In a first for a national restaurant chain, Panera Bread has started a prototype nonprofit outlet at which customers decide how much to pay and leave the money in a donation box rather than a cash register, USA Today reports.
Rather than collecting money, cashiers at the St. Louis restaurant hand patrons receipts showing what they would have paid for their chosen items at a typical Panera outlet and directing them to the store’s donation boxes.
Ron Shaich, the company’s former CEO who now runs the Panera Foundation, said he hopes to open hundreds of such Panera Cares Cafes in communities where the chain operates.
“I’m trying to find out what human nature is all about,” said Mr. Shaich, who stepped down last week as head of the firm he transformed from a small St. Louis bread-maker into a $2.8-billion-a-year national chain.
5 Responses to Bakery Chain Panera Opens Nonprofit Restaurant
jcuozzopm - May 19, 2010 at 3:26 pm
He is going to find out that a small percentage 5% maybe a little more, will make a generous donation, but most people will not put down what it costs. Maybe with the bill they will come close. It’s a nice idea. I hope it works for them but I doubt it. People will take advantage of this generosity.
rdavis0504 - May 19, 2010 at 4:38 pm
Better to either charge extra and donate that amount or have a “points” program whereby people donate above the cost of their meal and get credit toward a free meal based on a percentage of their donations. I agree that he’ll be lucky to cover his costs – not so much because people will try to take advantage but because there isn’t enough transparency into costs.
fkelley - May 20, 2010 at 10:16 pm
Interesting idea but better to side step the losses and the bad press of closing stores that don’t work out and just give a few million to Haiti.
lindagarrison - May 21, 2010 at 4:27 pm
There’s a small restaurant here in Denver that uses this model to very good success. It’s called the SAME Cafe (So All May Eat) and the Panera venture is actually modeled on this. This is cited in the St. Louis Business Journal’s report on Shaich’s idea.
tigressreow - May 24, 2010 at 1:03 am
I hope this Panera non-profit sponsors and trains people from the St Louis community. That effort would garner more support for the initiative. Hopefully the Panera for-profit outlets coordinate with soup kitchens so unsold goods aren’t trashed and the needy benefit as well. Best wishes for resouding success!