SIGforum.com    Main Page  Hop To Forum Categories  The Lounge    Who'd thunk it! Pay-what-you-want Panera closes
Page 1 2 
Go
New
Find
Notify
Tools
Reply
  
Who'd thunk it! Pay-what-you-want Panera closes Login/Join 
I believe in the
principle of
Due Process
Picture of JALLEN
posted Hide Post
Not only that, but it gives Panera valuable information about pricing.

The price of a product is not set merely on “it costs us this, so we add our mark up and charge that” any more. That is only the supply side.

Most sophisticated businesses want to study what levels of product might be demanded at various prices. Costco does this. It will negotiate a price for a certain relatively small quantity in Costco terms, say widgets that are $10 each in quantity 5,000, but for 100,000 the price is $4.00. Costco will buy 5,000, pay $10 each, then put them in the warehouse for its usual markup, say 10% and sell them for $4.40. That tells them something about demand for the product at the lower price. If the widgets fly off the shelves at $4.40, then Costco knows it has a salable product.

My example is made up, of course. I have no idea of actual numbers, but the idea to explore demand at different pricing is accurate.

If Panera offers a roast beef and arugula on sourdough sandwich for $8.50 in their stores, but few are ordered, but they sell well in these stores at $5-6.00 voluntarily paid, that’s worth knowing, and if nobody wants them at the lower price, that’s gold. They can stop offering those and find something else people want.




Luckily, I have enough willpower to control the driving ambition that rages within me.

When you had the votes, we did things your way. Now, we have the votes and you will be doing things our way. This lesson in political reality from Lyndon B. Johnson

"Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible." - Justice Janice Rogers Brown
 
Posts: 48369 | Location: Texas hill country | Registered: July 04, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
Things that make you go "Duh?"
 
Posts: 7019 | Registered: April 02, 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
So let it be written,
so let it be done...
Picture of Dzozer
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by mark60:
I'm hoping my local Toyota dealer adopts a pay what you want policy before I get a new truck.


Big Grin



'Live long and prosper'
 
Posts: 3923 | Location: The Prairie | Registered: April 28, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Lawyers, Guns
and Money
Picture of chellim1
posted Hide Post
quote:
Panera has a small group of stores branded Panera Community Cares Cafes. These stores are typically located in low income areas or areas where there is a significant homeless population.


Not this store.

quote:
Panera founder and Executive Chairman Ron Shaich told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that the St. Louis Bread Co. Cares Community Cafe in Clayton, Missouri, is imminently due to close because it was on a month-to-month lease and the store would have required a big investment.

* * *

'The nature of the economics did not make sense,' Shaich said.


Clayton, Missouri is a very wealthy area.



"Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible."
-- Justice Janice Rogers Brown

"The United States government is the largest criminal enterprise on earth."
-rduckwor
 
Posts: 24108 | Location: St. Louis, MO | Registered: April 03, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
safe & sound
Picture of a1abdj
posted Hide Post
quote:
This isn’t a socialist experimental restaurant... it’s charity. They do a lot of good, feeding those who cannot afford to feed themselves.



I can't speak for all of the other locations, which have also closed by the way, but there aren't a whole lot of people who can't afford to feed themselves in Clayton, MO.

I thought about posting this last night. I believe it was KevinCW who originally posted when this store opened years ago. I believe it outlasted his prediction by a few years.


________________________



www.zykansafe.com
 
Posts: 15716 | Location: St. Charles, MO, USA | Registered: September 22, 2003Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of Flyboyrv6
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by PeterGV:
Perhaps people misunderstand the business being discussed, leading to these derisive statements.

Panera has a small group of stores branded Panera Community Cares Cafes. These stores are typically located in low income areas or areas where there is a significant homeless population.
Ok... it's a charity... then brand it as such and do not try to convince us that it is a wonderful socialist success.

They don’t turn anyone away regardless of their ability to pay. You are free to pay anything you want, or nothing, for your meal. As the stores are attractive and many are in downtown city locations, they can draw quite a mix of people, both poor and affluent.

