Panera Bread

Panera Bread is an American chain store of bakery-café fast food restaurants with over 2,000 locations.^[1]

History

Ken and Linda Rosenthal founded the St. Louis Bread Company in 1987 with the first location in Kirkwood, Missouri. The Rosenthals invested $150,000 and received a $150,000 Small Business Administration loan.^[2]

Au Bon Pain Co., a public company, purchased the St. Louis Bread Company in 1993 for $23 million.^[3]

In May 1999, Au Bon Pain Co. sold Au Bon Pain to the firm Bruckmann, Rosser, Sherrill & Co. for $78 million, in order to focus on the Panera Bread chain.^[4][5]

A class action lawsuit was filed against the company in February 2008, alleging it failed to disclose material adverse facts about the company's financial well-being, business relationships, and prospects.^[6] In February 2011, Panera agreed to pay $5.75 million to shareholders while admitting no wrongdoing, settling the lawsuit.^[7][8]

Paradise Bakery & Café locations were rebranded in September 2015 as Panera Bread.^[9]

JAB Holding Company acquired the company on July 11, 2017, for $7.5 billion.^[10]

Panera announced on November 8, 2017, that founder Ron Shaich was stepping down as CEO, and company president Blaine Hurst would take over. Shaich remained chairman.^[11] The company also announced the acquisition of Au Bon Pain.^[12][13]

Controversies

Leaking Customer Records

On April 2, 2018, Brian Krebs reported that the Panera Bread website had leaked between 7 million and 37 million customer records—including names, email and physical addresses, customer loyalty account numbers, birthdays, and the last four digits of the customers' credit card numbers—for at least eight months before the site was taken offline. Panera was notified privately about the vulnerability in August 2017 but failed to fix it until after it was disclosed publicly eight months later.^[14][15] Panera said the leak affected fewer than 10,000 customers and had been fixed.^[16]

Violation of California Labor Code

In 2009 and 2011, class action lawsuits were filed by former workers alleging that the company violated the California Labor Code, failed to pay overtime, failed to provide meal and rest periods, failed to pay employees upon termination, and violated California's Unfair Competition Law. Panera paid $5 million to settle all claims and denied any wrongdoing.^[17][18]

Racial Discrimination Allegation

In 2011, a former employee filed a racial discrimination lawsuit alleging that he was fired after repeatedly having a Black man work the cash register instead of putting him in a less visible location, and assigning "pretty young girls" as the cashiers, as requested by supervisors.^[19] The plaintiff also said he was fired after requesting another month off after returning from three months of sick leave. Panera said that it "does not discriminate based on national origin, race or sex" and that the plaintiff "was terminated because he had used all of his medical leave and was unable to return to work".^[20] The plaintiff worked in a store owned by franchisee Sam Covelli,^[21] who also owns the stores that were involved in the 2003 racial discrimination lawsuit.^[22]

Peanut Butter

In 2016, a lawsuit was filed after an employee at a Natick, Massachusetts store put peanut butter on a sandwich, despite being informed that the person receiving the sandwich had a peanut allergy. The plaintiffs charged the company and those employees involved with intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligent infliction of emotional distress as well as assault and battery.^[23]

Tabler v. Panera

In March 2019, a class action lawsuit was filed by Plaintiff Brianna Tabler in California, accusing Panera of false advertising and fraud. While Panera's former CEO Ron Schaich claimed that Panera's menus continue to be completely void of artificial flavors, sweeteners, and ingredients.^[24] Tabler argues against the company's intentional redaction of the fact that their products contain traces of the synthetic biocide glyphosate.^[25] In October 2019, Judge Lucy Koh granted a motion to dismiss the lawsuit. Tabler filed an amended complaint in November 2019, to which Panera filed in January 2020 another motion to dismiss.^[26]

The Lemonade That Kills You

On September 10, 2022, 21-year-old Sarah Katz, a student at the University of Pennsylvania, purchased and consumed a "supercharged" lemonade drink from a Panera location in Philadelphia. Allegedly, Katz was unaware of the exorbitantly high caffeine content of the drinks, which has been criticized as extremely dangerous.^[27][28] Katz suffered from Long QT Type 1 Syndrome, a heart condition that can result in an irregular heartbeat in certain situations. On the same day, Katz went into cardiac arrest while at another restaurant and was transported to the Pennsylvania Presbyterian Hospital, where she suffered another arrest and was pronounced dead.^[29]

In October 2023, Katz's parents sued Panera for the wrongful death of their daughter caused by misleading labeling and description of the drink. Later in October, amid reports that dispensers had been moved behind the counter to limit access, Panera changed labeling for the drink, noting its caffeine content and need for moderation, and warning potentially sensitive consumers.^[30]

In December 2023, a second individual was reported as having died after consuming Panera's Charged Lemonade. The individual, Dennis Brown, died at age 46 after reportedly consuming three servings of Charged Lemonade at a Panera location in Fleming Island, Florida. Brown had high blood pressure, a developmental delay, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and a chromosomal disorder that caused a mild intellectual disability and blurry vision, according to a wrongful death lawsuit filed by family members.^[31] Social media commentators began to nickname the drink "the lemonade that kills you."^[32]

The caffeine content was later reduced by Panera in December 2023, with the 30-ounce drink reduced to 237 mg and the 20-ounce to 158 mg.^[33]

Channel

The Panera Bread channel was created on April 16, 2006. Their first video was uploaded on October 4, 2022. Their first video is titled "Panera at the Grocery: Quality Time".

References

Attribution

This page uses Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International-licensed content from Wikipedia.

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