We are all navigating strange times at the moment and there is much conversation about the ‘new normal’. What will life be like in six months or a year? Will business continue in the same way or will this situation give birth to different, better ways of doing things? Will this be an opportunity to rebuild, fix and revolutionise?
For Living Wage employer Happy Maki, the revolution comes in the form of pay-as-you-feel vegan sushi and they are currently crowdfunding to make this happen. We wanted to share this with you in case you needed a little good news today.
Happy Maki is planning to open a new restaurant concept and business model based on gift economy.
The new menu will see build your own vegan sushi bowls with special ingredients like “salmon” sashimi, ginger and miso tempeh and ponzu mango, raw options and more desserts added alongside their already popular sushi burrito menu. In addition to this the till interface is going to the first of its kind, customer facing digital and contactless and it will be up to you how much you pay for your meal, if anything.
They are currently crowdfunding on Indiegogo for £80,000.00 to renovate their new space on Sydney Street in the North Lanes of Brighton, which they hope to open in June 2020. Happy Maki is an award winning not for profit vegan sushi company, usually found trading at all the top music festivals and at a small takeaway shop near the Brighton Pier which operates at capacity in the Summer. They are very focused on doing ethical business with regards to their staff and the environment which includes having a vegan menu and running off 100% green energy.
Their next experiment hopes to change the motive behind why we do business, to serve the community in a more regenerative and kinder way which is not for personal profit. The experiment hopes to challenge the limiting emotions many have surrounding money and to encourage giving gifts instead of making transactions, after all true love is a gift and expects nothing in return. This pay as you feel approach was trialled at two of their summer events with both positive results and responses from customers. Learnings were that a lot of customers wanted to pay their way but were unsure of running costs. Also using cash slowed down the process and meant it could no longer be anonymous. The new pay as you feel till interface offers customer the choice to see a suggested donation based on what they have ordered, menus will show suggested prices and all donations will cashless.
Developers are innovating with the Happy Maki team to create this first-of-its-kind experience. The developed software will be placed online for anyone to benefit from. Anna MacDonald, Happy Maki Founder said: “On a fundamental level we want to change the motive behind why we do business, removing the demand on the customer alongside making healthy vegan food accessible to everyone.”
To support this incredible project and find out more about how your donations will help, head over to their crowdfunding platform here. Thanks so much to Happy Maki for sharing this great news with us and for being brave enough to take this game changing step – we hope we can join you in your restaurant before long!
We're tremendously lucky that so many people want to donate their time to us as volunteers, but that doesn't make us lose sight of the value of people's time. One of the things we're here to do as a charity is promote equality, so we're very happy to sign up to the campaign to show…
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For my own business, it would be crazy and wrong to pay people less than the Living Wage. For Brighton and Hove, it's important that we have successful businesses, a thriving economy, and happy and healthy employees.
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