Cheap ass customers.
Hey there people,
Just wondering if any of you have some cheap customers that come into your shop.
Over the past couple months I have seen people a few...
1- One person asked for an espresso shot and hot water on the side, they then mixed them and used the milk on the tables to make a little flat white.
2- Another comes in almost daily with her own tea bag and asks for hot water but refuses to pay, she just sits there and drinks her own tea.
3- And finally the last one is people sharing tea, I've had people order tea then their friend comes up a couple mins later and asks for a mug of hot water and is less than happy when we charge them for it but when she returns to her table she takes her friends tea bags and sticks it in her water.
All of these people sit at tables and wont move for well over an hour while they chat away to their friends.
Have any of you had customers like this?
Just wondering if any of you have some cheap customers that come into your shop.
Over the past couple months I have seen people a few...
1- One person asked for an espresso shot and hot water on the side, they then mixed them and used the milk on the tables to make a little flat white.
2- Another comes in almost daily with her own tea bag and asks for hot water but refuses to pay, she just sits there and drinks her own tea.
3- And finally the last one is people sharing tea, I've had people order tea then their friend comes up a couple mins later and asks for a mug of hot water and is less than happy when we charge them for it but when she returns to her table she takes her friends tea bags and sticks it in her water.
All of these people sit at tables and wont move for well over an hour while they chat away to their friends.
Have any of you had customers like this?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Derryl Reid on
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Grumpy old lady walks up to us at the market!
Old Lady; “how much for a coffee?”
Me; “$2 Ma’am”
Old Lady sounding very grumpy now; “How come so much?”
Me; “I personally roasted the coffee,” I say with a smile.
Old Lady; “& you’re worth $2?”
Me now having been put in my place; “Well it is Fairtrade & Organically grown!”
I can still see I haven’t won her over.
Me; “It is also served in a compostable cup with a compostable lid”
Old lady begrudgingly hands over her $2
Every Saturday now, she comes up to us with a big smile! “I’ll have my usual please! ”
And I hand this sweet little lady her coffee with an even bigger smile!
My Son while working with me one day commented on another old couple that came to our booth. He said they were the crankiest looking couple he has even seen come up to the booth. I greeted them with a smile & some joking banter. They left smiling & laughing. My son said that was cool how they left looking so happy.
I told him I look at it as a fun challenge; if I can get people to leave with a smile on their face I did my job! & Most of the times you win, it very rare that you don’t!
Serving people is one of the hardest jobs there is; It is much more fun though to turn people around than feeding the grumpy beast in us all! Everyone looses
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Permalink Reply by David Robson on
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Haha thats quite funny. Sounds like something straight out of my work.
But on another note, I did start this with the intentions to hear of funny moments people have had with cheap/cheeky customers. I wasn't looking for solutions or any advice that has been given in previous posts, much appreciated but it's not my cafe and I'm not in the position to make changes. I might not even be there in a months time.
Terika said:I worked at a coffee shop where a regular would come in with his own really big travel mug, order a double shot, and proceed to the condiment bar to fill it up with half and half...he eventually got so lazy that he would pay for the double shot and then ask us to fill it up with half and half for him...my manager just about jumped the counter when that started. :)
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Permalink Reply by Maggie Cook on
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John,
Part of the "value" of coffee includes what it costs to run your store. If you offered only what coffee is "worth" you would sell it at cost and you would have no chairs, tables, mugs, store, employees, or coffee machine.
Also: in your response to Bryan- you have layers and layers of made up numbers and other factors. I could just as easily respond with "welllll, coffee shop A has an awesome coffee shop and more customers want to go there" and it would be just as valid as the meaning your numbers your represent.
What I will say though is, with a higher quality coffee, the cost is higher. So the numbers you made up don't quite work, even for your example. (revenue and money made are not the same thing). However. You could easily tell me customers are attracted to coffee shops that have stigma. That's true- sometimes! And sometimes customers are attracted to shops that offer drip coffee. And refills. Not all coffee drinkers are coffee snobs. I don't think offering refills vs. no refills is the issue, I think the issue is what type of shop you own and what works best for your image.
