Those of you who worked today feel my pain...

I Hate Starbucks » I Hate the Customers

[closed]

Those of you who worked today feel my pain...

(15 posts) (10 voices)

Started 4 years ago by stressedbaristaboy
Latest reply from doubleshot

Tags:

BARISTA

stressedbaristaboy

Member
Internets:2

Today was absolutely nutso. I've only been with the company for a year, but I can't believe how busy it was today. Being the barista on bar with a constant flow of 15 drinks lined up was not what I expected. I don't know about you, but I love when it's busy and stuff because the day goes by so fast, but with the recent decline in labor hours, we were really feeling the pinch on the floor today. Talk about stressful.

Anyone else feel like freaking out on some customers today? I know I did. The worst is the customers who come expecting to be escorted to the front of the line just because they were only there for giftcards. Guess what, there are about 20 other people in line wanting the same thing, wait your turn, and don't get mad at me because it was busy today.

Posted 4 years ago #
tiredbarista

Member
Internets:128

They can be really obnoxious herds, can't they?

Posted 4 years ago #
Perfectionist

Member
Internets:794

We were really busy today too, with only my shift and I on the floor, and one other person doing constant dish & trash runs. Funny story: this lady was pulling stuff out of her purse trying to find enough change and she accidentally threw a pad on the counter in front of me :) I was cracking up.

Posted 4 years ago #
SCSHC

Member
Internets:665

omg what was up with today, we're already a very high volume store and today was nuts. The customers were just extra rude, my ENTIRE shift the line was out the door, it was just very high tension today too, no fun.

Posted 4 years ago #
DARKROAST

Member
Internets:1,442

Hell yeah--optimal scheduling and appropriate deployment my ****! I'm growing weary of doing the jobs of 3-4 people! Remember how gung-**** Sbux was over proper deployment due to service issues (having the right people in the right spots at the right time) and now I'm asking myself, " how the hell am I supposed to deploy 2 freaking people?! If they thought the customers were **** over service delays and inconsistency, they aint seen nothin' yet!!!

Posted 4 years ago #
TastyMacchiato

Member
Internets:10

The Saturday before Christmas is usually one of the busiest shopping days of the year. My condolences to those who had to work. I had to haul trash in non-work related stuff, so I got off easy :)

Posted 4 years ago #

Admin
CustomersSuckAtSbux

Member
Internets:195

Yeah, I'm working at the mall right now where I am (one person from each store in our district has to, gr), and Saturday was ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. I mean, the stores that are free standing and whatnot I'm sure got a lot of business, but imagine being in a mall right across from Santa right next to the main entrance. It was insanity! The drinks started wrapping around, and at one point, they got mixed up and quite honestly, we didn't care! And to top it off, people were constantly asking if the drink was theirs or not/complaining about everything. Well, idiot, think about where you were in the line, what size you got and what kind of drink you got! The markings on the cups aren't really that hard to figure out. L for latte, M for mocha, WM for white mocha, and so on. Seriously. UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't wait to be back at my store!!

I'm done venting for now ;-)

Posted 4 years ago #
DecafForAssholes

Member
Internets:176

Geez, it was Black Friday-status at our store yesterday!
Okay, not quite, but it felt like it with the lack of coverage. We didn't make as much as Black Friday, but it sure felt the same. Our store was slammed all day long, considering we're in a huge shopping center! I had a 8:45-3:45....ALL EFFING DAY!

Posted 4 years ago #
vampbarista

Member
Internets:38

Ugh! I had to work this past Saturday as well. And it was fricking absurd. It was me, a fellow barista, and the damn SM. (By the way, I hate my SM)

The other barista was barring all day, so I took over to give her a break. We ended up getting a line to the door. I actually love it when it's busy, it helps the time go by soooo much faster. So, the SM is on the register, I'm on bar, and the other barista is marking cups, brewing coffee, and getting lids, sleeves, etc for me as I needed them. Well, I had only one gallon of non-fat and only one gallon of 2% left, so I asked my fellow barista if she would get me more milks real quick so I could continue making drinks. She said sure, and went in the back to get some. The SM turns around and says, "Where did she go? She's suppose to be marking cups, and brewing coffee so I don't have to do it!" And she said with an attitude as well. I said, "She is in the back getting me more milks so I can make the drinks because the fridges are empty." Then she said, "oh, well whatever."

That made me uber ****. And the customers were so impatient about everything. One customer ordered an iced drink. I called it off, and sat in on the handoff plane. He came up, grabbed it, opened the straw put it in his drink, then threw rapper back on the handoff plane, and left. Seriously?! How hard is it to put it in the trash?

Posted 4 years ago #
DecafForAssholes

Member
Internets:176

@ vampbarista: OMG, the straw wrapper thing!!!! We get that all the time, too. We have exactly 5 effing trashes, PICK ONE! As for the rest of your shift, that sounds EXACTLY like mine...Me on bar with 92387565974605176 drinks lined up, one newer floating barista, and my **** SM. Except for we have DT too, so add one more person doing drive speaker and there ya go!

Posted 4 years ago #
vampbarista

Member
Internets:38

@ Decaf: Yeah, our store is the only one that doesn't have DT in our area. I bet your store is constantly busy since y'all have a DT. I feel for you. And I always manage to end up on bar somehow. This past Friday I worked 7am-3pm, and guess what I did all my shift. Bar!

Posted 4 years ago #
DecafForAssholes

Member
Internets:176

@ vampbarista: Sounds like we are twins in a parallel Starbucks universe.

Posted 4 years ago #
vampbarista

Member
Internets:38

@ Decaf: Exactly! I read your blog on your myspace about no no's at Starbucks. Wow! I couldn't have said it better myself.

Posted 4 years ago #
DecafForAssholes

Member
Internets:176

HAHAHA! Yay, a fan! :D

Posted 4 years ago #
doubleshot

Member
Internets:14

vampbarista and decafforassholes,
It worries me that your SM was on register during such high volume times! Whoever is running the shift should be floating, in order to bear the burden of making everything run smoothly, and also controls the tone of the shift.
vamp, it sounds like your SM doesn't have a very positive attidude, and especially in times like now we need people who offer positive attitudes because working so understaffed ALL of the TIME is getting really old, really fast. If everyone's in a bad mood, it can easily make a day go from bad to worse. If the MOD is doing what they can to alleviate the tone and help the other baristas (doing it for each other more than the customers), then the day shouldn't be as bad.
From this website, it sounds like there are a lot of SM and even SS who lose sight of the big picture- the other baristas you're working with. It's about taking care of them, because they're the ones you spend the most time with, and they can make your working life very wonderful or very difficult.
Anyway, that's my rant. I know it's been harder to keep good spirits with all the labor BS which will actually make sbux service worse which will cause us to lose more customers which will cause us to downsize more.... and so the cycle goes.

Posted 4 years ago #

RSS feed for this topic

Topic Closed

This topic has been closed to new replies.