“What We Do in the Shadows” vampire Nandor the Relentless once told his familiar, “From Panera Bread you came, and to Panera Bread you shall return!” This could also serve as a new slogan for the chain itself, which unveiled a major turnaround plan last week to invite customers back into its warm, soup-filled, bread bowl arms. To do so, it’s bringing back full-romaine salads (as the leaf has surpassed its cold rival), boosting ingredient counts, and restoring portion sizes — along with more human staff — as it aims to reach over $7 billion in annual sales by 2028.
Stocks got a boost on Friday as New York Fed President John Williams signaled support for a “near term” rate cut, rebounding from Thursday’s sell-off with the S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, and Russell 2000 all rising, though all indexes posted weekly losses after a volatile five-day stretch in which traders stewed over the AI trade.
