Pay what you want...

[sunflower]

Good future BAM question, and just interesting all around...

‘Pay what you want,’ U.K. eatery tells diners
To beat downturn, one owner leaves tab amount up to the customer

LONDON - A London restaurant decided to do away with bills for the next month, asking customers to pay only what they want for meals in an unorthodox bid to beat the credit crunch.

The Little Bay restaurant in central London, one of four owned by restaurateur Peter Ilic, will present diners with absolutely nothing when they ask for the check during February, leaving it up to them to decide what the meal was worth.

"Anything between a penny and 50 pounds ($70) will make me happy, it's entirely up to the customer to decide," Ilic said on Tuesday, sounding confident about the prospects as he sat on a purple couch is his brightly colored, arty restaurant, known for its bistro-style Mediterranean cuisine.

"It just seemed the right thing to do with everyone under the cash and feeling pretty miserable," he said.

Times have not been easy for London restaurants in recent months as the credit crisis and a deepening recession have hit everyone, from ordinary city workers to highly paid bankers.

Whereas once high-flying hedge-fund managers from the London financial district known as the City might seek out the most ostentatiously expensive lunch they could find — and top London restaurants would willingly oblige — now the order of the day is austerity and a decent, tasty bargain.

For starters, foie gras
Ilic, a long-standing player in the London restaurant business, is well-known for his value gourmet food, but now he's gone one step further and effectively cut prices to zero.

"We have seen so many more city folk coming into the restaurant lately, looking for a better value lunch," he said, explaining what gave him the idea, similar to that used by major bands like Radiohead to sell their CDs.

If people like something, they'll pay for it, the idea goes, and already Ilic has seen evidence that it works.

"Customers have already paid 20 percent more than the original price," he said, confident that he will more than cover his expenses for the month. "People want to be polite and would be embarrassed not to pay enough."

Not only is the deal pretty attractive for those who might decide to pay nothing, the food is pretty tempting too.

Starters include crab tartelette, foie gras terrine and goat cheese souffle, while main courses range from duck breast to steamed butterfish and filet steak.

The only thing customers definitely have to pay for are their drinks. But for those really suffering in the credit crisis, the tap water is served free.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28996573/

[Thousandaire]

How do they determine the tip? Or is tipping not done in London?

[peacock2121]

I look forward to the conclusion of this experiment.

[wintergreen48]

When I saw the header for this, I thought it would be a post about Obama's appointees and their, um, tax payment strategies.

[TheConfessor]

I'm still trying to figure out how this would make a good WWTBAM question. What would you ask and how would you phrase it? The first "pay what you want" restaurant I recall to was about 15 years ago in Paris, where my guide book recommended such a place operated by Marxist Corsican separatists. I made a special effort to go check it out, but when I got there it was closed. I wonder why.

Pay what you want is actually a pretty common practice in lots of situations, at least to some degree. Lots of live entertainment in my area operates on that business model. Any transaction that involves negotiating, tipping, or charity includes a pay what you want component. And don't forget the loose change cup at your local convenience store, which provides some leeway to pay slightly more or less than the actual price.

[sunflower]

I'm still trying to figure out how this would make a good WWTBAM question. What would you ask and how would you phrase it? The first "pay what you want" restaurant I recall to was about 15 years ago in Paris, where my guide book recommended such a place operated by Marxist Corsican separatists. I made a special effort to go check it out, but when I got there it was closed. I wonder why.

Pay what you want is actually a pretty common practice in lots of situations, at least to some degree. Lots of live entertainment in my area operates on that business model. Any transaction that involves negotiating, tipping, or charity includes a pay what you want component. And don't forget the loose change cup at your local convenience store, which provides some leeway to pay slightly more or less than the actual price.

I don't know but Radiohead offering "pay what you want" for their album was both a WWTBAM question and a Jeopardy! online test question. Maybe it's not suitable, but I thought of it along those lines. If nothing else, I found it to be an interesting concept. We don't have anything in my area that operates on that model, so maybe I'm living in the wrong area! The "take a penny" cup doesn't really allow me to pay what I want, unless I can dig $25 out of it to fill my gas tank!

[gsabc]

I think it becomes question fodder only if one of the more well-known chefs does it in their equally well-known restaurant. The news would spread wider to make it a mid-level question. Otherwise, it remains merely a curiosity and gets a WGAS from the head question editor.

[tlynn78]

When I saw the header for this, I thought it would be a post about Obama's appointees and their, um, tax payment strategies.

Now that was funny.


t.

[MarleysGh0st]

"Anything between a penny and 50 pounds ($70) will make me happy, it's entirely up to the customer to decide," Ilic said on Tuesday, sounding confident about the prospects as he sat on a purple couch is his brightly colored, arty restaurant, known for its bistro-style Mediterranean cuisine.

...

"Customers have already paid 20 percent more than the original price," he said, confident that he will more than cover his expenses for the month. "People want to be polite and would be embarrassed not to pay enough."

I suspect he would not be so happy if his customers--perhaps from a large, new influx of clientele--began paying a penny, being less prone to embarrassment that he would expect.

[gsabc]

When I saw the header for this, I thought it would be a post about Obama's appointees and their, um, tax payment strategies.

Actually, I recall a long-ago science fiction story where everyone filed electronically and then could earmark their taxes for items in a designated list. The protagonist, frustrated by continuing wars, border skirmishes and the like, types in "Peace" for where he wants his money to go. It becomes a massive trend, and peace is funded and breaks out worldwide.

Hey, I said it was fiction, didn't I?