Ok, a new day has dawned on IHateStarbucks.com.
I no longer want to keep hacking the old, tired php on the site, so this is what I propose. These messages will remain up for all eternity. In addition, there is a new Guest book. So if you want to share your opinons, i.e. post to the site, go here. As always, if wish to rant or rave, send me an email:
| Name: | coffejerk 03062 |
| Date: | Jul 21 2004 12:49 PM |
| .to retailmanager: Huge corporations make their lots of money by taking these types of illegal risks. Example- A few years back, a lot of people were killed from faulty tires exploding on their Explorers while they were driving down the freeway. Ford Motor Company calculated how much it would cost in lawsuits against the company from the families of the deceased vs. how much it would cost to recall all of those Explorer tires. Needless to say, Ford Motor Company did not start it's recall until it was most financially feasable. Is it Illegal to leave the public in the dark about HUGE health issues such as this?...yes. Does it stop large corporations from trying to cover a profit margin?...no.
I know that this example is a little extreme, but it goes to show how little corporations care about people and the law, and how much they care about profit. |
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| Name: | Desert Flame 03061 |
| Date: | Jul 21 2004 11:16 AM |
| I finally did it!!! I showed up for my shift today and once again saw on the new schedule that my hours were far below that 20 I need to qualify for benefits. Went out to my car, called the SS that I was not coming back in, went home and went back to sleep. The company's excuse for my cut hours was that they are overstaffed. Not my problem that they have hired too many GD people and that the ALS has us hung by a thread. Yahoo, I'm free!!! |
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| Name: | ExManager 03060 |
| Date: | Jul 21 2004 10:06 AM |
| To RetailManager: Now why would I think you were a SM with a name like 'Retail Manager' and a penchant for praising SBUX? No, I didn't short my partners hours. In fact I was true to 'Time Worked is Time paid' a very well worn SBUX chestnut. A Chestnut they pay lip service to and don't abide by. How would I know that? By reading the posts on this site, obviously something you haven't done. I treated my 'partners' fairly, I made sure they got paid for all of the hours worked. I made sure they were sufficiently staffed regardless of what the computerized ALS (Autimated Labor System) said. (ALS does not take into consideration store layout, Verissamo vs. LaMorzocco, Consolidated vs. Independent Deliveries, it hasn't been updated to increase the amount of time calculated to make a drink even the recipies have gotten more complex (The recent Customization 'Add-on' initiative), or the Green Apron program tasks, or the Clean Sweep requirements, etc... no, ALS is still calculating time requirements based on what some deskjockey in Seattle thought was appropriate in 1999.
This concern for my partners and customers resulted in a double digit increase in Sales, double-digit increase in Controllables (Net Store Profit) and a 30% increase in foot traffic. It also resulted in my DM and I disagreeing on what the definition of success was, she felt that even with those numbers I was not up to standards because my labor was high. As for your assumption I was fired - I was not, I saw the handwritting on the wall and went back to my former field of Engineering. Now I'm making two times what I made as a SM and I don't have to put of with the demeaning condescending attitude of my DM. (Why would I have taken a job that paid 1/2 what I'm making now? Because I'm one of those people who loves interaction with customers and partners and felt pride and success in running my store.)
If you're expertise about Starbucks labor practices has been gained by talking to 'a couple of barista's' as you say and you freely admit that you have no idea what a 'ten minute timer' is - then maybe you should go spout your ignorance somewhere else. |
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| Name: | bellinghamster 03059 |
| Date: | Jul 21 2004 10:06 AM |
| Dear ME and Coffee Mikester!!
Hear, hear! I left SB as an employee about 2 months ago and have a job making $35.00/hour -- legitimate. I still work with some folks that simply don't get it, but for the money I make as a Program Analyst, who cares?! And, they don't ask for "5 pumps" "non-fat", etc. Ah, there is life after SB!!! |
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| Name: | James 03058 |
| Date: | Jul 21 2004 10:06 AM |
| Is it me, or are there Starbucks everywhere these days? I live in the UK, and I hate Starbucks!
Im looking to get in touch with people that also hate starbucks, drop me an email and we can discuss.
