I was at a coffee house mainly to just talk with a group of people about a project. One person wanted to get something to drink and so he did. I personally don’t drink coffee and wasn’t thirsty and so I didn’t buy anything. Another person at the table happened to have a similar mindset. He then brought up an interesting comment on how many times when he goes to places like these he simply buys stuff to be polite as to not make the other party feel uncomfortable. However, he doesn’t have to do that with people that he knows and saves money that way too.
That sometimes does rub people the wrong way where you say go to a coffee house and not order anything. For myself, I’ve never experienced any real problems though when I don’t order anything and the savings do add up. To me it’s almost like dining out too where whenever I can I usually avoid it as it is a money drainer. Unless I specifically planned to say not eat at home, then that is different.
I actually see people do their own things such as bring their own bottled water too just to break any uneasiness with others. That’s actually smarter I’d say as if the only reason you would be ordering something is to purely be polite then you might as well bring something with you to save money.