I think this can succeed reasonably well, especially given where they located the store. Had they chosen a poor neighborhood it would be a different story however.
This is not to say poor people are any worse than rich people, they simply have less money. In a rich neighborhood people can afford to worry about appearances as well as being able to afford to be generous and will therefore be far more likely to "overpay" for their meals and far less likely to contribute significantly less than the production cost of it. In a poor neighborhood however there would be few people who had the spare cash to pay extra and many people who had little choice but to use the store as a form of soup kitchen and contributing little or nothing to their meals.
Given the demographics of the location I think it is possible, especially since the store is setup as a non profit and therefore will not have to pay taxes and have far lower operating costs in other ways (for example using day old baked good from other Panera stores in the area) that this could end up being at least as profitable as a typical Panera store.
What I do not think would be possible however would be to roll out such a business model on a large scale, as in an entire chain, because such locations would be magnets for the dishonest people who would eventually discourage at least some of the participation of the honest ones. One or two locations per city however as an adjunct to the main chain could turn out to be quite profitable.
no subject
This is not to say poor people are any worse than rich people, they simply have less money. In a rich neighborhood people can afford to worry about appearances as well as being able to afford to be generous and will therefore be far more likely to "overpay" for their meals and far less likely to contribute significantly less than the production cost of it. In a poor neighborhood however there would be few people who had the spare cash to pay extra and many people who had little choice but to use the store as a form of soup kitchen and contributing little or nothing to their meals.
Given the demographics of the location I think it is possible, especially since the store is setup as a non profit and therefore will not have to pay taxes and have far lower operating costs in other ways (for example using day old baked good from other Panera stores in the area) that this could end up being at least as profitable as a typical Panera store.
What I do not think would be possible however would be to roll out such a business model on a large scale, as in an entire chain, because such locations would be magnets for the dishonest people who would eventually discourage at least some of the participation of the honest ones. One or two locations per city however as an adjunct to the main chain could turn out to be quite profitable.