http://www.ihatestarbucks.com/bb/tags.php?tag=3079 I Hate Starbucks » Tag: 3079 - Recent Posts en-US Fri, 24 May 2013 05:36:02 +0000 http://bbpress.org/?v=1.0.2 q http://www.ihatestarbucks.com/bb/search.php http://www.ihatestarbucks.com/bb/topic.php?id=5939#post-62204 Fri, 27 Apr 2012 18:58:51 +0000 VodkaFrappucino 62204@http://www.ihatestarbucks.com/bb/ <p>I'm surprised people have actually been responding nicely to you. Maybe the next time you're looking for advice or help, you could try being less demeaning. Those baristas were probably just smiling, because we have to be friendly, but thanks for the descriptive language and the insults on our intelligence. </p> <p>It's a nice sentiment to want to keep others from danger, but somehow, coming from you, this sounds more like you wanting to sht on baristas about something. </p> http://www.ihatestarbucks.com/bb/topic.php?id=5939#post-62202 Fri, 27 Apr 2012 18:46:06 +0000 Unsweetened 62202@http://www.ihatestarbucks.com/bb/ <p>For some reason, this has piqued my curiosity. :P I lived in Chicago for a couple years so I was wondering how bad this place really is.</p> <p>Reading what others have to say about Englewood, some residents of that neighborhood state it's not as bad as it sounds. It's not good, or even safe, but that most there are just people trying to get by. Not everyone is gun wielding maniac out to kill you. </p> http://www.ihatestarbucks.com/bb/topic.php?id=5939#post-62201 Fri, 27 Apr 2012 18:22:45 +0000 Anonymous 62201@http://www.ihatestarbucks.com/bb/ <p>Lol unsweetened, OP called you a dummy and quit the conversation HE STARTED. I agree with dry sharpie, don't come griping to us. We don't have the power or even the desire to do something about this. And I can't take the original post seriously because as soon as I realized that it's written like a novel I thought "is this guy serious?"<br /> Also, you kinda seem like a ****. Your lining up your contacts to make them money on this apparent travesty of a situation? You only spoke to the store manager, did you go to the DM or corporate like several members here suggested? If you care so much why aren't you going through every means possible to end it? What do you expect us to do about it? </p> http://www.ihatestarbucks.com/bb/topic.php?id=5939#post-62200 Fri, 27 Apr 2012 18:00:52 +0000 Unsweetened 62200@http://www.ihatestarbucks.com/bb/ <p>lol. I'm not saying they have a plan. I'm just saying they could. Maybe you're not the only person alive who has been in that neighborhood. Maybe whoever came up with that idea is actually from there. Who knows.</p> <p>Doing a quick search it looks like there are some non-profit groups based in Englewood. I guess not everyone has the same idea as you as to what this neighborhood is like, or hasn't given up entirely on trying to help. Also, they aren't dead. Here's one: <a href="http://www.teamworkenglewood.org/" rel="nofollow">http://www.teamworkenglewood.org/</a> After almost 10 years their volunteers and staff haven't been murdered or raped! Wow!</p> <p>Anyway, gang members, murders and the like are people too, and... actually can be reasoned with. I'm just speaking from personal experience here. I married one. :) </p> http://www.ihatestarbucks.com/bb/topic.php?id=5939#post-62158 Fri, 27 Apr 2012 09:31:27 +0000 Joseph 62158@http://www.ihatestarbucks.com/bb/ <p><a></a><br /> <a></a><br /> <a></a></p> <p>I did talk to the store manager. Crucial_buzz had written</p> <p>"If he/she seems pretty uncaring about the whole thing, then it's out of your hands."</p> <p>Jeanine did seem pretty uncaring, and I agree with CB. It's out of my hands. I made a good faith effort and did more than my part. She handed me a card with the 800 number for Corporate HQ, but why bother? I'll call, somebody will do some hand holding that I don't need or want, and then nothing will happen.</p> <p>Not the whole effort was a total waste. A few of my family members are lawyers, and they have friends who work in civil litigation. The larger the settlement in a wrongful death suit, the more the attorneys get paid. I have this tidbit passed along to them, and when the expected killings (or rapes) happen, whoever ends up working as the attorney for the plaintiffs will be enriched.