This restaurant has a 'love button' which gives free meals and discounts to customers

There is hardly anyone who would complain about getting free food. Now, if someone likes CAVA, a famous Mediterranean restaurant chain, they might be lucky as people can get a free meal here without any special occasion. Steve Goodwin—who goes by @nolemonnomelon on X—shared a receipt where an $11 Pita Falafel had been paid for by "love," bringing the total amount to zero. The man captioned the post, "Was the guy who made my sandwich in love with me? I tried to pay and he said, 'You're all set' and this was the receipt."

The man was naturally confused about why he would get a free meal out of nowhere. There's a simple explanation to it. The restaurant has a feature called a "love button," which can be pressed once every shift. It allows the customer to get a free meal or a huge discount on their meals. The button can be pressed for several different reasons. "Sometimes, we'll use the button if we notice someone's having a bad day or if they forgot their wallet. Or if we see a customer who's always in our store," David Garcia, manager of the Huntersville Cava, told WCNC.

Garcia added they try to use the button at least twice a day. Frank Roman Pierce—who goes by @whoisfrankpierce on Instagram—tested whether the "love button" was an actual thing. He asked the woman at the cash counter if he could receive that and got an $18 discount on his meal.  However, "love" on the receipt created quite a stir on social media. People made quite a few guesses about what it could be. Until some people who knew about the scheme stepped in. @radrydu commented on the X post that has received over 2.9 million views, "Ok I was given a free bowl at Cava a few weeks ago and felt so special. Maybe LOVE is the code they can use to comp guests at discretion." @meaning_enjoyer wrote, "This happens to me sometimes and I think 'still got it,' but then I realize I just look homeless." 

@bigarms4me shared, "Not gonna lie, this is kinda romantic. They really went ahead and added love on the receipt." The same photo was posted on Reddit by u/AdmirableDetective37. People shared similar incidents and experiences. u/HoaryPuffeg remarked, "One of the cupcake bakeries in Seattle did this, too! I was having a crap day and walked in one day and the employee didn't charge me for my cupcake because they could give away free cupcakes each day. It was such a kind thing. I mean they were like $6 cupcakes, so giving away a few, definitely wasn't hurting the store's income."

u/yosoye1ogan expressed, "I worked at an ice cream store and we got a free ice cream every shift we worked. Except most of us hated ice cream after a month or so of working there. So I'd often just give my free one to my friends or a regular customer. The store never really tracked it either so it wasn't like we had to report it. You can't really take inventory of ice cream. I worked there for 4 summers, probably did this 30-40 times and never had any issue with it."