Panera Bread's Socialist 'Pay What You Want' Experiment Fails Miserably

Discussion in 'Politics' started by Tsing Tao, Feb 14, 2019.

  1. Tsing Tao

    Tsing Tao

    Absolute hilarity. Stunning just how stupid some people and companies let themselves become in their quest for "social justice".



    Panera Bread's Socialist 'Pay What You Want' Experiment Fails Miserably

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    BY JOHN ELLIS FEBRUARY 12, 2019
    CHAT 1039 COMMENTS
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    Loaves of bread sit on a table at St. Louis Bread Co. Cares Community Cafe, part of Panera, in Clayton, Mo. The restaurant, where patrons pay as much or little as they want for a meal, is closing its doors Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2018. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson, File)



    Panera Bread has shuttered the last of its ideologically driven "pay what you want" restaurants. The socialist-tinged ventures were called "Panera Cares" and the higher-ups have finally figured out that "caring" is not synonymous with "viable business model." On February 15, the final Panera Cares, located in Boston, will close.

    The website Eater gives Panera Cares' history and provides the company's motivation behind the now-defunct mission:



    The chain opened its first donation-based community cafe in St. Louis, Missouri, in 2010. Under the model championed by the company’s founder Ron Shaich, the restaurant operated like a typical Panera, but offered meals at a suggested donation price, with the goal of raising awareness about food insecurity. “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.


    Food insecurity? While having a pretty good idea of what the term means, I still looked it up. According to Feeding Texas, "Food insecurity offers an accepted method for measuring food deprivation."

    You know who's probably suffering from food insecurity? The employees of Panera Cares who are no longer employed and no longer receive paychecks. You can't buy food if you don't have a job, and providing jobs is only assured if companies are focused on making money. If Panera had cared more about making money than promoting a constantly refuted ideology, its employees would still be receiving paychecks. Frighteningly, though, a growing segment of the populace seems to be allergic to common-sense economic principles.
     
  2. Cuddles

    Cuddles

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  3. Tsing Tao

    Tsing Tao

  4. Cuddles

    Cuddles

    eh, ... reads like it was their method of charity (which many companies do to reduce tax liabilities). But yeah, sounds like the juice wasn't worth the squeeze any longer.
     
  5. Tsing Tao

    Tsing Tao

    I don't see that it reads that way. I read it as "noble idea doesn't work in real world because humans ruin it".

    Communism works in principle. Unfortunately, when you apply reality to it, it falls apart. There are many ideas that the left has that are noble and would make for a wonderful world but simply doesn't work because of pesky things like math, economics, people. That's why people frequently make the joke about rainbows and unicorns.
     
  6. Cuddles

    Cuddles


    So if a non-profit closes shop, by say, the Trump organization, is that proof positive of communism not working either?
     
    piezoe likes this.
  7. Tsing Tao

    Tsing Tao

    It depends on the not-for-profit organization. Of course, Panera wasn't non-profit, was it? That's precisely why it is closing its shops. It needs to make a profit.
     
  8. Cuddles

    Cuddles

    Yeah, the tax offset was no longer worth it. I thought I made that clear on my first post. And yes, non-profit is more often than not a misnomer

    • In 2010, Panera opened Panera Cares, a nonprofit arm of the fast-casual chain where visitors could pay whatever they could afford.
     
    piezoe likes this.
  9. Tsing Tao

    Tsing Tao

    "Non-profit" was obviously bullshit. They say it wasn't supposed to make money, and when it didn't, they pulled the plug. Non-profit is a tax status. I don't know if Panera went so far as to get tax sheltered status, but it's all irrelevant. They pulled the plug because it didn't pay for itself. It couldn't make a profit!
     
  10. Cuddles

    Cuddles

    My point is most companies would pull the plug on non-profits if they could no longer at least "break even" through tax deductions, so the whole "commie" angle is a red herring. Non-profits additional value lies in their PR....which I wonder if the government even assigns a $ number to it?
     
    #10     Feb 14, 2019
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