P.s I also hate Burger King |
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| Name: | Competitor 03057 |
| Date: | Jul 21 2004 10:05 AM |
| Hey Kim Ambrose, if you're opening your own shop, you should use Java Kai coffee. Their website is www.javakai.com. The coffee is nothing short of amazing and the expresso is awesome. |
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| Name: | no foam cappucino 03056 |
| Date: | Jul 21 2004 02:02 AM |
| It seems everyone in my store, atleast those who have worked there for awhile, have no respect for the SM. Is there a way, where we can get her to transfer? I guess talking to the DM would help, but can it be anoymous? Should i get everyone to write a letter? It's not like the manager is horrible at her job, but no one get's along with her at all, except for the ASM. I don't feel i am sincere with her or i can approach her without getting some type of repercussion. If anyone has any advice or stories they can share, i would really appreciate it. |
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| Name: | me 03055 |
| Date: | Jul 21 2004 02:02 AM |
| I'm done. i quit. SCREW all the back stabbin, lyin, no good, knocked up, nothing better goin on in my life but to get you to quit, hack, complacent, ignorant idiots that I had to tolerate for 2 years. I have no idea what possesed me to work for that god-awful company much less what possesed me to tolerate it for as long as I did. I'm free of it all and I will never step foot into another cookie cutter coffee shop ever again. Some advice to all the complainers: stop bit*hin and quit, drop your sh*t and walk out the door. Your replacement is only a fone call away.
peace |
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| Name: | Coffee Mikester 03054 |
| Date: | Jul 21 2004 02:01 AM |
| OK, this isn't a current thread, but I gotta log in. I just scrolled through several weeks of posts and noticed matthew/matt has commented a few times about some proceedural issues at Starbucks. I am an SS at Matt's store and can coroborate. I've worked for other soulless corporate entities (Lowe's, Cracker Barrel). I'm leaving in two weeks to go to law school. Not becuase I think I'm too good to keep my store clean. Not because the customers can sometimes be carmel "makinato" ordering a$$bandits. Not because SB finds it impossible to have 100% of their stores staffed by an infallible SM. Not even because Kay-5 turns my hands into sandpaper. But because I can make more money being the a$$hole than serving coffee to them. A little advice before I go to law-law land: at the end of the day, remember: you are making coffee for a living, not uranium enriched ammunition. Wanna better job? Get one. |
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| Name: | Retail Manager 03053 |
| Date: | Jul 21 2004 02:01 AM |
| To ExManager: Funny you should automatically make the assumption that I am a Starbucks manager when I never said that. However, I do know a few baristas from Starbucks and I asked a couple of them about the issue of getting paid to count tips. You claim that they get paid for the amount of time the manager thinks it should take to do the job as opposed to what they actually work. Is that what you did with your employees? That is obviously against the law and I doubt that a huge corporation would encourage that with the risk of numerous lawsuits. The two baristas I asked said that they punch in/out for their time and even recieve tips for the time they spend counting tips. Sounds like a good deal to me, but I've never worked in an industry where I recieved tips so what do I know?
I must admit you almost had me there for a minute. I was so touched by your communistic pull on the old heartstrings. Imagine: the poor single mother of three, just a "poor working stiff", trying to get by. As she looks up at the clock, her manager- a fat, balding, UPPERCLASS tyrant, hand-selected by Howard Shultz himself to keep her down, looks over at her with a chuckle. He removes the giant cigar from his gold-plated teeth and tells her (with a snear mind you) to count the tips for free! He actually tells her to count the ones, the quarters . . . the pennies, by hand. Then, as she does that . . . he somehow makes money off her? Wait? That's where you lost me. Then, you really showed your hand. You, oh great crusader against "Babylonbucks", mentioned something about being replaced. Now, you didn't flat out say it was you, but one could draw that conclusion, by your bitter, weapy post. So that's it? That's the root of your hatred for "the man"? So YOU were replaced? Haha. Tell me, did they bring in a young Croatian who doesn't speak a word of english, so they can pay him half of what you made? Was that it? Or were you as whiny and annoying at work as you are here? Or did you not pay your employees for the time they worked. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to make my nephews rake my yard . . . OFF the clock!
