Barista refuses to give free coffee to 'micro-influencer' during rush, she drags him on social media

Do influencers deserve free stuff?

There is no denying the power of social media in today's world. It's hard to run a business without it. And the influencer economy is nothing to sneeze at. If the right person makes the right video about your coffee shop, it's only a matter of time before people are beating down the doors to get in. And that's money in the bank. So I don't blame business owners for not wanting to miss out on the influencer craze. But there is a side of it that quickly sours. Nobody likes entitled people, and it's easy for influencers to become entitled. Once you start giving them free stuff, they might get used to it, and before you know it, you're catering to them instead of your actual customers. This isn't a great place to be in as a business owner, and certainly not as a service industry worker just trying to do your job.

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Am I in the wrong for refusing to give a "micro-influencer" free coffee upgrades after she tried to get me fired?

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The influencer in this story might not even count as an influencer in the first place, just someone who was trying to cash in on some favors and get some free stuff. It's nice to reward your regulars for their patronage, but not if it comes at a cost to your business. And when rush time hits, preferential treatment might drop by the wayside, and that's okay. You have to understand that, as the customer, you're no more important than other customers. It's also never a good idea to use reviews as a place to play out petty drama. Restaurants and cafes live by their online reviews, so it's a pretty brutal thing to use them to harm a business over something small. You have a right to relay your experience honestly, but you should also never weaponize your following against someone else. That's just bad form. But that's what happened here, to this barista who was just trying to do their job. Keep scrolling to read all the details of this situation and see what you think about it.
Commenters came to the barista's defense.

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