
Panera’s Utopic Pay-What-You-Want Restaurant Dream Is Dead - ryan_j_naughton
https://www.eater.com/2019/2/5/18212499/panera-cares-closing-pay-what-you-can-restaurant
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sova
In Glebe a small district in Sydney, Australia, there is a shop called
"Lentils as Anything" and it operates under the "pay what you can" scheme. It
is highly successful, and that's because their branding, signage, store
layout, and all is on point and clearly indicative of what it is. There's no
cashier, just a big metal box with a hole in the top for donations, and the
staff are all volunteer. Making a non-profit model out of a business that
looks like a normal over-the-counter coffee place was the first egregious
error in this plan by big P. It needs to look completely different. Why?
because it is completely different in principle.

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nydel
This interests me. As for Panera Cares’ marketing, I live in the United States
and had no idea these ever existed anywhere. That seems strange.

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yhoneycomb
Probably an unpopular opinion, but IMO Panera is ridiculously overhyped

I paid something like $12 for a salad and a piece of bread. The salad didn't
look all the fresh and the bread was stale. I had to tell them my bread was
stale and ask them for another piece of bread. They handed me another piece of
bread without even apologizing.

