Panera pay-what-you-want chili introduced in St. Louis stores

Panera is mostly known for its bread bowls, but the café chain is making another name for itself in the arena of hunger awareness.

On Wednesday, the St. Louis-based company introduced a ‘pay-what-you-want’ turkey chili entree on its menus in the 48 locations in its hometown, where it operates as “St. Louis Bread Co.”

Dubbed “The Meal of Shared Responsibility,” the chili comes in a bread bowl and is served with chips, a baguette, or an apple on the side. Suggested retail price is $5.98, but customers can pay more, or less, or even nothing. The idea, as with other pay-what-you-can models, is that those ponying up more cash will pick up the tab for those who can’t afford to pay full price, or anything.

The launch puts a corporate face on the idea of community cafés and the gift economy, which heretofore has been the domain of smaller, locally run organizations.

http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/2013/0327/Panera-pay-what-you-want-chili-introduced-in-St.-Louis-stores