I come up with a few business ideas per day. Most of the time I tell a friend and it evaporates into the ether, so I’m going to start recording my ideas here.
Business idea #132*: Open up a bar and call it DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion). Drink prices are based on economic inequality.
I am fully aware that this idea is problematic. It simplifies complex issues, could easily become tone deaf, and very easily misses the opportunity to create actual impact.
However, if someone wanted to pull this off, it could be fun to have different “rounds” throughout the night. Think “Discounts for the historically underpaid, a reparations round, and a tax the rich round where proceeds go to charity. During the “wage gap” happy hour, female identified people would pay $0.82 on the dollar and people in underpaid professions (e.g. teachers and other service workers) would pay less for drinks.
You could even have a pay-it-forward system that allows people to contribute money toward other people’s tabs. Guests could contribute funds to people who just lost their jobs, are first generation college graduates, etc.
To make things less problematic, the experience could focus on concepts and education. For example, guests could receive a random card upon entry. This card would then dictate their experience. Servers would treat people differently based on whether they received a Trust Fund Baby card or the minimum wage gard. Cardholders would sit in different parts of the bar with different finishes (e.g. a trailer versus a velvet experience) and would receive different menus based on the card they received. For example, if you got a hipster card you would receive your (more expensive) cocktail with a stamped ice cube and over-the-top branded garnish.
This idea is ripe for other experiences as well. A few examples include:
- Wage Theft: Guests could unionize and try to negotiate cheaper drinks. If they can’t prices increase and all the extra goes towards paying for drinks at someone else’s table.
- Wealth Redistribution Hour: Top spenders automatically buy a round of drinks for others.
- Rent Too High: People pay different prices based on where they sit in the restaurant.
- Generational Wealth: People walk in with different credits, which represent wealth. Some people walk in with more, while others have to start from scratch.
- Trickle Down Economics: Credits would sometimes be randomly redistributed to other tables.
- Universal Basic Income Hour: Everyone gets a free drink the moment they walk into the bar.
- The Reverse Pink Tax: All “pink” drinks or glasses will cost less.
Potential Bar Names
- Minimum Wage Martini Bar: Because who doesn’t like irony?
- The Glass Ceiling: Love this one because it’s so ripe with pun potential. Have an actual glass ceiling. Serve cocktails with caramelized garnishes that you can smash and then sprinkle into your drink with a baby hammer. As the “glass ceiling” disintegrates, society gets better, er, I mean, the drink gets sweeter.
- Sip & Subsidize: Perfect if the bar chooses to move forward with more of the wealth distribution options.
- The Redistribution Room: A bar where wealth actually gets redistributed.
- The Economic Club: Sophisticated, but like the economy itself, there’s a twist inside.
Again, I recognize that there are a ton of potential issues with this idea, but if done right, it could raise awareness and grab a ton of press.
*Business ideas #1 – 131 have not been recorded. They represent that group of ideas that weren’t recorded anywhere (except in my friends’ minds).