Amsterdam Coffeeshop Directory Forums

I'm not real sure what the big deal about buying a drink is.I know when I went I bought a drink in every shop I went to for the simple fact of all the walking and weed gave me some wicked aweful cottonmouth

Boner wrote:
I dont mind making a purches in any coffeeshop I go into, their business is selling marijuana it would be rude not to buy, you dont take beer into a pub.

I couldn't agree more

Szyslack wrote:I gather the general consensus around here is shops with this rule are to be avoided. So I thought we should have a blacklist of the coffeeshops which enforce it.
I for one don't want to drop my money in a place that needs greed to run around.

So post your experiences in this thread and I'll keep an updated list in this post.

I agree that coffeeshops are just greedy to make you buy cannabis every time you come to their shop.

I've been going to coffeeshops and before that "house dealers" in Amsterdam for 35 years. It's only in the last few years did a few of these tourist oriented coffeeshops make you buy cannabis as well as a drink.

It's always been standard coffeeshop policy to have to buy a drink. But if I was to buy a 5 grams of cannabis one day and only used 1 gram that day, I should be able to come in and the next day and buy a drink and be able to sit down and roll another joint.

I doubt you will find any coffeeshop outside the tourist areas that make you buy cannabis as well as a drink to sit. If you want to go and support these shitty tourists coffeeshops that make you buy both, go ahead, more room in the nicer places for the rest of us.

Boner wrote:I dont mind making a purches in any coffeeshop I go into, their business is selling marijuana it would be rude not to buy, you dont take beer into a pub.

Even if the pub served warm flat beer in a dirty glass with a rude waiter/waitress?

Kind of mixed opinions on this myself as I'll explain!. First off the first instinct is to be polite of cause and buy in every coffeeshop you goto. And this does seem to be "expected" by staff in many a coffeeshop. Whilst on the face of this I dont have a problem with it on a personel level, and that might simply be "the way things are in Amsterdam" etc.

But where I do have a problem with the practice is where you might visit the same coffeeshops a number of times during the day or during your visit!. I mean if you've already bought enough gear in 1 visit to cover a smoking of 2 or 3 sessions in that coffeeshop why should you then be expected to buy in there yet again on every visit to the place?. Sure you cant expect the staff or bud tender to recall each and every person they sell to in any given coffeeshop over a day or 2 to let them smoke without buying etc. But to have a practice to "expect" every person to buy something in there coffeeshop every time you go there can be very off putting if you buy enough to smoke in there place on say at least 2 or 3 visits there during at least 1 single day.

Plus (this is my personel opinion) if you felt you have to buy in all or most coffeeshops you goto. It would mean for me I'd only ever goto about a third of coffeeshops that I have been to on any given trip!.

Simply put I'll typically buy enough gear at a time to smoke in at least 2 sessions, sometimes 3. If I bought in every coffeeshop I'd be leaving more than I smoked or risk taking it home with me!.

I live in Amsterdam and don't go to coffeeshops that insist on you making a weed purchase. It cannot be compared to taking a pint of beer from one pub to the next because of the cost involved. If I bought weed in every place I went to I would run out money pretty damn quickly. I have been to places for a few days in a row smoking weed purchased elsewhere- I will then usually buy from the place i'm in. It all balances out and I think if the place is cool and they let you buy drinks (which add up) then their relaxed attitude will lead to you buying from then.

I think there is a certain amount of hostility involved in insisting that you buy- often places refuse to even get you a drink before you've bought something. I have seen this a few times and then the customer makes a rushed, un-informed decision about what he buys. I do not believe it is fair to close your doors to the people that don't want to buy weed from you on that particular day. Unless perhaps the place is packed with people then it is a bit more understandable.

My wife and I got chucked out of Free I when we only wanted a drink 10 o'clock in the morning pissing it down we only went in to shelter.I ordered 2 drinks to be told weed and drinks or no service, the place was empty but the little shit behind the bar was adamant started ranting about the sign outside which apparently we should have read before we came in?.I've been visiting Amsterdam for years and it was always accepted that as long as you bought a drink you could smoke weed from somewhere else. I'm going to avoid shops with this rule.
Put Free I on the blacklist

On a POSTIVE note - back in November we purchased bud at the Greenhouse Centrum BUT sat down and when asked if we wanted anything to drink said "no, is that ok?". The women just said "sure"! AND we sat down and wound up smoking hasj from a different spot. Granted it wasn't very crowded at the time, but dang!

The only shop we've visited that insisted we buy weed,before we were sold a drink was Old Amsterdam on Amstelstraat. in maybe 06..and it was empty at the time...It stayed that way

beat51uk wrote:My wife and I got chucked out of Free I when we only wanted a drink 10 o'clock in the morning pissing it down we only went in to shelter.I ordered 2 drinks to be told weed and drinks or no service, the place was empty but the little shit behind the bar was adamant started ranting about the sign outside which apparently we should have read before we came in?.I've been visiting Amsterdam for years and it was always accepted that as long as you bought a drink you could smoke weed from somewhere else. I'm going to avoid shops with this rule.
Put Free I on the blacklist

It seems these people at Free I have a real attitude. I had a similar experience in the past. Their weed is crap too. Free I is already on my blacklist. Peace.

yeah, the Grasshopper was pretty damn expensive.. specially the drink's... which is why I snatched as many Grasshopper Koster's as I could lol...

an now I got about, over 50... LOL..

this is all very interesting.

The fact is, coffeeshops do make over 80% of their profit margin from drinks and food. That is a fact. Marijauna is taxed so highly in Holland that they are not able to make any sort of decent money on each gram.

They don't sell weed because it makes them money, they sell it because they want to.

If any coffeeshop requires that you buy weed, I suggest that you leave immediately. It is wrong and rude to ask.

If anyone has had this sort of experience, please PM me and they will recieve a slating in the coffeeshop guide on my website!

indapark.co.uk - Spliff wrote:The fact is, coffeeshops do make over 80% of their profit margin from drinks and food. That is a fact. Marijauna is taxed so highly in Holland that they are not able to make any sort of decent money on each gram.

They don't sell weed because it makes them money, they sell it because they want to.

Where did you ever see 80% profit from food & drinks in coffeeshops? Total bull it seems to me. So why did 95% of Amsterdam coffeeshops choice cannabis over alcohol sales. Mostly not for the love of cannabis but for the bottom line of more profit!

So show us some links to back up your "facts".

indapark.co.uk - Spliff wrote:If any coffeeshop requires that you buy weed, I suggest that you leave immediately. It is wrong and rude to ask.

Totally agree.

ima have to side w/ itsmymagicallife on this one.. i also think, it's bs, that they get 80% of their profit from food an drinks...if anything, coffeeshop's BANK off the sales of pot, specially during certain times an seasons of the year... i HIGHLY doubt they're doing this just to do it, Noone sells weed "just to do it" there's Alway's a Catch... either to gain a Rep, or make a good profit to hold them over for a lil while..

While I don't believe it is 80% of their income from food and drink, you have to realise that losing food and drink sales can be enough to push a coffeeshop under.

The guys at Central were worried that becoming a takeaway only bar, losing their drink money, would drive them out of business. Not because it's the major part of their earnings, but it's an integral part.

They could not survive on drinks and food alone, and they cannot survive on Marihauna alone.