Restaurant's "Pay What You Want" Plan Somehow Goes Worse Than You'd Expect

No matter where you are, opening a restaurant is extremely tough, and first-timers the world over have tried just about every dumb marketing tactic imaginable to get people in the door. Sometimes it works. And sometimes, even the best-intentioned ideas backfire spectacularly.

Take Chinese restaurateur Liu Xiaojun. Perhaps inspired by Panera, the well-meaning owner recently launched a special "pay what they want" campaign at her Guiyang cafe. As a part of the October promotion, customers were encouraged to set their own prices based on their overall experience -- no limit on orders, no menu items off-limits. And though we'd love to live in a world where good-hearted diners took this gesture as a generous and tip-worthy promotion, that just wasn't the case. Because people are the worst.

While the restaurant did manage to attract a bounty of new customers, those newcomers viewed the offer as nothing more than a consensual dine-and-ditch opportunity. According to Shanghaiist, some hungry misers dropped just a single note on the table, about 10% of what the bill would normally cost. Some, of course, left chump change or nothing at all. Figures.

Overall, Xiaojun's devastatingly misguided operation only lasted a week and cost the poor lady 100,000 RMB, which adds up to somewhere around $15,000 USD. One of her partners was so pissed he literally took the first train back to his hometown. Turns out nice guys really do finish last.

Sign up here for our daily Thrillist email, and get your fix of the best in food/drink/fun.

Meredith Heil is a staff writer for Thrillist. That's what happen when you slackin' and don't pay bills -- we get it crackin' in Manhattan, don't test her skills. Follow her @mereditto.