</p> <p><a></a><br /> <a></a><br /> <a></a></p> <p>"But obviously someone came up with this brilliant idea... and it's possible they actually have some kind of formulated plan of action, maybe they looked into it. Maybe. You don't know. I don't know."</p> <p><a></a><br /> <a></a><br /> <a></a></p> <p>Yes, dummy, I do know. Anybody who has lived in the city knows. The only worthwhile "formulated plan of action" for dealing with the gangs is to get as far away from them as possible. The leaders and membership are so volatile that there can be no possibility of coming to any sort of real understanding with them. Whatever they say, however much somebody bribes them, when the moment comes, they just do whatever they feel like, and even they don't know what that's going to be.</p> <p>One could try to come in with so much firepower that the gangs are driven off. Good luck. The CPD has four unsolved murders for every cop on the force, and they do not have the manpower to spare doing peacekeeping for a scatterbrained corporate publicity stunt. Even if they did - ever get to deal with gang members on the job? I have. Deterrence doesn't work very well on people who don't fear death, or who think that they can't be killed because, as one young man once told me, they're "too crazy".</p> <p>No fixing that, but at least I can put a few friends of the family in line for a little extra cash, when the time comes. Until then, I am done with this conversation.</p> <p><a></a><br /> <a></a><br /> <a></a> </p> http://www.ihatestarbucks.com/bb/topic.php?id=5939#post-62141 Fri, 27 Apr 2012 02:22:46 +0000 Dry Sharpie 62141@http://www.ihatestarbucks.com/bb/ <p>Joseph, this is not an unofficial Starbucks corporate website. Any complaints you have regarding an individual Starbucks store's global month of service event should be reported to the district manager of that store or directly to Starbucks Headquarters. </p> http://www.ihatestarbucks.com/bb/topic.php?id=5939#post-62136 Fri, 27 Apr 2012 01:31:11 +0000 Unsweetened 62136@http://www.ihatestarbucks.com/bb/ <p>What I don't understand is why post it on this site. Just ranting? Ok. Want some advice? Uh, maybe? We're just a bunch of disgruntled baristas. And my advice... it really doesn't have anything to do with you.</p> <p>If a customer came to me with something like this... I don't think I would take it very seriously. Like, who the eff are you? You're just a customer. Sounds like a bad idea you say? Okay... have a nice day. Of course, I wouldn't go volunteer anywhere for Starbucks, so... kinda irrelevant to me. </p> <p>But obviously someone came up with this brilliant idea... and it's possible they actually have some kind of formulated plan of action, maybe they looked into it. Maybe. You don't know. I don't know. Maybe they're going in there with tanks. So, go ahead and tell them it's a bad idea. They'll make up their own minds, I'm sure. </p> http://www.ihatestarbucks.com/bb/topic.php?id=5939#post-62124 Thu, 26 Apr 2012 23:52:00 +0000 Señor Cardgage 62124@http://www.ihatestarbucks.com/bb/ <p>The Dread Senor Cardgage says- he's just doing what he feels is being a good samaritan. He senses dumbasses in danger, and he wants to act. So whatevz.</p> <p>On the otherhand, why not just bulldoze the whole neighborhood and build a Starbucks there? Isn't that what we do in third world countries anyway? I could be its SM. And we wouldn't gentrify the area, oh no- we'd fortify the store like a zombie apocalypse. Or TF2. Or Helm's Deep. Whatever your fantasy. SPY SAPPIN' MAH TURRET </p> http://www.ihatestarbucks.com/bb/topic.php?id=5939#post-62116 Thu, 26 Apr 2012 22:34:15 +0000 IloveSBUX 62116@http://www.ihatestarbucks.com/bb/ <p>Seems to me that some people have way too much time on their hands and like to stick their nose in other people's business. Don't want to volunteer in Englewood? Don't go... Why get your panties in a twist because somebody else does? If people do not do a little research before jumping on board for any cause, event, or invite, they will have to pay the consequences. Either way, it isn't any of your business. </p> http://www.ihatestarbucks.com/bb/topic.php?id=5939#post-62102 Thu, 26 Apr 2012 20:01:25 +0000 Anonymous 62102@http://www.ihatestarbucks.com/bb/ <p>Edit: My phone posted that way too late. </p> http://www.ihatestarbucks.com/bb/topic.php?id=5939#post-62100 Thu, 26 Apr 2012 19:54:54 +0000 crucial_buzz 62100@http://www.ihatestarbucks.com/bb/ <p>He's upset because it's not just crime ridden.... it's basically a war zone.