Icelandic Cafe Starts “Pay As You Feel” Offer

A cafe in Hafnarfjörður has started a novel offer: for four hours a day, customers are able to pay what they think is fair, rather than a set price.

Pallett, a cafe in Hafnarfjörður that has been a consistent Grapevine favourite, has started a new offer: pay as you feel.

As Fréttablaðið reports, this offer is available every day, Monday through Friday, from 8:00 to 12:00. During these hours, customers can pay whatever they think is fair for their orders.

The owners, Pálmar Þór Hlöðversson and David Anthony Noble, say that the town of Hafnarfjörður, were Pallett is located, has been very good to them, and they wanted to express their gratitude in some particular way.

“We’ve always wanted to give something back to society, but have never been in a financial position to do so,” David told reporters. “We just run a little coffeeshop and haven’t had the money to give hundreds of thousands to the charitable organisations in town.”

They are not particularly worried about how or if the offer will pay off; this experiment has been successful in other corners of the world where it has been conducted. They do, though, believe it will take some time for people to get used to the idea, and to not feel guilty about being given the power to pay as they feel.

Nonetheless, they consider this “an experiment in trust”, and that people by nature will pay a fair price—or even more—for the quality of products and service that they are offering.