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Panera Bread’s ‘pay-what-you-want’ socialist program goes totally belly-up...

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  • Panera Bread’s ‘pay-what-you-want’ socialist program goes totally belly-up...

    No one saw this coming!

    Panera Bread’s ‘pay-what-you-want’ socialist program goes totally belly-up

    Panera Bread will be closing its last pay-what-you-can restaurant, located in Boston, on Feb. 15.

    The move comes after the business's "nonprofit" restaurant concept became unviable. On Tuesday, Eater reported that none of the restaurant's five locations was self-sustaining.

    https://www.theblaze.com/news/panera...-program-fails
    Atheism is the cult of death, the death of hope. The universe is doomed, you are doomed, the only thing that remains is to await your execution...

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jbnueb2OI4o&t=3s

  • #2
    They just didn't do it right
    That's what
    - She

    Without a clear-cut definition of sin, morality becomes a mere argument over the best way to train animals
    - Manya the Holy Szin (The Quintara Marathon)

    I may not be as old as dirt, but me and dirt are starting to have an awful lot in common
    - Stephen R. Donaldson

    Comment


    • #3
      Originally posted by Bill the Cat View Post
      They just didn't do it right
      That's it!
      Atheism is the cult of death, the death of hope. The universe is doomed, you are doomed, the only thing that remains is to await your execution...

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jbnueb2OI4o&t=3s

      Comment


      • #4
        It reminds me of the Humble Bundle, where you can name your price for a bundle of gaming software with the profits going to charity. When the program first started, it was possible to name a price of $0 and get the games for free, which is exactly what a lot of people did because it didn't take long for the Humble Bundle company to mandate a minimum price of $1, and then shortly after that they started "gating" the bundles, so that paying the bare minimum would only get you two or three of the games with a "beat the average" challenge to get more, and a "pay $x" to get all of them.

        On a related note, when Radiohead released an album that allowed you to buy it for whatever price you wanted, including $0, one economist argued that paying nothing was the only rational choice, because nobody should ever pay more than they are legally required to. This is apparently the reason that economists are lousy tippers.
        Some may call me foolish, and some may call me odd
        But I'd rather be a fool in the eyes of man
        Than a fool in the eyes of God


        From "Fools Gold" by Petra

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by seer View Post
          No one saw this coming!
          00000000000000ab000-01.jpg
          Last edited by rogue06; 02-07-2019, 02:56 PM.

          I'm always still in trouble again

          "You're by far the worst poster on TWeb" and "TWeb's biggest liar" --starlight (the guy who says Stalin was a right-winger)
          "Overall I would rate the withdrawal from Afghanistan as by far the best thing Biden's done" --Starlight
          "Of course, human life begins at fertilization that’s not the argument." --Tassman

          Comment


          • #6
            from the op article:

            "The Portland-based Panera Cares was reportedly only recouping between 60 and 70 percent of its total costs," Eater's Brenna Houck wrote. "The losses were attributed to students who 'mobbed' the restaurant and ate without paying, as well as homeless patrons who visited the restaurant for every meal of the week. The location eventually limited the homeless to 'a few meals a week.'"

            Eventually, Panera Cares apparently became jaded by the lack of response to the socialist experiment, and the restaurant atmosphere began to sour, according to Houck.

            "Patrons reported security guards roaming the entrance and 'glaring at customers,'" Houck wrote. "People working with at-risk residents described incidents during which they were rudely told off by managers for 'abusing the system.'"

            "Others," Houck added, "described situations in which visitors trying to participate in the pay-as-you-can system feeling shamed for not being able to afford the suggested donation amount."
            ===

            I am surprised it lasted 6 years though.

            Panera is way overpriced to begin with. They charge like $8-$10 for a sandwich of bread and a little lunchmeat. Are they surprised when people would pay them less?

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by rogue06 View Post
              [ATTACH=CONFIG]34950[/ATTACH]
              why do your pictures always get smaller when you click on them?

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by Sparko View Post
                from the op article:

                "The Portland-based Panera Cares was reportedly only recouping between 60 and 70 percent of its total costs," Eater's Brenna Houck wrote. "The losses were attributed to students who 'mobbed' the restaurant and ate without paying, as well as homeless patrons who visited the restaurant for every meal of the week. The location eventually limited the homeless to 'a few meals a week.'"

                Eventually, Panera Cares apparently became jaded by the lack of response to the socialist experiment, and the restaurant atmosphere began to sour, according to Houck.

                "Patrons reported security guards roaming the entrance and 'glaring at customers,'" Houck wrote. "People working with at-risk residents described incidents during which they were rudely told off by managers for 'abusing the system.'"

                "Others," Houck added, "described situations in which visitors trying to participate in the pay-as-you-can system feeling shamed for not being able to afford the suggested donation amount."
                ===

                I am surprised it lasted 6 years though.

