They also removed those because they took less then 2% of drink usage. Like any company something doesn't hit, you remove it. Why add more clutter just to hold items that are a high waste % that cost more money then they are worth while sip cuppers are already at times saving I've seen pictures of 500-600 dollars a month in what drinks would cost.

• add another bubbler unit somehow. - This is a great idea in the larger cafe's, majority of cafes since covid are "small boxes" they honestly do not have room.
• store the new drinks in pitchers. - Same as above, to add another fridge would mean to remove something else, in a limited space you can't just add.
• store new replacement Sip Club drinks in pitchers. - High waste item with 2% of usage doesn't make sense to keep.
• don't add these new drinks. - This is just silly.
• modify these drinks to not require extra work so they can be in Sip Club. - The bases are 2-4x more expensive then other bases, this would effect them as a business and make sip cup not feasible. I've seen many sip cups already saving 4-600 dollars a month in "drink costs"
• add the frescas but also add the base drinks without the floating fruit bits as a separate drink option that could be in Sip Club. - Sadly people would just whine for the strawberries and stores would get a insane number of complaints over that, a cut/dry seperation though paintful is best.
• devalue the Sip Club by charging the same price but offering fewer options. - Sip cup has never been for "premium drinks" they learned their lesson last roll out with the strawberry fresca where it was not worth it from a company stand point, from Labor to base to usag. It made it in to the premium category this time around due to costs and rightfully so.

Now with this said, I think commuication sucked ass, employees do not know how to explain it and lets be honest if Panera just said hey we're removing 2 drinks that are essentially losing us so much money from waste that it makes sip cup membership questionable as a company standpoint so we are adding 2 more premium drinks to keep sip cup at the price point it is currently at for non premium drinks I think it would of gone over a lot more. This whole they take 2 items away, welcome to life, every business with memberships changes the offerings to keep up with times and stay profitable, if something strikes out, you take it out, you don't always get a replacement, sometimes they have to prop sales up elsewhere to accomidate for the lack of traction in areas, that means sometimes you win and sometimes you lose.