Posted on 09/29/2011 1:19:33 PM PDT by Daffynition
Panera Bread's noble experiment in pay-what-you-want retail has been successful at its first two restaurants in St. Louis and Detroit, taking in about 80% of the retail price of the food they serve. They serve as shining reminders of the fundamental goodness of people. In the Midwest, anyway. Until recently, the third free-will restaurant in Portland, Oregon was faltering, not attracting enough paying customers and losing money.
(Excerpt) Read more at consumerist.com ...
During the summer months, lots of folks here, put a simple table with their excess produce out for sale on the *honor* system. Depending on the neighborhood, sometimes it doesn’t work.
It seems as if their idea was undermined by some telling the homeless, destitute there were freebees. “It can’t serve as a shelter and we can’t have community organizations sending everybody down.”
The manager still fumes over watching three college kids pay $3 for $40 worth of food. Generally, peer pressure prevents that sort of behavior, he said.
Its like parking in a handicapped spot, he said.
Exactly.
Also bears repeating and shouting from the rooftops.
If you held a Tea Party rally and offered grilled hotdogs for free, and asked for donations, you would receive enough donations to cover your costs and probably take home a profit.
If you offered free food at an event attended by Liberals, the food would be taken and nothing given in return.
You can see the same principle at work in how conservatives clean up after their rallies (i.e., donating their time and labor to do the work that otherwise would have to be paid for by someone else, to wit, the taxpayers) and Liberals, who leave huge messes in their wake, thus leaving it to the taxpayers to pay to clean up after them.
If Liberals care as much about helping the poor as they do about growing Big Government, there wouldn't be a need for massive welfare programs. But Liberals don't want to be charitable, they want to outsource everyone's human obligation to be charitable to be accomplished, by force, by the Government.
They lose money on every sale, but they make it up in volume.
Mark
Yes, I was going to ask whether my local Panera’s was considering lowering their prices, as they are exorbitant.
I'm sure there's a bit of a buffer built in, like those $16 muffins in DC.
so true
If you’ve ever been to Portland, you already know why it failed.
Portland is Seattle lite. :)
The Vienna Inn, in Vienna Virginia, does not leave a check at the table. At the register patrons recite what thy had and are charged on that basis. I’d say they are very close to 100 percent in revenue against orders. It’s not a system that will work everywhere but the Inn, known for its inexpensive chili dogs, makes it work.
I eat there several times a year, usually relating to a food donation they make to a charity event I manage. And sometimes I’m just passing by. Marty and the crew do a great job.
I wouldn't go near a place with a motto like that. Their responsibility is to serve me decent food. Mine is to give them money in return. Nothing shared about it.
Its like parking in a handicapped spot, he said.
IIRC park in a handicapped spot, get a ticket
We have several Paneras in my area, and they don’t offer this feature. You have to pay the regular price.
They make the best Greek salad with grilled chicken, which is why I go there. Their coffee is good too.
The Vienna Inn also does a bit of stealth monitoring. More than once I have been in the pay line and the big old grey-haired waitress would yell something like “that’s the guy that stiffed you last time.” Embarrasses the hell out of the ‘perp’ and gets a laugh from everyone else. God, those were the days. Haven’t been back there since the mid 90’s.
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