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The pizza restaurant (gourmet pizza, not crap) around the corner where I live is workers owned. The previous owner went bankrupt and left his employees hanging
by the_af 3y ago
The pizza restaurant (gourmet pizza, not crap) around the corner where I live is workers owned. The previous owner went bankrupt and left his employees hanging out to dry, so they took ownership of the place. Not sure about the legal situation (e.g. whether they bought the restaurant from the owner or what) but it's been workers owned for the past few years and doing well, judging by how full it always is. I eat and take out from there and it's pretty good quality.
This is not the first decent workers owned restaurant I've known, so I'm going to answer: yes, it can work.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- mitchbob 3y agoZachary's? https://zacharys.com/ https://zacharys.com/
- the_af 3y agoI live in South America, so no :)
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- klooney 3y agohttps://cheeseboardcollective.coop/pizza/ https://cheeseboardcollective.coop/pizza/ and https://www.arizmendibakery.com https://www.arizmendibakery.com are coops.
- kemitchell 3y agoAlso good pizza! And there's more than one location. I believe I read that Nick's, up north, is also heading worker-owned. And of course worker-owned doesn't just mean pizza in Oakland.
- andsoitis 3y agoIn this example, someone else had to get it off the ground. The sibling commenter's example of Zachary's is similarly the product of entrepreneurs who got it started https://zacharys.com/about-us/our-story/ https://zacharys.com/about-us/our-story/
- fouc 3y ago> someone else had to get it off the ground implying what? that "workers" can't start something? Even if we imagine there's a category of people that are suited to be "starters" or "entrepreneurs" that category is still plenty numerous, easily 10-35% of the population, if not more.
- wjnc 3y agoPlease be kind in your interpretation. Build and run are two very different phases. You need lots of capital for the former, mostly hands for the latter. Capital formation is probably harder for a group of workers because it leads to messy questions about residual earnings.
- JamesBarney 3y agoI think this is the issue. Starting a company is a lot riskier than working at one. To do that you usually need capital and/or someone who is willing to work their ass off for peanuts for a couple of years. The only reason people will take risks is for outsized returns.
- rcme 3y agoYes that is the implication. Starting something requires raising money and organizing things. Generally, at the start, only a small number of people care to do this work. And once they do it, why would they give their ownership stake away to their employees when they could just keep it for themselves?
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- logdap 3y ago[dead]
- Cthulhu_ 3y agoIn the case of a bankruptcy, the property will pass to a curator who has to try and settle debts as much as possible; I'm sure the staff and the curator struck a deal there.