I hate when people come to my work and only buy water because why is it $6.80 for water? I feel awful selling it,wrote another.
Well the simple answer is this, it costs the same to serve you a glass of water while you occupy a table as it does the same person or group of persons occupying that table and spending several hundred on a full meal. (minus the cost of ingredients and cooking). So if you occupy a table and order a glass of water and sit there for 30 minutes the waitstaff don't suddenly work for 1/10th the price, the girl behind the till doesn't work for 1/10th the price and the person wiping down your table doesn't work for 1/10th the price just because you only wanted a glass of water. If you sit at the table and get glass of water for 50c the cafe probably loses money on you, so prices are adjusted to take this into account.
Basically if you want cheap juice pop into the supermarket/deli a few shops down, buy it in a carton and sit on a public bench to drink it, you get the same experience, and the cafe isn't paying for it.
While the cashier/waitstaff may feel awful charging for it, if they don't they are essentially working for free because the cafe gets nothing from that customer to contribute to their wages. Yes costs are high, but so is the cost of actually owning and running a cafe, I don't think all cafe owners are sitting on a pile of gold coins rubbing their hands together and going Mwhuahaha. I've known people running cafes, and many of the are working 12 hour days because they can't afford to pay extra staff.
https://www.news.com.au/finance/young-a ... 9642087ced