Keeping our Vegan (and all other) customers happy...without nickle and dime-ing!

Recently my friend Josh Neimark, who is a Vegan, commented in his blog about his "beef" with Starbucks, because they charge extra for soy milk.  His question was, "Why should I be charged more for my philosophical choices?  Do you think it's acceptable to charge those afflicted with lactose intolerance more?  How about those with specific religious beliefs that dictate diet?"  Read the rest of his comments, CLICK HERE.  He goes on to mention that he moved to a small town that has a  small local coffee house.  One that not only caters to everyone they can…but makes sure that he has choices as a Vegan. A place that cares about his beliefs and accommodates them…and that doesn't charge more because of them.  (Guess which coffee house he's referring to? Yep, The BeachHouse Beanery!)  We have offered soy milk since we opened over 3 years ago, and recently added the choice of almond milk at our customers' request. Even though we pay more for almond milk and soy milk than we do for our dairy products, we decided not to punish our customers by passing that cost on to them. If we followed the logic that every single cost needed to be passed on to the customer, we would also have to charge extra for customers who preferred cream in their coffee, verses those who prefer their coffee black, and sugar should cost extra, and Splenda even MORE, and let's not even TALK about Stevia! But skim milk would be a little less than cream! What's wrong with just making the customer happy without nickle and dime-ing them to death?? Keeping our vegan customers, and all our customers happy is win-win.  They will spread the word and bring friends.  If we make the effort to accommodate them, they won't come back, and they'll speak poorly of us.  But then Starbucks is much more profitable than the BeachHouse Beanery, so I guess it could be argued that we should follow their lead, but that's not how we roll here at the BeachHouse Beanery.