Socialist Failure: Panera Bread closing the last "Pay what you want" location

[Chinga]

Just a day after President Trump blasted socialism in his State of the Union speech, news of another socialist experiment’s failure is going viral. Panera Bread had implemented a “pay-what-you-want” restaurant model. As it turns out, the company didn’t bring in the revenues it expected. It wasn’t even covering costs.

More in link:

https://tribunist.com/news/panera-br...vOR6S6pVttsa9E

[RedSN]

‘In many ways, this whole experiment is ultimately a test of humanity,’ Shaich said in a TEDx talk later that year. ‘Would people pay for it? Would people come in and value it?’ It appears the answer is a resounding no.” "The losses were attributed students who ‘mobbed’ the restaurant and ate without paying, as well as homeless patrons who visited the restaurant for every meal of the week."

It's a pretty expensive experiment, and I applaud him for trying, but did he really expect a different result? Seriously?

You can't plop a socialist experiment into the middle of a capitalist society. It is doomed to fail.

[92redragtop]

It's a pretty expensive experiment, and I applaud him for trying, but did he really expect a different result? Seriously?

You can't plop a socialist experiment into the middle of a capitalist society. It is doomed to fail.

It's funny the spin that "outlet" put on this experiment - I read about this back when it launched as a 501(c)(e) entity (Panera founder's mission) which means it was setup to run as a "food bank/soup kitchen" model but the donations would come from users (or a percentage of users) only versus the broader 501(c)(e) model that a typical food bank/soup kitchen operates on (ie. broad-based donations from non-users). It appears the more workable model is the original food bank/soup kitchen charitable entity model that takes donations/funding from broad sources and re-directs to the mission versus a closed loop self-funded model (at least one like this that did not set minimum rules, etc) - I mean it's stupid to have no (minimum) rules about some groups using their services to excess (have you seen what happens in food courts and Tim Horton's/etc near public schools when the kids get out for lunch?). That said, there are other "cafe models" like this in the US apparently that appear to be sustainable from a breakeven perspective.