The weather has been unusually pleasant this past month. With temperatures in the 50s, sunny weather and the smell of flowers in the air it would appear that spring has arrived in the Pacific Northwest (knock on wood). My condolences to those living east of here — enjoy the cold weather. With the pleasant weather, I decided to wander about Kirkland a bit and ended up spending a fair bit of time at a rather interesting new cafe in downtown Kirkland — Terra Bite Lounge.
It’s been receiving a fair bit of publicity for it’s main innovation — customers (such as they are) pay what they want and feel like. No, it’s not run by a religious organization, and it’s not a charity (though they assert that they will share profits among employees and donate to charities). It’s a bold experiment to be sure, though perhaps not as doomed to failure as you might think. So far it seems to be doing alright, with most customers approximating what they pay at other cafes and coffee places. If it does succeed it will have to do with a few factors: affluence, conscientiousness and, of course, Seattle’s insatiable addiction to espresso.
I’m sure there’s a potentially interesting economic model one could construct to predict and explain the behavior of customers payment patterns at such a venue. What I think is even more interesting is how such a pay-what-you-want model could affect the third space conception of coffee shops in suburban American environs. Namely, the lack of truly public spaces for people of varied backgrounds to gather in today’s suburbs has left a gaping void that Starbucks has in large part tried to fill. Now, a Starbucks is obviously a poor substitute for the open-air market or public square of eras past, but it’s something. For instance, a lot of people who telecommute/work from home find Starbucks’ in the suburbs a great place to work around people; a way to overcome the often-isolated nature of life in the typical American suburb.
The central conceit of a public space however is not quite matched by a suburban coffee shop — you have to pay to be there. If, however, payment becomes voluntary and a secondary feature of the cafe, not a central one, then perhaps coffee shops and lounges can better approximate the public venues present in urban areas. So is this the beginning of a bold new trend? Well, it’s unlikely — as I said, this will probably only work in a few places that are both affluent and conscientious in the self-aware and serious way typical among folks in the coastal parts of the Pacific Northwest. Furthermore, downtown Kirkland is a very atypical “suburb” center, if one can even call it that.
Another criticism might be that this is somewhat socialistic/communistic or at least anti-capitalist in nature. I don’t think that applies as the potential subsidizing of poorer clientele by richer ones is entirely voluntary. If anything, it’s a natural outgrowth of capitalism’s assumption that charity is more appropriate than government intervention. Well, all this is probably overkill for what’s really a simple, interesting experiment — let’s see how it does!
