While I'm occasionally offered refills at no charge at my local independent coffee shop, I'm never offered free drinks at either that establishment or my local Starbucks Corporation (NADSAQ:SBUX) outlet. (And I'm nice, really I am!) Yet many customers, if a recent thread at Starbucks Gossip is any indication, are. One (must be extremely nice) customer writes in to say that she's comped as much as 2/3 of her drinks.
The post started quite a discussion about free beverages, with one angry district manager writing in to claim that this was theft, and if he were their boss, he'd fire the whole lot of 'em. Some other equally angry and righteous commenters agreed, but the general consensus was that occasional free beverages were good for business -- "Surprise and Delight" 'em, the concept goes, and they'll keep coming back and spending their money in your store. And putting lots of extra bills in your tip jar!

Sure, if a customer is getting most of her drinks free, and putting the $2 in the tip jar instead of the till, that equation is pretty straightforward: sorry guys, that's just a tiny bit of bad ethics there. But a once-a-week freebie for great customers or even (as one barista mentioned) confused out-of-towners? I'm thinking that it will serve to increase business and customer goodwill.