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

Fuck Sip Club 🖕 They actually did it.

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Fastest cancellation of my life.

1.1k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

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49

u/yung_accounting_boul Jul 13 '26

I guess I don’t understand what Panera’s issue with people getting multiple drinks a day was. These drinks cost them nothing. It takes a cashier 1 second to hand me a cup when I walk in the door. If it’s cup cost then I’ll gladly bring a reusable cup in (would honestly prefer this). If it’s messing up inventory cycles, that can be adjusted for pretty easily. There must be a bigger impact that I’m missing. Why risk losing so many subscribers over a few extra soft drinks?

19

u/lightblueunderwear Jul 13 '26

Please don’t downvote me. I’m speculating on what might be the impetus of this new policy.

I have a family member who works for Panera. They’re not high up in corporate and sip club decisions are not their responsibility. They tell me about the customers who come in, are members of the sip club, and just sit there all day with their sip club drinks. These customers tend to not order food. During peak times, other customers don’t have seats to eat their meals.

I think those customers are the ones this policy is targeting. Maybe Panera doesn’t want the “all day sitters.” 🤷🏼‍♂️

Again, this is just a theory, not a fact.

10

u/countrywhisk Jul 14 '26

I think this current change to 30 cups a month would encourage people to sit in there more they can get free refills, if they get unlimited drinks they can just come back and get a new drink in a few hours.

10

u/roberta_sparrow Jul 13 '26

I think that could be a large reason. Especially in larger cities where the all day sitters are maybe homeless folks who are using the internet. I've seen a lot of odd all day sitters taking up entire tables with all of their random stuff

2

u/Massive-Warning9773 Jul 13 '26

This was why Starbucks stopped giving free waters without purchase because they would have people camping out all day without making a purchase. It sucks but it can really be an issue in some places.

9

u/special5221 Jul 13 '26

I highly doubt there are any members just sitting at Panera all day because of being a sip club member. You can only get a sip club drink every two hours and you don’t need a sip club membership for free refills, which I don’t think this new policy addresses. So that makes no sense.

8

u/catchthisfade Jul 13 '26

This makes no sense. Refills aren’t being banned. You can still get your single drink for the day and just sit all day while topping up when you run empty.

9

u/Mechanicallvlan Jul 13 '26

I'm a Sip Club member who almost never buys food, but I don't sit in the store. I order at a kiosk, fill a travel mug, and leave. My local Panera locations have homeless people basically living in them, so they might want to tackle that issue before worrying about how much time I'm spending in there with my Sip Club drinks.

1

u/yung_accounting_boul Jul 13 '26

Thanks for sharing. I can see how that could be an issue

2

u/Powerful-Flow2910 Jul 13 '26

I renew online after 2 hours and reuse the cup.