Panera Cares, the Pay-What-You-Want Cafe Experiment (2010–2019)
Founder Ron Shaich called it a "test of humanity." After nine years and five locations, the results came back.
In 2010, Panera Bread founder Ron Shaich opened a nonprofit cafe in Clayton, Missouri, where customers paid whatever they wanted — or could — for a full Panera menu. He described it as a test of humanity.
Four more locations followed, in Chicago, Portland, Dearborn, and Boston. None of them became self-sustaining. The Portland cafe reportedly brought in only 60 to 70 percent of its own operating costs in donations.
Reviewers described the cafes being "mobbed" by people who ate without paying, and disputes breaking out between staff and repeat non-paying customers — including, at some locations, security guards stationed to watch the room.
The last Panera Cares location, in Boston, closed quietly in February 2019, ending the nine-year experiment.
Filed from public reporting: Fast Company, Boston Globe, Restaurant Business Online.
