Polite customers offered cheaper coffee by Spanish café owner3 SEPTEMBER 2016Disenchanted by rude customers, a café owner on Spain’s Costa Brava has introduced a novel incentive to encourage good manners by charging clients according to how polite they are.
A terse demand for “un café” will see guests charged five Euros (£4.20) for a cup of coffee by Marisel Valencia Madrid, the owner of the Restaurant Blau Grifeu in Llança.Adding please - or por favor - brings the price down to €3.50 (£2.94). Somebody who tries that bit harder and greets the server with a friendly “Buenos días” will only be charged €1.30 (£1.09).
I put a sign in the window with the price system and it has made all the difference. People are now super polite in all matters and it has really improved daily life,” she said.“Yesterday some children even told their parents to say please, so it’s working!” she added.
French cafe charges rude customers more
11 DECEMBER 2013A wine bar and bistro in Nice has apparently grown so fed up of rude customers that it's started penalising impoliteness. Ask for "a coffee" in La Petite Syrah, and it costs you €7 (£5.90). Ask for "a coffee please," and the price drops to €4.25 (£3.60). But enter the place crying "Bonjour, a coffee please," - perhaps also embracing everyone within reach- and the cup will cost you what it costs generally in Nice: €1.40 (£1.20).
What can we do with this? [NB: answers/workings are included with the questions below.]
1) We could, clearly, work out the exchange rate. Is it the same exchange rate in both articles?
The first article gives us £1 is approximately €1.19. The second article has three different values (to 2dp) being used.
7 ÷ 5.90 = 1.186441
4.25 ÷ 3.60 = 1.180556
1.40 ÷ 1.20 = 1.166667
The last of these is rather different – and £1.18 would be a more accurate price for that version. The French article seems to have rounded all of the conversions off to the nearest 10p, whereas the Spanish article gave them to the nearest penny.
It is perhaps interesting that the exchange rate from three years ago is very similar to what it is now.
2) Are there any surprises/errors in the articles?
The photograph says that “Adding please - or por favor - brings the price down to €3.50 (£2.94)”, whereas the photograph of the menu shows that this should be €3.
3) How much should this be in sterling (pounds)?
We can use the exchange rate we worked out earlier to get £2.52
4) A ‘very polite’ coffee in Spain has a very similar price to one in France, whereas a ‘rude’ coffee is much more expensive in France. How can we quantify this?
The rude coffee is 40% more expensive in France, the polite coffee is 21% more expensive and the very polite coffee is 8% more expensive.
Alternatively, the rude coffee is 29% cheaper in Spain, the polite coffee is 18% cheaper and the very polite coffee is 7% cheaper.
5) How do these prices compare to the big coffee chains?
This Quibans could be extended further by carrying out some research into the different varieties of coffee listed here. Are the sizes the same in all three shops? Are the prices the same across England?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/09/02/polite-customers-offered-cheaper-coffee-by-spanish-caf-owner/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/news/French-cafe-charges-rude-customers-more/
