Posted on 10/25/2017 8:19:14 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
In the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston back in 2015, the people at the nonprofit organization Haley House came up with a novel idea. They would open a pizza shop based on the principles of economic justice and fair wages to support the community. Named Dudley Dough, the shop would pay wages far above the minimum which many people in that industry earn, with added incentives for training and community development. It was an inspiring idea.
Unfortunately for them, only two years later the place is closing down. It turns out that operating a for-profit business on the principles of a nonprofit social justice operation results in an undesirable side-effect. They were literally not producing a profit. (Boston Globe)
The loss of Dudley Dough means more than losing a pizza parlor to Roxbury regulars.
They say they’re losing a community resource in the heart of Dudley Square and a singular business based on a premise of economic justice and healthy food.
Launched in 2015, the fair-wage pizza shop will close at the end of the year, according to Bing Broderick, executive director for the nonprofit Haley House, which oversees the shop. While popular, the shop is not breaking even financially, which has put stress on the wider nonprofit organization.
One of the team leaders at Dudley is insisting that nobody, “is looking at it as a failure.” And on some levels, perhaps it wasn’t. For the period of time they managed to stay open they made lots of friends in the community and their employees earned a great salary and received other opportunities. But the fact remains that it was supposed to be operated as a business and would prove a point about a more “fair” economic system.
Here’s the problem with that theory. We live in a capitalist society and the business environment is fair… but it’s also harsh and very competitive. Going into the casual eatery business space is one of the more demanding challenges imaginable for a start-up. There is competition literally around almost every corner in most cities and everyone is fighting for a piece of the pie. (Or the pizza pie in this case.)
Plus, let’s face it guys… you’ve got way too much green stuff on your pizza.
Labor costs are a major driver in the business model of any such operation. Once you’ve accounted for the standard expenses of kitchen equipment, ingredients, utilities and the cost of your site (which are fairly standardized), labor costs may turn out to be the margin of error which makes or breaks you in terms of profitability and controlling your prices. Everyone in the neighborhood may love your social justice oriented, woke attitude, but if your pizza costs three bucks a slice when everyone else is selling them for two, you’re not going to last long.
Dudley Dough may prove to be a cautionary tale for everyone engaged in the debate over minimum wage rates and so-called “economic justice.” What they experienced was the sort of justice which the real world administers to the overly idealistic in a capitalist system.
We don’t live in a “capitalist system” (marxspeak) we live in a free market system where consumers prefer to spend less for basically the same product.
Ran out of dough? But hey, at least they all felt good about themselves.
They over paid for entry level workers.
And, except for Fridays, they GAVE AWAY pizzas.
There’s a winning business model.
F’ing idiots. What took them so long to fail?
Nobody gives a crap about social justice when it hurts their wallets and they shouldn’t anyway, because it’s a bunch of garbage.
Were they using common core arithmetic to keep the books?
I’ll bet their pizza sucked, too.
Pretty much.
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Dudley Dough logo
Dudley Dough Menu
2302 Washington St (857) 308-3058
20 Ratings
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Closed Next delivery at 9:00am tomorrow.
$10 min, $4.99 delivery fee
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2302 Washington St
Roxbury, MA 02119
(857) 308-3058
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Pickup: 8:00am–9:00pm
Delivery: 8:00am–9:00pm
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Reviews For Dudley Dough
20 Ratings
Here’s what people are saying:
65
Food was good
82
Delivery was on time
86
Order was accurate
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M
Marguerita
1
Review posted September 08, 2017
Love the healthy food Great
Marguerita ordered:
Oven-Roasted Pear And Arugula Salad
A
Amola
1
Review posted August 22, 2017
Pizza and salad were not that great. Service was good. Probably won’t be going back due to good quality.
Amola ordered:
Pizza Pie & Main Salad
A
Anne
Top reviewer
5
Review posted August 03, 2017
Order was incorrect but the driver was great and advocated on our behalf to get it right :)
Anne ordered:
The 3 Cheese Pizza
Pesto And Chicken Pizza
Margherita Pizza
Cauliflower With Bechamel, Roasted Garlic, And Parmesan Pizza
A
A
1
Review posted May 06, 2017
My oder was supposed to arrive at 7:30 and its 8:10
A ordered:
Margherita Pizza
T
Theresa
1
Review posted February 15, 2017
Pizza was a jumbled mess with way too much “dough/pizza oven dust” in the box. It was cold and bland on flavor
Theresa ordered:
Margherita Pizza
Cafe Latte
Polar Spring Water 20oz
D
Debra
Top reviewer
14
Review posted October 21, 2016
Excellent simple gourmet pizza with interesting combos. Very simple menu but made with love.
Debra ordered:
Jerk Chicken, Sweet Potato And Jack Cheese Pizza
Cookie
Bok Choy-Soy Salad
Let’s be honest; the ideal liberal pizza place would pay wages far in excess of minimum wage, have paid community service, and pizzas would be sold based upon economic ability; discounted pies of $5 would of course result in an automatic charge of 50 cents for every person who earns in excess of the median wage in the area. If they decide to eat such a pie themselves, it would start at $50.
Great to hear ridicule of Marxspeak!
Also Capitalism falsely suggests only wealthy money creates jobs. No, no, no. Any given community, with no influx of foreign capital, only requires freedom of people to do stuff.
In fact, foreign money distorts that community. An example are visas and mass immigration putting the community out of work and on to welfare.
Foreign money passes high taxes and regulation which impoverish people. People just need liberty.
Cauliflower on pizza? That’s just gross.
California has one of the highest minimum-wage laws in the nation -the idiot governor, Jerry Brown, pushed this claiming it would “raise standards of living for the working poor and move them into the middle class!”
Result? Restaurants are moving to ordering from kiosks and picking up your own food at the counter, in retail outlets, you can’t find anyone to help you anywhere, more self-service check-outs are being installed at Lowe’s, WalMart, Target, Ralphs and more each day.
No wonder people like me are ordering more from Amazon, shopping (and eating out) are becoming miserable experiences.
I think that's the kicker. To justify the price, it better be a darn good pizza. And if everyone at a "fair wage" shop is giving it their all and trying to make a great pizza, then it might have survived for the notoriety and novelty of it. IF the pizzas were really any good.
They just forgot to leave room in their budget for payoffs to local Dem pols for subsidies.
They forgot to incorporate the key driver of all "Social Justice Businesses" - handouts of CASH from the government.
That MUST be a part of any social-justice organization's business plan!
But hey, they say it’s not a failure.
For real? not only would someone really eat that but someone would actually think to sell it and that it would sell?
I wonder how many people actually ordered that besides one person.
Sounds like one of those fake reviews.
And everyone gets a participation trophy.
“Ran out of dough? But hey, at least they all felt good about themselves”.
Yep, that’s exactly how they think.
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