As the saying goes, good manners cost nothing – but they could save you a few dollars at a NSW coastal cafe.
The Seven Mile Beach Kiosk in Gerroa, south of Kiama, is offering discounted coffees to customers who are polite.
A take-away coffee at the cafe goes for $5 – but saying the word "please" when you order will drop that price to $4.50, while adding a "good morning" will see your cappuccino or flat white come down to $4.
A sign outside the cafe advertises the discounts.
Seven Mile Beach Kiosk co-owner Kylie Pickett said the aim was to create a pleasant workplace and to encourage people to think about their manners.
"We've always had a sign out the front with something silly or fun on it, to make people laugh and brighten their day, but then one of our employees saw a sign like this when she was on holidays and sent us a picture, and we thought it was a great idea," Ms Pickett said.
"It's just a nice, positive thing. I think a lot of people who come through here are a bit time-poor, so they don't take the time to think about manners – and I don't think it's something that's taught as much as it used to be.
"Hopefully, if people see the sign, they'll think about them a bit more and use them a bit more, when people come in here and say 'please' and 'thank you' it really does make our day and makes the whole shop a better place to be."
While the aim of the sign was to increase politeness at the cafe, Ms Pickett said it also had some unintended consequences.
"When we first put it out it was around school holidays and it slowed us down a bit because of how polite people were being, but that's what we wanted, so we can't complain too much.
"The coverage we've got has been amazing and it was never something we thought would happen; we were on Sunrise, we had a newspaper from the UK ring us and a radio station in Ballarat put a picture on Facebook and got something like 17,000 likes," Ms Pickett said.
"It's just blown us all away."
