A coffee vigilante set up shop outside Goldman Sachs headquarters Monday to hand out free java to beleaguered employees in the wake of noti.group’s report the Wall Street banking giant had ended its complimentary “grab-and-go” coffee station, The Post has learned.
Bleary-eyed bankers stumbling into Goldman’s gleaming building at 200 West Street were able to fuel up with the free cups of joe from Cometeer, a Massachusetts-based company that makes cold-brew pods.
“All we have is a sad Keurig up on my floor… there’s no more delicious cold brew,” one analyst said.
“Wait… we just lost our coffee this is perfect,” another analyst chirped.
The Post reported Monday that Goldman CEO David Solomon had scrapped the free coffee — as well as stashes of French vanilla creamer, almond milk, soy milk and half-and-half –despite his edict that workers return to their desks five days a week.
Some junior bankers were a little skittish about being seen in line for the free java jolt.
“Analysts were afraid to cross the picket lines — they were clearly nervous about taking the coffee” said Britton O’Daly, who manned the Cometeer coffee station. “We saw a lot of people looking at us and a lot of managing directors glaring at us.”
Employees were also worried to spend too much time waiting around for their caffeine fix. O’Daly said he saw employees relax once they saw they could get coffee in 30 seconds rather than three minutes.
One young Goldman employee grabbed a cup right before the crosswalk turned red, saying: “I need to catch the light right now — I work at Goldman ya know.”
The mocha maker also got some heat from security for the publicity stunt. Guards told O’Daly he had to move his unlicensed coffee stand across the street. He quickly moved under a dingy scaffolding a block away.
O’Daly, who’s listed as Commeteer’s special projects manager on its website, said he was inspired to “give coffee to Goldman analysts in need” because he loves the idea of supporting people going back to work and thought they’d appreciate the free brew.
It wasn’t just Goldman employees who were excited by the free coffee, O’Daly added.
One Citibank employee ran up and excitedly grabbed a cup, exclaiming, “We never get free coffee at Citi,” O’Daly said.
[Written in collaboration with other media outlets with information from the following sources]
