The advent of YouTube and TikTok brought a wave of videos showing the way workers are treated by customers. While plenty of heartwarming and even inspiring stories emerged, other videos show employees met with apathy at best and aggression at worst. However, one coffee shop in Roanoke Valley came up with a creative way of ensuring workers are met with a few words of kindness throughout the day.
The place of business is called CUPS Coffee & Tea, located in Virginia’s Grandin Village, Roanoke Valley. The shop shared a price list sign that has now gone viral; instead of assigning prices based on an order and its size, the sign shows how more words of politeness equal less dollars spent on the cup.
CUPS Coffee & Tea coffee shop has gone viral for its sign encouraging kindness
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News outlets have circulated images of a sign at CUPS Coffee & Tea. Below a promotion for Coca-Cola and a welcoming message from CUPS, handwritten text reads out a price list, “’One small coffee’ $5.00. ‘One small coffee, please’ $3.00. ‘Hello, I’d like one small coffee please’ $1.75.”
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Images of the sign went viral and many viewers love the idea. One Twitter user said that if they could give likes by the hundreds, they would. Another called it, “Wonderful incentive and reminder to everyone to be thoughtful and kind!”
Creative solutions to ongoing problems
In an era when patrons may launch into shouting matches with employees, the local coffee shop owner wanted to affect change at least in his corner of the business world. Austin Simms penned the price tag sign and was content with just bringing attention to the importance of politeness at CUPS; he never expected his approach to go viral.
“I decided because I need to solve all 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,” he jested. It’s a simple, lighthearted approach that, even if others don’t heed the sign, reminds employees that people are in their corner – and not to throw hamburgers at their face.
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