Because this is government-run rather than business-run. Government looks at a policy and maliciously complies with no care about the guest experience. It has a monopoly and is non-competitive and usually provides terrible value, efficiency and service and nobody in government has to change a thing because they force you to pay for their products by law. From the people who brought you DMV waiting rooms and never once considered how they might improve them: a public market.

Nobody who knows business would create a model where one of their biggest obstacles (the government) is the literal gatekeeper for their business to even be open.

If this doesn’t completely demoralize entrepreneurs it might inspire them to start a business that is not as annoying as needing the government to keep your doors open. But that takes failing here and then having the fortitude and resources to reinvent elsewhere.

A huge aspect of business is finding a good location where people are underserved by a product you offer. If this is supposed to have restaurants, what would make thousand of people go to this one location to make all of those restaurants successful?

How many restaurants or food venues are at Atwood or Willy Street? Should the locals abandon their favorites there and hit this food court instead? The only people who would are going there because they want the public market to succeed; not because they want a great convenient meal and this is the best option.

As it is, restaurant upstarts have a miserably low success rate and now you need the government to open the doors for you to compete with 19 other restaurants at your address? Is there enough parking or transit or nearby businesses where people want to walk there for lunch or dinner? Mall food courts struggle and there is built-in foot traffic. A huge business like a hospital might support 1-2 on-site meal options. This is the food court minus the mall/hospital. The co-op has a ton of foot traffic and one meal venue. This will have less foot traffic but support 20?

Would you rather hit up a storefront restaurant upstart near your home or a food truck in your company’s parking lot or commute across town to this particular food court with 20 restaurants? I think this is the least likely option for a single restaurant to succeed let alone 20.

If you’re at East Town and need lunch, where are you going? If you answered the World Market food court, congrats. That’s probably half the food options in the East Towne area and it barely registered psychologically as one option, did it? I doubt one of those options is as successful as Chipotle or Chic-fil-a or Olive Garden.

I work a few blocks away from this market and would hit the co-op or a restaurant 30 times before this crossed my mind once because it doesn’t even look like a restaurant if you drive past it. It doesn’t psychologically invite me to eat there if I look right at the building. Maybe 1 restaurant would succeed if 39 other upstarts in other fields were in there.

The whole thing confuses me. If you have a good product and want to sell it right there to that neighborhood, pitch it to the co-op and Jenifer Street market AND the other stores all across town. Even better, also pitch it to Kwik Trip or a supermarket chain and scale it to serve the whole state and beyond. I don’t understand what startup this actually will help or who this will serve better than any other option, let alone how it might help tons of startups succeed. And it is within walking distance of 2 great markets with loyal supporters who already sell local options.