What is it with so many people on the Left, that have no idea about economics, good business practices, the profit motive, or good sense? Because that sure seems to be the case; too many people on the Left seem to think they can force an outcome by really, really believing in it, whether or not it is even within shouting distance of reality.
This brings us to the Modern Times Café, in Minneapolis. It's closing down, after its owners discovered that a business model including of a "free and donation-based" payment plan was, well, nuts.
Modern Times Café, a Minneapolis restaurant that attempted to eliminate prices, has announced it will be closing for good by the end of the year.
"For the last six years, I’ve been trying to prove that Modern Times can continue to exist," owner Dylan Alverson wrote on social media Saturday. "I’ve exhausted every option without compromising the core fundamentals that make Modern Times what it is."
He added that he plans to spend the next two months celebrating the 16-year-old business and discussing ways for a business like his to continue.
Here's a thought: Make sure that your restaurant's revenues at least cover its expenses, including your payroll. Oh, and you may even want to see if you can turn a profit, so you can continue those wildly fun things at your home, like eating and bathing, not to mention paying for electricity and other utilities.
Also, maybe try not alienating half of your possible customer base.
Alverson announced on Instagram in January that his business, which rebranded as Post Modern Times, would operate as a "free and donation-based restaurant" where everyone would be welcome "except ICE" in protest of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations happening in his state, partly in response to the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
The response to those deaths would be "don't try to run over ICE agents," but that's an argument for another day.
The owner of Modern Times is quoted as saying he'd like to create a "... fundraising mechanism that can raise money to provide hospitality," after which "...we can take that program and add restaurants to it," which is pretty much the definition of throwing good money after bad. And, it seems that the free meals, which could involve a two-hour wait, were attracting homeless people and drug addicts (and that's a Venn diagram with a lot of overlap) to the neighborhood. Quelle surprise.
Also, anyone want to guess how long this "fundraising mechanism" would involve tax money?
Let's face it, this effort was doomed to failure from the very start. You can't run a business that provides a good or service on wishes, hopes, and unicorn flatulence. But people like Dylan Alverson keep demonstrating the classic leftist fuzzy thinking; they don't understand the profit motive, they don't understand economics, not even on the level of any 10-year-old who has ever run a lemonade stand or mowed lawns for pay. A free or donation-based restaurant? This ending could have been predicted within 12 hours of opening the doors for the first time.
Alverson, in a Facebook post, reportedly concluded: "The only way for places like Modern Times to exist in the future is to actively challenge the reasons why it can no longer exist."
There are many, many reasons that it can no longer exist. And you can challenge them all you like, but you will fail. The primary challenge against a business like this is called "reality," and there's little of it in the Modern Times Café.
They never learn, do they?
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