From secondary sources I understand that customers could pay what they want for specialty coffee. Other articles were priced at a premium to subsidise this money losing endeavour. Turns out, people don't pay enough voluntarily to run a business.

After reviewing the homepage, I can easily imagine why customers might not want that brand of angry political messaging with their coffee purchase.

Maybe the pay-what-you want model wasn't the only problem?

https://heavytable.com/5-cent-coffee-at-wall-drug/

"5 CENT COFFEE AT WALL DRUG"

>The 5 cent coffee is located in multiple places within Wall Drug. There is no cashier — the customer serves herself. Dropping a nickel into a wooden box is all that is needed to pick up a ceramic mug to fill up.

We need on in Greece for sure