Big Changes Are Coming To Panera Bread

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Panera Bread is attempting to reclaim its place as a go-to casual destination for sandwiches, soups, salads, and baked goods. In a recent press release, the bakery-restaurant brand announced a strategy called Panera RISE that strives to recommit to what its customers have always loved about the brand. Facing fast‑casual competitors like Cava and Sweetgreens, Panera knows it has to step up its game to stay relevant.

While it's traditionally been associated with a bakery-cafe model, it's now difficult to define exactly what Panera is. Its recent menu has strayed from the brand's roots, continuously adding trend-chasing items such as its now-discontinued flatbreads, that don't seem to land with customers. The chain also saw a 5% drop in sales from 2023-2024 and was the center of an unfortunate lawsuit for its caffeinated lemonades that caused heart issues for several customers.

In the past few years, Panera has made many updates, but most have centered on adding new menu items. This time around, the RISE plan is more strategic, focusing some on refreshing the menu but also improving the overall customer experience, ingredient quality, and store expansion.

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Panera's menu revamp specifically addresses complaints of "shrinkflation" and reduced quality. Under RISE, the company has pledged to serve up larger portions and upgrades to ingredient quality. For example, the salads will return to being made with romaine lettuce instead of cheaper iceberg, and toppings will be more thoughtfully prepared and generous. Panera is known to have some secrets, like using a lot of frozen food and not-so "clean ingredients," so we hope to see that addressed.

The Panera Bread press release hints at further updates to food and beverages but doesn't detail specifics. The only officially confirmed menu addition is a pilot run of two new drinks, Frescas with real fruit and caffeinated Energy Refreshers, which have already launched and will run until January 16, 2026, at select locations.

Food quality, especially at Panera's price point, is a common complaint with customers and even employees. This frustration is clearly expressed on the r/Panera Reddit thread, which has a description that reads, "A subreddit for Panera Bread, where the drinks are fermented, the bread is frozen, and staff are underpaid, frozen, and fermented." A recent controversial move from Panera that occurred earlier this year was the closure of its dough factories and switching to frozen, par-baked bread from a third party. Despite customer pushback, this unfortunately doesn't seem to be addressed in the RISE plan. 

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In a world of automation where AI is entering restaurant kitchens, Panera is refocusing on human‑centered service. Under RISE, the company is investing in front-of-house staff and moving away from overreliance on kiosks. Self‑service ordering has become dominant, but Panera now says it wants to ensure customers can find real people to talk to. This strategy is part of the RISE plan's pillar of "serving our guests with excellence," which will attempt to incorporate what the company calls its "Signature Panera Warmth" into every customer interaction.

This is seemingly the opposite of what the company focused on just a few years ago. In 2022, Panera began opening Panera To Go stores, offering digital ordering and food for takeaway. In 2021, 81% of Panera's sales were off-premises, meaning customers ordered mostly takeaway in drive thrus, catering, or for delivery. 

CEO Paul Carbone explained the refocus of the customer experience to Franchise Times, stating, "We're not a technology company that sells food. We're a restaurant company. That's what we do. It's the food and it's the guest experience."

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"When the guest comes into the cafe to buy an expensive sandwich of lower quality and a smaller size, they're met with a cafe that we stripped a lot of labor on, so there is no one to talk to," Paul Carbone shared with The Food Institute. The chain is addressing the customer service disconnect, but pricing is also a glaring barrier to customers eating out. When consumers do choose to eat out, that experience should feel worth it.

To address this, the chain will trial lower-priced menu items to cater to different budgets. For example, Panera recently offered a $1 soup add-on with the purchase of an entree. 

It's a good thing that Panera Bread is addressing this, but hopefully, the change doesn't come too late. Customers have been complaining that Panera shouldn't cost as much as it does for years. In a Reddit thread addressing Panera's pricing from five years ago, one poster states, "I love Panera, but I've really started to realize how you can get infinitely better food for way cheaper at any old mom-and-pop local sandwich shop, with much fresher ingredients."

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The final pillar of Panera's RISE plan is "Expanding our network." The chain has just over 2,000 locations in the United States, and it plans on building more units to drive company growth. Panera did not specify how many new units it would add or any particular regions it would focus on. This expansion plan comes on the heels of a setback earlier this year, when Panera lost 15 locations due to one franchise operator declaring bankruptcy. 

Part of this pillar includes modernizing existing units. Again, what this means, exactly, isn't specified. Although robots and AI are making their way into the kitchen, this is probably not the direction Panera will take, as this would contradict its pillar of "Serving our guests with excellence," pledging a more human-forward experience. Instead, this modernization could focus on updating store layouts and design or more efficient restaurant tech management systems.