Silly question but in a company that size, wouldn't it be more economical to provide all staff with the same refreshments?
Across 3 buildings we have various vending machines, coffee stations, etc but all offer the same. There is no difference made.
I think that's the first problem. Once you address that the rest will fall into place.
Realistically, how on earth are you going to police this and stop someone from filling up a thermos? Personally I wouldn't be that greedy but that's just me.
At one point, all coffee was provided and paid for by our administrative services organization, as part of the facilities budgets, however it became too difficult for them to manage this because there are 4 subsidiary companies operating operating at any one location, and their financial expenditure must be kept distinctly separate, as we are a regulated business. The best way to ensure that the right companies are paying for only their usage is to let each location manage their own ordering and payment. We all use the same vendor, and have the same items available to order, but obviously different groups budget differently for this. This wouldn't be as big of a deal if it were one or two people a day taking one or two cups of coffee, but that's sadly not the case and it's eating pretty substantially into our supply - we went through a box of peppermint tea in less than 2 days, and over 300 single-serve tubs of creamer in less than a week.
One of my colleagues is an early-riser, and her plan is to stake out the kitchen tomorow morning to ensure that it's definitely the occupants of the floor in question that are taking our stuff, and then we'll try to solicit the help of the admins on that floor to keep their people from taking our coffee.