Video shows cafe's doors only opening for people who smile and it's dividing the internet

A good cup of coffee is many people's preferred fix to help feel a little better or cheerful. But what if you have to be all cheerful and smiling to get to that cup? As per a post by a woman Figen—who goes by @TheFigen_ on X—a cafe has developed a system where they only open doors for smiling people. The caption of the video read, "A cafe has developed a sensor whose door only opens to people who "smile"! This should happen all over the world."

In the video, a woman is standing outside the cafe's automatic glass doors but they refuse to open. She read a pamphlet outside a gave a big smile. Several other people arrive but they are quite confused when the doors simply wouldn't open. They start looking around and try to figure out what has gone wrong and why they are not allowed to enter the coffee shop. Eventually, the camera shows a flyer that reads, "Smile to get a free coffee," with a smiley face drawn on the paper. A look of recognition flashed across people's faces and they gave a big smile, prompting the doors to open to let them in. 

Some people even laughed a little because of the unconventional system. A man entered with a smile and said, "We need to smile!" The video ended with people getting their coffee and going out laughing and talking to each other. The system garnered quite a few people's attention and the video received over 37.7 million views and more than 138k likes. However, many people didn't seem to find the idea of being compelled to smile for a coffee very appealing. So they took to the comments section to point out everything that could possibly go wrong with the system in place.

@MakeupFaded wrote, "I would never go there. I hate when people tell me to 'smile.' What kind of person believes they have the right to tell a stranger to alter their body language? In reality, I know it's not a big deal but...it's a huge pet peeve of mine. Picked-up when I was a child." @Funyarinpa999 commented, "I agree, actually. I hate people trying to force happiness on others. It's honestly one of the rudest things you can do to someone. You don't know what's going on in their life, what they are feeling at the moment, anything and telling someone to smile before being allowed in..." Some people also pointed out how bad the idea is for business in the long run.@SRMcleod1 remarked, "It's a novelty until they realize they do the books at the end of the month and take stock of how many potential sales they lost."

@shesbonky shared, "New level of ableist bull**** unlocked. The way this door would have absolutely destroyed my soul during the 2 1/2 years my toddler was in cancer treatment. Depressed people deserve coffee, grieving people deserve coffee, unhappy people deserve coffee." @Harabael pointed out, "Imagine you've just lost your job and just want a coffee to tide you over for the bus home. Or it's just Sunday and you're feeling rough."