To ask if you would please consider asking your favorite coffee shop to let you buy a suspended coffee?

[DrSeuss]

www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/suspended-coffee-what-a-wonderful-idea-8553747.html
I just asked my local place via their FB page to do this and am awaiting their response.

You can already get a free coffee or tea every day in Waitrose if you have a Waitrose card (which is free).

SacreBleu I was just thinking of the foodbank thread and thinking the same thing as you. Yes, I'm sure the money would go further elsewhere, but maybe it would be a nice thing for a homeless person to just go into a coffee shop and sit and enjoy an overpriced coffee for an hour, the way many (not all) of us take for granted?

I can see that there are practical issues with this. Maybe paying for vouchers that could be distributed through Shelter would work. Or even buying a Starbucks card and putting money on that - that way there is no stigma because it's the same type of card that other customers would use. It doesn't have to be Starbucks either, but the fact is that big companies want to be seen as socially responsible and have more capacity to do this anyway because of their larger profits - that's the trade off.

Triumph, I'm with you. If Starbucks et al paid their full whack of tax, perhaps there would be fewer cuts inbenefits and services and we wouldn't need foodbanks.

Did you all know that in Starbucks if you buy any hot drink you have always been able to get a free small filter coffee refill afterwards? How many of these are never claimed every single year? Suspended coffee is nothing more than Starbucks advertising what they effectively already offer but putting a charity spin on it. It is not a selfless altruistic act, and it reduces their tax liability even further. So next time you buy your venti caramel latte or whatever, suspend it by all means, but also make sure you ask for your free filter refill to go as well, and take it directly to the homeless person you see each day, if you do.

I'm not totally convinced it's much more than trying to assuage our guilt for not being homeless. Don't get me wrong, it's a lovely idea, but I'm not convinced in practice.

I agree with the poster about people finding it humiliating to ask. Extra humiliating if the cafe hasn't had any paid for. Imagine plucking up the courage to go in and ask, and being told they didn't have any that day. and having to go out feeling everyone heard you and saw you turned away.

Also, this is going to sound horrible, but I do know some people that would happily go and ask for one. They would not be in the category that need them, they could pay for their own if they had to. But if they could get it for free, then they would. I suspect if it really took off, then the people in that category would increase. They wouldn't see it as humiliating-they'd see it as getting one over and probably laugh about it.

I also wonder whether charities, like shelter, would actually miss out too. People would think "instead of paying £5 a month, I'll just get a suspended coffee". Or "shelter doesn't need it, I've seen those people getting suspended coffees and they look fine..."
And a coffee is great for short term, but long term is very much needed, so if the charities that look out for long term solutions are missing out, ultimately more people will suffer further hardships.

As I said on the other thread, I'd rather give the money to a charity instead.

It strikes me as Starbucks and other big chain profiteering of other people's charity towards homeless people. It costs them next to nothing to provide a cup of filter coffee to someone, but they get to charge someone else full price for doing so (thus making a considerable profit) and bask in the glory of being charitable when, in fact, all they've done is made more money.

No wonder they're so keen to promote the scheme. It's win-win for them.

Why would you do this when you could set up a direct debit to give £5 (or even £2) a month to Shelter who can do a lot more with the money?

A coffee costs £2 - if everyone on here saying the suspended coffee is a good idea chose instead to donate regularly to a homelessness charity, that £2 could go much further.

england.shelter.org.uk/donate/give_to_shelter

Sorry I wouldn't do it, the mark up on coffee is huge. The idea of big companies profiting from the homeless is a shocking idea. If you are happy to give a few quid a week to a coffee shop then spend £2 or £3 extra in aldi each week and give the food to a shelter or food bank. For £3 you can buy 12 pints of milk or 30 eggs. I think the average coffee costs a company like costa about 20p to actually make.

Sorry it's a terrible idea.

In principle it a sweet idea, however, there are flaws.

1. how 'needy' do people have to be to use the scheme? How do you prove your 'neediness'? Do you have to look homeless and smell bad etc? This could cause probs for the waitresses having to decide whether to allow someone to have the suspended coffee.

2. I would never buy a coffee from a money guzzling coffee giant as they are so greedy and prices are extortionate to start with.

3. surely it would be a lot easier just to buy a coffee from wherever you want and give it to someone sitting in a doorway/selling the big issue etc

4. I think it would take a lot for some homeless people to go into a costa/Starbucks and ask for a free coffee. There is a huge difference silently sitting in a shop doorway with a cap on the floor, hoping people will donate to physically standing at a counter asking for a coffee that someone else has paid for.

Ooh, and

5. I'm sure this idea was set up by a coffee company to bump profits.

Stupid idea. £3.40 to the coffee shop of which £3.40 is profit for them, and 5p pays for the coffee.

Better to suspend a Big Mac.

Starbucks actually have the best scheme of this I have seen - spotted it in my local one on Friday, they're working with a homeless charity and they donate coffee at cost to the value of £2.50 or whatever and then also match it. No profit to them, and a really sensible way of delivering it via a charity.

Shame they're getting such a hard time on this thread given what they're actually doing!

Ladystark, if Starbucks want to demonstrate their care for their fellow man, then they should pay their taxes. That might be why they are getting a hard time.

Personally I'd rather pay the money to supermarkets to buy the stock they chuck out into bins as waste.

Why would anyone want to pay £5 for a muffin (ok I know muffins aren't £5) but the prices in coffee shops is ridiculous.

Seems like a great way for these outlets to scam even more money from the public. Great idea, wrong shop

This reminds me of the time dsis and I tried to help a 'homeless' person

We had been going for a walk every day in the local park and always saw a lady there, sleeping on a bench or in the shelter, sitting reading or walking about. We assumed she was homeless and as it was quite cold we went to the bakers got a takeaway tea and a cake and went and gave it to her...she was HORRIFIED and declined and we felt like idiots.

I think the suspended coffee thing is a nice idea but also not sure how you could ensure that the right people benefit from it as anybody could say they were homeless I suppose ?

It's bollocks marketing.

I think TeamEdward makes a good point - we run a foodbank in our town and for a few months over the winter added in a service to offer hot drinks and snacks (free of charge) - there was somewhere warm to sit down, and people to chat to. It seemed to be very popular and we plan to re-start it in the autumn. I sometimes take some of the 'clients' I meet at the foodbank out for a coffee, it is appreciated (I think {grin]), but it is as much for the chat and companionship as much as the coffee.

I don't think this is the place for a tax discussion but I place the blame firmly on the government and HMRC, Starbucks were merely taking advantage of it. They also got a much harder time than either Google or Amazon because people can only be arsed to take a stand about tax evasion when it's easy to do so, not when it actually makes their own life harder. It's another case of slacktivism.

I was also highlighting the fact they have a scheme that actually works and avoids most of the pitfalls that people have brought up on this thread. Not sure how it would be possible for smaller businesses to do something similar but one suspended coffee providing 10 actual coffees because they're doing them at cost would be something to think about.

When I was an overpaid London advertising bod, we used to get Luncheon Vouchers. We gave them to the homeless bods at Tottenham Court Road tube. They were valid for groceries at supermarkets, as well as posh coffees and MacDonalds, etc. This system was great, imo.

Sadly, the only equivalent these days is a £10 note, which doesn't lend the giver such a warm feeling as a food voucher. Frequent coffee customers could, however, rack up loyalty points (as already suggested) and give the full cards away, and/or donate small-value gift cards for supermarkets or takeaways.

Its doing the rounds here and a few places have signed up.Its coffee/soup here.What a great idea it is.