Sometimes I get the feeling that people get more satisfaction from demanding an overly complicated and unnecessary specific drink
than the actual drink itself.
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147xxxx
Making your latte, working with the motto "just say yes," dealing with the hobos, the clueless, the regulars, and amazing(ly dumb) customers. I'm your starbucks barista.
Jul 28
Jul 27
Applying at Starbucks.
About a week ago we got the best job application I’ve ever seen
Have you ever visited a Starbucks Coofee location? Where? Describe your experience. Yes, everything.
What do you like about coffee? Everything
Why would you like to work for Starbucks Coffee Company? I’d be fun.
Describe a specific situation where you have provided excellent customer service in your most recent position. Why was this effective? (blank.)
Brilliant. She didn’t leave any contact number to call, so we had no excuse but NOT to call her.
To get a job at starbucks you have to be friendly, not an idiot, and be ready to do anything - you won’t be making lattes all day; you might have to clean the bottom of a fridge.
I say you have to not be an idiot because people do really obviously dumb things during the application/interview process that lead me wondering what they’re thinking.
Take your time and fill out every part of the application. It shows that you can follow directions and you know how to read.
Show up a bit early, and whatever you do, DON’T show up late. It shows that you won’t be late. A lot of times if you are late, a partner has to stay longer to cover your spot on the floor. After doing a a 6.30am-2pm no one wants to stay a second longer.
Friendliness is something that I believe can’t be taught, so you kind of have to already have that.
You would think that all of these things are obvious… but people make these mistakes so I GUESS THEY ARENT.
Starbucks was my first job, so I didn’t have any work or coffee experience. Being a starbucks barista is really unlike any other job (its somewhere between regular barista, mcdonalds employee, and pushover), so honestly, I think people are better when they have nothing to compare it to. Because, for the most part, you will work harder than other jobs.
Someone else sent me an email about the interview to be a shift suppervisor. I’m really late (I hope you got the promotion, Stacy from Cali!!), but I thought I should address it.
I can only speak from my expeince being interveiwed with my store manager, another store manager, and my district manager. I’ve learned that they basically want to make sure you can handle customer’s issues the way starbucks wants you to handle them (L.A.T.T.E. skills, “just say yes,” etc), you’re able to communicate with your partners (“what? what? why?”, star skills, etc), and you know all of those starbucks things like the mission statement, guiding principles, green apron skills, you know, those items you once read and then never EVER used again. After my interview I was told that the only thing I had to work on was my green apron skills… not like I had to be more welcoming, more like I had to memorize them better. I made a bullshit poser on printer paper about them, and called it a day.
If there’s an issue - customer/partner, partner/partner, or (and this one’s fun) customer/customer - you’ll be able to step in and confidently deal with it. With a good shift, things run smoothly and the partners feel supported at all times. I can always tell when a good shift is on the floor because they always know what’s going on and what needs to happen. I had a few questions like “what if someone isn’t smiling?” (yes she asked me this) where the ultimate answer was “I’d tell on them.”
A district manager (or at least mine) cares more that their shift is completely by the book and not about using their own judgement - even if it might make more sense.
I also had to prepare a coffee tasting. I did (I think) 3/5 espresso 2/5 verona with apples dipped in caramel and chopped nuts. It was last fall so it was very autumnyyy, and my cheesy district manager loved it. It was impressive. Mixing a few blends and bringing in/making your own food is a lot better than doing a chocolate brownie with verona - amiiiriighh??
Anyway, I’m keeping it short and simple. Any partners want to chime in or anyone else have questions?
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Jul 26
Oh and the best part of today
was sitting in front of the window next to the door and watching people do this:
- pull at the locked door
- read the large note on the door saying we were closed & flooded and where the closest starbucks was
- frown
- pull at the locked door again
- look through the window to see what was going on/if we were ACTAULLY flooded
- see us through the window chilling in our aprons and mime us the question “are you open?”
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“ Well it would be nice to know about this BEFORE I ordered my drink. And you know, we’re waiting for someone here.”
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A customer responding to my coworker saying that we were closing. We had to close because water was shooting out of the drains and the water from the drains (i.e. uhm… sewage) was quickly flooding the lobby and blocking every doorway.
