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Minneapolis restaurant with no prices will close after years of "trying to prove" that socialism works
NotTheBee ^ | October 20, 2026 | Wolfgang Ramsay

Posted on 10/20/2026 6:33:31 AM PDT by Red Badger

"To each according to his needs, from each according to his ability."

It ends in bankruptcy every time!

When immigration enforcement ramped up in Minneapolis earlier this year, owner Dylan Alverson rebranded the restaurant as "Post Modern Times." He took prices off the menu and declared he would feed anyone who walked in the door, whether they could pay or not.

Well, almost anyone. Federal agents were explicitly unwelcome.

The stunt made national news. Donations poured in from around the world.

For six months, the restaurant operated as a pay-what-you-can (or pay-nothing-at-all) sanctuary in Minneapolis. But as it turns out, people are greedy, and the comrade who pays $10 for a hipster sandwich starts wondering why they are shelling out $10 while someone else pays $1, and the comrade who pays $1 is wondering why others are getting the sandwich for free.

And so, the aptly named Post Modern Times has come to a predictable end.

The restaurant had been struggling financially for years.

Let's see how it unfolded from one of our "favorite" leftwing newspapers, The Star Tribune:

Neighbors began to be crowded out of the restaurant by people who could not pay and who lingered around the restaurant all day. Complaints mounted of open drug use, theft, discarded needles in the alley and overdoses on the sidewalk.

After a series of contentious community meetings, Alverson closed the restaurant in July for a few weeks, then reopened in August with prices back on the menu.

It's amazingly similar to what Marxist nations have done on a larger scale.

Implement Marxist policies, wreck your nation, pivot to some kind of capitalism to survive, eventually collapse anyway (just wait and see what happens to China's population in the next 50 years).

I'm sure Marxism will work next time!


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Food; Health/Medicine; Society
KEYWORDS: alverson; dylanalverson; postmoderntimes; socialism

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1 posted on 10/20/2026 6:33:31 AM PDT by Red Badger
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To: Red Badger

Employees who depended on him lost jobs.


2 posted on 10/20/2026 6:37:56 AM PDT by Brian Griffin
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To: Red Badger

LOL. All the sudden a bunch of grifters showed up to get free food and no one was paying for it. What a shock. Basically, Dylan didn’t realize that he decided to run a soup kitchen without donations.


3 posted on 10/20/2026 6:38:42 AM PDT by Opinionated Blowhard (When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.)
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To: Red Badger

Reflecting on this, he had too much competition for free stuff. It is very difficult out out “free stuff” the government and other institutions.

If he was the only one he might have made it.


4 posted on 10/20/2026 6:39:31 AM PDT by PeterPrinciple ((Thinking Caps are no longer being issued, but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere))
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To: Red Badger

What a complete I D I O T !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Great business plan fool!


5 posted on 10/20/2026 6:40:18 AM PDT by bantam
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To: Opinionated Blowhard

Socialism works until you run out of other peoples’ money - Margaret Thatcher................


6 posted on 10/20/2026 6:41:55 AM PDT by Red Badger (Iryna Zarutska, May 22, 2002 Kyiv, Ukraine – August 22, 2025 Charlotte, North Carolina Say her name)
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To: Red Badger
Some people can take one look and know it won't work. They are called smart people or people of average intelligence.

Some can't.

7 posted on 10/20/2026 6:42:11 AM PDT by Savage Beast (When the student is ready, the teacher appears. When the people are ready, the hero appears.)
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To: Savage Beast

Would you want to eat there? I wouldn’t even think about it..............


8 posted on 10/20/2026 6:43:56 AM PDT by Red Badger (Iryna Zarutska, May 22, 2002 Kyiv, Ukraine – August 22, 2025 Charlotte, North Carolina Say her name)
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To: Red Badger

Smug self righteousness can’t pay the bills, Dylan.


9 posted on 10/20/2026 6:45:36 AM PDT by j.havenfarm (25 years on Free Republic, 12/10/25! More than 12,750 replies and still not shutting up!)
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To: Red Badger

I’m always amazed by people who have no idea how an economy works, yet decide to run a business. Pie-in-the-sky liberals will never get it.


10 posted on 10/20/2026 6:46:56 AM PDT by Kharis13 (-)
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To: Red Badger

Cue the snickering hound gif.


11 posted on 10/20/2026 6:47:00 AM PDT by Jane Long (Jesus is Lord!)
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To: Red Badger

It depends on the clientele. Free Republic has a similar ‘pay what you can’ plan.


12 posted on 10/20/2026 6:47:38 AM PDT by posterchild
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To: Red Badger

Until about 5 years ago, I was usually pretty generous. If someone at a gas pump said they were broke and needed gas, I wouldn’t give them money but offered to pump a few dollars worth into their tank. They never took me up on it.

I’d also offer to buy a panhandler a sandwich at a nearby restaurant, but they always wanted money.

What I learned is that when you buy them something, the spigot is open and they demand more and more, without a “thank you.”

Never, EVER give anyone on the street money.


13 posted on 10/20/2026 6:49:15 AM PDT by fwdude (Why is there a "far/radical right," but damned if they'll admit that there is a far/radical left)
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To: Red Badger

Although the restaurant was functioning for a while, the no price lasted only few months.

Neighbors began to be crowded out of the restaurant by people who could not pay and who lingered around the restaurant all day. Complaints mounted of open drug use, theft, discarded needles in the alley and overdoses on the sidewalk.

After a series of contentious community meetings, Alverson closed the restaurant in July for a few weeks, then reopened in August with prices back on the menu.


14 posted on 10/20/2026 6:49:26 AM PDT by AZJeep (sane )
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To: Red Badger

3200 Chicago Ave. two blocks south of E. Lake Street:

https://www.google.com/maps/@44.9486571,-93.2669189,16z?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MTAxNC4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D


15 posted on 10/20/2026 6:50:20 AM PDT by Brian Griffin
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To: fwdude

Never, EVER give anyone on the street money.

- - - - - - -

I might give them something they can’t resell, like an open milk carton.


16 posted on 10/20/2026 6:51:29 AM PDT by TTFX
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To: Opinionated Blowhard
Dylan didn’t realize that he decided to run a soup kitchen without donations.

Not quite: "The stunt made national news. Donations poured in from around the world."

But, it goes without saying the donations dried up.

17 posted on 10/20/2026 6:52:42 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: Opinionated Blowhard

Just like when red lobster had their “all you can eat” buffets, they almost went bankrupt too


18 posted on 10/20/2026 6:53:17 AM PDT by Bob434 (Time flies like an arrow, Fruit flies like a banana)
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To: AZJeep

He basically turned his restaurant into those soup kitchens for the “needy”.

Even churches running them are fighting and sometime loosing the battle with neighbors, who argue that these are magnets for homeless drug addicts and they destroy the neighborhood and property values.


19 posted on 10/20/2026 6:54:00 AM PDT by AZJeep (sane )
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To: fwdude

Never, EVER give anyone on the street money.


Repeat LOUD and OFTEN.


20 posted on 10/20/2026 6:55:13 AM PDT by PeterPrinciple ((Thinking Caps are no longer being issued, but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere))
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