Will Panera Bread make a bet on Portland's 'humanity'?

PORTLAND, Ore. – With the motto "Take what you need, leave your fair share," the Panera Bread Foundation could soon convert one of Portland's six Panera cafes to a spot where prices are merely suggestions.

"The bet we're making is on humanity," said Ron Shaich, Panera's executive chairman of the board told St. Louis television station KSDK after launching its first "Cares" cafe there. "The bet we're making is that enough people will come in who will give enough that this cafe can sustain."

At the new "Cares" cafe in St. Louis, "we looked for a perfect mix of people that can support it, but where it's accessible to people who need it," Panera Bread Spokesperson Kate Antonacci told us Wednesday. St. Louis, she said, "was really just a test ... to prove that we could keep it open."

Five months later, two new "Cares" cafes are planned.

Panera LLC will not confirm if those two sites are inked. However, a Panera insider says plans are in the works to convert an existing Panera in Portland's Hollywood district – a block and a half off of Northeast Sandy Boulevard – to the "Cares" concept by January.

If the Panera Cares cafe does come to Portland's Hollywood district, for the most part the cafe will look the same with the same menu – albeit with two new door-greeters to explain the concept. Then, instead of paying a cashier, customers would drop their contribution into an in-store donation box. Those who have more can give more than the suggested retail price. Those who have nothing can get a meal and not leave a cent, or offer to volunteer an hour for a free meal voucher.

"We have people who come in on a regular basis to volunteer," Antonacci said. "Most people take the voucher, but we have some people who don't."

About 60 percent to 70 percent pay in full, Shaich told USA Today earlier this year. About 15 percent leave a little more and another 15 percent pay less, or nothing at all. A handful, he told USA Today, have left big donations like $20 for a cup of coffee. Meanwhile, the "Cares" cafe in St. Louis also featured baked-fresh-yesterday items, such as bagels and pastries and whole loaves of bread, from other cafes.

"The important thing about this is that it isn't about charity," Shaich said in the KSDK report. "It's about mutual responsibility. It's about all of our responsibilities to each other."

The second Panera Cares cafe is expected to open in late-November. Rumor has it that this cafe could be in Detroit, followed by a third cafe – rumored to be in Portland – in January 2011.

"We're not prepared to announce where the site in January will be," said Antonacci at Panera's support center in Boston. However, she did confirm that the Hollywood district site – near a Trader Joe's and 24-Hour Fitness buzzing with professionals and gourmet-food shoppers alongside the homeless staking signs at intersections just a block and a half away – fits the "Cares" site profile. 

If the 4143 N.E. Halsey St. site is selected, a few things would change behind the scenes. Cafe assets would be transferred from Panera LLC to the Panera Bread Foundation. Additionally, catering and some of the baking may no longer take place at this store.

"In [St. Louis], we transferred all of the catering to another cafe a mile and a half a way," Antonacci said. Also at that store, some of the freshly-baked items were brought in from a neighboring Panera cafe. The company has six Panera Bread shops in the Portland area, including Hillsboro, Tualatin, Beaverton, Clackamas and Vancouver, Wash.

Wherever the baked goods come from, going to a "pay as you can" concept is one that certainly has its rejoicers. Take the man sipping his coffee outside the Halsey Street Panera on Tuesday. He asked to remain unidentified and, from the Panera cafe table on the sidewalk, says he "lives here" – a life without a computer or even a phone.

But give him a cup of hot coffee, and a place to sit, and he can face the day.


Related resources:

• Non-profit Panera cafe: Take what you need, pay what you can from USA Today
• Panera to open more pay-what-you-wish restaurants from USA Today
• Cities install donation meters for the homeless from The Epoch Times
• Panera's current donation involvement from PaneraBread.com