Given the above, that a given store would receive an average of 85% of the retail price of the meal is, in fact, pretty great.

I don’t think there’s anything positive about one of these stores closing, or anything about this model that is deserving of the negative comments. This isn’t a socialist experimental restaurant... it’s charity. They do a lot of good, feeding those who cannot afford to feed themselves.
 
Posts: 828 | Registered: January 20, 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
What a shame, I was waiting for this kind of pricing to show up at the local gun stores. I was hoping to buy a $2k 1911 with the $200 I have.


No one's life, liberty or property is safe while the legislature is in session.- Mark Twain
 
Posts: 3532 | Location: TX | Registered: October 08, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by Sig209:
The part I chuckled at was the 'average payment of 85%' of the retail price...

Like that was somehow a credit to the program.

So think about that. You know there were some lib do-gooders who overpaid to make the program succeed. So there were likely a ton of rascals paying next to nothing - just pretty much taking.

And I am not in food service but I hear the margins are pretty slim. So those particular restaurants were operating in the red getting infusions from corporate to make everyone seem like it was a great viable program.

Nothing evil about capitalism. In fact the opposite is true. They tried a half-baked socialist idea and now 'X' number of workers are out of a job because they failed to do business at market dynamics.

Oh - and I like the 'we lost 15% of our revenue but the program is working' idiot.

--------------------------------------


Margins are only in the single digits - this guy is an idiot and the experiment was doomed from inception.
 
Posts: 4979 | Registered: April 20, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
posting without pants
Picture of KevinCW
posted Hide Post
That's why their food is so overpriced and the portions are so small.

10 bucks for half a sandwich and half a salad... 10 bucks and I am still hungry.

Good riddance.





Strive to live your life so when you wake up in the morning and your feet hit the floor, the devil says "Oh crap, he's up."
 
Posts: 33287 | Location: St. Louis MO | Registered: February 15, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Lawyers, Guns
and Money
Picture of chellim1
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by KevinCW:
That's why their food is so overpriced and the portions are so small.
10 bucks for half a sandwich and half a salad... 10 bucks and I am still hungry.
Good riddance.

Is it just me... or has it gotten worse?
I mean, I used to like their soups.
Now, they taste watered down or something.



"Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible."
-- Justice Janice Rogers Brown

"The United States government is the largest criminal enterprise on earth."
-rduckwor
 
Posts: 24108 | Location: St. Louis, MO | Registered: April 03, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
posting without pants
Picture of KevinCW
posted Hide Post
Havent been in years... at least then it still tasted pretty good, you just paid too much to still be hungry after lunch....





Strive to live your life so when you wake up in the morning and your feet hit the floor, the devil says "Oh crap, he's up."
 
Posts: 33287 | Location: St. Louis MO | Registered: February 15, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
Clayton or Vinita Park......Everyone loves free.
 
Posts: 281 | Location: Outside St. Louis | Registered: June 14, 2015Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Conveniently located directly
above the center of the Earth
Picture of signewt
posted Hide Post
"They don’t turn anyone away regardless of their ability to pay. You are free to pay anything you want, or nothing, for your meal. As the stores are attractive and many are in downtown city locations, they can draw quite a mix of people, both poor and affluent."

I'm familiar with only one and for sure it does not follow this format. This one is a sort of more-expensive version of a college town bakery with an entire wall full & counter shelves of gooey sugared pastries, followed next in line by some low end coffee choices, followed by a limited version of Subway sandwiches with a few soups of the day.

Minimal service, low end carbs, a couple small & feeble salad choices. Moderately decent chili bowl. Bus your own table.

Maybe it's a step up from the McDs on the other end of the block. Doesn't look like any street people frequent the place.


**************~~~~~~~~~~
"I've been on this rock too long to bother with these liars any more."
~SIGforum advisor~
"When the pain of staying the same outweighs the pain of change, then change will come."~~sigmonkey

 
Posts: 9854 | Location: sunny Orygun | Registered: September 27, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Coin Sniper
Picture of Rightwire
posted Hide Post
It never ceases to amaze me how people can rise to the level of CEO and make such ridiculously bad decisions.