<br /> Police don't even go in there.<br /> They don't report murderes on the news there anymore because well, it's not news.</p> <p>And the kids that are going there are clueless little yuppie kids.</p> <p>It's all in his original post, so not my words. Just paraphrasing. </p> http://www.ihatestarbucks.com/bb/topic.php?id=5939#post-62094 Thu, 26 Apr 2012 18:09:06 +0000 splashofsoy 62094@http://www.ihatestarbucks.com/bb/ <p>wait let me get this straight.</p> <p>you're upset that they're looking for volunteers to help in a crime ridden neighborhood?</p> <p>i don't understand. </p> http://www.ihatestarbucks.com/bb/topic.php?id=5939#post-62086 Thu, 26 Apr 2012 16:49:28 +0000 spoodle 62086@http://www.ihatestarbucks.com/bb/ <p>Oh jeez.. I heard something about that project through the RM. That's our neighboring district.. the last thing I want to happen is to hear anything happened to those partners or that scruffy short blonde (refraining from using his name) is gonna' get a spoodle shoved where the sun doesn't shine :/ </p> http://www.ihatestarbucks.com/bb/topic.php?id=5939#post-62082 Thu, 26 Apr 2012 14:53:01 +0000 eightpumpchai 62082@http://www.ihatestarbucks.com/bb/ <p>@Buxmeister, are you from Chicago/subarbs? I laughed as well, I know the area well and it is very true </p> http://www.ihatestarbucks.com/bb/topic.php?id=5939#post-62081 Thu, 26 Apr 2012 14:12:41 +0000 Buxmeister 62081@http://www.ihatestarbucks.com/bb/ <p>My good friend lives in Naperville. I laughed at the description you gave. </p> http://www.ihatestarbucks.com/bb/topic.php?id=5939#post-62070 Thu, 26 Apr 2012 08:49:28 +0000 ryuness 62070@http://www.ihatestarbucks.com/bb/ <p>Take a picture of it on the wall. Document everything. Call corporate. </p> http://www.ihatestarbucks.com/bb/topic.php?id=5939#post-62069 Thu, 26 Apr 2012 08:43:26 +0000 Joseph 62069@http://www.ihatestarbucks.com/bb/ <p>Yes, I'm a customer.</p> <p>"There's probably a reason behind the scenes for her actions that we're just not aware of."</p> <p>I thought it would be something like that. Nobody can be pushed into decisiveness. That has to come from within. There was a contradiction there that told me that something had to be missing, in my mental picture of the situation.</p> <p>"Since we're supposed to be nice, welcoming, etc., they expect that we should be able to kill them with kindness and someone who was previously going to throw their phone through my window (happened to me) will now magically turn around and be sane."</p> <p>Sorry to hear about that.</p> <p>"if you're happy about how one of the baristas/managers is working, call corporate and report it"</p> <p>Gladly. Somebody is coming to mind as we speak. In fact, it's somebody from the same store, oddly enough. </p> http://www.ihatestarbucks.com/bb/topic.php?id=5939#post-62068 Thu, 26 Apr 2012 08:32:34 +0000 crucial_buzz 62068@http://www.ihatestarbucks.com/bb/ <p>From what I've read on here, upper level probably wouldn't back her up. Where's Hoticecream? They're an sm so they'd know better.</p> <p>I've had issues with that in other jobs (I haven't been at starbucks long enough to comment on them). Lots of times upper management doesn't understand the ACTUAL situation no matter how much you try to explain "this person needed immediate removal! They were out of line and a possible threat to other patrons!". </p> <p>Since we're supposed to be nice, welcoming, etc., they expect that we should be able to kill them with kindness and someone who was previously going to throw their phone through my window (happened to me) will now magically turn around and be sane. Doesn't work that way.</p> <p>So, even if she prevented extremely expensive litigation, if the guy called and complained about being thrown out (there's the key), then there would probably be a phone conversation from management about how the situation could have been handled differently.