# But now where can I go for cup-based meals? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 13, 2017, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-now-where-can-i-go-for-cup-based-meals/798741 "2017-10-13T17:39:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2017, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-now-where-can-i-go-for-cup-based-meals/798741/41 "2017-10-14T03:05:21Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Okay, so I never actually heard of the place before they invited a kerfuffle. Apparently, [shoving a meal into a cardboard cup](https://www.cupitup.com/) was something some people thought was a good idea. (I suppose it is a step above Soylent.) > > But now they’ve closed down because they also thought making a Facebook post about how pro-Trump and anti-(belief in) global warming they are, and it [went](http://tucson.com/tucson-s-cup-it-up-closes-after-weekend-of-backlash/collection_fa071ed4-ad15-11e7-a001-073cdcdd4cb0.html#1) [badly](https://tucsonfoodie.com/2017/10/09/cup-it-up-american-closes/). Wow. That’s a basic “know your audience” mistake. Even if Trump was this great guy and global warming was a hoax, you’d have to be an idiot to take a stand on that when your customers will almost all be people who hate Trump and believe in global warming. I’d actually be more likely to think they did this on purpose than they made this dumb a mistake. Who did they think would want those types of meals? ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2017, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-now-where-can-i-go-for-cup-based-meals/798741/42 "2017-10-14T03:09:13Z")
> [@Bayard](#): > > The owners say they received harassing and threatening phone calls all weekend. If so, I hope those who made the calls are found and subject to whatever charges are relevant. Harassment and threats can’t be condoned. But it would depend on what they actually said, and whether it was actual harassment (or just a bunch of phone calls of people who were angry at them). And you can threaten things other than violence. I don’t see them giving any examples, so I can’t judge, other than to say they should include examples if they want me to believe they aren’t being the typical Republican snowflakes that are so popular as of late. Oh, and I now see some of you are asking why they’d do it on purpose: to further the persecution myth. You know, like that guy at Google. Maybe they wanted to go out in a blaze. Or, yes, they expected people to get mad about all of it and crowdfund them. Maybe they hated the owner guy and wanted to hurt him. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2017, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-now-where-can-i-go-for-cup-based-meals/798741/43 "2017-10-14T03:22:26Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > But it would depend on what they actually said, and whether it was actual harassment (or just a bunch of phone calls of people who were angry at them). And you can threaten things other than violence. _Puh-lease_. Of _course_ they got death threats. Sending death threats to people who say something that you don’t like is as casual as a handshake on social media and because of social media and you know it. It isn’t remotely limited to the right threatening the left, it is also the left threatening the right. I have no doubt whatsoever that people who are supposed to be on “my side” of the issue were contacting them to threaten to murder them and possibly their families, because that’s the sort of assholes the internet is filled with. ---
**Author:** ![Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/budget_player_cadet/32/205_2.png) [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2017, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-now-where-can-i-go-for-cup-based-meals/798741/44 "2017-10-14T09:00:10Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > What did they think would happen? Not death threats, buuuut… > [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > The first news link about the closing had the full post. [Here](https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/5/40/54057e60-05a5-52b8-bf4d-67a8afe9af76/59d7fc300a79f.image.jpg) is a direct link to the image. > > (The most ironic part is near the bottom: “If you like this post, please share it with 5 friends and we look forward to your next visit! If you disagree with this post, please share it with 100 friends and we won’t be expecting you any time soon!”) …Holy _shit_, who _does_ that? What kind of an idiot business-owner pulls a stunt like that? Like, I know, they believe a lot of stupid things, but how in the world did they imagine this was going to go over well? Did they never meet a single one of their customers? Obviously, death threats are never warranted, but losing your business over a post like this? _Totally_ valid. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2017, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-now-where-can-i-go-for-cup-based-meals/798741/45 "2017-10-14T10:46:56Z")
I agree that this was a Hail Mary play, and that this business was on the brink of collapse due to some other thing that would ultimately prove humiliating. So why not go out with a bang? Possibly even drum up some support, get some free press coverage AND some sympathy from the like minded. It is the only thing that explains this behaviour, to me. Especially how quickly they closed up after getting some offensive emails. That fast? Yeah, something else was up, for sure, in my opinion, ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2017, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-now-where-can-i-go-for-cup-based-meals/798741/46 "2017-10-14T14:30:27Z")
> [@Typo\_Negative](#): > > Does it seem to anyone else that they were _tryin_g to get closed down? It did, at a glance, feel to me like “Well, we’re about to go out of business anyway” rather than “Some people said mean stuff so let’s not have income any longer”. I get the impression that they weren’t giving up much of anything by closing it down. ---
**Author:** ![LongTimeLurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/45deac/32.png) [@LongTimeLurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LongTimeLurker)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2017, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-now-where-can-i-go-for-cup-based-meals/798741/47 "2017-10-15T14:37:47Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > What did they think would happen? Trump University Alumni. Their motto: Be white, be right. > [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Perhaps they were just tired of the amount of work involved in running the restaurant, and thought that (figuratively) blowing it up would let them establish a successful career as a public speaker on the right-wing circuit. They were obviously looking for a Papa Johns franchise opportunity. > [@Colibri](#): > > Given what they posted, the things these guys believe are incredibly stupid. Occam’s razor suggests that deciding to publicize them was also due to the fact that they are incredibly stupid rather than a clever business plan. And that very accurately describes most Trump voters. ---
**Author:** ![raventhief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/raventhief/32/4_2.png) [@raventhief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raventhief)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2017, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-now-where-can-i-go-for-cup-based-meals/798741/48 "2017-10-15T14:52:01Z")
I wonder if they wanted to get rid of the other guy, and this made him resign and initiate dis- tangling himself from the business legally. No muss of having to buy the guy out, or anything like that. They just miscalculated. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2017, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-now-where-can-i-go-for-cup-based-meals/798741/49 "2017-10-15T19:25:00Z")
I’m pretty convinced the FB posters totally believed they were saying stuff the whole world wanted to hear. It’s one of the side effects of living in the Trump fake media sphere: you only hear and see stuff you agree with. Including the White Right Silent Majority stuff. That would be stupid, but honestly stupid. OTOH, if business was poor or they had partner issues I could totally believe this was the plan: > [@BlankSlate](#): > > Maybe the business was failing so they made a political stand hoping that someone would start a generous GoFundMe for the victims of the evil libtards. Or they could become darlings of the right-wing media machine and cash in on the book rights and movie deal. Or Trump himself would swoop in and set them up with a new restaurant in New York City. It’s still a stupid plan, but when you’re trapped in a bad situation, a Hail Mary may be the only play left in the book. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2017, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-now-where-can-i-go-for-cup-based-meals/798741/50 "2017-10-15T19:42:39Z")
IMHO, the Facebook post AND the business model were stupid. Meal in a cup? It makes me think of the episode of Friends where (I think Rachel?) is trying to make a layered desert, has two pages of the cookbook stick together, and produces a monstrosity layering desert items and meat, which only Joey loved. I have no problem thinking that their business was already failing. (Especially since their prices look pretty high for college students who could instead by dozens of packs of ramen for the price of one meal-inna-cup.) ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2017, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-now-where-can-i-go-for-cup-based-meals/798741/51 "2017-10-15T23:26:13Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > (I suppose it is a step above Soylent.) Hey now. Soylent is good stuff. I keep a few around at home and work, in case I run out of time for a proper meal. Which I couldn’t do with a meal-in-a-cup. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-now-where-can-i-go-for-cup-based-meals/798741.md?page=2)