Cafe with no cashier, no bill for real
By Fe Zamora
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 03:43:00 02/08/2009
Filed Under: Good news, Retail, Beverages
IVANA, Batanes—In this coffee shop, there is no barista to make Frappuccinos, accept payment or give change.
There is, however, something refreshingly unique about Honesty Coffee Shop where everything is bought and sold on the basis of, well, honesty.
On the wall is a price list of items for sale—including coffee—and beside it a box and a sign, “Please pay here.â€
For something to warm up the body, there’s hot water in a thermos bottle and beside it packets of coffee and some biscuits. For cold refreshments, there’s a refrigerator with bottled drinks. There are also T-shirts and souvenir items.
People help themselves to whatever they need and leave money in the box. Honest.
That’s business as usual at the Honesty Coffee Shop.
God is always watching
Not even the report of an alleged break-in at the café last December could convince its owner, Elena Gabilo, to put locks on the door or hire someone to watch the coffee shop.
“No need,†Gabilo, a 73-year-old retired schoolteacher, says in an interview. “Locked doors are not part of our tradition. If they don’t pay, it’s not done purposely. God is always watching.â€
In an affidavit, Gabilo reported that on Dec. 18, some men entered her house and took 15 bottles of gin and left-over fried fish on her dining table. The bottles of gin were kept in boxes in the dining room.
The retired schoolteacher’s house is adjacent to the Honesty Coffee Shop.
Gabilo and her husband had just stepped out for “Misa de Gallo†when the intruders came. “There were no signs of forced entry because our doors were not locked,†she says.
Gin and fish
She did not report the incident to the police but asked them to “patrol the vicinity†of her house.
“I think the intruders only wanted gin, because the [town’s] supply was low,†Gabilo says. “And maybe fried fish for their pulutan (dish to go with liquor).â€
She says gin is the preferred drink by the menfolk here, especially during the cold months. Bad weather had delayed the ship bearing supplies from Manila, thus the low supply of gin that week.
But Gabilo still had five boxes stashed in her dining room. “I think some people knew about this,†she says.
Not in the daytime
The Honesty Coffee Shop does not sell gin in the daytime.
“Gin is only available after sundown, when I’m back from the farm and I can personally sell it. I want to be sure the buyers are of legal age,†Gabilo says.
Neither does the coffee shop sell cigarettes.
A sixth class municipality with 1,300 residents, this town has six policemen to maintain the peace.
“We have zero crime rate,†says Mayor Ramon Elizondo.
Jail rarely used
In fact, the only crime committed here is “drunkenness and unruly behavior under the influence of gin,†Elizondo says.
“We detain the unruly drunk for six hours or until he’s sober. That’s the only time the jail gets used,†he adds.
Elizondo says the town’s peace and the people’s honesty are exemplified in the Honesty Coffee Shop, which Gabilo opened in 1995 when she retired as a public school teacher.
She opened the café initially to give warm drinks in the early morning to boat passengers bound for the outlying islands of Itbayat and Sabtang.
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