Customers of Panera Bread are increasingly on the move, so the fast-casual bakery/café chain is upshifting with moves of its own. Its two new local restaurants offer drive-thru ordering and preorder pickup, each replacing nearby stores without drive-thrus.
On Plymouth Rd. near U.S.–23, the site of a former Big Boy restaurant opened in May as one of many Paneras with new drive-thru lanes. Its staff and phone number were transferred from the former store two miles west at 1773 Plymouth, which closed days earlier.
It’s “newer, nicer, bigger” than the prior location, says Emily Jinerson, a manager at the Michigan Union Panera, currently closed during summer break. She was helping out on Plymouth before shifting her attention to the west side, where a similar switch took effect as the Observer went to press. The stand-alone café at 5340 Jackson Rd. closed June 14, followed a week later by opening less than a mile away in new construction in a Meijer outlot.
“It seems to me that moving toward drive-thru and ordering ahead is in response to what people want,” Jinerson observes of the corporate strategy. The shift has accelerated in the wake of the pandemic, but the chain has been site-selecting and retrofitting cafes to accommodate drive-thrus for over a decade, according to online industry publication FastCasual.com.
She estimates that about half of Panera’s orders these days are placed online ahead of arrival. Especially for customers who subscribe for unlimited beverages, drive-thrus add convenience compared to the Rapid Pick-Up shelves inside.
Panera Brands, which includes Einstein Bros. Bagels and Caribou Coffee, is aiming for an initial public offering this year, six years after its purchase by a private holding company. Its other Ann Arbor locations are in the Colonnade on W. Eisenhower, the Huron Village Shopping Center on Washtenaw, and at 777 North University.
Panera Bread, 3611 Plymouth Rd., (734) 332–6279 and 140 S. Zeeb Rd., (734) 222–4944. Mon.–Sat. 6–9 p.m., Sun. 7 a.m. –9 p.m. panerabread.com