UPDATE: Panera answered our questions about Panera vs St. Louis Bread Co.

This is what we wrote:

In a poll we held on our website 86% of voters were in favor of changing the name Panera Bread to St. Louis Bread Company nationwide. Why are your stores outside the St. Louis called Panera Bread and not St. Louis Bread Co? Have you ever considered changing this or are there or have there been plans to change the name in either direction?

This is their answer:

Panera is a name we created to express our love of the art of bread making and to reflect the mission of our company: a loaf of bread in every arm. It’s not Saint Louis Bread Co. outside of St. Louis because we do not want to represent the city, but represent what we’re all about. And that’s bread.

The word is derived from Italian and Latin roots: “pan” for bread and “era” for period of time. Roughly translated, it means “bread time.”

What do you think of their answer? You can leave a comment below.

Original post with poll:

Panera and St. Louis Bread co. are registered trademarks

We got so much response on this tweet from a few days ago, we felt we HAD to open a poll. After all, what’s a blog without a poll, right?

So here we go: vote yes or no for a Panera name change. The poll closes next Monday at noon. We’ll send the results to the Panera Headquarters.

UPDATE: The poll is closed. 86% voted for St. Louis Bread Co vs 14% for Panera. Thank you for voting.