A young café owner was left ‘shaking’ after she was slammed by a regular customer for increasing the cost of her medium and large coffees by 80c. 

Ruby Rule, 26, who owns three cafés in Queensland, recently raised her coffee prices by 16 per cent for the first time in three years. 

Ms Rule said a regular customer lectured her after he was charged an extra 80 cents for his usual extra-hot medium flat white. 

‘I just had a horrible experience with a customer and he comes back super unhappy an hour later with a complaint,’ she said in a TikTok video. 

‘He starts laying into me about our price increase. 

‘His coffee went from $5 to $5.80, which he said was completely unacceptable and I told him he didn’t need to shop with us.’

Ms Rule said she defended the increase by explaining there were other factors at play, including exorbitant rent and increased supplier costs. 

‘I explained how over the past three years, we had to move into a much more expensive area and it wasn’t something we could control,’ she said. 

A café owner has had to defend increasing her coffee prices after being slammed by a customer for her ‘completely unacceptable’ move

‘Our old building got demolished and we’ve had to change suppliers who are raising their prices, so we had to increase our prices.

‘I deserve to be paid for my time owning the business so you can get your daily coffee and for that to happen, we needed to have a price increase. 

‘He didn’t care what I got paid because it was irrelevant to him.’ 

While Ms Rule said she understood why some customers would now go elsewhere, she said they would be lucky to find a 12-ounce coffee for $5.80. 

‘I understand it’s not going to be viable for some of our customers to shop with us anymore,’ she said.

‘I hope they can go to another coffee shop that might have more suitable pricing, but there’s not many places cheaper.’

Aussies were divided over the price jump, with some applauding the decision. 

‘The general public have no idea what it’s like running a small business,’ one said.

Ms Rule was left shaking after a customer slammed the 16 per cent price increase at her café

‘$5.80 is so reasonable! A medium at our local is $6.50 and I happily pay it,’ one said. 

‘I feel that pricing of yours is quite reasonable, especially considering all the factors,’ a third person agreed. 

But others slammed the ‘steep’ price hike. 

’16 per cent in one go is a bit steep… should have phased it,’ one said. 

‘I think price increases are inevitable however a 16 per cent increase in one go is really hard to justify…’ a second wrote. 

‘I think the prices of coffees are getting ridiculous,’ a third said. 

Others shared what they were paying for their own coffees.

Ruby Rule owns three cafés in Queensland including The Boneyard Expresso (pictured)

‘Where I work, a shot is $5, two is $6 and four is $7,’ one said.

‘Add-ons like alternative milks, syrups, decaf, and additional shots are all $1 extra.’

’12 ounces at my café is $6.30 and we are planning on going up 50 cents in the next three months,’ another said.

‘Paying $7.80 for two shots lactose free where I am,’ a third said.  

According to recent Commonwealth Bank analysis, the cost of coffee beans has increased by 200 per cent over two years, partly due to a drought in Brazil.