Comments on: Read this if you love Pal’s Take Away

By: Schlomo

Schlomo — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 23:54:28 +0000

I felt the same way when Mission Bowling Club had that kickstarter because they went over-budget.

I’ve made two bars in this town and it always goes over-budget. I think pretty much every restaurant/bar does. You spend everything for your baby business.

It all just rubs me wrong, no matter what I think about bowling and sandos.. of which I love.

By: Jon

Jon — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 19:50:09 +0000

It’s tough to run a small business in SF – and many of the more creative ones are barely holding it together. Hopefully Pal’s will be successful.

By: GG

GG — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 17:47:13 +0000

Cinnaholic in Berkeley did something similar awhile back. Instead of a Kickstarter, they just asked people to buy gift certificates — they even offered a 15% discount. So basically, they got extra cash up front, to be paid off over time with purchases, and in exchange, loyal customers got a discount. An additional benefit for Cinnaholic is that I’ll bet a lot of those purchases actually turned into accidental donations from people who forgot to use their whole certificate values, because they rarely go way the hell out to Berkeley — even for totally amazingly delicious cinnamon rolls (raising my hand). (http://vegansaurus.com/post/1211115253/buy-a-gift-certificate-help-cinnaholic)

By: neck of eackles

neck of eackles — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 17:11:02 +0000

I share your confusion. I understand the need for up-front cash, and so I could see them offering, say, a 5-sandwich card for $40 — in effect, a no-interest leap-of-faith loan. But that never seems to be how these things work.

By: GrizzledMission

GrizzledMission — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 09:03:32 +0000

I had a shop in the Mission that some folks seemed to like (pardon my vagueness), and was probably beneficial to the neighborhood in some way, but when I was losing too much money, I closed it. Should I have Kickstarted it to help with rent? No. It was a business, not a charity. I didn’t expect anyone else to shoulder my costs for the benefit of having me around.

By: Teotwawki Jones

Teotwawki Jones — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 06:35:38 +0000

I’ve got your kickstart right here, pretenders.

By: stiiv

stiiv — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 03:42:34 +0000

Yeah, I hear you. But there’s some magic community line that makes this okay and somehow they’ve crossed it for me. So there ya go.

By: blah

blah — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 22:48:25 +0000

That was initial reaction too, but I can also see the other side of it. I’ve been working out of my house, two blocks away from Pal’s, for the last five and a half years. It would be lovely if somebody wanted to kickstart me so I could go open a nice little solo law office somewhere instead of working at my kitchen table and in my living room, but I wouldn’t presume to ask people to do so.

On the other hand, Pal’s has more of a community tie than I do, and frankly I envy cool little business that build relationships with their suppliers and their customers. I could see why people might get on board to help just because they like the vibe of the enterprise and want to see it succeed and grow. (Now how do I change my practice? Hmmm…..)

By: GG

GG — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 22:14:25 +0000

I’ve been happy to contribute to my friends’ Kickstarter campaigns to record their band’s album or make a local film, or for someone with a great idea to fund initial production of some clever product, but I’m getting a little tired of existing businesses expecting people to contribute to the sort of costs that are just part of owning and operating a business. It’s great that they want to expand… so why not take out a small business loan? Put stuff on credit cards? Do the things every other Mission business has done when they’ve decided to expand? Maybe I’m just cranky today…