The Honor System
Ok, seriously, how often do you actually see a business that is truly implenting a 100% honor based system. I am not talking about a farm stand or someone selling eggs or firewood in their driveway, I am talking about a full fledged business that runs completely on the honor system. Well, I can say it is not often at all.
Today, while running holiday shopping errands, which in Downeast Maine is an entire days worth of driving, we got instructed by friends to go pick up cheesecake. You see up here, where these shopping trips are all day affairs, people sort of pile on with their needs once they know someone is making a run. So, our first stop of the day was to get cheesecake. Simple enough, or so it seemed.
We pull up to a beautiful little red building with an ‘open’ flag flying outside. Never having been here before and during COVID, we waited at the door to be let in. Another customer, already inside, waved us in. Actually we thought she was the checkout clerk, but we would learn later she was just another guest signing the guest book.
You see, this place, this little cheesecake Mecca is 100% self serve and 100% honor system. Coolers fill the place with single servings of cheesecake — lemon, blueberry, strawberry, key lime, cookie dough, ginger bread, and yes, even Reeses Cup… With a sign to help everyone do the math, you help yourself and the pay into a steel till. A smaller till sits beside the bigger till for change. It is all based on the honor system.
To say that I am blown away is an understatement. In the town where I spend half my year, they would steel all the cheesecake, rip out the till and leave the front of the building defaced. I seriously can’t imagine the trust these owners have in the local population. And, lest you think this is crazy, they are open 24x7. Seriously, stop there any time, day or night and you can get scratch made cheesecake in whatever flavor you desire.
So, I am in awe of what this couple has created and after purchasing 75$ worth of cake, can’t wait to try it out and report back on just how good it is.
G-
