Panera Bread Opens "Donations Only" Cafe

[Ben]

I'm not sure if they're going for the "pay it forward" model or the "guilty rich" model. Either way it appears they're not using any taxpayer dollars, so more power to them.

I'm just not sure how well it will wok. I've never spent enough time in Boston to know if there's a big enough structure of supporters. I know several cities in CA where it would probably work (as in a critical mass of limo liberals paying more than the meal costs to support the people paying nothing). I do question how it cost a million dollars to build the cafe. Why not buy or rent a preexisting building and use all the money you save to help support the free meal people?

http://smallbusiness.foxbusiness.com/marketing-sales/2013/01/23/panera-opens-free-food-suggested-donations-only-cafes/?intcmp=sbcfeatures

[RoadKingLarry]

I'd bet there is a substantial tax write off in there somewhere.

[Declaration Day]

It's a good PR move at the very least, but here's my prediction:

Homeless bums and shady people will flock to it in droves, driving away most of those who are willing to pay for a meal.  The location will close, or revert to a normal Panera cafe, within a year.  It won't make the news.

[Hawkmoon]

Panera's prices are ridiculously high for what you get anyway, and I'll bet in the Boston market they're a lot higher than in my little burg. I go there maybe twice a year, because the retired pastor of my church likes it so I sometimes (reluctantly) agree to meet him there. I would pay the "suggested" amount, but at their prices there's no way I'd pay MORE than the posted price.

[AZRedhawk44]

I love it.

No sales... means no sales tax.

[Perd Hapley]

Panera (at least around here) is awesome. Really good sammitches, endless refills on coffee and soft drinks, and they don't care if you stay a few hours, have a meeting, whatever. And free wifi.

[RoadKingLarry]

The local Panera hippie enclaves are posted no guns. I don't go there.

[Jamisjockey]

The local Panera hippie enclaves are posted no guns. I don't go there.

Interesting, here they're not posted.

[mtnbkr]

Interesting, here they're not posted.

Not posted in VA that I've noticed either.

Chris

[AmbulanceDriver]

I seem to recall this being done once before, locally here...  I'll have to go dig...  But it ended exactly like this:

It's a good PR move at the very least, but here's my prediction:

Homeless bums and shady people will flock to it in droves, driving away most of those who are willing to pay for a meal.  The location will close, or revert to a normal Panera cafe, within a year.  It won't make the news.

Here's a brief blurb about the one here in Portland:  http://consumerist.com/2011/09/29/why-paneras-pay-what-you-can-restaurant-didnt-work-in-portland/

This was in 2011...  I haven't heard much about it since then...

[Perd Hapley]

The local Panera hippie enclaves are posted no guns. I don't go there.

The two locations I frequent are not posted. There are something like a hundred Paneras here, since this is their home base (I guess that's why we don't have Starbucks on every corner). I can't check all of their locations here, but I wouldn't mind trying.

[Ben]

I seem to recall this being done once before, locally here...  I'll have to go dig...  But it ended exactly like this:

Here's a brief blurb about the one here in Portland:  http://consumerist.com/2011/09/29/why-paneras-pay-what-you-can-restaurant-didnt-work-in-portland/

This was in 2011...  I haven't heard much about it since then...

Huh. It's almost counter-intuitive that it failed in Portland but succeeded in St Louis and Detroit.

Then again, very liberal cities also tend to put up with more crap from The Homeless*. A few years back we started getting a ton of aggressive homeless on the main drag here and they would actually spit at and threaten people who didn't give them money. It was amazing how many locals defended them. The only reason something was finally done is that the main drag brings in a ton of tourist money, including a lot of international dough. When bad press started going international, they finally had the cops start enforcing loitering laws.

*The Homeless being those who seem to embrace the lifestyle versus those truly and temporarily down on their luck.

[Perd Hapley]

Huh. It's almost counter-intuitive that it failed in Portland but succeeded in St Louis and Detroit.

I had totally forgotten they had one of those here. It has apparently worked, in tony, downtown Clayton, since May 2010. Maybe it helps that it's across the street from county police headquarters, and it's a very up-scale area.

It's not posted, either, which is good, since StL County CCW'ers are getting/renewing our permits across the street from the place.

[Declaration Day]

The "Detroit" location is actually in Dearborn, a suburb of Detroit.  Huge difference.