but I also think it's deserved. Think about that, Panera folks: I mostly read DC comics, but those posts just go under the heading of comic books; but you folks, you get your own special sub-category f Dining. That's brand loyalty. And it's awfully smart of you to work so hard to earn it.
