PrintPay what is fair: One cafe's no price policy experiment.
This popped up on CNN today. A cafe in Ohio is trying to cope with the recession by not pricing the menu and instead asking customers to pay what they think is a fair price for the meal they had. Apparently the owner got the idea from his Bulgarian girlfriend who said that this in common is some areas of Europe.
It sounds like it might be working. Could it actually be a success? Or is it a short term gimmick? How many social anthropologists are showing up to examine this dining out experiment? Is perhaps a loose way of taking a look at our moral compass? What do you think SE folks?
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9 Comments:
Personally, I don't mind at all paying a more than fair price for good food prepared properly. As a caterer, I know what goes into a dish is always more than meets the eye. I would just fear that some people would take advantage of the situation, and too many customers like that could close a place quickly. It would be nice if you could "ban" those customers after a 2nd time or so, but don't have any solutions for that idea. I read about a cafe in Berkeley, I believe, that did this, and it turned into a flying success. Ingeniously, the owner also allowed customers to "work" their meal off if they couldn't afford it...cleaning floors, doing dishes, bussing tables. It turned into a wonderful thing for the community.
Karencooks at 8:16PM on 03/17/09
hey d - i love this topic. i think it's great that we're reverting back to a medieval barter system. this is how most of the world operated pre-wampum. there were times when a doctor came to the house and the person would pay for services with a chicken, or a hunk of smoked meat --or a few dozen eggs. this sytem is alive and well in small villages in eastern europe.... you grind a little grain for me and i'll give you a bucket full of milk.
we operate a lot on barter with various people in the area.... and we all walk away feeling pretty fair about the exchange. the only downside,
the electric company and the phone company still won't accept buckets of milk as payment for their services.
spoil sports!
pooch at 10:02PM on 03/17/09
@Karencooks, I love the idea of working for your food. That's a really cool idea. It's great that it succeeded too, and didn't put them out of business or anything like that.
I don't think I like the asking customers to pay what they think is fair though. I feel like I'd accidentally underpay. I'm often surprised at how expensive some dishes at restaurants are because of how cheaply I think I can prepare a similar dish at home. It wasn't until I actually talked to a chef that I realized that it sometimes costs more than I thought it did. And I HATE trying to price people's labor. I'm so afraid of insulting someone by not offering enough, but at the same time, it's not like I'm rich and can give them tons of cash.
cycorider at 11:29PM on 03/17/09
Great concept - I'll bet at the end of a week his gross revenue is higher than before. And most importantly I'll bet he sees an increase in volume. Breaking away from a traditional business model and staying legal, ethical and moral, in this day of economic concern could very well be the key to sustaining a business and possibly growing it.
I wish him well!
Ribster at 5:27AM on 03/18/09
I love the idea, But I dontthink I would have the courage to go with it. There are too many people that will take advantage of things like that. I wish him well, and I hope I'm wrong but I have major doubts about it.
huneybumper at 8:04AM on 03/18/09
They must be very confident in their food to offer this sort of pricing system, which is really great. I think it could really work to their benefit - I know I would second guess myself and probably overpay just so the restaurant isn't insulted.
Hillary
Chew on That
Chew on That at 11:47AM on 03/18/09
Having done this for coffee and donuts at a local church, you make out on the better side. Of course, the clients were church-goers, and essentially they were giving to a charity. Not quite the same thing.
However, say you order something that you think should be valued at 8.50 and you have only a $10 bill. Do you ask for change?
blizcheetah at 10:46PM on 03/19/09
I LOVE the idea of this and the return of the barter system. Not because it's quaint and charming, but because it makes sense.
Junie at 8:51AM on 03/20/09
I think this works in the short term, but will run into problems when people start to communicate with other diners (maybe on a local business site, etc.) about what they paid for their mea.
I am a huge believer in dissemination of information, but think that it favors the consumer, and not the business. Look what happened to retailers when we all got on the intertubes and found out what other vendors were charging - a lot less than we were paying! Businesses that had succeeded due to consumer ignorance suddenly didn't have a business plan (ditto for other parts of society; the internet is killing the gullibility factor that religions and political campaigns relied on!).
serious1 at 9:08AM on 03/20/09