Moral dilemma - what would you have done ?

[2waterford]

If she was having just one coffee on the go I would just said add it to my bill.

But she was having 2 coffees and 2 pastries so no. Also why did she call on the other person with her to bail her out.

I would also have been mortified holding up the queue on a busy morning rush hour, so would have stuttered and stumbled and got Barrista to cancel while I moved to one side to try to sort it.

[ChoppyGirl]

A woman in front of me in Tescos once was buying some tins of dog food and dog biscuits and was about 80p short so I have her the money. For stuff like that I would help but not for expensive coffees and pastries.

[Guest]

I've brought an old ladies shopping in Lidl before, mainly because she was humiliated, plus it was only £9 and finally I needed to get back to work as we had a delivery due in 10 minutes.

A single coffee? Maybe. Not 2 coffees and 2 pastries

[bonnies mum]

For me a coffee and pastry is a treat so no way would I pay for a treat for 2 others.
I have learned from experience to not be a soft touch.

[olgaandcoda]

I think I would have offered to pay for coffees, but not the pastries too! It's the embarrassment of not having a card that works! I had a trolley of shopping once and my card didn't work! It turned out it had expired the day before! I now make sure I have some cash and another card backup, and remember to change cards as soon as they arrive in the post! I had to leave my shop and go home to get another card at that occasion!

[Guest]

I would have asked if she was ok and offered to help if I could afford it.

[Gill H]

It's easy to say 'coffee/pastries are a luxury" and yes, they are. If she was unexpectedly over the limit on all her cards, she obviously has problems handling money.

However, if I could afford it (and it's a big if) I probably would pay it for her. I don't have any fingers to point. We live on a tight budget but have been known to spend money on eating out, coffees etc when we really should save it. I'm sure we aren't the only ones. It's easy to moralise about what someone else should do with their money, but I don't live up to my own high standards a lot of the time, I'm afraid. I don't know what was going on in her life - maybe that was her one treat of the week. Maybe she'd just had a horrible day and was looking to cheer herself up.

A few years back we went to DLP with some good friends. They have struggled all their lives with horrible living conditions, kids with special needs which aren't being properly diagnosed, and various other issues. They would never have had the money to take the children on holiday.

We wanted to spend some time with them and knew they would love it. All four children were under 12 so accommodation, tickets and breakfast were free for them. We offered to pay for the 2 adults and we shared 2 interconnecting rooms. They paid for their passports (quite an expense for 6 people) and all their food and spends. All in all it cost us only a few hundred more than it would have cost just the two of us, and we all had a fantastic holiday they will remember the rest of their lives.

A few weeks later we met up with them in McDonald's for their son's birthday party. The mum introduced us to her friend and said we had all recently been to DLP together. The friend actively recoiled and you could see her thinking "How can you afford to go there? Maybe I shouldn't have given your kids my cast-off clothes?" etc etc. My friend felt compelled to explain that we had paid, and it was really embarrassing.

Just an example of how things aren't always how they look.

[Ciano]

I'd like to think I'd have paid for i had I had the few bob. If it was me I would just want the ground to open and swallow me up. Maybe it was a faulty terminal and she knew she had the money on the cards and therefore wanted to ring the bank to sort it. Maybe her cards had been scammed, who knows! Hope she got sorted !

[BucksBugsy]

Originally Posted by Ciano

I'd like to think I'd have paid for i had I had the few bob. If it was me I would just want the ground to open and swallow me up. Maybe it was a faulty terminal and she knew she had the money on the cards and therefore wanted to ring the bank to sort it. Maybe her cards had been scammed, who knows! Hope she got sorted !

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I think she was getting very flustered. I know a lot of stores do have the capability to park transactions but I don't know if this one did.

I ran this past my colleagues in the office and the one female said that as she was buying two coffees then then could she have asked the other person to bail her out?

It's very rare I stop to buy coffees at these places because I do regard them as overpriced but this morning I was in need of a caffeine fix!

Thank you everyone for your contributions.

[Welly]

I wouldn't be buying coffee at a shop if I was skint.
It's a rip off.