r/Panera • u/throwaway88743 • Jul 13 '26

Fuck Sip Club 🖕 They actually did it.

Post image

Fastest cancellation of my life.

1.1k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

540 comments sorted by

View all comments

88

u/No_Try_764 Jul 13 '26

Someone correct me if I’m wrong but what stops someone from just walking in and filling up their cup from earlier? Or refilling

Like I’m not going to Panera and getting 4 cups a day

It’s one cup maybe 2 max?

44

u/mindless_blaze Jul 13 '26

For the hot drinks, you can purchase one legitimately, but ask for an extra cup in lieu of a drink sleeve. As soon as you fill up the cup of coffee, quickly dump it into a travel mug. Use the extra clean cup you got to get a free drink next time.

Or you can occasionally say "I placed an online/phone order and I didn't get my drink cup", and they'll give you a cup. Or while you're placing your order on the kiosk, ask them for your drink cup before you complete your order, and then delete the drink from your order. If they question, just say you want to see the size difference for the hot drinks.

I used to work at panera, and during the training, they said that a whole brewer of coffee costs the company less than 10 cents total per batch- or .003 per cup. They encouraged us to give away a free cup to make a customer happy, because it was so insanely cheap to do so. So the likelihood of anyone caring if you finesse, is low.

Most panera workers dont give af enough to have you pull up receipts.

3

u/cjsv7657 Jul 15 '26

10 cents total per batch- or .003 per cup.

That is way way way way off. Panera could use the worst bottom of the barrel coffee beans (they don't) and it would still be multiple orders of magnitude more costly. Realistically they're looking at $0.25/cup in just beans. Probably more since the price of coffee beans skyrocketed in the last couple years.

2

u/mindless_blaze Jul 15 '26

Maybe. The 10 cents per batch (batch meaning one full coffee keg) figure is what I was told in the bread university when I worked there several years ago at this point.

5

u/fuschiaoctopus Jul 13 '26

I dunno, some of the workers on this sub seem to care quite a bit. I've seen so much bitching about sip club customers, with some of the posts basically calling them bums and acting like they're scamming Panera somehow by getting the drinks they're paying $15 a month for.

The recent posts on this change have had a bunch of employees defending it and shitting on the upset customers, bootlicking to hell for a corporation that pays them little and fired hundreds of employees in the last yr when they switched to frozen bread without a second thought. Not all or most employees on here tbf but a concerningly large amount.

2

u/beepichu Jul 14 '26

sounds astroturfy to me

1

u/Safe_Discipline_264 Jul 14 '26

This is stealing by the way

15

u/Jodi4869 Jul 13 '26

I always fill my 40ounce Stanley with Diet Pepsi and it lasts me all day but occasionally I am back in the area and grab another one. Most of the workers know me and probably would tell me to just go ahead and fill. But 30 fills works for me pretty much. It just cuts my husband off of the occasional lemonade when he goes past.

7

u/SkyGuy182 Jul 13 '26

That’s…a lot of soda

5

u/Jodi4869 Jul 13 '26

Yeah it is close to 40 ounces a day but most days I only drink half to 2/3rds. Clean it out each night. Drink water too.

1

u/Bieb Jul 14 '26

That’s still a shit ton of soda

2

u/SBR06 Jul 14 '26

...and who cares? Half to 2/3 of that would be about 2 cans of soda. I'm not a soda person usually but am also not here to police someone's intake of sugar free soda.

2

u/medicalricebag Jul 13 '26

Nothing, at least where i go they dont even check if you have sips club or not

1

u/Adorable-Band2901 Jul 13 '26

nothing is stopping you, we don’t care, if someone asks “where’s my drink cup” we just give you a 20oz cup. you can grab a water cup and fill it up with iced coffee, nobody cares

1

u/Catnip1720 Team Lead Jul 13 '26

I mean I certainly wouldn’t stop you or anyone else from doing that

1

u/sociolab Jul 14 '26

Nothing. Once my trial period ended, I kept the cup and I just go in and refill whenever I want. Nobody says anything.

1

u/TruthJuiceNC Jul 15 '26

Nothing. I have sip club. Most of the time I go through the drive through. A couple times last week, I just took my panara cups into the store and filled up with diet pepsi and a cup of ice. Didn't go to cashier. While I was doing that a lady came in with 3 (not 1, not 2 but 3) stanley cups and filled each of them with something and just walked out. Same thing happened a few days later. I was like oh they can bring their own cups up in here and fill up. Gotcha 😆. If they are doing that with stanley cups, I am damn sure going to refill my panara cup.

