My manager told me to always give a free drink to a cop, but it backfired yesterday

I work at a coffee shop in Austin, and my boss, Greg, has this rule that if a police officer comes in, we give them a free large coffee. He said it's good for business and safety. Yesterday, an officer came in, I gave him the free drink, and then he sat in our lobby for over two hours writing a report, which made several regular customers visibly uncomfortable and they left. Has anyone else had a policy like this go wrong?

3 comments

3 Comments

blair_lewis852mo ago

Yeah, that's the tricky part with those policies. I read about a cafe that stopped giving freebies to anyone in uniform because it created an uneven vibe. Your regulars are the ones who pay the bills, so making them uneasy defeats the whole purpose. Greg might need to rethink his strategy.

troysanchez2mo ago

My buddy's barbershop tried a "free haircut for teachers" thing last month and it totally backfired (regulars felt like they were paying for someone else's cut, which @blair_lewis85 is right about). Greg's heart is in the right place, but that vibe gets weird fast.

betty_barnes3d ago

Gotta say, I sort of disagree with the pushback here, @blair_lewis85. Regulars getting uncomfortable is a real problem, but I don't think the free coffee is the main issue. If one cop sitting there for two hours is enough to make customers leave, the problem might be more about how those regulars feel about cops in general, not the free drink. Greg's policy sounds like it's trying to build a good relationship with local cops, which could pay off if things ever get dicey. Maybe the fix isn't dropping the free coffee, but just asking the officer to come back during a slower time or take their report to go.