                Panera is way overpriced to begin with. They charge like $8-$10 for a sandwich of bread and a little lunchmeat. Are they surprised when people would pay them less?
                It isn't unlikely that a part of the high prices were used to fund such social experiments

                I'm always still in trouble again

                "You're by far the worst poster on TWeb" and "TWeb's biggest liar" --starlight (the guy who says Stalin was a right-winger)
                "Overall I would rate the withdrawal from Afghanistan as by far the best thing Biden's done" --Starlight
                "Of course, human life begins at fertilization that’s not the argument." --Tassman

                Comment


                • #9
                  You mean the old Marxist doctrine of "From each according to his ability; to each according to his need" doesn't work without a totalitarian government forcing its citizens to comply? I guess Panera forgot that most people operate under the "If it's free, it's for me" principle.
                  Some may call me foolish, and some may call me odd
                  But I'd rather be a fool in the eyes of man
                  Than a fool in the eyes of God


                  From "Fools Gold" by Petra

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by Sparko View Post
                    why do your pictures always get smaller when you click on them?
                    This one seemed to be large enough already, but I re-sized it (only recently figurated how) so that it should be larger when you now clickify on the imagification

                    I'm always still in trouble again

                    "You're by far the worst poster on TWeb" and "TWeb's biggest liar" --starlight (the guy who says Stalin was a right-winger)
                    "Overall I would rate the withdrawal from Afghanistan as by far the best thing Biden's done" --Starlight
                    "Of course, human life begins at fertilization that’s not the argument." --Tassman

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      I'd hardly call "pay what you want" a "socialist" concept - I'd call it a "libertarian" concept.

                      But this is a fairly well known problem, and is more generally why we have to have compulsory taxes to do things like helping the poor rather than leaving everything up to private charity.

                      Because the amount people "want" to pay to private charities turns out to be an order of magnitude or so lower than what is actually needed. The people who say "if only the government didn't tax me and let me give the same money to a charity of my choosing instead" are all very well but it turns out most people aren't like that and wouldn't actually give enough in total if "pay what you want" was the model.

                      Thus the libertarian model of voluntary charity / voluntary taxation falls apart.
                      "I hate him passionately", he's "a demonic force" - Tucker Carlson, in private, on Donald Trump
                      "Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism" - George Orwell
                      "[Capitalism] as it exists today is, in my opinion, the real source of evils. I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy" - Albert Einstein

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by Dimbulb View Post
                        I'd hardly call "pay what you want" a "socialist" concept - I'd call it a "libertarian" concept.

                        But this is a fairly well known problem, and is more generally why we have to have compulsory taxes to do things like helping the poor rather than leaving everything up to private charity.

                        Because the amount people "want" to pay to private charities turns out to be an order of magnitude or so lower than what is actually needed. The people who say "if only the government didn't tax me and let me give the same money to a charity of my choosing instead" are all very well but it turns out most people aren't like that and wouldn't actually give enough in total if "pay what you want" was the model.

                        Thus the libertarian model of voluntary charity / voluntary taxation falls apart.
                        You think a "pay what you want" restaurant scheme is analogous to a charity?
                        Some may call me foolish, and some may call me odd
                        But I'd rather be a fool in the eyes of man
                        Than a fool in the eyes of God


                        From "Fools Gold" by Petra

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          I don't know if it's still in operation, but years ago (20?) I was involved with a concept in San Antonio, where there was a "regular" restaurant where prices were normal restaurant prices, but the waitstaff were volunteers, as well as most of the kitchen help. As I recall, they had a full time chef and a full time manager - all other staff were volunteers. All proceeds went to run a local soup kitchen, where all meals were free. Downtown businessmen and local church members were encouraged to eat at the "regular" restaurant, and overpay if they wished, and all tips to waitstaff went into the kitty for the soup kitchen.

                          It actually worked quite well - the soup kitchen was able to provide decent tasty meals, the "regular" restaurant stayed "in the black", and it was not unusual for 'customers' to order a $9 - $15 meal and pay $20.00 -- but anything more than the menu price was entirely voluntary. It was kinda fun to 'brag', yeah, I just had a really good meatloaf and mashed potatoes, and it only cost $50!!!
                          The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Originally posted by Mountain Man View Post
                            "From each according to his ability; to each according to his need"
                            I'd note that the socialist proverb is indeed from each according to his "ability", not from each according to his "as much as you happen to feel like contributing". One of several reasons why the system being described in the OP is libertarian, not socialist.
                            "I hate him passionately", he's "a demonic force" - Tucker Carlson, in private, on Donald Trump
                            "Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism" - George Orwell
                            "[Capitalism] as it exists today is, in my opinion, the real source of evils. I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy" - Albert Einstein

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Originally posted by Starlight View Post
                              I'd note that the socialist proverb is indeed from each according to his "ability", not from each according to his "as much as you happen to feel like contributing". One of several reasons why the system being described in the OP is libertarian, not socialist.
                              What if I have a gun and I decide you are "able" to pay 95% of everything you own?
                              The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

                              Comment

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