Pay-what-you-want restaurants: would it work in your town?

[Jenise]

Or will it even work in Missouri? The Panera Bread Company has daringly opened a non-profit cafe/bakery that instructs customers to pay what they want. Prices are suggested, but it's up to the guest to decide what size a 'donation' to put in the jar. If the concept works, they'll open more locations around the U.S. Interesting....

Here's the full story:

http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/food/2010/05/19/2010-05-19_panera_bread_co_opens_nonprofit_restaurant_where_customers_can_pay_what_they_wan.html

With the self-centered SOBs in DC?? Out of business in a week, I'd guess.

Even less than that in Baltimore.............

Drew

[Jenise]

Even less than that in Baltimore.............

Drew

My town has a strong hippie vibe where 'communal good' actually means something, so it actually might work here in a flower-power kind of way.

Ok, this is bizarre! I was totally thinking about this same concept just the other day. Proving Jung right again, I suppose.

But I don't think this would fly in my corner of the world. Albertan conservatives would be shocked and offended at the idea.

Then again, there's a fairly big artsy community here, as well as a population of poor university kids. So maybe!

It would not work in Santa Barbara. There are too many indigents and street people who would make that a twice-a-day haunt.

[Jenise]

It would not work in Santa Barbara. There are too many indigents and street people who would make that a twice-a-day haunt.

That would be a HUGE problem.

Somehow when I think of Santa Barbara indigents don't come to mind.

Not here, it would attract the "cheap" people. When I had my restaurant in the 80's I did an "all you can eat chicken and beef ribs" on Wednesday nights during the slow time of the year. It brought in a whole different 'class' of clientele. After a while we referred to it as trough night. That particular clientele only came in for that sort of deal. They usually just drank water with their meal.

[Robin Garr]

It would not work in Santa Barbara. There are too many indigents and street people who would make that a twice-a-day haunt.

That would be a HUGE problem.

Actually, there were places in Portland and Atlanta (maybe still are, but this was back in the early '90s when I was working the hunger beat) that built its model on being a soup kitchen for homeless people that had such good food that it also welcomed the general public on a "pay what you wish" basis. The result was that the place was always slammed, and it more than made its numbers work because a majority of the people who could afford to pay would pay more than their share.

I can't speak for Santa Barbara, but I think this model would work in many cities with liberal urban neighborhoods and generous homeless/immigrant/refugee organizations. I'd like to see somebody try it in Louisville.

The key, of course, is to stop thinking of it as a traditional diner with a middle-class audience and look at it as an innovative diner/program that serves a variety of audiences, looking to the better-heeled to support its mission of feeding everyone.