Reasonable_Move9518 t1_iyaqkom wrote on November 30, 2022 at 12:24 AM

Reply to comment by coldsnap123 in Is there life after Darwin’s? by reveazure

Hmm… the business managed to last 30 years and each location has nearly constant traffic at the highest price point in the area. I never got the specifics, but the employees involved in negotiations as well as the owner in a YouTube video all indicated high profit margins for a cafe.

Probably not profitable enough to pay $24/hr like the “Socialist Alternative” faction wanted, but that was deeply unrealistic. But profitable enough to stay afloat as a CO-OP… I’d bet yes. I agree no sane entrepreneur would buy them out due to the union, but it the union itself just buys the equipment and rents the space and largely keeps the supply chain (with some trimming of unprofitable items) I bet it could work very very well.

Whatever replacement goes in also faces the same economics and I’d bet you a Tempeh Tantrum that the locations get snatched up very quickly.

coldsnap123 t1_iyb1kp5 wrote on November 30, 2022 at 1:47 AM

The Harvard location already has a tenant lined up, but that was before any of this went down. I bet the video you are referencing was filmed before the pandemic. The first year of lockdown and the 2nd year of clawing back most likely did enough damage to wipe any profit out. The massive increase in cost of goods compared to pre pandemic levels isn’t going to lead to high profit margins anywhere. This isn’t a good environment to start a food retail business from scratch. No way a co-op survives.