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: | Robert 01211 |
| Date: | Aug 14 2003 07:43 AM |
| I don't understand the coffeehouse business at all. Good drip coffeemakers can be bought for $20, so what's the attraction? Make your own! Coffeehouse "atmosphere" sucks, uptight and sober (read straight). And I'm in Seatle! If they served some of the local beers from around here, it might be okay. Anything to loosen up the dull, stiff people that inhabit coffeehouse hellholes. |
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| Name: | dataSYNC2 01210 |
| Date: | Aug 14 2003 07:43 AM |
| I have one on all of you who seek to move up the ladder
I wanted to be an assistant store manager. But I was told that my many years of experience (12)
as an assistant manger in concepts that are bigger money makers wasn't good enough. I got a
letter saying they would consider having me as a shift manager. I freaked out at first. But I had to
take the job. I thought I would go in and take charge and move up in no time. I mean they just
sold drinks pastries sandwiches and salads. We didn’t have to prep food at all like Wendy’s
or Boston Market. I was so wrong. I was looked at as lazy and unworthy. I read every outdated and up to date manual. The management staff
was immature and inconsiderate. I would spend hours reading on my own time and never saw my coach. When he would check my progress he critized the why I did things. The only examples I had to follow were poorly trained and confused partners. I did everything that they told me that made sense. If it didn’t I
dare not complain to anyone because it got back to the store manager and I was looked at as a
trouble maker. I saw the thief on the part of all customers partners and managers Note: IF YOUR
STORE MANGER IS COMING IN LATE, SITING IN THE BACK LOOKING AT HIS
LAPTOP READING MAGAZINES HARDLY EVER WORKING ON THE FLOOR AND
GOSSIPING AND LEAVING EARLY HE OR SHE IS STEALING COMPANY TIME!!!!!!
My only hope was to get a transfer. The only way to get one was to become a barrister. the store
manager would fire me before transferring me as a shift. I took the demotion and a pay cut. I just
wanted to leave that store. I wasn’t in that store a week and I was looked at as a knowledgeable
person and hard worker. The respect I was looking for was here in this store. It got to me that
here I was getting praise for every thing I did but wasn’t getting in from the first store. They have
the same issues and power struggles. Had I applied my self more? No. Had I made up my mind
to do better? No. I just learned that its all the in the way people perceive you to be. I’m not
losing anything by being a barrister. I would not have gained anything by being a shift or an
assistant. One partner told me I should have ran as for as I could from sb. There are barristers
and shifts want me to fall on my face. Customers who would rather me look like Will from “will
and grace” then Ruben from “American Idol”. I just want to make enough money to live and to buy a
good drum set. So much for nothing
PS Do you think Human resources is aware of this I need Psychological help from all this emotional stress? |
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| Name: | Sunshine101 01209 |
| Date: | Aug 14 2003 07:42 AM |
| I personnaly think that your website is great! Freedom of speech, baby!
I have a particular loathing for Starbucks. Their coffee IS bitter and they do NOT do enough to promote fair trade coffee. A corporation as large as theirs could do a lot more for every community that Starbucks has \"commandered\".
If I am in the middle of nowhere (suburbia hell) and don\'t mind waiting up to 15 minutes for some crappy, over-priced coffee (they charge more than the independants), then Starbucks it is (I may go to cold coffee hell for that too)!!
On a recent visit to the SF Zoo, we stopped across the street at "George's Zoo Store". Great little deli/liquor/coffee house! The coffee they serve is organically grown and certified. The manager proceeded to tell us that when their lease was up recently, Starbucks came in and offered the owners of the building four times the monthly lease that the current tenants were paying! This goes to show how Starbucks is able to consume so much commercial space in such a short time in SF. Luckily, the owners were loyal to their longtime tenants and refused Starbucks overblown offer.
