Panera Announces Contactless Deliveries

American bakery-café chain Panera has announced that it will offer free delivery until the end of March on orders of USD15 or more made via the Panera app or website. 

Clients can select from a variety of options the whole family will love — and upon checkout, they enter the promo code FREEDELIVERY to have food delivered to their doorstep.

“This is a stressful time for families trying to provide good, wholesome meals during this crisis. Panera is here to help by removing some of the stress and making it easier to access better-for-you food. We believe good food should be accessible to all, and Panera delivery can help people with an easy, clean meal everyone will love. We’re also taking extraordinary precautions to ensure we can continue to safely serve our communities with their Panera favorites at home,” said Niren Chaudhary, Panera CEO.

As part of Panera’s ongoing effort to protect the health and safety of associates and guests in light of the COVID-19 crisis, deliveries are now contactless – Panera delivery drivers will only leave your meal at the front door, front desk or the location of choice, and in markets that offer order tracking, the client will receive a text message or phone call when it arrives. Clients can use the delivery instructions to tell the drivers the best place to drop off the meal.

Following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) recommendations around social distancing, all Panera cafés are adhering to governmental regulations regarding occupancy or entry into the bakery-cafés, and all company-owned bakery-cafés have moved to a “to-go” model nationwide. This means consumers will continue to be served via to-go, rapid pick up, drive-thru and delivery. All to-go bags for all orders will be sealed shut to further protect the meal. 

Read more about how the coronavirus crisis is affecting the industry here: Keeping Food Safe And Plenty During Coronavirus Pandemic