Greek Restaurant Experiments With "Pay What You Feel The Food Is Worth" Plan

Two months ago Paula Douralas decided to follow a new pricing plan for the menu of her small Greek restaurant “Santorini Grill” near Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn.

From now on, the customers would pay for their meals what they felt their food was worth. With a sign outside the restaurant’s door reading “Pay as you feel” and “The bailout starts November 4th”, the owner found an original way of bringing new customers despite the obvious dangers the plan may hold for her.

However, the risk of someone taking advantage of the offer and eating without paying anything was outweighed by the new connections made with customers in the environment due to the restaurant’s offer.

At first, people passing by the restaurant thought it was some kind of catchy plan but the friendly owner persuaded her visitors of her honesty and good intentions by proving she meant what she was saying.

Douralas’ restaurant gathered the attention of major US media back then, being described as one of the reasons to love the city. By increasing her restaurant’s visibility, Douralas still believes that this plan has turned out to be a success story so far. She now has certain frequent customers visiting her restaurant, and is hopeful of a new increase in numbers in the following months, as she has decided to stick to her unique plan.

Sometimes customers pay her for their meal much more than they would have if there were prices on the menu. Other times, they pay too little. It is a two way situation. After some confusion over the prices and the food, she now offers customers the old menu with the prices on and the new one, which she or the waitresses explain to customers themselves.

The whole idea of paying-what-you-want is widespread both in the US and Europe, led by non-profit organizations, such as One World-Everybody Eats, which has pay-what-you-want diners operating across the US.