The store's reasoning in this anecdote isn't that they don't believe homeless people shouldn't have their drinks; it's that they don't want homeless people to spend time in their cafe. If they have drinks, they'll spend time in the cafe.

They're wielding a "cashless" policy here much in the same way states used to use things like literacy tests and poll taxes[1] as ways to disenfranchise minority voters.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_rights_in_the_United_St...