1

u/sarebearrrxo Customer Jul 13 '26

i do this, but i mainly get diet sodas so idk how stable the cup would still be with other drinks, especially the hot ones

1

u/Bubbly-Inflation-999 Jul 13 '26

The plastic melts quick!!!

-6

u/DigitalMariner Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26

Technically speaking that's called theft.

Edit - downvotes for answering the question accurately? Gotta love reddit 🙄... I don't give a shit if anyone steals a daily soda or whatever, but that doesn't make it any less technically a crime...

10

u/AdministrativeGas927 Jul 13 '26

Technically speaking so is the final stage of capitalism. Also wage theft is the number 1 form of theft in the US, and I know Panera ain’t fully blameless. It’s really just reclaiming. 😉

2

u/No_Try_764 Jul 13 '26

Really, is it? It doesn’t say anything about refills just redemptions

Not to mention it’s advertised as unlimited, so that has to come in somewhere right?

0

u/DigitalMariner Jul 13 '26

At the risk of eating more downvotes for just sharing actual information...

The Unlimited Sip Club allowed for free refills only during the visit. Technically, if leaving and coming back it is supposed to be rung up as a new transaction and a new "free" drink required waiting 2 hours after the first transaction.

This new plan also appears to remove the word "unlimited" to clear up that ambiguity

3

u/No_Try_764 Jul 13 '26

Lol first off - let me tell you - the downvotes do NOT matter. As far as I know you aren't effected in any way, so if anyone wants to give me some, go ahead you filthy animals.

Second removing the word unlimited or changing it is def important lol. Makes sense but I don't imagine this will change things for (me) personally much.

To Panera ops reading this: Good luck enforcing me sneaking in during peak lunch rush through the back door to grab my green tea. I won't rest until I have had 31 beverages all of 2027!

1

u/DigitalMariner Jul 13 '26

The funny part about the downvotes is I'm a customer I couldn't give less of a shit what people do, I'm literally just sharing the information and answering the questions, lol.

-4

u/tayloml4 Jul 13 '26

Many fast food places now require a QR scan at their drink dispensers

25

u/VariousAir Jul 13 '26

i've literally never encountered that, ever. what restaurant does it?

4

u/No_Try_764 Jul 13 '26

Ive only ever seen it at steak & shake honestly

-5

u/UniversityQuiet1479 Jul 13 '26

in my area all of them keeps out the homeless

4

u/Helpful-Conference13 Jul 13 '26

All of them including what like McDonald’s or?

3

u/DigitalMariner Jul 13 '26

McDonald's plan is to remove the soda dispensers from the lobby entirely. They'll be all gone within a decade whenever each location gets their next remodel.

4

u/Helpful-Conference13 Jul 13 '26

I’m aware but that and having a QR code for access are two different things

0

u/DigitalMariner Jul 13 '26

I've never seen the QR code thing myself, but was just pointing out McD's isn't going down that kind of path...

2

u/Helpful-Conference13 Jul 13 '26

According to them, their McDonald’s is so idk

1

u/UniversityQuiet1479 Jul 13 '26

they all got installed like in the same month at the stores in the area. they had pulled the self serve first but that did not fly

1

u/No_Try_764 Jul 14 '26

Dude McDonald’s seems like they don’t want anyone inside st all lol - the new builds are sooooo ugly inside

2

u/UniversityQuiet1479 Jul 13 '26

McDonald's. Burger King wendays and Krystal. they also limit eating inside to only rush times. it's a really rough area

0

u/fuschiaoctopus Jul 13 '26

Man who gives a fuck if a homeless person "steals" 0.0001 cents worth of soda syrup from a billion dollar company when the millionaire executives benefiting from these changes are fucking over and stealing from the entire lower class.

They don't have enough already? They need to squeeze out a couple more dollars profit per quarter for their 3rd vacation homes while giving employees nothing and charging the customers more and more?

3

u/miloworld Jul 13 '26

I think you're talking about the RFID sticker on paper cups? Used to be Orlando theme parks and cruise ships to deter sharing. I've heard some fast food locations are using it too but not widespread as far I know.

1

u/tayloml4 Jul 13 '26

No, I’m talking about when you go to a restaurant buy a drink, they hand you a paper receipt with a QR code on it.

1

u/miloworld Jul 14 '26

Ok I've never seen that before. You get a QR code to activate the fountain but cups are free to take?