Business owners thought that if they fulfilled every customer’s request, they would have a good relationship with them and earn a loyal customer that would come back and make them profit. However, customers started abusing the politeness of business owners and will complain about anything when they feel that their needs are not met.
To protect their employees and the business itself, owners started clapping back and putting the rude customers in their place. This is evidenced in numerous social media posts in which business owners are exposing their customers or they are replying to negative reviews by telling their side of the story.
A new screenshot of such a reply to a review went viral because of the ridiculousness of the situation. It seems that a person came to a cafe, brought food with themselves, accused the business of being racist or sexist and complained about being asked to leave.
More info: Reddit
Business owner uses their words to put down an entitled customer that doesn't know how coffee shops work and people love it
Image credits: VasenkaPhotography (not the actual photo)
The review gives the coffee shop two stars and explains that even though it’s a busy place and a cute environment to do homework, the coffee itself is not very good. The customer was also not very satisfied with the diversity of the shop and believed that they were asked to leave because they were not Caucasian.
As it can be assumed from the review, the coffee shop is located in Dacula, which is a small city with a population of about 6,000 people in Georgia and is considered an exurb of Atlanta. According to Niche, it is true that the biggest part of the population is white, but a quarter of it is African American, a fifth is Hispanic and a small percentage is Asian or other races.
A customer left a 2-star review because they were asked to leave as they brought in a Starbucks coffee
Image credits: AndThenThereWasLily
While that doesn’t mean that people are automatically friendly to people of color, it does raise questions as to why the customer even mentioned it in the first place.
More suspicion is raised when you hear from the owner saying that half of their staff is non-Caucasian and they have roots in over 5 countries. They also add that about half of their guests are also people of other races than Caucasian.
They explained that the coffee in the shop was terrible and the staff wasn't diverse enough
Image credits: AndThenThereWasLily
But the weirdest part of the review was when the customer complained that the coffee shop was bothered that they brought a Starbucks coffee with them as they didn’t bother anyone sitting there.
The owner of the coffee shop explained that actually, they expect everyone who comes in to make a purchase to be able to sit there. However, they don’t enforce the rule as it is a popular place just to hang out or to meet before going elsewhere.
But bringing in your own food and drinks is going too far, especially when it’s from a competitor down the street. The owner points out that Starbucks would have reacted in the same way if they saw someone bring in a coffee from another coffee shop.
Not only were they dissatisfied with the diversity of the employees, they interpreted the request to leave as a racist act
Image credits: bizmac (not the actual photo)
The whole reply of the owner is loaded with sarcasm and subtle insults like jabbing at the person’s taste in coffee and how entitled they are but without using direct insults, cuss words or profanity.
People loved the wording and the arguments and were shocked by the person who wrote the review because they too believed that it was common sense to not bring food bought from another establishment into a coffee shop.
The readers also couldn’t miss the last sentence of the review in which the reviewer said that the coffee shop was racist and the only reason they weren’t allowed to sit there with Starbucks was that it wasn’t “a welcoming place for anyone that’s not Caucasian.” Racism is a real problem, but in this case, it was their actions that lead to the person being kicked out and not their race.
The coffee shop owner replied to the review and pointed out that it's common sense that you don't bring food or drinks bought elsewhere to an establishment
Coffee shops survive from the profit they get when they sell something, so it is understandable that they don’t want people sitting inside their shop and not ordering anything, taking up a seat that could potentially go to a buying client.
Online blog Eater writes, “When you take up space for an extended period of time while using the cafe’s internet, draining the electricity from their outlets, and using the bathroom, you should be paying for that service.” Not only that, but you are making potential customers leave because “If a person walks in and sees that there are no open tables, they might take their business somewhere else.”
The coffee shop is already tolerant enough to allow people to stay inside without buying something, but bringing a competitor's drink is going too far
While profit is a big reason why coffee shops wouldn’t want you bringing in your own food and drinks, there is more to it. Some places even put up signs saying that you can’t bring in your own food or drinks and they do that to protect themselves from being accused of food poisoning or an allergic reaction.
Also, if an inspection came and found food that wasn’t prepared in the establishment, the business might get in trouble for that as the food wasn’t prepared along the sanitary guidelines.
They also responded to the remark about diversity, informing the person that half of their staff and customers are non-Caucasian
People who read the reply loved how snappy the owner was and were quite appalled at the behavior of the reviewer
But even if we ignore the valid reasons why food places don’t want you bringing your own food, many people pointed out that it’s just rude as you are taking the experience of sipping coffee in a nice environment but not giving anything in return.
Do you think businesses should allow you to come and spend time there without ordering anything because you brought something with you? Do you think the owner of the coffee shop was right to ask the person to leave and do you think their reply to the review is appropriate? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.