Is it cheeky to claim your free drink and not buy anything?

[Sophiehoney]

In a cafe with friends
Is it cheeky to go into a cafe you regularly go to with one of those stamp cards, where 10th drink or whatever is free, claim your free drink and not buy anything to go with it?
I say no, because you've effectively paid for the drink by paying for all the previous ones and it's no different to using clubcard vouchers or whatever.
Friend 1 thinks it depends on whether or not you usually order just a drink.
Friend 2 thinks it depends on how busy the cafe is
Friend 3 thinks it's mortifying.

Absolutely fine. You’ve already bought something. The 9 drinks before it. This wouldn’t even occur to me to question.

fine. I used to do this in the cafe at work.

I never buy food in my local Costa because I’m coeliac and buy the same drink every time. My tenth is always free and I have never given a second though to just walking out with it! It’s paid for with the insane profit margin of the approximately £40 I spent on the other 9 drinks 😬

YANBU I went to Costa then other day to get my free drink, saw on the app they were also doing a free bottle of coke. So got two free drinks, didn't spend a penny.
Just like you can redeem a gift voucher without spending more money. It's already paid for. There's not a thing to be embarrassed about .

i can’t believe this is even a question. I would take my free drink and not think anything of it

This is fine as you have effectively bought a drink, it’s just that you paid with your stamp card rather than cash.

No, you earned the free drink

Would you think differently if you weren't walking out with it but were taking a table?
I wouldn't, but JW if you would as this is what friend is mortified about?

Like several PPs, I wouldn’t even question whether this was ok. It seems absolutely obviously ok.

Of course it’s fine, it’s already paid for and taking a table is fine too. You’re being rewarded for your loyalty and that includes potentially taking a table.

Of course it’s ok. Your friends are weird, how do they manage with other non-events? 😅

of course it's not unreasonable, your earned the free drink by buying a loyal customer to the cafe and I can guarantee the staff wouldn't bat an eyelid or give it a second thought. Your friends are being weird

Of course not. The staff do not care either 😂

Nope not at all!

In fact this morning I used my free drink and sat down for an hour. They give them out as in incentive to use their business consistently and not to buy coffees elsewhere - you are doing THEM the favour with your business!

I got my free birthday sweet treat at Greggs abd didn't buy a drink to go with it.

It's fine - that's literally what the stamp card is for!

You've already bought ten other things, you just didn't buy them on the same day that you're getting your freebie. I promise you it's fine.

It's no different from buying something in a supermarket or Boots with your clubcard points. It's a loyalty scheme.

They literally want you to do this. And then to get 10 more drinks and do it again!

Not cheeky at all. I always 'upgrade' in the free drink. I usually just get a small drip coffee but on the free one I go for something fancy.

Just did this in my local indie cafe. It didn't occur to me to order something else, but then again I almost always do order just a coffee in there, to take away.
I think it's right to say that you've 'paid' for it by being loyal enough to accrue enough points to earn it.

All three friends are being weird about it in increasingly levels of weirdness

It's completely normal to use the free drink you've worked up through stamps. Not even vaguely embarrassing, unreasonable or anything that requires any second thought.

No it's fine. Cafes are used to people coming in for one drink and no food, they wouldn't make the free drink things if they were that unhappy.

There is absolutely nothing embarrassing about that. Your friend has a very strange thought process about this.

It’s not free! You’ve paid a surcharge on every one of the cups of coffee you bought. It’s a bonus, keeps you coming back and coffee shop owners wouldn’t offer it if it didn’t make sense to them.

I’m one of those who just pops into Waitrose, gets the free coffee and leaves!

Mortifying? In what way? Why would I care if someone in a cafe resents giving me a free drink I’ve earned by buying full price drinks previously?

This, that's the whole point of it, otherwise what's the point in having a stamp card?