What are your impressions of a regular customer who visits Starbucks just to get refills?

A very thrifty customer! Knows how to stretch a dollar. And a nice one to boot.

There’s a saying in retail – a customer is a pain in the ass, and a regular customer is a regular pain in the ass. (Pardon my French.) If it was just for refills, I would think immediately that he was cheap, but I also understand that times are tough.

I would do it. I love saving money. I consider myself thrifty and nice to boot.

Cheap skate.
Plus, if everybody took that approach, eventually there would be no Starbucks.
This is the the same as killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.
Plus, I have an interest here, because I go to Starbucks EVERY morning, and it would be a tough adjustment to find a replacement.

If the store offers free refills, then why not? People game the government—including some of the same damn bastards who write the rules—for a whole lot more, and that’s my money. I save my outrage for them. If Starbucks has a policy for free refills, then that’s their business; that’s literally their business. I don’t care a bit.

That’s the smart thing to do. Starbucks gives away coffee in the hopes the customer will buy something else, but the prices have a built in equalizer.

Starbucks bills itself as a “third place space” and this is one of the things you put up with for the sake of community. Sounds like he’s part of the ambiance. As long as he’s bringing the cup in and fulfilling the terms of the free refill policy, meh.

In my area, there are 31 Starbucks locations within a 4 square mile area. There’s that many because they planned it to cut out the indie coffee shops, and they probably take losses at 28 of those 31 locations because there are strictly there to choke out the independents. Operationally, they’re the Wal-mart of coffee shops.

The money that Starbucks is losing from those extra 3? 5? 10?? cups of coffee is negligible compared to the customer satisfaction that he gets from having a regular coffee place where he can get refills. And because he doesn’t get told off for just getting refills, he’ll tell other people how much he likes Starbucks. If one person he tells ends up going in there and buying a $4 coffee, even just one time, it will more than pay off the free refills that they’re giving the first guy.

Basically, it will take a lot of cups of coffee before they make a loss on him.

I see nothing wrong with it. I don’t think it is hurting starbucks.

Starbucks coffee is horrible, so I would think he had poor taste.

Getting revenge for becoming addicted to coffee in the first place.

@meiosis I think 5 million customers a day would probably disagree with you

@YARNLADY I know I’m swimming against the tide…

What I want to know do you get free coffee while you work?

I think he should have his head examined for liking that over roasted, over priced crap to begin with.