SORRY I would have loved to have given you notice sooner, but I didn’t exactly have a heads up that our store was going to be flooded in under two minutes.
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picture #1 - the water erupting from dra
picture #2 - the flooding of the back ro
picture #3 - our sad wet lobby
so… this all happened today.
Right after I clocked out for my half it started to really pour outside. While I was making my drink, I told my coworker that we should cover up the sink drains with saran wrap because we have this nasty issue at out store when it rains. I guess the drains are connected to the sewers, and they’re connected a suppose a bit too closely because when it rains a lot, the water starts coming up… from the drains. I know its gross, but we never have an issue. The biggest problem we’ve had was once when we had to shut down the bathroom because… uh… it was spurting water out. Alright IT SOUNDS GROSS but its usually nothing.
Its usually nothing… tonight was the exception.
god i don’t even know where to begin. Well I guess at the beginning (a very good place to start).
So as I was saying, I was on my half and was aware that the water might be coming up a bit. I thought I’d get too the bathroom before it got out of control, but by the time I made my way to it, it was erupting water. So I quickly called my shift over, laughed about it, and said we should shut down the bathroom.
I’m sitting at the desk in the back when all of a sudden I hear this noise from the drain underneath the sink. I turn around, and nothing’s going on, so I turn back around to what I was doing. The rumble happens again. I turn around and watch it for a bit. Nothing. Then it suddenly erupts. The water doesn’t just over flow from the drain a bit, but the water shoots up. So, obvious, I scream. And then it erupts again and I scream again. My shift runs into the back because… well because of my screaming, and I’m pointing to the drain telling him what’s going on. He was somewhat relieved because he thought that I hurt myself or like fell down, which, knowing my klutzy self, would be pretty typical. So he says its no big deal, and goes back on the floor. It happens again, but this time it shoots up a bit higher. I see the water start to flood our back room, so I call (read: scream) for my shift to come in the back. It starts shooting up more, I stand on the chair and start saying to get everyone out of the store. Then I saw a dead cockroach floating and obviously I screamed again. I also grab my phone to protect it from the great flood and to document this for prosperity/my blog. Its shooting up even higher (see picture #1) and I’m standing on the chair wondering how the hell I am going to make my way out of the backroom with my nasty shoes with holes in the soles. The water thats flooding the store is really dirty drain water. I look at the floor and realize its more than an inch deep. The heavy mat in the back is FLOATING. The water erupts again and some of it lands ON MY FACE. I see how the water has gone out of the back room and out onto the back line (behind the counter). (see picture #2) So I say hell to my dry feet and I splash around to see what’s going on in the lobby. My coworker asks why I was screaming and I say something like THERES WATER EVERYWHERE. And right when I say that the drain next to the bar starts to overflow. I look into the lobby, and water has come out of the bathroom and is taking over the lobby. I tell my coworker to just get EVERYONE OUT OF THE STORE ASAP. Everyone (for the most part) gets the picture, and peaces out pretty quickly.
This all happened in about two minutes.
So my shift calls people from the building to check it out. They come down and are basically like “oh… shit,” but they tell us that they have a water vacuum (I know, I didn’t know that they existed either), and they’ll be down in a bit to clean it up. Because the water is still everywhere, we couldn’t do much cleaning until they picked the water up. So my coworker and I walked around basically being like “oh… my god…” while I took a few more pictures (picture #3!!!).
The water was everywhere except for the “homeless men chairs” (aka the comfy sofa chairs). Then we realized the only thing we could do was get Chinese food and eat Madelines on the homelessmen chairs.
A few hours later, the people from the building finally came down a few hours later. They first broke the vacuum. After fixing their machine, they started slowly cleaning.
The dirt and the left over water was everywhere, and we started to feel a bit hopeless. It was like… where do we even start? The stock room part of the back room was totally flooded to the back wall. The dirt and water had gotten behind the giant fridges in the back. And we had a lot of dishes that we couldn’t do (we didn’t want to put more water down the drain!). Luckily, I had an awesome team, and we all just saw what needed to be done and just started doing it and asking what everyone else was doing/what needed to be done. We were just so worried that the sewer water would stay around and smell up the store. We kept saying ” is that done? does the bathroom still smell!? what about the backroom?”
