Many people have dreams of starting their own business. Often pursuing a passion, they want to put the work in to make a product their customers will love.
What about those who start businesses just for the money? This story delves into one man’s experience running a fake restaurant, and the impression he left on the internet with his story.
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In recent years, we’ve seen a boom in food delivery apps.
Though UberEats remains the most well-known, a whole legion of similar apps cropped up to create competition and snag their own portion of the market.
Restaurants far and wide signed up for these services so their food could reach more customers, creating a whole new sector of the food industry world.
Thanks to COVID-19, there’s been another shift in how restaurants operate.
With many small, family-owned locations needing to shut down for various pandemic-related reasons, some people have moved their restaurants to their own home.
By operating solely on food delivery apps, they can run their business right from their kitchen.
One entrepreneur decided to take advantage of that fact and started up his own home-operated restaurant.
He registered the business, ordered takeout boxes, made social media accounts, and even printed off fliers that he then left in mailboxes all around his city.
The problem? Well, calling what he does a “restaurant” is pretty generous.
He decided to take to a confession board to tell his story.
His post grew popular on r/confession on Reddit, with over 2000 people commenting their opinions. In it, he detailed the operation of his business, stating that he makes around £200 (or $260 USD) a day, and asked if he should feel bad.
At first, many were questioning the legality of his practice, which he then came back to clarify.
In an edit to his original post, he wrote, “I’m doing everything by the law. I’m in the UK, so yes, I can work out of a non-commercial kitchen, yes I am registered and will pay taxes in Jan, yes I have my certificates and yes I have insurance […].
“This shouldn’t be your concern, I’m legal. This is a confession sub, not legal advice. Not breaking any laws, just ruining my karma irl […].”
What did the other comments say, then?
There was a mix of approval and absolute bewilderment at the whole situation.
One user wrote, “I’m impressed at the flyers part. You had to go the extra mile […].” In response to that, someone else commented, “I mean it genuinely just sounds like OP started a full-on business lmao.”
Some even expressed interest in following in his footsteps.
“As an unemployed broke college student I’m gonna steal this idea. I feel it’s more honorable to tell you rather than just do it,” someone replied, which the original poster enthusiastically backed.
So, what exactly did he do? What was his restaurant?
While he did put in work to actually create the business, all he does in terms of “cooking” is reheating microwavable meals. His entire menu is frozen entrées.
“Nobody suspects a thing […],” he writes, “I feel kind of proud to be fair and free as a bird from the 9-5 life.”
Does this make him a fraud or a genius?
A few commenters compared his business to the existence of ghost kitchens , restaurants with no storefront that exist solely on delivery services, but the difference there is that he doesn’t make his own food.
Seeing as his original post was created to ask the world if he should feel bad, what do you think? Should he?
h/t: Reddit