Sometimes, the little guy does come out on top! |
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| Name: | mouse breeder 01208 |
| Date: | Aug 14 2003 07:41 AM |
| My son has pet mice. They reproduce. Frequently. We have found that a good home for the cute little offspring is a cozy corporate coffee shop full of yuppies. |
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| Name: | Just Say No! 01207 |
| Date: | Aug 14 2003 07:39 AM |
| Boo Hoo and Tai, the reason you get three on one corner in S.F. and NYC is because when they took over my old company they converted them into Staryucks. So the competitor on the corner gets assimilated, Borg-style, into the collective. They are evil, I tell you. And you should never trust a company that big that can't use proper punctuation, by the way. It should be Starbuck's, not Starbucks with no apostrophe. That kind of thing just drives me nuts. |
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| Name: | Captain Gravy 01204 |
| Date: | Aug 14 2003 07:39 AM |
| After reading the numerous (and humorous!) posts from disgruntled employees of Starbucks, I would highly reccommend reading "Fast Food Nation" by Eric Schlosser, which explores the larger problem of corporatization and how a company like Starbucks can exist. After all, every franchise is started by someone who has purchased the system in order to make their lives better, and perhaps, initially, their community and their employees' lives better too. Unfortunately, as so many of these writings validate, the profit margin quickly takes precedence over quality of life and the system encourages dehumanization. For the past 50 odd years, our culture has supported this outlook, and it is up to us to accept responsibility, educate our peers and support a cultural shift that emphasizes humanity over efficiency at the expense of people. The corporate fast-food system will remain in place until we recognize it's fatal flaws and replace it with a better one. Until we alter the causes, the symptoms will be the same no matter where you work. "Fast Food Nation" is a good place to start! |
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| Name: | Tammy 01188 |
| Date: | Aug 13 2003 11:15 PM |
| My suggestion to all is...don't buy Starbuck's coffee-
If we continue to support a business that treats their employees with little respect than we are just as bad as they are.
I am putting in my 2 weeks notice and getting the hell out of there as 6 mo was way tooooo long as a shift supervisor. |
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| Name: | REM 01205 |
| Date: | Aug 13 2003 10:59 PM |
| Some neighborhoods are just too chic for Starbucks.
Take Carlton, in the inner suburbs of Melbourne--- Italian coffee houses abound, and the Starbucks sits empty and little used. Starbucks persists however, and if you go to other parts of the city (St Kilda), it is likely that the Starbucks will prove popular and thrive. |
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| Name: | Boo Boo 01206 |
| Date: | Aug 13 2003 10:59 PM |
| At last, a place to dog Tarbucks! I've been hating them for about 10 years. I first began boycotting Tarbucks when they took over my coffee shop, The Coffee Connection, in Harvard Square, Cambridge MA. Harvard Square never had any chain stores like that, except for the little convenience stores. Why did they let Tarbucks in? $$$ I admit to buying the occasional frappucino, but not anymore. I now live in San Francisco. The intersection where my office is located has 3 stores. 3 in one intersection! I have to walk past 2 of them every morning to get to my coffee shop. I hate the smell as I go by. The coffee sucks; a bitter, nasty swill. I love reading the comments on this web site. I had no idea how badly the employees are treated. And whoever pulled that stunt in SF, making the stores appear to have been closed...genius! And thanks for letting us bitch about the Evil Empire! |
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| Name: | Lil 01203 |
| Date: | Aug 13 2003 05:27 PM |
| Angelofdeath,
Your caloric intakes of Starbucks beverages are completely wrong. If you are going to spout your mouth, make sure your info is right. |
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| Name: | Tia 01202 |
| Date: | Aug 13 2003 05:27 PM |
| Today's SF Chronicle has an article on "Starbucking," defined as detesting Starbucks. On 1 prime intersection in NYC there are 3 Starbucks. It was definitely a 90's craze led by the tech industry-a good place to park for hours with your laptop and get fueled up-but it won't last forever. This web site is a good example of the backlash Starbucks has invited upon itself by its megamonopolic practices. Their coffee drinks are truly gross, not even 10 sugars are enough to cut the acidic bitterness. My secret hope is that Orens (a small chain in NYC) will take over the market with their mellow, luscious, aromatic blends.
Anyway, I've switched to tea. |
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| Name: | Hate your local Starbucks Cali. 01201 |
| Date: | Aug 13 2003 05:27 PM |
| This is for all the Baristas that have worked at Starbucks, and I know all of you can relate to this!
