Starbucks Customer Pours Coffee on Floor Out of Spite After Being "Forced" to Buy Drink

In 1993, Michael Douglas starred in a cult classic film, Falling Down, which follows a man who is teetering on the brink of losing his sanity and after a series of seemingly minuscule daily inconveniences, decides to go haywire against all things in society that peeve him to no end.

Thankfully, this Starbucks customer didn't go to the same lengths as Mickey Dougs did in the LA-based thriller flick, but he did make his ire known at one of the popular coffee chain's locations after he was told if he wanted some empty cups, he'd have to purchase the coffee to go along with it.

At least that's what a text overlay says in a now-viral clip that's trending on TIkTok. A user who goes by Ali (@wag1ali) on the popular social media platform writes: "he just wanted the cups so they made him pay for coffee"

The individual in the video can be seen squatting down on the ground and pouring the coffee out on the floor, because, as the video indicates, all he wanted were the cups.

It's unclear if he wanted the specific holiday cups Starbucks tends to release every Yuletide season, or just any old beverage receptacles.

If it didn't matter what kind of cups he received from the coffee chain, he could've easily just paid anywhere from 50 cents to a dollar per "complimentary" water. The chain implemented the charge in order to cover the cost of the plastic cups that they give out to customers.

If you purchased another beverage at the coffee chain, like a macchiato, iced coffee, or even a meal item, water is usually free.

Ali's post raked in over 88,000 likes and some 2,800 comments, and folks who watched the video had differing opinions as to who was in the right.

Some thought that it was a waste of money for the disgruntled cups purchaser to pour their coffee out on the ground out of spite. While there were some who either said that they would do the same thing as it wasn't right for the Starbucks to be so pedantic as to demand they purchase coffee instead of simply selling them the cups.

Others judged the man a bit more harshly, sarcastically remarking that his mother "must be so proud" and that they would "lose [their] respect [for] anyone who would do this"

Others remarked that it was unfair for the man to now force the store's employees to clean up the mess he left behind as they aren't the ones who create the store's policies, more likely than not.

Some highlighted the incident as yet another reason why many folks seemingly don't want to work customer service positions any longer.

What do you think? How would you react to seeing a customer behave in this manner? Have you ever done something similar after being upset that a company was enforcing a policy you found ridiculous? Do you think that the man was in the right? Or do you believe that it was a grimy thing for him to do?