My in-laws live in Lockport. While visiting them from Georgia with my parents, my mother-in-law showed us around Joliet. Downtown was cute and my Dad and I are big coffee lovers so, of course, we thought we HAD to stop into "Jitters" based on the name alone. Also, we all prefer Mom and Pop shops over chains so we made a coffee stop even though we didn't really need or want a coffee. The only good things I can say are: 1. They sell Green Mountain, a great choice of coffee. 2. The young lady who poured us our black coffees was nice. The older lady behind the counter immediately rubbed me the wrong way by barking at us as soon as we walked in, "how many?", "for here or to go?", "together or separate?". ok, there was only 1 other guy in the whole place. I immediately let her know we were all together, it was just 2 coffees to go. I mean, how simple is that order? She didn't greet us, smile or act the least bit friendly, not even professional. I thought something must be wrong with her. I tried extra hard to be nice and normal, despite her gruff and unwelcoming manner. I paid $4 for 2 small black coffees, more expensive than Starbucks! and I had to put up with her rudeness.
It only started there, she continued to be crazy and rude. She doesn't even thank me but hands me a $1 that is very visibly ripped in half and barely taped back together. As I started to put it away in my wallet, I noticed this and very nicely asked for a different dollar bill that isn't ripped. Now, I don't know if this is some lame ploy of hers to try to get $1 tips on bad service and overpriced drinks and she assumed I would drop the whole dollar in the big bowl of tips right by her register, but I was preparing to give change from my coin purse. She IGNORED my request and didn't even look up. About 5 seconds later after not getting a response, I calmly said to her, well, I'll switch it with your dollar here in the tip bowl (it is all their money, one way or another she's getting her ripped dollar back). She growls at me, "Don't touch that! Those are our tips!" and smacks her hand over my dollar that I was replacing. This was the most attention I had gotten the whole time, and it was too much! She was psycho. She reminded me of the mom from The Goonies. Anyway, I said to her as she very begrudgingly went into her register to give me a new dollar, "Someone has had way too much coffee. And, you just lost your tip. That was very rude." She looked at me and said meanly, "You weren't going to leave one anyway." I immediately asked my parents and my mother-in-law to leave with me right away. I couldn't stand being in there another second with that horrible old woman. How they run that business with her behind the counter is a mystery? Not that this should ever matter, but because I read someone else's experience below, my family and I are white. I'm in my mid 30s and my parents are in their 60s. Why this woman thought I was some young little kid that she could speak to that way and get away with it, I don't know. I gave her a piece of my mind and now I'm telling everyone else. Don't patronize this establishment!! They don't deserve your business. read more