Has anybody wondered that your manager is a freak! I obviously know that I work for a corporate company but they simply think their crap dont stink. I have been with SBs for 2 years now and Ive been through 4 managers at my store. Each one of them treated me like dirt because I was just a Barista. They dont even acknowledge we are there, but they sure as hell give SS's and Assistant managers credit. The Baristas have to put up with most of the crap that customers throw our way. Does the manager even see that you are trying your hardest not lose your temper and strangle a customer, when in all reality the manager is in the back room talking on the phone or lickind a DM's butt, when they should be on the floor helping us out. All the managers I have had act the same. It is seriously like they had a robot chip inplanted in their brains. Do not put up with any crap a Manager gives you. I have never backed down from a Manager when I have had confortation with one. They cant fire you for voicing your opinion. I recently put my 2 weeks in cause this crap is getting out of control!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If anybody out there is getting mistreated by there manager call the corporate office in Seattle and get the complaint line. Ive called it and it really does make a difference. SERIOUSLY!
IM GOING LOCAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
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| Name: | Lil 01200 |
| Date: | Aug 13 2003 05:26 PM |
| Please feel sorry for me. I go to school at UC Riverside, California, and the only coffee shop in walking distance from my apartment is Shitbucks in the student Village. Every night, the place is packed with students till 2 in the morning. And then! And then! The Village has the audacity to allow a build of ANOTHER Starbucks 100 feet away! TWO Starbucks NEXT to each other!!!! And NOTHING ELSE AROUND!!!! Summer vacations are for home in San Francisco. |
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| Name: | Joe 01199 |
| Date: | Aug 13 2003 03:26 PM |
| I don't give a rat's ass about Starbucks. I might even go there if their coffee was any good. It's not. Starbucks has the worst coffee in the world. So why do people go there? It's mind control; brainwashed morons who like relishing in burnt grinds that taste like concrete mixed with week-old refried beans. If you want a good cup of coffee, you won't find it at Starbucks. |
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| Name: | M. 01198 |
| Date: | Aug 13 2003 02:56 PM |
| Let me start off by admitting this: I have drank and enjoyed Starbucks beverages. Of course, they are invariably the beverages without any actual coffee content (chai, vanilla creme, etc.) I would like to express my disappointment with the large groups of people that flock to Starbucks consistently because of the comfort that can be found by having the exact same thing anywhere across the country. While this is an argument that can also be made for pretty much any fast-food joint, at least fast food is relatively cheap, and sometimes even good for what it is. I don't think anyone can argue that Starbucks is cheap, and in my opinion, it has the worst coffee of any coffeehouse I have ever tried in my life. This isn't exaggeration, it's the literal truth. I had a mocha there once, and I will never, ever make that same mistake again.
Also, I heard a rumor that all of the coffee beans that they serve are "blends" of the very cheapest "in-season" beans they can track down at a given time, and that is why a) it's not very good, and b) you don't see anything called "moka java" or "french roast". Can anyone substantiate? |
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| Name: | Matt 01194 |
| Date: | Aug 13 2003 02:24 PM |
| How\'s this? I\'ve NEVER been to Starbucks! |
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| Name: | Scott 01195 |
| Date: | Aug 13 2003 02:24 PM |
| Activism starts with a brick through a window. |
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| Name: | valeen 01196 |
| Date: | Aug 13 2003 02:22 PM |
| starbucks sucks for an endless amount of reasons that we all know about. my husband and i call starbucks the evil empire. that about says it all. |
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| Name: | G. 01197 |
| Date: | Aug 13 2003 02:22 PM |
| I've only gone in Starbucks to use the bathroom. When I was a teen in the mid-'80s, we had lots of coffeehouses in Chicago. They were all small businesses with a lot of character. There was Cafe' Voltaire, Cafe Squeeze, and Scenes, to name just a few. These places were fun and interesting and all the regulars would get to know the owners and other patrons - good music, good coffee and a nice environment for underage kids and adults who didn't want to go to bars. In the early '90s the Starbucks rumor started, and then there was a huge article in The Chicago Tribune about how all the local coffeeshops were going to disappear because Starbucks was paying the landlords money to NOT renew the coffeeshops' leases. Sure enough, after about a year they were all gone, but there is a Starbucks on a key corner of every hip neighborhood. Starbucks isn't popular, it doesn't sell because it has a good product, it is not free enterprise. Starbucks is a crappy monopoly that contributes to the boring U.S. landscape, which is shaped not by the people of this country but by government-backed corporations that have a need to own everything and make it all dull and lifeless like their souless CEOs. |
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| Name: | Soon to be former Sh Sup 01193 |
| Date: | Aug 13 2003 09:37 AM |
| To Reformed Barista: Please, tell me who your attorney is, as I have 3 former employees and 1 other person from my store who are wanting to file a lawsuit against Starbucks...Need to know ASAP!!!
