Virginia coffee shop has a clever pricing strategy that inspires customers to be kinder

After getting tired of rude customers, a Virginia coffee shop came up with an ingenious pricing policy in 2016. The Cups Coffee & Tea in Grandin Village introduced a scheme that encouraged people to be more polite by offering them special discounts. The owner detailed the policy in a sign that went viral as people lauded the initiative.

It costs nothing to be polite

The funny sign placed outside the coffee shop caught the attention of several locals and a Reddit user, who shared a picture of the sign. As seen in the photo, the sign read:

“Small coffee”

$5.00

“Small coffee, please”

$3.00

“Hello, one small coffee please.”

$1.75"

Sign at a local coffee shop

The sign soon went viral on the internet, with over 33,000 upvotes, and was even picked up by news outlets like Daily Mail, which was far away in the U.K.

The genius behind the idea was an employee named Austin Simms. He told WDBJ7 that he put out the sign on Sunday as a joke and did not expect it to get so much attention.

“I decided because I need to solve all the injustices of the world to start charging more for people who didn’t take the time to say hello and connect and realize we’re all people behind the counter,” he told the news outlet.

He said that he was just trying to be funny and not famous when he wrote the sign on a Sunday. However, by Monday, his sign was in the news, and by Wednesday the coffee shop had media personnel showing up with a bunch of cameras.

No one paid $5 for a coffee

While the stunt was lauded by millions of people across the globe, it was only for fun. CUPS Coffee & Tea owner Olivia Byrd confirmed to Fox 59 that the extra charge was a joke and nobody actually paid $5 for just a cup of coffee.

Nevertheless, users on Reddit came up with all sorts of jokes and theories. "Good morning. Sorry to bother you, but may I purchase one small coffee if that's all right? Thank you very much, and have a great day. they pay you to drink their coffee," one user, u/NecroNinjaMan21 joked.

Meanwhile, another user, u/Viktor_smg , may have taken the calculations a little too far, "It decreases by about 3/5ths of the previous one every time. 1.75_requires_less_coins_than_1.8_I_guess? I'm_not_american_I_don't_know_american_coins So prices would go like 5 3 1.8 1.08 0.648 0.3888 0.23328 0.139968 0.0839808 0.05038848... Starting from 0 nice words/phrases, you used 6, so you pay 0.233328 or $0.25," the user wrote.

While humans sometimes need incentives to be polite, it seems like pets can do better without it.  Earlier this year, a video of a golden retriever asking for a "pup cup" in the most polite and cutest way went viral across the globe.

The clip that amassed 7.1 million views was shared by Haley Dwyer ( @haleydwyer_ ) the owner and parent of Charlie, a 5-year-old English cream golden retriever. In the video, Charlie patiently waits for his turn and then sits in front of the coffee and ice cream truck to politely place his order.