I am working at a coffee stand inside an attraction. It’s a little expensive, as things tend to be when you have a captive audience, but I just work there; I am a peon who has no input on pricing. This happens shortly after we open.

Customer: “Can I get a large cappuccino?”

Me: “Sure, that’s £2.85.”

Customer: “Aren’t you embarrassed to be charging those prices?”

Me: “Do you have a season pass? There’s a discount for season pass holders.”

Customer: “I’m just saying, it’s ridiculous what you’re charging.”

Me: “I’m sorry, sir, would you still like the cappuccino?”

Customer: “Well, I don’t have any choice, I guess.”

Other than drinking a coffee before you get here, ordering a cheaper coffee, or drinking water which we will give you for free. Clearly no options at all.

Related:
Cappuccino-No-No, Part 2
Cappuccino-No-No

As someone who managed a coffee shop for over nineteen years, I can say that people staying for an unlimited time is not a problem, but I have some rules that sadly have to be made clear: 1. Be friendly 2. If you can buy something 3. Don’t watch adult sites in the store.

Rule three was required because usually, an older male would be watching that stuff in the store. I would ask them to stop:

Me: “Sir, we can all see it; there’s reflective artwork behind you.”

Of course, this would start the verbal attacks. 

Seriously, don’t do that in a coffee shop!

I work at a coffee shop in Canada. My location has this rule that you absolutely get written up if you are late over two minutes, but you do not get in any form of trouble if you call out. I live an hour each way from where I work, and the roads can be treacherous in the winter.

On one occasion, it is especially bad, and I am exactly five minutes late. I don’t even get to clock in before I am in the office getting reamed out for my terrible insubordination. I confirm the policy and refuse to sign the write-up.

About two months later, the same situation comes back around. I arrive in the parking lot and I look around to see the absolute demonic blizzard taking place. The clock shows me I have two minutes until my shift starts. Since they want to play that game, I call from the parking lot to tell them I won’t be in; the roads are just too bad. I don’t get in an amoeba of trouble for it.

Soon, everyone learns the same thing as I did, and callouts become frequent. Nobody in management has ever figured out why.

A famous singer comes into our coffee place and orders a drink. We’re in an area of California where you would see a lot of celebrities.

Me: “That will be [total].”

The singer seems to be shocked that I have charged her.

Singer: “Don’t you know who I am?”

Me: “Yes, you’re the person holding up my line by refusing to pay for your drink. Beyond that I don’t care.”

I didn’t last long after that.

Many, many years ago, I worked in a small coffee shop on a university campus. Work was great and we had fun and loved the owners. Unfortunately, after I’d worked there for two years, they retired.

The new owner came in and put up multiple cameras — like eight in a three-meter-by-ten-meter coffee shop with all the cameras trained on the counter and staff areas. He started to proposition the girls — we were all university students, so seventeen to twenty-one years old — that they would get extra shifts if they went home with him. If you argued back, then you got your work hours cut down to the bare minimum.

Our uniform was just a loose black polo shirt with the cafe logo, black pants, and closed shoes — standard coffee shop staff attire. A couple of months in, the new owner decided that the uniform would change, but only for the girls.

Now the girls would wear a midriff top with the cafe logo and low-rise pants. The boys still got to wear the old uniform. We argued that it was unsafe — hot coffee and plates of food next to bare skin — and got told too bad, so sad. Staff got together and hashed out a plan.

On the first day of the new uniform, the girls showed up in the old uniform. The boys showed up in the midriff tops and the low-rise pants.

The new uniform policy lasted an hour. The boss was not impressed.

No one lost their job because our coffee shop was right next to the law faculty. One of the students had already had a conversation with her lecturer about what was going on. I’m pretty sure that if we’d been fired for non-compliance with uniform, that the boss would have found himself in far more trouble.