Some coffee shops really embrace that coffee snob style, and for them doing away with drip coffee etc would work. If your shop is in NYC this will draw enough customers. In my town, that wouldn't work. It's not because people are cheap, it's because they don't have enough money to pay for super high end product. You have to find a medium and find what works for both customer and store.
John P said:Maggie,
Offering coffee who's value is determined by something other than the coffee itself seems counterproductive.
Maggie Cook said:I disagree that offering a lower price for the second cup cheapens the coffee. I would cheapen a latte if you made the second one cheaper because the exact same process takes place twice- so why would it be cheaper the second time? However, with drip coffee- the first time you are paying for the use of a cup, the service of the server, for someone to clean up after you etc. All the other times all you're doing is refilling the cup, so it would make sense for it to be cheaper.
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Permalink Reply by Bryan Wray on
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Also, a point I didn't make earlier...
We only offer refills on drip product, not on press, Chemex or Vac Pot.
-bry
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Permalink Reply by Julian Gan on
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Ugh. I have stories:
Situation one: two Asian women come in, order, and pay for two medium-sized Americano's to stay. They sit down at a table, and are shortly joined by two friends who have just walked through the door. One woman (usually the one who paid) comes up to the bar and asks for two extra mugs, half-filled with hot water. I oblige. She returns to her table, where I witness her POURING PART OF THE AMERICANOS INTO THE MUGS WITH HOT WATER FOR HER FRIENDS! This is often repeated with different people. And I don't want to stereotype (because I'm one myself), but Asians are sometimes really, really, cheap!
Situation two: not really just cheap, but damn rude. Group of (pre)teen skater boys come in, use the milk and chocolate powder at our condiment stands to make chocolate milk for themselves. Sucked for them when they got caught by the manager. :)
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Julian Gan said:Ugh. I have stories:
Situation one: two Asian women come in, order, and pay for two medium-sized Americano's to stay. They sit down at a table, and are shortly joined by two friends who have just walked through the door. One woman (usually the one who paid) comes up to the bar and asks for two extra mugs, half-filled with hot water. I oblige. She returns to her table, where I witness her POURING PART OF THE AMERICANOS INTO THE MUGS WITH HOT WATER FOR HER FRIENDS! This is often repeated with different people. And I don't want to stereotype (because I'm one myself), but Asians are sometimes really, really, cheap!
Situation two: not really just cheap, but damn rude. Group of (pre)teen skater boys come in, use the milk and chocolate powder at our condiment stands to make chocolate milk for themselves. Sucked for them when they got caught by the manager. :)
Wow... re: #2 I wish I would have been that smart when I was their age. As horribly rude as it is, that's freakin brilliant.
-bry
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Gaah... I was trying to avoid bringing this up at all in this thread, so I'm going to blame you, haha...
Why do customer's think it is okay to bring something into a coffee shop from another establishment?
Why is this so limited to coffee shops? Have you ever seen someone show up to a restaurant with a to-go box from another restaurant? No because they are at that restaurant to f****ng eat! Why do people come to coffee shops, that serve coffee mind you, with the intention of not buying coffee? I understand the whole culture background thing and being part of the local arts and what not, but sitting down and using the internet for 3 hours while eating a sandwich from Jimmy Johns and drinking water brought in is NOT supporting anything but a selfish habit.
Before this rant goes insane, I'll just let other people do my ranting for me.
-bry
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I guess that's why coffee shops feel pressure to serve more and more food. If I owned a coffee shop (which I don't, and I assume you feel a little more strongly if you're the owner) I don't think I would mind if a customer brought in a sandwich with them if they bought a latte or something from my shop- provided I didn't serve food. (Or if I just served cookies etc.) Then I'm not really losing money.
