Coffee Shop Introduces Additional Charge for Emotional Stability
A coffee shop in the Helderberg area that would prefer not to be identified by name but whose clientele will know exactly which one this is has quietly introduced what its pricing board now describes as a “situational supplement” applied to orders during peak emotional demand periods.
The supplement, which adds between R12 and R22 to a standard coffee depending on the specific pressures of the morning, applies during the period immediately following school drop-off, on any morning after load shedding, during the first forty-five minutes after a lengthy queue on the R44 and on what the board identifies, with admirable specificity, as “Mondays in general and the Monday after a long weekend in particular.”
“The coffee is the same,” the owner confirmed. “The same beans, the same grind, the same extraction. What changes is the environment in which it’s being consumed and the amount of work the space is doing to hold people together. We felt that deserved acknowledgment.”
The supplement has not generated a single formal complaint, which the owner says tells you something. The shop is consistently full during the periods the supplement covers. Two customers who noticed the change mentioned it to each other and agreed it was “fair, if you think about it.” One did not think it was fair but paid it and then sat quietly by the window for twenty minutes, after which he appeared improved, which may support the pricing model’s underlying logic.
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