Pronoun: His Royal Highness and benevolent Majesty of all he surveys

343 - Never Forget

Its better to be Pavlov's dog than Schrodinger's cat

There are three types of mistakes; Those you learn from, those you suffer from, and those you don't survive.
 
Posts: 37957 | Location: Above the snow line in Michigan | Registered: May 21, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Glorious SPAM!
Picture of mbinky
posted Hide Post
One thing that I loved from them? Their iced green tea. It didn't really taste like tea but it was iced and green and yummy.

Last time I had it was when the store opened in APG around 08 or so.
 
Posts: 10635 | Registered: June 13, 2003Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Delusions of Adequacy
Picture of zoom6zoom
posted Hide Post
Can't they make it up in volume?

Roll Eyes




I have my own style of humor. I call it Snarkasm.
 
Posts: 17944 | Location: Virginia | Registered: June 02, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
"Member"
Picture of cas
posted Hide Post
Only liberals can see it, admit they see it, yet still not see it.


_____________________________________________________
Sliced bread, the greatest thing since the 1911.

 
Posts: 21105 | Location: 18th & Fairfax  | Registered: May 17, 2003Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of PeterGV
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by signewt:
"They don’t turn anyone away regardless of their ability to pay. You are free to pay anything you want, or nothing, for your meal. As the stores are attractive and many are in downtown city locations, they can draw quite a mix of people, both poor and affluent."

I'm familiar with only one and for sure it does not follow this format. This one is a sort of more-expensive version of a college town bakery with an entire wall full & counter shelves of gooey sugared pastries, followed next in line by some low end coffee choices, followed by a limited version of Subway sandwiches with a few soups of the day.
Thats because regular Panera stores and Panera Cares Community Cafes are entirely different stores.

People are confusing the two in this thread.

The closing of the Community Cafes, which are owned by a charitable 501(c)(3)foundation (Panera Bread Foundation) has more to do with the fact that Panera was sold in 2017 to the German firm JAB that seems less interested in funding charitable causes in the US, and less to do with whether the stores were a worthwhile charity. The charitable foundation is funded by Panera (over $10M a year), pays zero dollars in salaries, and contributes to other charities such as Feeding America.
 
Posts: 1318 | Location: New Hampshire | Registered: April 24, 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Knowing is Half the Battle
Picture of Scuba Steve Sig
posted Hide Post
They set that store of for the PR and the warm feelings it generated in St. Louis' most affluent town. It is the county seat of St. Louis County. I think they also did it in response to a smaller bread/deli restaurant in the same town doing the same thing.

They had suggested prices up and I assure you 3/4 of the patrons probably paid close to that because of peer pressure from their business colleagues eating with them. There is not much riff-raff in Clayton unless a Ferguson protest was occurring. When you sell a sandwich and chips for $8 across the country, you can afford to do this...for awhile.

The kids love their grilled cheese and its right by their school. Anytime they ask for it I suggest Chik-Fil-A with their playground and the cow wins easily.

In the St. Louis metro all Paneras are called St. Louis Bread Co., but some marketing wiz decided nobody in the other 49 states wants to eat St. Louis bread, so they call them Panera. That has always chapped me, but is probably accurate. Anybody want to buy a case of Flint Water?
 
Posts: 2516 | Location: Iowa by way of Missouri | Registered: July 18, 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
Was it: "I've decided that every day you have a "no guns in here" policy, I'm not paying for my lunch. That's alright isn't it?"

https://www.newsmax.com/TheWir...014/09/09/id/593487/
 
Posts: 1920 | Location: Pacific Northwet | Registered: August 01, 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
  Powered by Social Strata Page 1 2  
 

SIGforum.com    Main Page  Hop To Forum Categories  The Lounge    Who'd thunk it! Pay-what-you-want Panera closes

© SIGforum 2024