Update 3/3/20: Program is now nationwide, costing $8.99 (during the pilot program it was $7.99)
Original post: Panera has launched a new pilot program called ‘MyPanera+‘ where customers can pay $7.99 per month and receive unlimited premium coffee for $7.99 per month. The pilot program is currently running in Raleigh, NC; Nashville, TN; and Cleveland & Columbus, OH. F.A.Q. can be found here.
As a black coffee drinker with multiple Panera Bread locations nearby, I signed up on March 1st and have already gotten more than my money’s worth for this month (6 coffees, multiple refills on each).
It’s very easy to use, and you can order in advance on your phone via the Panera app or use a self-service ordering kiosk in the store. Depending on how successful this MyPanera+ program is, I suspect Starbucks and Dunkin might be forced to at least consider a similar program, especially with their recent price increases.
Isn’t this the place that had the mac n cheese from a plastic bag?
I’ve been to Panera once, it sucked. It’s basically (bad) hospital food.
I get their bowls and salads, and disagree with you on the hospital food comparison.
You must be a very layed back hospital patient?
FYI, it just launched in my area for $8.99/month.
Considering how cheap one cup of coffee with unlimited refills already is, I don’t think it’s worth it unless you go to Panera at least twice a week.
Obviously, the subscription is only for self-serve drinks and not for custom drinks, specialty drinks, or cold brew.
One can find more cities – cafes running the program from their website. Not bad for regulars
As a teleworker with a Panera 10 min away this would be awesome. Camp out in the morning for coffee and work, then migrate back to the home office. It would be cheaper than the amount of coffee I already buy plus it’s nice to get out a bit!
Jeeze, even our food is now becoming subscription based. It’s definitely an interesting idea though. I travel for work a fair amount, stopping at Panera for lunch about 10 times a month. This may be worth it if they roll it out nationwide and I can use it at any store.
The fun part is waiting to see how much money Panera is willing to hemorrhage in the pilot phase before it realizes that his program will be a major loss leader for every location.
Coffee is just flavored brown water. Coffee is not super expensive (unless you are a customer overpaying for your flavored brown water). Even at $8.99 a month, you would have to drink a mountain of coffee before it would become a loss leader for Panera. Panera could make less money on coffee, but it would be extremely difficult for Panera to lose money on coffee (especially since it is limited to drip hot coffee, hot tea, and iced coffee — not the ‘premium’ drinks).
You would never know it by looking at the prices on a Starbucks menu, but coffee bean prices plunged to a 13-year low in 2019 and are still hovering just slightly-above those 2019 prices today.
Was able to sign up for it in MA, I park near one and able to go at least 6 days a week, well worth it to me.
Thanks Doc!
In college I often studied at Panera, would have considered buying this had it been around.
Go into any Panera in my are, btwn say 2pm and 7pm, and it seems like half the tables are occupied by tutors meeting with their middle- and high-school students.
Seems worth it to people who go every day. Or even twice a week.
Let’s do the math. Mid-range (but still shitty) grocery store coffee is about $5-7 a bag that’ll last about 3 weeks. That’s 25-33 cents a cup if you make it at home, and save yourself the drive and hassle to panera…where you invariably will order their crappy sandwich since who goes there just for coffee. For $10-12/lb you can get top shelf fresh coffee at Whole Foods or a mom-n-pop roaster cafe, and have a much better experience for barely more $$
That’s nice, but that’s not a reasonable comparison. People regularly pay for the convenience of prepared foods that are many times the cost of the material inputs. An egg can be had for four or five cents, but dropped onto a skillet and served in a restaurant it’ll be $1-3+. A few pennies of flour, eggs and sugar will become baked goods selling for a fifty to a hundred times more. Once we consider the value of people’s time it usually explains the difference.
It’s reasonable for people spending a substantial sum on coffee to consider if there are better ways to consume it. But plenty of people are in situations where Panera makes perfect sense- a doctor may get their coffee at the hospital’s Panera, a lawyer may walk past a Panera next to their office.
Certainly, if you’re actually driving meaningful distance simply to get to a Panera for coffee the time and costs associated with that are going to exceed making coffee at home. But I don’t think that kind of person is really the target for this promotion.