Oh, it was going to be so hilarious! April Fool’s Boloco-style never used to disappoint. I stressed about this all day, and honestly for many days leading up to it. And here we are at a few minutes before midnight (damn, it’s actually past midnight now), and nothing. I couldn’t do it. Argh!
Here it is, in all it’s glory. The fake press release that never was. (Get your readers on – small print warning)
It was entitled: “Celebrating Minimum Wage and a Win-Win!”
For the record, NONE of what is written is true – in our tests, people immediately started feeling unsettled and alarmed, even when they knew it was a test. Maybe that’s why I lost my nerve on this one, and in the process my sense of humor.
Why even try this, then? This was our desperate, bass-ackwards way of announcing that effective last month we officially pay every team member* (yup, the dreaded asterisk!) at Boloco $15 per hour or more 💰 💴 💵 . Since so few people react to that kind of news these days (a new pickle recipe on a Chick-Fil-A sandwich is how headlines are generated – not what they pay their people, right?!) we thought we’d twist it around a bit and see what happened. Maybe GO VIRAL!!! 😉 
But paying a livable wage is no joke, not even on April Fool’s. We’ve been working toward this moment for so many years. Now we need to prove that it can work – that our small business can still survive through what remains of Covid and thrive on the other side. We need your support (and business!) to do that. $15 per hour (as a minimum, don’t forget!) is only the start to doing what’s right for hard-working people – in food service and many other industries. The fact that its not easy to make the business successful and in some cases viable while paying these wages should not deter any of us from moving forward anyway.
Our good friends Tom O’Keefe (aka @BostonTweet) and Jorgy Cruz put together a video last week where they asked me “Why $15?”. It’s short, take a look if you like. They have some other important interviews on their new site Impact Video Group too… worth a visit. Click the image below.
Happy April Fool’s. I hope this message finds you, your friends and your families looking forward to a lot of new possibilities and a glorious spring and summer as we slowly move on from Covid. We hope to see you soon.
John
John Pepper
Co-Founder
