But surely their progressive, communist utopian business model should have trumped historical trends?

It is all magical and utopian-like until there is no more of someone else's money.

(12-04-2016 10:31 AM)dawgitall Wrote:  

(12-04-2016 03:12 AM)Bull_Is_Back Wrote:  

(12-03-2016 08:41 PM)dawgitall Wrote:  The danger to our nation of failed vegan restaurant owners that draw murals of bygone communist dictators is real. We have to establish a safe place for conservatives that feel threatened and must insist that political correctness be observed! The struggle is real!

It's at least as dangerous as paintings in the Minnesota State house that our lib gov is afraid of...

Where is your safe place?

Im raising four kids.... There is no safe place.

I suppose the owners felt entitled to succeed.

(12-04-2016 03:08 AM)JMUDunk Wrote:  

(12-03-2016 01:58 PM)nomad2u2001 Wrote:  It's simply ridiculously difficult to make money in any type of restaurant business. I'm happy they tried.

???

and that's simply a ridiculous thing to say.

You ever done it? Done right, not like these buffoons, you can do quite nicely even as a small one store shop.

curious to hear your experience.

It is statistically one of the most difficult businesses to succeed in. It's up there with local trucking and family owned grocery stores.

(12-03-2016 01:50 PM)usmbacker Wrote:  

Comrades, the business would work in glorious Cuba or Venezuela.

Quote:The end has come for a popular Grand Rapids restaurant known as much for its creative vegan dishes as its progressive business model.

For much of its five-year existence, the eatery went by the moniker Bartertown Diner, until it was rebranded in September to The Garden Diner and Cafe.

The offbeat 30-seat eatery announced this month that its last day would be Wednesday, Nov. 30.

After a strong summer, the restaurant with about a dozen employees had struggled in recent months, said Thad Cummings. He took it over in March with Crystal Lecoy, who left two months later.

“I was an original investor in it,” Cummings said. “I wanted to push it to see if the model could be done.”

A farewell message on the diner’s Facebook page indicated that the business, at 6 Jefferson Ave. SE, and the former Cult Pizza, at 10 Jefferson Ave. SE, are both up for sale for $60,000 and $40,000, respectively. The price tag doesn’t include the lease for the three units that each come with a monthly rent of $1,650.

Both Bartertown and Cult Pizza, which opened in 2013 and closed earlier this year, were started by Ryan Cappelletti, a vegan chef with a plan of creating a sustainable restaurant model with baker Roxanne “Roc” Aguilar. Before Bartertown’s 2011 opening, he created vegan menus for Stella’s Lounge and The Viceroy, and also helped with Brick Road Pizza on Wealthy Street SE.

Bartertown’s initial menu was described in a 2011 MLive review as an “imaginative” array of veggie, vegan and raw dishes that came with names like Dirty Dirty Beans & Greens and Raw Trash salad.

In its first year, Bartertown landed on VegNews’ list of “10 Hot New Vegan Restaurants,” sharing the spotlight with eateries in London, Toronto, Vancouver and Las Vegas.

Not only was the menu unconventional, so was the business model. Bartertown was a collective, which meant there were no bosses, according to Cappelletti. The inspiration for the worker-owned restaurant was based on Cappelletti’s own restaurant experience.

“Because of our economy, people are working 12- to-15-hour shifts, servers take home $200 to $300 a night in tips, the cooks are making $10 an hour and the owner takes whatever he takes, ” Cappelletti told MLive in 2011. “We’re going to have equal pay and equal say across the board. Everyone working together.”

Employees would be expected to join the union, Industrial Workers of the World, he said.

In keeping with the worker empowerment theme, he commissioned a mural depicting Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara, Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong and other provocative leaders tackling restaurant duties.

In the end, the restaurant failed to achieve the employee business model it envisioned.

“It had never been a worker-owned restaurant,” said Cummings. “That was a misnomer. We still bought locally and paid living wages.”

The living wage, no-tipping model required the restaurant to do a high level of sales to sustain the higher operational costs, he added.

While the restaurant’s menu garnered a loyal following and hefty praise, there were complaints about 40-minute waits for sandwiches and limited hours of operation.

http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/i...egeta.html

To be fair, +90% of restaurants fail on the first year.

(12-03-2016 03:18 PM)dawgitall Wrote:  The last sentence in the article seems to indicate the biggest problem in their business model. If hours of operation are inconsistent and it takes 45 minutes to get the food to the table you aren't going to last too long.

And why did it take 45 minutes to get to the table? Sounds like since the workers were guaranteed a "living" wage whether they offered good service or not, they suddenly didnt give a damned about good service. When you make that much money to cook and server food, you damned well better have the best service around.

Some of you guys need to learn that you dont get a "living wage" for jerking it and texting while on the job.

(12-04-2016 01:05 PM)UofMstateU Wrote:  

(12-03-2016 03:18 PM)dawgitall Wrote:  The last sentence in the article seems to indicate the biggest problem in their business model. If hours of operation are inconsistent and it takes 45 minutes to get the food to the table you aren't going to last too long.

