No I Want YOU to Make my Drink NOW

Apologies for the almost week long absence. Pesky finals got in the way and blogging time was axed in favor of studying.

But now that the summer is here off to some lovely stories about customers wanting delicious cold beverages in a timely fashion.

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Three minutes. That is the rule, from when you enter the store to when you receive the drink the time elapsed is supposed to be three minutes.

Granted this does not always happen during blackouts. But the tale I am about to tell took place no where near a black out....

And this is how it went down...

three person deployment, all managers coincidentally.
Store manager was on the floor making backups and doing cold beverages if called
another shift supervisor was on bar making mocha since there was some down time.
and yours truly was the register partner, turning over the pastry case.

All of a sudden three people walk in. COOL. we were all getting bored so we were happy to entertain some customers. FIrst and second customers were pleasant and ordered one cold beverage and one bar beverage. Which for deployment sake means my store manager and the shift supervisor were each making one beverage.

Third customer was pleasant... until he got fussy for no good reason.

Lets call him SBM for stupid business man.
V of course is me, yours truly.

V= Hi, sir how are you today?
SBM= I want a tall black tea .... cold
V=ok one iced tall black iced tea. coming right up x.xx is your total, have a great day!
SBM= (silence)

so since store manager and other shift supervisor are finishing off drinks I go back to the pastry case, since there is no need to double bar or double cold beverage station when there are THREE drinks and TWO very fast people making them.

V= (starts putting cookies on a tray)
SMB= I need you to go and make my iced tea
V= (looks over) sir yours is next, my manager is finishing putting a top on that vivanno and then she will start your drink.
SMB= but you have to make it now im late for my meeting.
V= sir your drink will be up shortly. the young lady ordering the vivanno was ahead of you so we have to make hers first and now as you can see my manager is shaking your iced tea.
SBM= (huffs and puffs)

seriously?

if you were late for a meeting why did you come to starbucks? you got your drink in under TWO minutes.

Why do some people feel such a sense of entitlement that their drink needs to come first.

I have had my fair share of college students complaining because they arent getting their drinks fast enough and are going to be late to class.

I also have had people who are illegally parked outside demand their beverages faster because HELLO I AM ILLEGALLY PARKED MAKE MY CHAI FASTER!!!!

unfortunately there is no magic button that makes milk steam faster, or the blender blend faster.

shucks.

My favorite super entitled customer happened to be a mother that I encountered on my first week on bar (ahh the days when I was sixteen)

I was taking a little extra time making a nice pattern on a caramel macchiato when all of a sudden.....

BM = Bad mother
V= moi!

BM= CAN YOU HURRY IT UP MY BABY IS IN THE CAR AND I LEFT IT RUNNING!
V= what.... why would you leave your baby in the car?
BM= WHO ARE YOU TO QUESTION ME! WHERE IS MY DRINK?????????

granted I was sixteen. the customer is always right I should not have questioned a mothers decision to leave a baby unattended in the car running. and my former manager scolded me for that.

But seriously?
you left your baby.
in the car.
to get a drink.
and then you yell at me?

Thoughts on Summer Phase 1, 2009

What I like:

• I love focusing on the core drinks we already have rather than making some new blended concoction that we have to push on people to make our quota goal.
• I love promoting iced coffee
• I love that our pastries are getting makeovers with less artificial ingredients, and smaller packaging (which means less waste!!!)

What I dislike:

• The promotion with iced coffee is called "iced coffee with milk," this sounds familiar to a promo we had in summer 2006, called "cafe con leche" which was a failure in my store at least.
• The promotion does not focus on how you can sweeten your coffee with any flavored syrup you would like at no extra cost.
  

Why do I think this promo failed three years ago? Well first off not everyone understood that cafe con leche means coffee with milk. But that was easily explainable. The part that got tricky was the standard amount that starbucks wanted us to add for milk is not the exact amount everyone wants.

Yes I know this can be figured out by legendary service, asking them if they want their coffee lighter or darker. But really? its a pain in the ass.

Circa 2006 I was working in a busy drive thru (as a barista... oh the simple days):

Now on drive thru we automatically add milk and sugar/artificial substitutes to your liking but most of our customers that came through the drive thru were regulars and knew exactly how to specify their order.

like "I want a iced coffee dark with just a few drops of soy and 1/2 a splenda"

sure no problem!

The problem occurred when on drive thru and in with the in store customers we would add milk to the beverage as a standard unless otherwise specified and people had a hissy fit because it was too much milk or too much coffee or not sweet enough!

This is why we have the condiment bar, because you get to customize your delicious terraza iced coffee to YOUR liking. I do not know exactly what light and sweet means to you. but to me it means about 1.5x the standard. How am I supposed to know at the other starbucks they know light and sweet means 25 pumps of classic milk filled to the second line and just an ounce of coffee if you dont tell me so!

I have no problem with customizing your beverage for you. Really I dont mind adding the splenda the raw sugar the milk etc etc... I just need to know what you are thinking. I am not a mind reader. And if what you receive is not what you wanted when you didnt specify it dont flip out on me, I simply go by standards unless told otherwise.

When you have a problem and you address it to me calmly we can work together and figure it out. But if you have a hissy fit that usually cant happen.


I really hope this promotion works out better this roll out.
For my sanity and yours.

Apparently I should watch the calories.

In four years I have had my fair share of awesome, fun, annoying, shitty and predictable customers. But never have I encountered such an interaction before.

Said person comes in at 3pm every day.

T = taxi cab driver custimer
V = yours truly

and this is what went down....

V = Hi sir how are you today?
T = grande skim no foam latte
V = ok sir coming right up!

one thing that annoys me about this individual. I cant stand when I genuinely say hi to this man every time he comes in and instead of saying Hi back he just jumps into his drink order. but whatever.

V = here you go sir here is your grande skim no foam latte. enjoy and have a great day!

meanwhile.... I am making myself a quad con panna with caramel sauce... this is after I have already handed T his drink and he is lingering around the hand off plane putting a sleeve and splash stick in his drink.... and as I am making the perfect cross hatch pattern on my delicious beverage he has the nerve to say.......

T = WOAH WOAH WOAH you need to watch the calories!!!!

now. granted, I am not a stick. I am of an average weight. I have curves. And even if I was the most obese woman on the earth how dare you tell me in a patronizing voice that I need to watch the calories?

Seriously!

This man is lucky I did not throw the caramel bottle at him. I was PMSing after all. but all I did was smile and say...

V = I like to treat myself, im not a big calorie counter im comfortable with my body

and guess what he did? this ass rolled his eyes at me.

I know I am going to start a huge riot by saying this but every time I serve this man from now on, he will be getting decaf.

Sweet revenge.