During Liberty On Tour's latest stop in St. Louis, they visited the St. Louis Bread Co., which is owned by Panera Bread Co. As detailed in the video below and a blog post by Pete on the main Liberty On Tour website, this restaurant works off of a "suggested donation" model of payment. So customers ordering food are given a suggested price, but it is up to them to decide what they can and are willing to pay. In addition, they have an option to pay via "volunteer hours," whereby people can come in and volunteer to work in exchange for a voucher for free food and drinks.
The idea behind this is to ensure that people who can't afford to pay for a meal have options available to get food without having to spend money. And according to employees, this plan has been successful in accomplishing that goal. Reportedly, 85 to 90 percent of customers voluntarily pay at above the suggested price level. All profits raised above that which is required to fund the St. Louis Bread Co. itself, go toward feeding needy people and other area charities. In addition, company higher-ups have commented that they plan to open two other locations in other cities in the coming months.
Watch the video and you can't help but be impressed by what you see:
Apparently, the bad sensor issue, that cost Liberty On Tour valuable time and cash, was just a bit of foreshadowing of things to come. Recently, MARV has been experiencing a spate of mechanical problems as outlined by Pete on their latest blog post at the main Liberty On Tour site:
Last Thursday after shooting content for a couple of stories in St. Louis MARV died in an intersection. The next day we were back on the road with a new crank shaft sensor and $550 less in our budget. And at their request, we left the folks at Tom’s Truck Repair with some literature from LOT and our advertisers.
On Friday night, after a panel discussion at the Show-Me Institute and a meetup down the street, we drove 30min. and parked at Harrah’s Casino to put us closer to our next stop – Denver. But, when Adam attempted to exit MARV to play a few hands of poker while I slept we found that the door wouldn’t open. A metal piece inside the lock had sheered off. The next morning, after taking a cue from Dukes of Hazzard to enter/exit MARV, we picked up a new lock mechanism for $76 from an RV place just outside of Kansas City.
Last night, after joining a fruitful Liberty Restoration Project meeting and grabbing a bite with Brad Spangler, we hit the road – eager to put a dent in our 10hr drive. But that wasn’t in the cards. One of our rear tires blew out almost as soon as we left town. This morning we creeped a mile and a half to Dale’s Service in De Soto, KS, borrowed a 20-ton bottle jack and impact wrench and swapped out the then-mangled tire with the spare. Dale requested $3 – his cost to dispose of the tire. We offered him more (as it was a huge help) and he finally agreed to take enough to cover a meal. He agreed that government was too big and invasive.
As I write this MARV is at D & D Tire Inc. in Lawrence, KS getting two new tires (another of MARV’s rear tires, which we had gotten last year, isn’t in good shape and we have to replace the spare). We decided it’d be a good investment to get new tires. And it’d provide us with a piece of mind and keep LOT on rolling. Per the prices we were quoted I’m guessing this will be about $450.
Those of here in Vegas are hoping that talk Adam and Pete had with MARV will keep and there will be no more unscheduled stops at repair shops. We'd also like to remind everyone that they can help offset these new, unexpected expenses by donating and/or purchasing an LOT t-shirt.
LAWRENCE, KS – Uncle Sam recently took a stroll through Philadelphia where his master plan first took shape. He decided to check out some of the sites and interact with the folks in the area. Though he’s not a personable fellow and was only worried about people paying his tax, which he claims to appreciate. The question is do you appreciate him having his hand in your pocket? (read original post)
On 19 August 2010 in St Louis, The Team of Liberty On Tour Pete and Adam had the small misfortune of having their RV M.A.R.V (Mobile Authority Resistance Vehicle) brake down on their way to The Show-Me Institute where they were going to be on a panel about filming police.
Well it took them 19 hrs and 60% of their funds to get M.A.R.V up and moving again, but they did get him going, and will continue to tour the country documenting, teaching, and participating in Liberty activities.
Check out their Vid they made about the ordeal.
You can help the guys out by supporting the cause of liberty by going to their support page. Donate 25$ or more and get this awesome T-shirt
ST. LOUIS, MO – I’ve heard Tom Palmer say that libertarians (to which I’d expand to anarchists/voluntaryists) have the right ideas but we just need to become better marketers of those ideas. A few months back I watched a YouTube video about time management. Obviously the subject interested me, otherwise I wouldn’t be watching it, but admittedly it was a bit dry. So what kept me watching for almost 10 minutes? The person communicating his tips wore different animal masks while speaking. So, just when I’d be about to click away I’d wait to see what his next mask would be. And I’d continue to listen and learn.
That video had hundreds of thousands of views.
With Liberty On Tour Adam and I are trying to be experimental. We know we’ll do some things that won’t have any traction. Perhaps this is one of them. But we figure it’s worth a try. Especially because we believe these ideas are worth sharing. If it makes the rounds to those not-yet exposed to the ideas of liberty it will have been well worth it. If it doesn’t, we’ll learn and move on. But at least we’ll have tried.