The people from the building only wanted to clean up the lobby. I asked them “what about this area?” pointing to behind the counter, “this whole area is flooded here.” One of them laughed “you can do that.” I was kind of like uhm… I think you can vacuum that up too. It really bothered me because it would have taken us so long to just get the water up, and they were too lazy too pass their vacuum over a small area. Whatever, they ended up doing it.
We closed out store 4 hours earlier than we usually do because of the flooding… and we clocked out 15 minutes after we were suppose to. Sweet.
Guess what time I have to work tomorrow? 7:30 AM. If someone tomorrow complains about how the store smells I’m going to punch then in the face.
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Jul 25
Today, the barista at Starbuck’s asked for my name and I told him it was ‘Free’ so that when he called me he would say, “Tall Mocha Frap for Free.” He told me I was clever but I still did not get a free drink. MLIA.
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Jul 24
15th Avenue Coffee & Tea. not only is this beaaauuuutiful coffee shop owned by and operated by starbucks, but it is also “inspired by” starbucks.
I’m not sure how I feel about it. The store looks really nice and I’d much rather work there than where I’m workink now. However, I’m not buying this whole thing. It feels kind of fake. like did they have to get an edgy hipster to be the barista there? That’s a nice touch because no true hipster would ever even step inside of a starbucks. That’s nice, Howard. I see what you did there.
If I want to go to get coffee at a place that isn’t starbucks (or at least the starbucks that we all know), I’m going to go to an independent coffee shop and give them my money.
read about it here. look at it here. comment on it here - what do we think?
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Last night we had this crazy mad scientist lookin homeless person hang out in our lobby.
As my coworker was mopping the lobby, I saw this homeless guy in this awesome outfit circa 1986 just kind of wandering aimlessly around our lobby. He went over to the newspaper stand and swiped an observer. My coworker told him that if he wanted to read the newspaper, he has to pay for it. According to my coworker, the guy said that he wanted to keep his picture in the paper… and then said that he wouldn’t pay for it. My coworker basically said that it wouldn’t fly and calmly took the paper. It was a pretty slow Thursday night, so my other coworker and I just kind of stood there watching and kind of hopping that there’d be a scene. After my coworker put back the Observer, the homeless guy marched back to the newspaper stand and picked back up the paper. My coworker once again told him how he’d have to pay for it. Well the Einstein looking guy, sais FINE - HERE, and awkwardly threw the paper into the mop bucket. My coworker hilariously said “alriiiight, thank you, sir” and picked up the soaked paper. I guess the guy was pissed that my coworker wasn’t more angry because he picked up the mop in its bucket and very awkwardly threw it on the ground and stormed out of the store. The whole scene was kind of ridiculous
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Jul 23
Jul 22
today during the morning rush, I was on double-barring with my store manager. In the middle of the crazyness I accidentally put whip cream on an iced mocha that wasn’t suppose to get it. Instead of remaking it, I was lazy (hey, at least I admit it!) and decided to just scoop off the whip cream. As soon as I did so, I realized that my manager would probably notice and think I was lazy/a bad barista.
Then I realized that I’m leaving starbucks in a month, and I honestly don’t give two shits.
I’ve never felt so liberated. Should I start a count down?
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Jul 21
There’s this morning regular who gets a venti misto, but is always charged for a coffee. One of the first times I was on a register in the morning, I charged her for a misto and then she corrected me. I clarified her order - 1/2 brewed coffee 1/2 steamed non-fat, and told her that it was a misto. She then called over to another partner saying “you don’t charge me for a misto, just a coffee right?” The partner then looked at me and say “oh yeah, yeah, we just give it to her for the coffee price.” Whatever, its like a 50 cent difference, and I suppose it doesn’t really matter. Its really nice of our partners to do this, but it irks me when its expected.
If I’m expediting the line in the morning, and I ask what she’s getting she goes “Oh, *partner name* knows my drink” and then she’d yell across the store to that partner and said partner (its always one of these two slow girls who don’t understand the concept of time) will stop whatever they’re doing and have a full out conversation where they kiss her ass.
