Fed Up With Rude Customers, Owner Decides To Teach Them A Lesson With Brutally Honest Sign

Times are always changing, and the world isn’t the same place it used to be just a few years ago when folks were a bit more courteous. It’s a sad fact, that in today’s age of cell phones and demand for faster everything good manners have become almost a lost art.

People, today won’t even look up from the phones while engaging with employees. Even worse, many customers feel the right to dismiss them as non-people like they are some kind of non-playable character in a video game. Far too often, customers forget that these employees are hard-working people trying to make ends meet like everyone else. Employees who work directly with customers have just as much right to dignity as anyone else. And yet, day after day, these folks have to put up with demoralizing and sometimes outright rude behavior as part of their jobs.

And some folks would say, “Well, if they don’t like it, they should find another job.” However, that’s not always realistic, especially for some folks who are doing the best with the circumstances they have to work with. Why is it too much to ask for a little kindness and respect toward those who look paying jobs? While it’s true that everyone has bad days, it doesn’t give folks the right to take it out on strangers just trying to do their jobs. At the end of the day, everyone deserves their dignity.

One coffee shop owner in Roanoke, Virginia, had enough of the indifference and rudeness of some of his customers toward employees and decided to make a point.

So he decided to put a sign out front with a special message, which soon started getting a lot of attention from people all over the country after it was posted online.

The sign in front of the shop reads, “ ‘Small coffee’ $5; ‘Small coffee, please’ $3; ‘Hello, I’d like one small coffee please’ $1.75.”

Austin Sims, the owner of Cups Cafe, explains his motivation behind the sign:

“I decided because I need to solve all of the injustices of the world to start charging more for people who didn’t take the time to say hello and connect and realize we’re all people behind the counter.”

At first, Sims thought that the sign might have a minor impact on customer’s behavior, but soon pictures of the sign went viral, bringing in comments from all over the world. Most congratulated Sims for his gutsy move, while other (less friendly folks) seemed to prove his point.

As for Sims, he said that he wasn’t trying to be famous, he just wanted to bring a bit of humor to an uncomfortable subject. One commenter said it best when he posted:

“I don’t get people. Kindness is awesome, loving, genuinely caring…that’s life to me. Without kindness, there is nothing. And as a bonus, it always always comes back to you,” commented Nan Patti Gregory.

As someone who worked in the hospitality industry for over 20 years, I couldn’t have said it better myself.

What are your thoughts on what Sims did? Do you feel he was right or wrong to post his sign? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section, and please be sure to share this story with your friends and family.

Thank you.