Luxembourg-based Panera’s Slow, Steady Bread-Letting
. @panerabread, (also #EinsteinBrosBagels and #CaribouCoffee), now owned by #JAB #HoldingCompany of #Luxembourg, should open earlier to compete on coffee with @dunkindonuts and @Starbucks . #Panera is still trying to compete by cutting costs on bread, when what they really need to do is up their coffee game ; it was competing on price for a short stint and that didn’t seem to work. Will #Panera survive being taken over by a #PrivateEquity group that has committed every cardinal sin in the book in order to survive at the expense of the old “Clean Foods” promise? Will #PaneraBread EVER offer #stevia? How can you serve mainly salads and not offer #Stevia? Healthy breads don’t sell. Which makes it a total bane for anyone trying to cut carbs – particularly because of all the subliminal loaves of bread everywhere. Of course, the brand took off before people realized how bad white flour really is. It’s kind of a brand that, corporately, doesn’t seem to understand its core audience TODAY. I’m just in it for the #sipClub – can’t beat the deal on coffee; and it’s great coffee. But to dominate coffee, you need to OPEN AT 5am, or 6 at the latest – if for no other reason than to stop your customers from going to dunks or Starbucks and giving them money.
I’m America’s Man’s Man
I don’t think they’re liquidating as many speculated. I think they pulled a leaner playbook during #Covid, and yet – I think the housewife who used to salivate over @olivegarden breadsticks is a dwindling breed – and for such a niche audience of housewives and tweens spending dad’s disposable cash – you’d better be darned sure you know what those disposable dollars are chasing — because as you should have learned, they’re fickle dollars, and for such a mature brand, you’re wasting television impressions on people who can’t afford to spend $15 for a tiny salad. WHOM IS PANERA FOR? What dietary trends are they chasing? The old pre-Covid playbook won’t work, and merely liquidating malfunctioning stores is just that, a graduated shut-down strategy. Why not do it the right way? Maybe it’s just one more foreign company trying to shake down a prominent American business. But the waste in marketing alone…