I lived in Denton, TX (just north of Dallas/Ft. Worth) back in the late 70's and my future father-in-law took us to a little cafe in the nearby tiny town of Krum. It was a nice little place, the typical small town diner but he had a gimmick similar to Panera's; when you were done, you paid what you thought the meal was worth. There were six of us, so when we were leaving, my future FIL put $30 in the jar on the counter right next to the unused cash register. The owner knew my girlfriend's dad and they stopped to chat and his unique method of paying for the meals was discussed.

Long story short, the owner allowed that he was making anywhere from 10-20% more than before he went w/ the new system. As I said, my g/f's pop had put in five bucks ea. for our meals, but you have to remember the era where a cafe meal would cost less than five bucks and that was including the 10% tip! (and my future daddy-in-law had left six bucks on the table as a tip)

I moved back up here a while later after my now-ex and I married and while visiting her folks one weekend, I asked if we go go back to the cafe; it was great tasting food and I wanted to show my in-laws that I could afford to treat them now, but I was told the great experiment had come to a screeching halt. Just like with Panera, the college kids in Denton had discovered that they could eat for free and suddenly the owner's profit turned into a big loss. The main reason for the owner stopping that method was that the jar kept getting stolen.

I think the moral of that story or mine is that a large segment of our population will take advantage of what they perceive to be "free stuff", but not caring one whit that TANSTAAFL, that someone has to pay for other people's thoughtlessness and greed.

I wish Kohl's would give it a try, lol lol

Thanks Mike. Socialism works in a perfect world where everyone is assimilated into the hive mind and moves in unison like the Dem Reps dressed in white at the SOTU.

In the real world many are like your former father in law realizing everyone has bills to pay, the restaurant owner both paid for and worked to cook food served. Conversely about an equal amount have an entitled mindset that the world owes them so they're happy to help themselves to anything as if it dropped down from the sky.

Human nature seems to have always been that way and will continue. I feel the best recourse to that is to teach people how to create for themselves and if they choose not to, let them live with the life they create with that mindset and learn the lesson which comes with their decision. Perhaps we need to stop minding everyone else's business.

Around that same time, my ex was managing a seafood restaurant that had "All You Can Eat" specials during the week. The college kids would flock to the place, the guys wearing coats on the hot summer nights and the girls toting huge, empty purses, esp. on AYCE shrimp nights. When my ex caught them, they were kicked out and banned and had to empty their pockets and purses or she'd call the cops.

The thing I remember most about my time down there were the Iranian students protesting all over the place; this was before the embassy takeover and they were quite the militant bunch. They made the mistake of waving one of those "Death to America" signs once and barely lived to regret it.

Three of them came into my ex's restaurant one time to apply for wait staff positions and they were trying to dictate to her just what hours they would work. My ex, a gentle woman most of the time, was patient with them and tried to explain if they couldn't work the hours/days she needed them for, they probably should seek other employment. They backed down, apparently needing the job, but walked out when she also informed them they would have to bus their own tables until after the h.s. kiddos got there. That was just too demeaning for them to do .

Thanks Mike. Interesting stuff.

Thanks Sully. The Panera experiment?