fatvegan

Tonight at Rough Edges was really brilliant. We were a bit sneaky and gave away free tea and coffee for the first half hour. I had lobbied for it to be all night, but I had to defer to Emily because she was technically in charge. I was partly curious about what would happen to demand if drinks were suddenly free, and partly looking forward to doing some damage to the institution. As it turns out the price elasticity of demand for tea and coffee amongst the homeless seems to be quite low. We only made 5 pots of coffee tonight, which is fairly normal for a Sunday night. Although it was a quiet night, so it must have had some impact. Possibly if we'd yelled out on the street about our new prices things would have been different. As it was, however, things were very quiet. No one came up asking for seven coffees at once. We'd already agreed to say no to that sort of mischief, but it's always nicer when you don't have to. In fact, I so dislike saying no to people that I've started offering free coffees to people I suspect are going to ask for one.

It was nice too, because I took quite a lot of drinks out to people at their tables. That's one of the things I'd really love to do at Rough Edges. There are quite a few things actually, but that is definitely one of them. Having a standardised cordial strength would also be at the top of the list. There's no dignity in drinking weak cordial or in strong cordial. You feel like a chump. Properly made cordial, on the other hand, is an profoundly pleasant experience, especially when it's cold right out of the fridge.

I had some nice chats with some fellows. People really are quite good.