An anti-capitalist cafeteria in Canada will close its doors after a year of operations. The Anarchist allowed customers to pay what they wanted, but his model didn’t catch on.
The Anarchist opened in March 2022 on Toronto’s Jarvis Street and will close on May 30. The owner of the store, Gabriel Sims-Fewer, points out the lack of financial resources to be sustainable as the reason for the closure.
“Unfortunately, the lack of generational wealth/seed capital from ethically bankrupt sources prevented me from surviving the quiet winter season or growing in the way necessary to be sustainable in the long term,” Gabriel “The Anarchist” wrote on the cafe’s website. .
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The Anarchist Cafe came to be described as a radical anti-capitalist cafe, shop, and community space. The cafeteria’s “pay what you can” model was subsidized by more expensive beverages such as espresso and tea drinks, as well as breakfast pastries.
The place also had a selection of radical books, art, pins, T-shirts and other merchandise from independent artists for sale.
“It has been an incredible experience, connecting with so many members of the community, sparking desperately needed discussion, raising the blood pressure of conservatives (that includes you “anarcho-capitalists” and “libertarians”), fulfilling the dream of most service workers to not have to tolerate the presence of professional class traitors…”, Gabriel pointed out.
The cafe received support from Pop Coffee Works, as the coffee supplier and owner of the venue, offering the premises free of charge for six months. Gabriel points out that this group was easily able to sell the place or rent it out for more than double what they were charged, so their cafeteria would not have existed without them.
Although he only had to pay at the beginning, it was all he wanted to sell, the Internet and public services, That was much more money than he had, admits the owner of The Anarchist.
Despite The Anarchist’s closure, the owner said that it “has been a huge success in every way I’d hoped for, giving me so much inspiration and education that I plan to use it in future projects.”
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