I thought I was the only one who was bothered by how she thinks she owns the place so I’ve never really mentioned it. However, I once I heard another partner complain about her and I was all “I THOUGH I WAS THE ONLY ONE WHO THOUGHT THAT ABOUT HER.” I think his exact words were “dumb ho, i don’t care about your drink enough to remember it so someone else can make it. no one cares about your boring life or how you only drink skim with splenda because you lost like a shit load of weight.” Harsh but because it was so unexpected it was truly hilarious. Everyone weirdly kisses her ass, and I was somewhat relieved that not everyone felt like that.
At one point today during our rush, my bar partner and I were caught up on drinks. We were maybe 3 drinks ahead and when customers came over to us we just pointed out which drink was theirs at the hand off. A pretty nice place to be during the rush. We were surprised when we noticed this customer standing at the hand off counter. My coworker - who doesn’t work mornings and therefor doesn’t recognize this “VIP” regular customer - asks what she’s waiting on. She says her drink, and my coworker realizing that we don’t have it asks if she placed her order with the person expediting. The customer says no. My partner says “oh… who rang you up?” The customer says no one did, point to the line and says “I’m going to be late for work. I can’t wait.”
Basically she wanted us to make her drink for free and she didn’t want to wait in line. She didn’t even ask us to make it, or anything. She just told us what she was waiting for and why we didn’t have her order… she just expected us to do it if we saw her. She didn’t say “hey sorry! I’m so in a rush, can you guys please get me the misto I usually get?” or anything nicer. She honestly seemed kind of pissed that she had to wait…for her drink that she didn’t order… because she didn’t even wait in line! Because my partner and I weren’t her morning barista bitches, we kind of told her she had to wait like everyone else and then ignored her.
but uhm… EXCUSE ME?! Who the hell do you think you are?! You think you are too VIP to wait in line? Uhm… John Stewart, Harrison Ford, Shia Labeouf, Molly Shannon, Ross Geller David Schwimmer, Jessica Alba, and so many other celebrities have to wait in line SO YOU DO TOO.
You aren’t Mariah; you don’t get VIP service.
I couldn’t get over this. And she was the only annoying customer all morning.
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Today was... absolutely fine
Having a floor full of people who are good at their job and want to be there makes a huuuuuuuuuuuge difference in the morning.
I was double baring with one of my regular closers who has never worked a morning rush, and we were pretty golden. We had an extra long line to the door all morning, but the drinks never piled up. The most we had at a time was like 5 or 6, which is pretty awesome. More significant than the number of our sales (not that impressive) or the customer count today was how positive and energized everyone was throughout the whole morning. The most difficult thing i had to do this morning was set up the pastry case at 5 am, which was kind of a challenge because we just had SO MANY pastries this morning.
The morning rush floor was full of partners who are regular closers and have never worked the morning before. I like to think, as a closer who has helped train the current closers, that it was because they wanted to fill the floor with awesome and friendly baristas on this promo day. So that put a cool spin on the shift. As closers we are always cleaning and stocking, and the quicker we do it the quicker we get out. So during the calm before the storm we were all moving and trying to find something to do, instead of standing around drinking espresso like what’s usually done. However, there wasn’t really anything to do so everything was EXTRA stocked up and every thing was REALLY clean. It was kind of hilarious.
During my ten, I counted a portion of the pastry coupons from one till and it was a little over 52. By the time 10.30 rolled around, our pastry case was basically empty.
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Jul 20
Before i went on my ten, my manager said "You seem tired"
Yeah no shit I’m tired. It’s Monday morning. My last day off was last Monday and my next is this Thursday. Every barista is working 40 or more hours a week. As my shift and I were opening, the phone rings and it’s a partner saying that she cant show up for the shift that’s starting in 15 min because she isn’t “mentally able to come into work.”. Another partner still hasn’t showed up and he was suppose to be here 45 minutes ago. That leaves us with 4 people to handle the morning rush with me on bar. And on top of all of that it’s 7 am
SO YEAH IM A BIT TIRED
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