</p> <p>EDIT: You're a customer, not a partner, right? There's probably a reason behind the scenes for her actions that we're just not aware of. I wouldn't question someone on their job, but if you're happy about how one of the baristas/managers is working, call corporate and report it. Makes us look better in their eyes. </p> http://www.ihatestarbucks.com/bb/topic.php?id=5939#post-62067 Thu, 26 Apr 2012 08:17:06 +0000 Joseph 62067@http://www.ihatestarbucks.com/bb/ <p>"If he/she seems pretty uncaring about the whole thing, then it's out of your hands. Wait for the news reports on tv. Lord knows the media would eat that up."</p> <p>They surely would. It's a she - her name is Jeanine - and in a way, she's hard to pin down. One night, last year, somebody blew in from a redneck bar down the street. He came in to the parking lot hot, hitting the brakes just soon enough to avoid ramming somebody sitting in the sidewalk cafe, walked in and threatened somebody with physical violence for daring to make eye contact with him.</p> <p>I went up and talked to Jeanine, asking her to call the police. At first, she didn't want to get involved, saying that this was between the customers, but I continued. I pointed out that the guy looked crazy and violent, and asked her if this was the sort of thing she wanted to see showing up in a report - patrons hurt, because she refused to place a phone call. It wasn't.</p> <p>She was slow to move at first, but once she got moving, she didn't need the police. She had the guy out of there in two minutes. Not bad for a woman who was maybe 5'4" and clearly outmassed by the guy she was dealing with. So, to give credit where it is due - once she gave herself permission to take action, she was extremely, impressively effective, and seemed to have the desire to be so.</p> <p>That split in her level of motivation makes her very hard to read, for me. I don't know who she is, maybe because she doesn't completely know that, herself? I wonder if there are reasons why she might be afraid to act decisively. As a store manager, when she is in the right, does upper level management back her up, the way they expect her to back up her baristas, if what I'm hearing about the company is true? </p> http://www.ihatestarbucks.com/bb/topic.php?id=5939#post-62066 Thu, 26 Apr 2012 08:04:03 +0000 Joseph 62066@http://www.ihatestarbucks.com/bb/ <p>I believe you. I just checked one of the other topics, and saw that I'd be able to leave off tags, but not delete them. Must be a bug. </p> http://www.ihatestarbucks.com/bb/topic.php?id=5939#post-62064 Thu, 26 Apr 2012 08:00:11 +0000 crucial_buzz 62064@http://www.ihatestarbucks.com/bb/ <p>I honestly have no idea how to change those tags.</p> <p>*EDIT*<br /> Yeah, talk to the manager. If he/she seems pretty uncaring about the whole thing, then it's out of your hands. Wait for the news reports on tv. Lord knows the media would eat that up. </p> http://www.ihatestarbucks.com/bb/topic.php?id=5939#post-62063 Thu, 26 Apr 2012 07:59:38 +0000 Joseph 62063@http://www.ihatestarbucks.com/bb/ <p>Are you the prankster, crucial_buzz? I notice that you posted right as somebody was playing with the tags. </p> http://www.ihatestarbucks.com/bb/topic.php?id=5939#post-62062 Thu, 26 Apr 2012 07:58:03 +0000 crucial_buzz 62062@http://www.ihatestarbucks.com/bb/ <p>o_0</p> <p>........</p> <p>I guess Tijuana is next on their list. Go big or go home.</p> <p>Guess they couldn't find a nice little "habitat for humanity" project. </p> http://www.ihatestarbucks.com/bb/topic.php?id=5939#post-62061 Thu, 26 Apr 2012 07:57:51 +0000 Joseph 62061@http://www.ihatestarbucks.com/bb/ <p>By the way - wikifying the tags is a bad idea on a forum. As I'm writing this, a prankster is in here adding irrelevant tags (eg. "green tea latte") and deleting relevant ones. The tags for a post should be set by its author, not by any clown who wishes to pop in and have a little fun. </p> http://www.ihatestarbucks.com/bb/topic.php?id=5939#post-62060 Thu, 26 Apr 2012 07:13:30 +0000 Joseph 62060@http://www.ihatestarbucks.com/bb/ <p><a></a><br /> <a></a></p> <p>A little background: my mother's family comes from a place called "Englewood" in Chicago. Englewood is, by far, the most violent neighborhood in a city that has long been known for its violence - and deservedly so. At the time Mom and the last of her surviving relatives moved out, murders were no longer reported in the neighborhood paper, because they were no longer considered newsworthy. This is not hyperbole. This is the reality of an unlivable neighborhood.