Taking a stand on social issues isn’t always as easy for businesses as it should seem – especially for small businesses. On issues where passions get particularly fired up, you stand the chance of alienating a good portion of potential customers, and that can really affect your bottom line.
And you’d think that might have been the case for this vegan cafe that’s closing up shop. Already facing stiff competition from the Starbucks’ of the world, you would think that a rigid stance that drew headlines might have done them harm. But the owners say that’s not at all what happened.
Handsome Her, a neighborhood vegan cafe in Melbourne, Australia first gained notoriety for its stance on the gender pay gap.
To make their feelings about the gender pay gap clear and draw some attention to the issue, the owners started charging a so-called “man tax” – every male customer at Handsome Her would have to pay 18% more than women to reflect the inequity in men’s and women’s salaries, donating that extra 18% to a women’s service.
Needless to say, the cafe made quite a stir for the move, even grabbing international headlines for a while.
The man tax did more than merely spark a conversation. A certain angry corner of the internet was up in arms, calling it discriminatory and suggesting the cafe was setting itself up for failure. You don’t have to scroll far down the comments in even current social media posts to find nastiness directed at them over the man tax.
Heck, even some supporters thought the man tax was a bad plan for a good cause.
And indeed, just two years after opening, Handsome Her is closing.
The owners have announced that the little vegan cafe “by women, for women” is shutting its doors for good.
However, they want to emphasize that it has nothing to do with the man tax, which many male customers have been more than willing to pay.
In a Facebook post, the owners explained that the vitriolic online comments did not scare them away.
“We’ve never shied away from controversy in the spirit of social justice and it seems fitting that we go out in the same style in which we came in: a whirlwind of sad, angry male tears,” they wrote.
“Let us assure you that we are not closing because of: A) Male tears or misogynistic vitriol from men’s rights activists.
“We’re lesbians, we’re quite used witnessing the fragility of the male ego which literally cannot compute the idea of a woman who is not interested in them.”
And the business was done just fine making money, they said.
“If you’ve been in you know we are doing just fine. Our fans and regulars can smell a rat when it comes to fake google reviews from #sadmen. Most of our male customers have happily paid above and beyond the optional surcharge (man tax) which we donate to charity,” they wrote.
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“Handsome Her was somewhat of a social experiment for us outside of our professional realms, and we have seen that it works to put our politics to the forefront in life and in business.”
So why is Handsome Her closing up shop?
Because the owners don’t want to be in the cafe business anymore.
They have other things they want to do with their lives – although what exactly they were moving onto they didn’t get into details about, saying only that “We look forward to continuing Handsome Her in a variety of other, more creative ways and expanding our efforts to drive change with flexibility and mobility throughout Australia.”
“As much as people would love to believe it, sorry but the [man] tax did not run our business into the ground … we have sold the business because we are young, educated and off on our next adventure!
“For those of you who have run your own small business, you know how much time, blood, sweat and tears it takes, and we are looking forward to a slower, more deliberate way of living out in the world and putting our feminist, vegan, low-waste politics into practice,” they wrote.
And even though they found themselves in the middle of an international debate, the owners say they’re proud of what they’ve accomplished.
And for their last day, they’re donating all proceeds to Maiti Nepal, a group that’s committed to protecting Nepalese women and girls from domestic violence, human trafficking, and all forms of abuse and exploitation.
