Pirate Party ALMOST Ejected From Festival For Giving Out Free Waffles After Vendors Selling Waffles Complained (Updated)

from the waffle-waffle dept

Update: Correcting this post as I misread how the situation ended, in which they were allowed to stay after they were almost ejected. I apologize for that wholeheartedly. The "tweets" in the middle were a little confusing and I read them to mean that they had been removed, but as many people in the comments pointed out that was incorrect. I'm sorry for the error, and, as always, strive to fix any such mistakes as quickly as possible.

One of the key things that we find in story after story around here is that those who have a particular business model seem to think that any disruption of that business model must be illegal (or, worse, immoral). Sometimes instances of this come from strange places. For example, the Swedish Young Pirates officially set up shop at a local municipal festival, where they had permission to make food and give it to attendees. They started making waffles and giving them away for free. What they didn't realize was that others at the festival were trying to sell waffles, and they complained. The end result? Almost bye bye, young pirates (see update above). Yes, they got were almost evicted from the festival not for breaking any rules -- but for annoying the existing waffle-sellers by disrupting their business models. Thankfully, they called the police, and were allowed to stay after first having to stop making waffles while everything was sorted out. It is, in many ways, the same story we write about all the time, just in a different context. Disrupting someone else's business model is not a crime -- and often (as in this case) makes things better for consumers. It's just too bad so many "officials" kowtow to the legacy players and seek to shut down any and all innovation... though, sometimes, in the end, they come through and fix things.

Filed Under: business models, disruption, free, free waffles, pirate party, sweden