And why did it take 45 minutes to get to the table? Sounds like since the workers were guaranteed a "living" wage whether they offered good service or not, they suddenly didnt give a damned about good service. When you make that much money to cook and server food, you damned well better have the best service around.

Some of you guys need to learn that you dont get a "living wage" for jerking it and texting while on the job.

How long does it take to make a salad?

(12-04-2016 11:09 AM)UofMstateU Wrote:  It is all magical and utopian-like until there is no more of someone else's money.

A successful restaurant taking in revenue from customers isn't running on others' money??

(12-04-2016 01:29 PM)dfarr Wrote:  

(12-04-2016 01:05 PM)UofMstateU Wrote:  

(12-03-2016 03:18 PM)dawgitall Wrote:  The last sentence in the article seems to indicate the biggest problem in their business model. If hours of operation are inconsistent and it takes 45 minutes to get the food to the table you aren't going to last too long.

And why did it take 45 minutes to get to the table? Sounds like since the workers were guaranteed a "living" wage whether they offered good service or not, they suddenly didnt give a damned about good service. When you make that much money to cook and server food, you damned well better have the best service around.

Some of you guys need to learn that you dont get a "living wage" for jerking it and texting while on the job.

How long does it take to make a salad?

Apparently it takes libturds who are guaranteed $15 an hour about 45 minutes to make a salad. You'd think, given how "educated" they are, they could figure out a way to do it faster.

(12-04-2016 01:29 PM)MplsBison Wrote:  

(12-04-2016 11:09 AM)UofMstateU Wrote:  It is all magical and utopian-like until there is no more of someone else's money.

A successful restaurant taking in revenue from customers isn't running on others' money??

And you have two ways of getting that money; earning it by treating customers well or forcing others to simply hand it over to you.

Funny, how it gets real difficult for liberals when you have to earn it.

Location probably had a good deal to do with it as well. After a quick trip to their planning site and street view on Google Maps, these people were in a location called Hillside. It seems like a revitalized part of town with 3 college campuses, two museums, a theatre, an arena, and downtown all close by. That location had to be a killer on the wallet.

(12-04-2016 01:37 PM)UofMstateU Wrote:  

(12-04-2016 01:29 PM)MplsBison Wrote:  

(12-04-2016 11:09 AM)UofMstateU Wrote:  It is all magical and utopian-like until there is no more of someone else's money.

A successful restaurant taking in revenue from customers isn't running on others' money??

And you have two ways of getting that money; earning it by treating customers well or forcing others to simply hand it over to you.

Funny, how it gets real difficult for liberals when you have to earn it.

I don't know about that. I know that's one of those blanket "hurdur my team is better than your team" statements, but there are plenty of successful businesses owned/run by liberals.

(12-04-2016 01:45 PM)nomad2u2001 Wrote:  but there are plenty of successful businesses owned/run by liberals.

Point them out so we can boycott them.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It is very hard to make money from a restaurant, much harder than most people realize. It's even harder with a concept that is nonsensical. I'm happy they gave this a try. I'm not happy that they failed. But failure was pretty much inevitable--bad concept in a hard industry. It's actually quite amazing that they lasted this long.

(12-04-2016 01:29 PM)MplsBison Wrote:  

(12-04-2016 11:09 AM)UofMstateU Wrote:  It is all magical and utopian-like until there is no more of someone else's money.

A successful restaurant taking in revenue from customers isn't running on others' money??

No, not at all.

It is providing a product and accompanying service in exchange for that money. It's not taking anything, it's giving value for value.

(12-03-2016 02:44 PM)HarmonOliphantOberlanderDevine Wrote:  

(12-03-2016 02:41 PM)dawgitall Wrote:  A restaurant shut down. Now that is a shocker.

Not your typical restaurant.

Restaurants of all kinds shut down for all kinds of reasons, this is really no different, maybe with a different menu it would have succeeded. Also while they thought of it as a communist/socialist test subject it really wasn't, it was collectivism by capitalism, the more the store makes the more the workers would make. Our hourly employees at our body shops make $12+/hour at a flat rate regardless of how many cars they clean up and wash, could be 6 or 26, but are there for 40 hours/week, a collectivist model almost makes more sense for purpose of productivity (Before we include human nature and error of course).

(12-04-2016 03:35 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  It is very hard to make money from a restaurant, much harder than most people realize. It's even harder with a concept that is nonsensical. I'm happy they gave this a try. I'm not happy that they failed. But failure was pretty much inevitable--bad concept in a hard industry. It's actually quite amazing that they lasted this long.

Tipless is the thing that stands out. If the restaurant is tipless then the company has to bear all of a server's wages. It's ridiculous to try this in this type of restaurant in America.

(12-04-2016 01:37 PM)UofMstateU Wrote:  forcing others to simply hand it over to you

I'm stunned to learn that this restaurant was forcing people who walked through the door to hand over cash against their will.

Hopefully they're charged with grand larceny!

(12-04-2016 11:01 AM)Kronke Wrote:  But surely their progressive, communist utopian business model should have trumped historical trends?

These fools always think...."They just did not do it right the last time."