</p> <p>Where the family house used to be is anybody's guess, a guess that couldn't be a very well educated one, because so little is left standing that one is left without recognizable landmarks. A moot point, anyway. One pile of scorched timbers and rubble is much like any other, after the elements have done their work over the years, and to return to the place would be pure madness. Even back in the "good old days", as a little girl, my mother hid a knife under her clothes and hoped for the best on her way home from school. The good old days are well behind us. I trust we all know what a "drive by" is? A knife wouldn't do one much good, any more, and even if one had a gun, what would one do? Where is one going to dive for cover?</p> <p>So, we have this place that looks like something out of one of the Mad Max movies, a "Hades" on Earth that even the police don't want to enter. The body count has been so high that, even in Chicago, the place is notorious. As insanely in love with our own thuggish past (and present) as we tend to be in my home town, we're not crazy enough to want to go there. So, I go out to the suburbs to visit an older relative, as I often do, and guess what I see in the Starbucks at Ogden and Washington, in Naperville?</p> <p>Some narcissistic idiot of an employee has posted an advertisement on the store bulletin board, asking for volunteers to come do construction work and general beautification, in "Hades". He's inviting the clueless to come work with him, in Englewood, Mom's old neighborhood. He'll find them in abundant supply in Naperville, a "suburb" about 30 miles and 1 hour travel time outside of the city - I put suburb in quotes, because when one gets far enough out that the shift in accent starts to become noticeable, one might well ask if that's a suburb or an exurb. Either way, one has a town of about 140,000 that has had maybe 15 murders in its entire history, and a group of kids who've grown up, incredibly sheltered, with no understanding of what a "war zone" is, believing that gang members are just big, misunderstood teddy bears, because that's how they're portrayed on Glee, or whatever these people watch to get their ideas about how life works in the big city.</p> <p>As luck would have it, the idiot who posted the announcement - a short blond, bearded man who looked to be about 30 - is working behind the counter, when I go up to say something about this irresponsible invitation, one that will have an excellent chance of getting a number of well meaning (if utterly clueless) volunteers raped, killed or worse - and if you've ever seen what the gangs can do, you know there's worse. I find, in short order, that I'm talking to a brick wall. Smirking, he starts blathering about how "we" are going in to serve neighborhoods that have been "overlooked", as if the problem in Englewood was nothing more than a shortage of funds for home remodeling, and the buildings there had just merely crumbled, and not been torched. When I try to explain reality to him, he first says that he has to help another customer, and when he does that, walks off into the kitchen and hides, smirking all of the way there.</p> <p>His co-worker, somebody who is an equal delight - strange fellow with a thick Texas accent who pretends to be from Minnesota - then tries to claim that he parties in Englewood, enjoying the Night Life, every weekend. "No, you don't", I tell him. Englewood was never a nightclub district, at any point in its history, and it has not been in any position to become one, for the last few decades. Smirk, smirk, smirk. Let's hear it for postmodern irony, and the impossibility of having a straight discussion with grossly irresponsible people who either place no value on the truth, or deny its very existence. Baristas can be fun, that way, sometimes.