Thursday, December 4, 2008
News Decatur small businesses adopt Wall Street, Detroit business model
Posted by Andisheh Nouraee on Thu, Dec 4, 2008 at 5:40 PM
To survive the recession, a second Decatur small business has adopted Wall Street and Detroit's new business model: begging.
In August, the owner of Wordsmiths books in Decatur asked the community for donations to help keep the store open.
It appears to have worked. Last time I walked through Decatur's town square, Wordsmiths was still open.
Today, CL's Besha Rodell and Decatur Metro report Calavino's Italian restaurant in Oakhurst is soliciting donations to stay open.
The strangest part of the Calavino's plea: they're not actually asking people to dine at the restaurant. They're only asking for money.
In related news: PayPal me $20 and I'll cook you dinner at my house. PayPal me $25 and I'll give you beer, wine or liquor with your meal.
Comments (3)
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One drink. Two if you help me finish my slivovice. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slivovitz
Hi Andy, If I had a heads up from my investor that he would be pulling out I would have simply asked my regulars and others to dine more often. Perhaps you don't realize however that very little of that revenue would have been profit to put towards an impending large bill. Unfortunately I did not have the luxury of time. As you know, all licensing needs to be re applied for, and paid for each year. That compounded with other looming expenses was beyond what I could manage. When,after several meetings,my investor informed me he could not move forward (due to his main business brining in far less than it has in past years) I first went in search of new investors. When I was ready to throw in the towel my wife lamented over the woman who ran up her credit cards (buying $27,000 worth of shoes and clothing not food or gas,not mortgage payments) and when on the brink of bankruptcy,she set up a web-site asking people to save her credit. They did. I tried in vain to save a business in a failing economy. Due to the time constraints I now faced,as a last resort I swallowed my pride and asked for help very publicly. Since I did not know what the out come of my plea would be I did not know what I could honestly offer in exchange for donations. If I closed I could not honor gift certificates as one person admonished me for not offering. I suppose people would have preferred i had just rolled over but I have never been much for giving up. If pride had been the reason I went out of business then I would have truly failed, not just closed. But,thank-you for the jab, Calavino
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