Thank you so VERY much! : ) PS And tell us more about your case, if you can and the progress... |
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| Name: | Angelofdeath 01192 |
| Date: | Aug 13 2003 09:36 AM |
| I came on to this site after a rough day of bs at my work where fellow employees (a.k.a cult actvist) claimed my attitude wasn't apepaling in their standards. I think this site is not only great for the public to share their thoughts but also the workers to release the bs that goes on behing that adveritising polished counter.
So far I have been working at Starbucks for only about a period of fourth months, and do enjoy the pay, benefits, and also my complicated single grande nonfat white chocalate mocha (that is actually an easy drink for us to call compared to some). The expresso shots are so nasty that i am forced to only use one of them to melt the white chocalte. The bad part to these drinks which many many people over look is the calorie intakes
Grande Mocha: 360
Grande White Chocalte Mocha: 480
Grande Mocha Frappucino: 800
Grande Carmel Macchiato: 800
Grande Carmel Frappucino: 1200 (not postive on that one)
Grande Mocha Malt Frappucino: 1600
Grande Chocalte Browine Frappuccino belneded creame: 2000!
those are just to get the idea of the stuff we drink and the harm it does on our bodies. What you pay for when you come in with that coffee is all the peopel who get teh customize bullshit (including myself), and also the overly idiotic customer service. When peopel get a tripel grande 6 pumps sugar free vanilla, 2 pumps hazlenut soy no foam 180 (or a.k.a x x hot) with whip carmal macchiato the cahsier has to translate your out of order demands into a comprehensible drink fo rhte bartender. As for numbers of volume in which we vow not to tell. In one hour in my store we do around 380 on average, with mostly just two to three people working. For sayign that isnt much for profit, our drinks cost on average about 12 cents to make after labor costs and everything(acutally figures from manager training manual of 03'). With this amount of profit and the line always filled,, starbucks will not slow down any time soon, unless you mention how fattening those fraps make those highschooler girls and how the expresso shots on the new bars (starbucks are replacing their bars with teh vermiso line in which pull them at a horrible 13 to 18 bitter range).