</p> <p><a></a><br /> <a></a><br /> <a></a><br /> <a></a><br /> <a></a><br /> <a></a></p> <p>At this point, it would be easy for me to start talking about Darwin awards - tempting, really, because the kids in the town seem to be unusually stupid, and I don't think that they're going to outgrow it. Think "spoiled child by a trophy wife who was married for her bust size, not her character" level dullwittedness, and you get the idea - it's in the blood, probably. But tempted or not, one shouldn't just ignore something like this when a potentially dangerous inducement is put in a place where one can see high school students gathering after school hours. Children, and those who've just recently stopped being children, should not be lured into harm's way. Even if they are as annoying as almost anybody can be.</p> <p>So, I went online a little while ago, trying to find out how to get in touch with Starbucks' legal department, so I could tell them about what was going on, and ask them a simple question: "Does Starbucks wish to accept the liability, when some of these volunteers start coming home in pine boxes? Yes or no?" That's what happens to people in urban war zones. That's why they're call war zones. </p> <p>A lawyer might have enough sense to see to it that a halt would be put to this. Englewood has been notorious for a very long time, so anybody sending volunteers there is ignoring warning after warning, in a willful and wanton manner. Legally, even in a tort reform state, willful and wanton recklessness opens the door to triple punitive damages - even the most heartless and amoral attorney knows that wrongful death suits are expensive. Baristas who quit in a huff because others don't take up residence in the fantasy worlds they like to construct are easily replaced - their departure won't be expensive. But this doesn't matter, because there's no way of getting in touch with the Starbucks legal department. None that I can find, at any rate.</p> <p>What I find, instead, are reports that Starbucks uses its business as a front for advancing a particular, extreme brand of Liberalism - I guess the kind that refuses to believe in such things as slums, and won't let itself be confused by the facts - and that the company is opposed to doing anything that will hurt its baristas' egos, ever, no matter what, because expecting full grown adults to grow up and accept adult responsibilities would be just wrong.</p> <p>I'm going to talk to the store's manager, in about two hours, before I go back to Chicago where, however psychotic we might be at times, at least we usually are living in the real world, and aren't ready to send naive, sheltered kids off to their deaths, just so we can posture and talk about how we're creating a better world by getting people to do gardening work in the Midwest's answer to Fallujah. I'd say "Beiruit", but apparently, if one checks the figures, one discovers that Beiruit never deserved that comparison. I'll talk to the manager, but I've found her to be a "don't make waves" type, so I expect that the notice will stay up, and the town will start to get to enjoying hearing a few horror stories.</p> <p>If I hear those stories, myself, I'll shrug and put them out of my thoughts, because I will have done what I could. What else is there to do? I'm sure that, as somebody discovers that I'm not willing to listen to the stories, or really say anything more sympathetic sounding than "I told you so", he will hold this up as an example of how heartless those awful Chicagoans are, or I am - and be wrong either way. Heartlessness is about the things we do at least as much as it is about the things we say. On those terms, I'd say that those of us living in the city tend to come out well ahead of a lot of those "nice" rich people out in the burbs, and at least two really obnoxious baristas at Ogden and Washington.</p> <p>Others might differ.</p> <p><a></a><br /> <a></a><br /> <a></a><br /> <a></a></p> <p>Note: Edited, because a four letter word for the destination of unsaved souls is blocked on this site. I don't go around saying things "go to Hades" in real life, but online, one has to deal with a piece of software almost as mindless as a barista.</p> <p>Sorry - That was unfair, but I couldn't resist. Most baristas do not act like the two I just described. Just a memorable few.</p> <p><a></a><br /> <a></a><br /> <a></a><br /> <a></a> </p>