Panera Bread says donation model working
The Business Journal
Date: Monday, May 16, 2011, 4:23pm EDT
The Panera Bread Foundation says the nonprofit "community cafe" concept that it launched a year ago called Panera Cares is working well and is being expanded.
Panera Bread is based in St. Louis and has 11 locations in the Triad.
Customers at the Panera Cares cafe in Clayton, Missouri are encouraged to take the food they need and donate what they can. The cafe has no prices or cash registers but does have "suggested" donations. About 60 percent of customers leave the suggested donation, while 20 percent leave more and 20 percent leave less, the company says.
Since being launched in Missouri a year ago, additional Panera Cares cafes have opened in Dearborn, Mich., and Portland, Ore.