The major complaint in which you shoudl be most worried abotu isnt with the horrible taste of the coffee but the brainwashing affects it has over it fellow employees, baristas, and partners. When enetering my store I didnt relize that on average 6 people applied there per day (this is not for all stores) nro did I relize that because of my expertise in advertising and presentation that I landed the spot. Being doused with demands of a refreshign upbeat persoanlity 100 percent of the time forced me to be the best customer service attendeant i ever was, but in the process de-humanzied myself. For those who beleive this is a bad thing, that is customer service, to be giddy and happy for that is what customers want and not a depressed person who cares little of the customer needs. Basic marketing concept there. Here they take the attitude one step further though after your training you are either immedialty attcepted within the click of the store or abadoned and terminated or forced to fire within a three month period. If you fit inside their social rescritions of teh click then they try to force the social life of sb down your throar, callign your house (when you didnt give you home phone) to go to the movies withthe other staff, to go play bowl and also they try to get you into a realtionship with another memeber from another store (happens way toooo much). If you deny their attempts they become hostile and you are tossed to teh side like the grounds of coffee that is supposedly brewed on teh hour (keep a eye how many timers are actually on the pots). Pretty soon starbucks with this time of social organization will become a religon in which america's governement endoreses more the church for it gives greater tax insentives........ temple of the siren coming to a town near you . I bet you can't wait |
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| Name: | Pat 01190 |
| Date: | Aug 13 2003 09:36 AM |
| I'm writing from a customer's point of view. Starbucks has landed into Aussie soil. While it's got all the advantages of branding and store attractiveness, the coffee is over-priced, there's nothing special about the food - it just tastes like another commercially mass-produced product we get so much from supermarkets these days. There's nothing warm about the service. Walking to Starbucks is like walking to a coffee supermarket - impersonal, very commercial. Nothing beats a little coffee shop where the staff recognises you not because they were told to, but because they care about their customers and they remember your favourite brew. Starbucks is just another example of large multi-national corporations trying to bump the small businesses out of the market through advertising and publicity which the small businesses cannot afford to do. What's sad is, people get sucked in by fancy advertising and packaging. There's something very pathetic about believing that by holding a Starbucks takeaway cup or being seen at Starbucks will actually make a person more popular, or worse still, feel better about him/herself! |
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| Name: | SAJ 01189 |
| Date: | Aug 13 2003 09:35 AM |
| My brother is a Marine and was recently in Iraq. His group emailed Starbucks and asked them to send some coffee and they replied "NO...WE DO NOT SUPPORT YOU!". Now regardless of what your thoughts on the war are, these guys are THERE whether we like it or not. I will drink coffee at home, from a gas station, or on an airplane...never again from Starbucks! |
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| Name: | catharsis 01187 |
| Date: | Aug 13 2003 09:35 AM |
| oh god, i am not alone!!! i've been with the company a year, so i'm a veteran of the bar & the b.s. if i were to air all my dirty laundry with my store, it'd fill a small novel. here's the latest, superabridged gripes:
a.) a shift is dating a barista. he is 19, lazy & worthless, and worse when he works with her. the manager has done NOTHING.
b.) a shift, 18, also inept, just appeared in playboy (girls of starbucks, sept. issue) after lying & saying it had nothing to do w/ starbucks. we are now inundated w/ calls, visits, etc. manager has done NOTHING.
c.) i am 23 with full availability, fresh college grad w/ a BA & a protestant work ethic. i was denied a shift position TWICE in lieu of these winners. why? b/c i suspect my manager has a broken relationship with her teen daughter & seeks the approval of irresponsible high-schoolers. & she's a horrible manager.
d.) hypocrisy everywhere!!! 4 of us (out of a store employing 25+ people) are the only workers, yet get no promotions/decent raises. slackers & idiots (aka people dumber as opposed to smarter than the store manager) get those.
e.) i am one of the hardest, most skilled workers @ my store. from a company that has posted gains 11 years in a row i got a measly $0.10 raise. why not just write: "F YOU" on a tootsie roll wrapper and staple it to my pay stud.
thanks, i just had to get that out!!! to all my other hardworking, intellectual starbucks slaves: don't let them grind you down (no pun intended) |
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| Name: | New Orleans Barista 01186 |
| Date: | Aug 13 2003 09:35 AM |
| Ahh Starbucks what a wonderful company. Ignorant managment relying on the labor of their under paid shift supervisors. My store loves to hire bickering little children and loves to complain when an understaffed store is not kept clean. I spend 7 hours of an 8 hour shift at a blender making frapuccinos for the masses. My store does 250 a day count them 250. Thats 250 jerks ordering those disgusting things just slow enough that you are not able to make batches of them. Just slow enough to make you blend each one, one at a time. The gm proclaims the gretness of the drinks claiming how much money and labor hours we make off of them. Sell more pastrys the gm says. Do better on the snap shots they say. "I get a bonus if we get 5 stars."
Well you know what when I get a bonus for my work and get paid more then maybe we can talk. The only reason that I am able to pay bills is because a few people out of the 500 we see a day throw a couple of penies into the tip jar. When Shultz passes on to that big coffee shop in the sky I hope they put him in front of a blender and force him to make Choclate brownie fraps for an eternity. |
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