When we hit a recession, people sit down and think about ways to save money.  A lot of people cut back on their charitable donations and the frequency that they eat out. When people stop eating out as often, marketers need to think of ways to entice customers to come into their restaurant. And non-profit organizations need to work triple-time to keep the dollars coming in, not necessarily for them to stay in business, but for the people in need of that money.

What if a company came up with a way that you could still eat out but also be donating to a local charity organization at the same time? Well, it happened. Panera Bread opened a donation model restaurant, also known as, Panera Cares Cafe, in St. Louis, as an experiment in community service.

This idea is awesome, in theory. People come in and the menu has suggested prices for what the meal should cost. Then, people pay-what-you-can. There are no cash registers, no change. People drop their money into a donation bin — more or less than the suggested price. The hopes is that these donations will offset one another, so the restaurant breaks even and can remain open. What’s nice is that for people that can’t pay anything, they can bus or clean tables.

I have a concern of people taking advantage of this. Sure, it’s really nice for the people who really are in need — homeless, low-income families, etc, but , as sad as this is to say, we do have a lot of “greedy” people in the US who would take advantage of this program.

Panera Bread did not put a lot of money into a new location or complete renovation. Instead, they closed down a current Panera Bread location, made a few construction changes inside, renamed it and reopened. They also didn’t put a lot of marketing dollars into the launch of this concept. They announced the launch of this via social media platforms and word of mouth. This has caused a lot of buzz, nationwide.

It appears this whole idea is working for them. According to Panera Bread’s company chairman, Ron Shaich, they are already planning on opening two more restaurants using this exact same model. But I wonder, will these stores fail in the long run once the buzz has died down? I feel it is crucial for their marketing team to come up with ideas to keep this idea fresh, popular and most importantly, profitable for the community (since they say they are doing this as a community service).

I have two ideas on how they can keep this model going, and possibly make it national.

1) Get all Panera Bread stores, nationwide, involved. Set up donation bins (similar to the one in St. Louis) asking people to donate what they can, even their change. This money will then be donated to the donation model restaurants to help keep them afloat and/or open additional locations. They could make it a contest that the store to raise the most money wins something.

2) Create a “Why our town deserves a Saint Louis Bread Co” contest. Have people create a video to why their town needs something like this. Promote the contest via Twitter, Facebook, traditional PR. The money from my first idea could even be used to open up the store in the town that wins.

Do you have any ideas on how Panera Bread can keep this cool idea going?