Okay, I ask for the "free" coffee and know there will be some bs this company will be put me through. Do I want more "free" java? Not when the stuff cost $9.50 a pound!
My experience and knowledge of the coffee business amount to a hill of beans (bad pun). Usually for small businesses, employees will set up a system to collect money or get folks to bring in a can of some drinkable coffee. Work fine as long as there are no cheapa**@@ or the public grabbing cups of coffee. Now for those businesses that got a budget for coffee, I have seen it come in with the toilet paper and on the other hand brought in by a vendor. Private businesses or public businesses, I have never seen people brew a pot of $9.50 lb. coffee. Myself like most folks, can justify paying around a buck for a cup of coffee at 7-11 or QT because it quick and often it stretch the morning break (hint hint).
Now if you got a business that serve eat-in and/or carry out food, then a coffee vendor can be a real friend. What I been told, in exchange for buying a certain line of coffee products at a fair market price, the vendor will help a business owner on the hardware side. Similiar arrangements are supposely done by soft drink providers, orange juice machine providers, dish machine providers, and finally, the beer distributors.