London shops run pay-it-forward schemes that could offset small costs

Users feel embarrassed to claim; some say ‘I feel bad’ about it

Two London venues — a City café and a Camberwell bookshop — are operating community-funded pay-it-forward schemes that allow customers to claim the cost of a coffee or a book without explanation. The schemes come amid rising cost of living in the United Kingdom and, according to the BBC, have the potential to offset the burden of small costs that can feel increasingly expensive, though operators say many who could benefit are reluctant to claim them.

Host Cafe, located inside the St Mary Aldermary church in the heart of the City of London, runs what staff describe as a “suspended coffee” scheme. Café manager Barbara Gornicka said the scheme has few set rules: anyone who feels they need the cost of their drink covered that day may use it. Instead of asking for a free beverage at the counter, customers can take one of the polymer clay hearts displayed on the drinks board.

Gornicka said the heart system was designed to spare users embarrassment, especially when there is a queue. “This is to keep people from maybe being embarrassed, especially if there’s a larger queue. Not everyone can just outright say: ‘Can I have a free drink?’” she said.

One regular at Host Cafe is Paul Atherton, who was awarded the Freedom of the City of London earlier this year and has dealt with homelessness for 17 years. Atherton, a filmmaker, author, and social campaigner, said the café’s offer of a seat, Wi-Fi, and a coffee has been essential to his daily life. “I wouldn’t have survived in this city if I didn’t have the ability to sit, use Wi-Fi, and grab a coffee and feel like a part of society,” he said. Atherton called schemes like this “life-changing.”

After accounting for £160 a month in storage costs, Atherton said he lives on £4 a day. “If these things didn’t exist, you’d be outside of society. A cup of coffee on my current benefits is more than what I get on my daily allowance,” he said.

Prof Joan Costa-i-Font, an economist at the London School of Economics, characterized pay-it-forward initiatives as limited in scale. He said such gestures do not address the underlying structural problem of affordability. “It’s a sign of kindness. I would say all these are signals of kindness,” he said. Costa-i-Font described the schemes as “a drop in the ocean.”

Gornicka said she would like the scheme to reach a wider group of users beyond those who cannot otherwise afford a drink. “My goal eventually for the scheme is not to only exist for people who absolutely cannot afford a coffee, but for people to feel secure in that they can use it – even if they definitely could afford a beverage,” she said. Advertising the scheme without drawing attention to it has been difficult, she added.

South of the river in Camberwell, the independent bookshop Lala Books runs a similar community-funded scheme. Owner Danielle Moylan said the fund can be used by anyone to claim all or part of the cost of a book or a magazine at the store.

Moylan said the scheme is especially popular with young people in the community, who are feeling the squeeze of rising rents and the cost of living, although using it can come with hesitation. “‘I feel bad’ – a lot of people say that, or you can tell they don’t think it’s for them. Or they might not be in quotes poor enough to use it or disadvantaged enough,” Moylan said.

The bookshop offers a discreet alternative to asking at the till: envelopes containing gift vouchers stacked in a box at the back of the shop. Moylan said the envelopes look identical to the shop’s regular gift vouchers, allowing customers to take one to the counter without distinction from a standard purchase.

Asked whether the no-questions-asked approach could be exploited, Moylan said the operators accept that risk as part of running a community fund. “That’s sometimes the pointy end of running a scheme like this, and that’s just something you have to accept as part of a community fund,” she said.

Moylan described specific uses of the fund: one customer used it to buy a book for a friend’s birthday, and in another instance, the scheme supplied 30 books for a local primary school. Gillian Lewis, the parent who identified the school-books opportunity, said: “There’s something nice about the idea that people in Camberwell and Southwark are giving money – that then is going to buy books for kids who live around the corner.”

Moylan added that the same people sometimes use the fund when short on cash and later return to donate into it. “We even get people who might use it one week when they feel like they don’t have just quite enough money to get the book that they want, and then like two months later they’ll come back and say they want to donate into it now,” she said.