By the way, as a non-SBUX employee, you lost with all your ranting about "10 minute timers" and "extra perks" bla,bla,bla. |
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| Name: | Partner 209306 03052 |
| Date: | Jul 20 2004 04:50 PM |
| Hi Gang
In response to the questions about 9/11 and the water for the firemen. To the best knowledge of anyone outside that store, people came into the store asking for water for the firemen. The clerk, abiding by company policy, had to charge them. If the clerk or manager had any brains, they would have given the bottles of water knowing the political ramifications of this issue and its potention for a PR nightmare and ignored policy.
For once, the company was not wrong on this issue other than a lack of common sense on behalf of that store partner/manager.
Death to Frappucino
209306 |
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| Name: | Kimmy 03051 |
| Date: | Jul 20 2004 03:05 PM |
| hi Bunny:)
i started today in my new job.. and visited my old work mates at starbucks... and they envy me so much coz i had to guts to leave and i actually found something else...
tho tis my first day only.. in my new job... i dare say... tis deffo better than starbucks... alone for the working times :) ... and payment is better too :)
Keep in touch.
Kimmy |
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| Name: | ExManagement 03050 |
| Date: | Jul 20 2004 03:05 PM |
| To Retail Manager: If you are in fact a current SBUX store manager you certainly have no room to talk about character. How many hours do you pay your 'partner' for counting and distributing the tips? Unless you pay the 'partner' however many hours it actually takes, not what you think it should take, the *you* are the one guilty of time-theft, and not from a multibillion dollar multinational company either, from some poor working stiff who's just trying to make ends meet.
We won't even begin to discuss how you sell the 'Extra Perks" BS line to perspective 'partners' about how wonderful the Bene's are at only 20 Hours a week and then tell them their benefits aren't your problem once they become employee's. Or how you push the green apron crap about being welcoming and genuine and knowledgable when you give them so many tasks to do it's nearly impossible to say more than hello and thank you. The ten minute timer itself is a joke. It takes nearly 2 minutes for the fastest barista to walk over to the condiment bar, figure out what carafe's are empty, walk to the fridge grab new ones, walk back to the condiment bar, restock the napkins, sugars, wipe it down, empty thye small trashcan inside, clean the tables, check the bathrooms and get back to the bar or register. Meanwhile who's making drinks and waiting on customers for that 20% of the time? Or how about the BS SBUX spouts about being friendly to the Coffee producers? You must be kidding! Orin himself stood in front of 7,000 managers boasting about one lousy $20K scholl project when SBUX does business with 10,000 or more growers and collectives. And 20K? Why ORIN options last year were in the 7 figures alone, not counting the other senior level managers or SBUX profits. 20K is less than 2% of Orin's options for one year alone. Probably less than he spent on his country club membership this year.
And the very hypocracy of calling employees partners, how many of them at your store have actually been able to collect on their options? One or two out of 40? Come on... My goal is to expose the greed of the corporate echanism that calls itself Starbucks and encourage the return to Ma and Pa organizations with a true interest in the communities in which they do business.
You go ahead and be a good little Starbucks drone. Take advantage of the hardworking men and women to line the pockets of the well-to-do customers and senior management.
