Panera lets customers pay what they want
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Panera lets customers pay what they want
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Re: Panera lets customers pay what they want
#2Very strange hybrid of models. The non-profit food "seller" with flexible payment/donation policies is taken straight out of the traditional hippie and anarchist food co-ops model (though one thing they often have that this seems to be missing is the ability to volunteer some labor in lieu of monetary donation). But in this case it appears to be merged with Panera's branding and some sort of raise-money-for-charity goal, and stuck in an upscale suburb.
Re: Panera lets customers pay what they want
#3I'd think this would be more successful if you didn't have a national brand behind it. Nobody feels guilty taking things from a big corporation.
Re: Panera lets customers pay what they want
#4I have to imagine this business model must have existed in various ways throughout the history of commerce, but it's fascinating to see it experimented with again by a business in a traditional industry. Particularly so now that we've seen it expand throughout the tech world, in both the passive "donate button" form and the active form popularized by Radiohead.
Re: Panera lets customers pay what they want
#5I'd think this would be more successful if you didn't have a national brand behind it. Nobody feels guilty taking things from a big corporation.
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Re: Panera lets customers pay what they want
#6I'd think this would be more successful if you didn't have a national brand behind it. Nobody feels guilty taking things from a big corporation.
From the article:
"The first location bears the name St. Louis Bread Co. Cares"
I suspect detaching themselves from the national chain brand will help; really, I think branding and location choices are going to end up being the primary success factors here.
This will be very interesting to watch.
Re: Panera lets customers pay what they want
#7I'd think this would be more successful if you didn't have a national brand behind it. Nobody feels guilty taking things from a big corporation.
From the article: "The first location bears the name St. Louis Bread Co. Cares" I suspect detaching themselves from the national chain brand will help; really, I think branding and location choices are going to end up being the primary success factors here. This will be very interesting to watch.
not sure if you know this, but all Panera's in St. Louis are branded "St. Louis Bread Co."
Re: Panera lets customers pay what they want
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
From the article: "The first location bears the name St. Louis Bread Co. Cares" I suspect detaching themselves from the national chain brand will help; really, I think branding and location choices are going to end up being the primary success factors here. This will be very interesting to watch.
not sure if you know this, but all Panera's in St. Louis are branded "St. Louis Bread Co."
All stores were originally St. Louis Bread Co's (at least as far away as Chicago/Evanston back in 1996 or 97 or so), but they adopted the Panera name outside the area as they expanded.
Re: Panera lets customers pay what they want
#9The tricky part is staying above the cost. I know it's relatively low, but I have no idea how much a loaf of bread costs Panera from wheat-to-customer.
I wish more food stores operated on a minimum charge as opposed to pay nothing or whatever you want. I suppose that loses the "give a lot" mindset.
Re: Panera lets customers pay what they want
#10Ron Shaich, Panera's chairman says he's “trying to find out what human nature is all about”: http://stlouis.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2010/05/17/da...
Not sure if this is a reference to how employees and customers will behave in the context of the new store or to whether or not the store will manage to stay afloat at all.