Nobody is quite sure when this drive-thru ‘pay it forward’ trend has become popular, but by now, we are no strangers to it. If you are, well, here is a quick explanation. It all starts with one person who wants to do something small to make a stranger happy. They decide to do that by going to a drive-thru and asking the barista to charge them for the order of the car behind them, so they get their order for free. A small gesture, that usually doesn't cost that much, to make someone else a littl…

Most folks cannot fathom having the audacity to make a scene at a coffee shop, and yet, there are clearly enough people in this life who continue to make scenes any chance they can. Does this stem from a bitterness toward the world? Does it stem from a warped sense of entitlement? Are these folks capable of stepping out of their own experiences to realize the world does not revolve around them? The short answer to that last one is… unlikely. Here, we have an entitled Karen who put in an overly…

Romance is still alive. Just ask this couple, who show their love for each other through little treats! Love is all about the little things, after all. It's about remembering your partner's favorite snack at the grocery store, or surprising them with a special date night, or putting on their favorite music when they get home from work to cheer them up. There are a million tiny ways to say “I love you.” But not everyone has a relationship that's so special: a lot of folks will settle for the bar…

First-day fumble

Here's a story about one grandfather who had an interesting job as a bridgekeeper. I imagine that's the kind of job that's automated today. But in this man's day, he and his wife would keep an eye out for boats each day and let them through when they needed to cross under the bridge. Many years ago, people would take multiple breaks throughout their workday, like this grandpa who was supposed to take two separate coffee breaks . It also was fairly common to go home for lunch. Many school kids d…

Sometimes the best way to get payback on a coworker is to enact your revenge covertly. They may never even know that someone is sabotaging them; truthfully, they may never need to know. All that really matters is that you are achieving that satisfaction and they are unknowingly getting their much-deserved comeuppance. Of course, we save these kinds of plots and schemes for people who really deserve them, and this barista's coworker certainly qualifies. He was guilty of flirting with female empl…

Small coffee with a side of revenge, anyone?

Customers want to think they're always right, but cashiers and retail workers know the truth. A lot of the time, the customer is just wrong. And nobody wants to be confronted with the fact that they've just thrown a petty fit over a minor issue , only to be proven totally wrong. Throwing a tantrum rarely solves your problems if you're older than five years old. When adults do it, it's majorly embarrassing. It gives us second-hand cringe to watch people get red in the face over minor issues, lik…

If you mess with a mom and her kid , you're in for a bad time. U/nalarosette learned that firsthand at her coffee shop job. At the age of 16, this person was working with another teenager and their older manager, and you can tell the manager liked to take advantage of the teenagers' naivete. This seems to be endemic at a lot of fast-food and retail chains. They hire the youngest kids who have never had a job before, meaning they don't know when to stand up for themselves or when to just do as t…

Some managers make such ridiculous demands that one has to wonder if they are trying to make their employees quit. Sometimes, that is the case, and other times, it's just that these managers have egos and enjoy engaging in power dynamics. If this description fits your manager, our advice would be to get out while you still can. Here, we have a barista whose manager would insist on having a coffee made for her at the end of every shift after everything in the store had been cleaned up and finish…

If you do something badly enough , you might not get asked to do it again. In the workplace, you've got to do this strategically. You want to mess up some basic chores in order to get out of them, but you also don't want to be viewed as being bad at your job. This is common in many workplaces. Even though we all do dishes every day, in the office, everyone conveniently “forgets” how to load the dishwasher. Other people will pretend they can't figure out how to work the printer, and someone else…

One barista is confused and annoyed by the rules their manager is making up. They took to r/mildlyinfuriating to share the story. But commenters informed them that they might be looking at things all wrong. Their issue revolves around making custom drinks for the patrons of their coffee shop. Some chains embrace the custom drink trend, including all of the Tiktok drinks with names like “Snickerdoodle Cinnamon Chocolate Chai Latte”

Tipping culture has become a topic of discussion lately, as a lot of companies now offer tipping options on their card readers, even if they did not previously participate in tipping. Tipping used to be reserved for workers such as servers, but now it seems like any corporation can request a tip. Some customers find it ridiculous, while others participate in tipping because they sympathize with the low wages many people in the service industry face. However, what if an employee added a tip to y…

One business owner is getting fleeced, and she doesn't even realize it. Local coffee shops are a great place to get some work done on your laptop, meet up with friends to talk, or grab a quick bite to eat. While some locations only carry coffee and tea , a lot of them carry food products---and they aren't afraid to mark up prices quite a bit. The new owner of one coffee shop is still trying to figure out her profit margins. The owner of the baked goods shop she's buying from noticed that she's…

This (former) coffee shop worker has had a confusing week as they switch jobs. It really shouldn't have been that difficult for them, but as they described it, their new bosses suddenly decided they “don't need you anymore.”

The owner of this coffee shop is in for a surprise. They somehow decided to run a business without doing some pretty basic research on how to pay their employees. As a teenager, getting your first job can be a joy. You suddenly have some walking-around money, or driving-around money, since you now have enough cash to fill your tank and drive your friends around. It might only be a few hundred dollars per month, but since you're working for the first time, you don't know any better. Many states…