Someday SBUX will reward you for all of your hardwork and dedication by giving you the 'pinkslip' so that they can bring in someone who will work for less. |
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| Name: | T 03049 |
| Date: | Jul 20 2004 12:51 PM |
| To Kim Ambrose: Treat your employees well. When someone is happy at their job, it shows and customers pick up on that (obviously!) very well. |
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| Name: | anthony 03048 |
| Date: | Jul 20 2004 11:54 AM |
| idont like star bucks |
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| Name: | Kim Ambrose 03047 |
| Date: | Jul 20 2004 09:52 AM |
| Opening a coffee shop next month. Any suggestions are welcome! |
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| Name: | Retail Manager 03046 |
| Date: | Jul 20 2004 07:30 AM |
| Curious: Ignore Exmanagement's comment about messing with the manager. Your post sounded like an honest question looking for an honest answer. Yes, it is illegal for a manager to falsify time records, but it is also illegal for an employee to steal time. If an employee takes a lunch and doesn't punch for it and ends up being paid for that time, they are essentially stealing. Instead of trying to screw someone else over with dishonesty, why not just fix the problem of not punching out. Sounds like Exmanagement has very little character. Sad. |
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| Name: | Bunny 03045 |
| Date: | Jul 20 2004 07:29 AM |
| Kudos to Kimmy & the other people that have left Starbucks to pursue their real "passions"! Don't let Starbucks or Howard "dictate" you on what your real passion in life should be! If you don't like working there quit or make a plan on how to quit this job that you don't love! Go get other skills, trades, training or college education. 89% of my action plan for quitting Sbux is accomplished. It took me half a year to do so (consisting of a new career training and savings). Collect your last vacation hours & sick days, sell your "granted" stock shares; then quit and go pursue something more productive to your goals in life and less stressful & draining. The word "Passion" is not a trademark of Starbucks. Use your freewill to pursue your "passions" somewhere else. Thanks for reading. I'll keep in touch. By the way, do not buy Howard's book like someone just adviced. It sounds like propaganda to me! Borrow it from a Library! Thanks! ;) |
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| Name: | heywoodjablome 03044 |
| Date: | Jul 19 2004 09:40 PM |
| (in thurston howells voice) did u find the keys to my range rover. I want to take one of these overpaid snots range rovers to a goshdarn chop shop, and the aholes that dont tip, f starsluts |
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| Name: | Casey 03043 |
| Date: | Jul 19 2004 09:40 PM |
| Sanstum: The best thing I've found for wear and tear of my arms is to switch everything around. I'm right handed and when I work the bar I become left handed. Believe me it works. I've done it for three years and my arms don't hurt. |
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| Name: | Sanctum 03042 |
| Date: | Jul 19 2004 09:39 PM |
| To Nicole G.
yes, I remember the story. A partner got fired for charging firemen/rescuers for drinks and supplies, ice, water, etc. I think it was the water bottles they were supposed to donate to them but the partner charged them..I think that's what happened. SB said "don't charge them..it's embarrasingly rude and cruel to the 9/11 people".
To Sera..I totally understand your view. It's kind of sickening to see snobby attitudes of people walking in very briskly like it's DisneyLand and clapping their hands like morons going, "ooo! oohh! Gotta have a Latte!". Makes me want to smack them and tell them to take a chill pill.
I once saw two men sitting side by side on a sofa, about 4 years ago, working at another SB's covering someone's shift in the morning till 4pm. Anyway..it was in the morning when I came in to do a cafe check..those guys sat together, legs crossed, looked out the window, noses up in the air, stirring the coffee. . .continously on and on for almost 5 minutes without drinking. They just kept stirring and I was thinking to myself, "Just drink the da&n coffee already! Quit stirring cups like a bunch of fairies!". I hate to say it but it was the gayest thing I've ever seen.
Sickeningly retarded. |
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| Name: | To: Nicole G. 03041 |
| Date: | Jul 19 2004 06:09 PM |
| Actually, they didn't try to rip off the victims, they tried to rip off the firemen and rescue workers. |
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| Name: | ExManagement 03040 |
| Date: | Jul 19 2004 06:04 PM |
| To Curious: You can mess with Starbucks managers real easy. It's illegal for them to modify your punches without your approval (Signed entry in the punch communication log), so take your 30 minute break, but don't punch out. When Monday mornings payroll comes around, they have to pay you for that 1/2 hour. If they modify your punch without your approval, complain to the DM and RDO as well as the HR rep. You can only get away with this so long though before you start being watched like a hawk and then if you continue, it canb, and most likely will, lead to your termination. |
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| Name: | Nicole G. 03039 |
| Date: | Jul 19 2004 06:03 PM |
| I just want to know if anyone knows the story about Starbucks and trying to rip off the 9/11 victums durring the rescue/cleanup was true. |
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| Name: | Kimmy 03038 |
| Date: | Jul 19 2004 03:31 PM |
| Finally!!! I am starting my new job tomorrow in a travel agency :) no more having to put the mocha pumps together and then get injured regularily... no more late shifts, no more getting told off for what you have not done... FREE at last :)
I must admit tho not only bad things have I experienced at starbucks... I made a very good friend there with whom I will keep in touch as she lives around the corner :) and...
I got a lot more self confidence now...
Have fun you lot :)
Kimmy |
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