Panera Bread Co. will open its fifth Panera Cares Café in downtown Boston in January. The nonprofit, donation-based restaurants were launched in 2010 by the Panera Bread Foundation.
There are no cash registers, just donation jars. The menu doesn’t contain prices, only suggested donations for each item. The four existing Panera Cares locations bring in about 75 percent of the revenue of retail Panera restaurants, according to the Boston Globe.
The company estimates that 60 percent of customers pay the suggested donation for their food, which is equivalent to the full price charged at retail Panera locations. Twenty percent donate more and 20 percent pay less or nothing at all.