If you do serve food it's just like any other restaurant and they should respect that...just like they do at other restaurants. And I agree they should buy something that's not just water.
Bryan Wray said:Gaah... I was trying to avoid bringing this up at all in this thread, so I'm going to blame you, haha...
Why do customer's think it is okay to bring something into a coffee shop from another establishment?
Why is this so limited to coffee shops? Have you ever seen someone show up to a restaurant with a to-go box from another restaurant? No because they are at that restaurant to f****ng eat! Why do people come to coffee shops, that serve coffee mind you, with the intention of not buying coffee? I understand the whole culture background thing and being part of the local arts and what not, but sitting down and using the internet for 3 hours while eating a sandwich from Jimmy Johns and drinking water brought in is NOT supporting anything but a selfish habit.
Before this rant goes insane, I'll just let other people do my ranting for me.
-bry
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Permalink Reply by John P on
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Bryan,
Best WTF (is wrong with these people) post ever!
Please, all entitlement wanting, nonsense thinking, cheap, rude, and functionally illiterate people stay away so we can all make room for good PAYING customers. Thank You. :)
Bryan Wray said:Gaah... I was trying to avoid bringing this up at all in this thread, so I'm going to blame you, haha...
Why do customer's think it is okay to bring something into a coffee shop from another establishment?
Why is this so limited to coffee shops? Have you ever seen someone show up to a restaurant with a to-go box from another restaurant? No because they are at that restaurant to f****ng eat! Why do people come to coffee shops, that serve coffee mind you, with the intention of not buying coffee? I understand the whole culture background thing and being part of the local arts and what not, but sitting down and using the internet for 3 hours while eating a sandwich from Jimmy Johns and drinking water brought in is NOT supporting anything but a selfish habit.
Before this rant goes insane, I'll just let other people do my ranting for me.
-bry
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Permalink Reply by Mike McGinness on
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A-fracken-men. Hell and even not bring in their own water but get some of my iced with lemon slices water I have out for customers and dirty a glass. And THEN leave a mess on the table for you to clean up. And I have a fairly extensive food menu.
It doesn't happen often, but it surely does tick me off when it happens. Yes sometimes someone willl come in with someone else who does buy something, but I've had a whole family come in with bags of food from some cheapo grease bomb fast food place and squat down ordering nadda. I haven't yet, but probably really should put up one of those "no outside food or drink allowed" signs. Though sign should be needed IMO, but then some people have no common sense or respect. All I really need to do is walk up and ask them to leave telling them the truth, outside food or drink is a Health Code Violation. But yeah, I hate confrontations.
Bryan Wray said:Gaah... I was trying to avoid bringing this up at all in this thread, so I'm going to blame you, haha...
Why do customer's think it is okay to bring something into a coffee shop from another establishment?
Why is this so limited to coffee shops? Have you ever seen someone show up to a restaurant with a to-go box from another restaurant? No because they are at that restaurant to f****ng eat! Why do people come to coffee shops, that serve coffee mind you, with the intention of not buying coffee? I understand the whole culture background thing and being part of the local arts and what not, but sitting down and using the internet for 3 hours while eating a sandwich from Jimmy Johns and drinking water brought in is NOT supporting anything but a selfish habit.
Before this rant goes insane, I'll just let other people do my ranting for me.
-bry
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Permalink Reply by Thomas Ervin-Ward on
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Yeah our customers just aren't that cheap.
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Permalink Reply by Amy Napier-Boley on
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Seriously?? Now that's just clever. You've gotta give her props for devising such a plan.
Fraser Jamieson said:For the past couple of weeks, or thereabouts, a regular customer has been coming in our back door and sitting down at a table, with her laptop. From out of her computer case she also pulls one of our paper cups and props it on the table, lid and all.
The only trouble is: we changed the colour of our cup jacket, and she's still got the old one.
Oh well, God bless her for trying to look like she bought something.
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