Barista says he could lose his job if he allows customer to buy a drink for homeless, sparks debate

Establishments usually make policies keeping in mind what their customers would like or not, but do not think about the needs of the poor. Similarly, a woman who goes by @superheroeveryday2 on TikTok posted a video sharing her conversation with a barista at the cafe, who stated the establishment follows a certain policy. According to the policy, the employees cannot give away a drink to the homeless, which sparked a heated debate in the comments. 

The video began with the woman asking a barista, "Somebody wants to buy a homeless person something you guys don't..." He was wiping the counter, interrupted and responded, "I will lose my job." So, she asked, "If I buy him something?" The staff replied, "That's the f***ing policy." She specifically enquired what the policy was. So, he said that the policy causes trouble for the employees. He continued, "Because it has people harassing customers out front." The video ended with a screenshot of a payment of $3.30, along with the name and location of the business. It is called "The Copper Moon" and is situated in Cleveland, Ohio.

In the caption of her video, she gave the background. She said the barista had witnessed her speaking to a homeless man and instantly told her that if the coffee was for him, he could not serve it. She recalled, "I told him I didn't feel harassed! He said, 'I'm sure you don't, but others do. I said he's a human being. He just asked for a coffee, sir!'" His response was, "So why doesn't he get a job like the rest of us?” The TikTok user expressed that she was "utterly disgusted" after hearing his response. She shared, "Why does someone feel so inferior they can choose not to serve me because I wanted to help a black man?" "If this is their policy, they don't deserve our business," she concluded. 

The video garnered over 5 million views on the platform. People in the comments were divided about this policy. @kblackbih commented, "It's usually never a written policy, but they will threaten their employees to enforce it." @miiSzEstrella201 wrote, "Honestly, why ask? With all due respect, if you're buying something, what does it matter what you're doing with it after the purchase? And his response was trash." @yes.itz.dina shared, "I also work at a coffee shop. It's downtown and this is 1000% to protect the workers."

@mckiinleyhart said, "Working in food service has shown me this is unfortunately necessary. I've had too many people come in and harass me simply because somebody else bought them something. It gets us in trouble." @celineaah_ wrote, "I think you need to look at it from the employees' perspective and the company, as I've been in that position and the homeless person always comes in asking us, where was 'said' employees who gave it to them." @precious_userr commented, "I understand him because where I worked, there was this homeless that kept asking people to buy him something, like 6 times within 30 mins, they don't know when to stop."

You can follow @superheroeveryday2 on TikTok for more content on her life.