My article was about how Panera Bread is thriving by selling real food and a gathering space. Panera opened 102 bakery-cafes in 2008 and is on schedule to launch 70 more in 2009. Panera is a bakery-cafe that sells fresh food and warm bread, and encourages their customers to stay and linger. Panera also has free Wi-Fi. Financially, Panera has been on a roll. It has become as much community gathering space as a bustling lunch spot.
As the dominant player in the market - add up the sales for the next four biggest bakery-cafe chains and they'd still have less than half of Panera's sales - it's in the best position to capitalize on the potential of baker-cafes in the broader restaurant business. That means there is plenty for Panera to eat up - including its competitor’s lunch.
I think that the idea of Panera going out and spreading even more than it is will be neutral to the US economic situation. I think it will be neutral because Panera can't break or make anything. It may help some people out financially by Panera having free WI-Fi and a nice place to stay and eat healthy good priced food. But it could also not help people out much financially because if they don't need Wi-Fi for anything and they don't care much about how healthy they eat they could go to a fast food place like McDonald's for lunch and pay much less for a full meal. Also there are a lot more fast food places like McDonald's around town and close to many places, whereas Panera doesn't have as many different locations around town so you would have to drive much farther to get to a Panera rather than a McDonald's.
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