Starbucks Baristas: The daily grind
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Are baristas picking up on how long an in-store order takes? Or am I just finally realizing it? (self.starbucksbaristas)
submitted by ShutYurButt
Legit need to plan on a coffee stop taking 15-20 minutes now, 2-4 minutes in line and another 9+ for an (iced, black) coffee. My assumption is this largely due to app orders considering most of the time I’m just standing at the counter watching drink after drink come up with a group of fellow disgruntled customers. I truly hope they are thinking the same thing I am; “wtf do I continue to come here when all it does is put me in a bad mood for the rest of the day?” Or even worse, it makes me have these entitled douche type thoughts of asking for a manager.
I very typically get a breakfast sandwich as well but now, almost every time I have to ask them to heat it again since that comes out in a matter of 50 seconds. It’s even better because I am almost ALWAYS met with attitude by the person working the turbo chef/microwave. Now I have to follow my food back to the oven to make sure nothing malicious is done to it (far stretch, I know, but considering it’s being reheated by the same person that is publicly appalled that I want hot food, it’s worth walking over to keep an eye on it). More often then not the sandwich is just held hostage in a “I’ll show you, you want a hot sandwich? Your getting a double 45 second cycle. Enjoy your crispy bread, asshole!” This is actually quite nice tho, as I like my food to have different textures and not just a steamy soggy English muffin, egg and turkey bacon - soft watery stack thing.
A few times, I just couldn’t wait and asked for a refund. This caused utter chaos because most people around followed suit, and managers start throwing free drink cards to keep the yelp reviews down, it’s nutty. So I guess I have a few questions:
How are online/app orders prioritized with in-house orders? Seems like they all print out in the order they were received, no?
As baristas, do you hate your job now? The anger and attitude you deal with must be at an all time high. I am extremely calm and generally have an idgaf attitude with these things, but if this gets my blood pressure up, I can’t even imagine what it does to soccer moms everywhere.
Why are there like 5 cashiers, and only one barista at most locations? Add online ordering to this and you must be taking orders in 3-4 times faster than they can be completed.
As a person that has been in the food industry for 15+ years, I know it isn’t the workers fault, it is management or in this case, corporate. The ops and culinary guys, I get it, so I try not to let you feel any of my disappointment, so why can’t most Starbucks employees I’ve encountered come to the same realization? Do they not see it as a broken system? Is corporate telling everyone that a 15 minute Starbucks experience is the new norm?! I’m lost here. It’s not my fault that my food and drink came out 9 minutes apart, so why am I the jerk for asking for it to be heated again? Hospitality standards alone should resolve this, does Starbucks train its employees in those types of subjects? I would have to imagine they don’t, or not anymore.
Why can’t some real estate be freed up by removing a few tables and extending the “line” to add another espresso machine? Is it a crazy concept to think you may have far outgrown the amount of orders you expected once adding the app platform and some changes are needed so you don’t start pushing customers away due to poor experience?
Personally I don’t mind skipping on Starbucks now that cafe Nero’s are popping up everywhere around me. Or maybe Philz can finally make it to the east coast sometime soon. But what are people in other parts of the country doing? McDonald’s? DD? Cumbies? Those places are dogshit but I guess atleast you know what your getting and it won’t cost you $8.
After re-reading this, I realize I probably just needed a snickers before I went full blown Karen with the short hair and started demanding a manager. Although I may seem angry, I’m not. Im not as coffee obsessed as I once was. I just wanted to know if I’m the psycho that gets annoyed by another business’ SOPs or if their workers were annoyed /worried by it as well.
I very typically get a breakfast sandwich as well but now, almost every time I have to ask them to heat it again since that comes out in a matter of 50 seconds. It’s even better because I am almost ALWAYS met with attitude by the person working the turbo chef/microwave. Now I have to follow my food back to the oven to make sure nothing malicious is done to it (far stretch, I know, but considering it’s being reheated by the same person that is publicly appalled that I want hot food, it’s worth walking over to keep an eye on it). More often then not the sandwich is just held hostage in a “I’ll show you, you want a hot sandwich? Your getting a double 45 second cycle. Enjoy your crispy bread, asshole!” This is actually quite nice tho, as I like my food to have different textures and not just a steamy soggy English muffin, egg and turkey bacon - soft watery stack thing.
A few times, I just couldn’t wait and asked for a refund. This caused utter chaos because most people around followed suit, and managers start throwing free drink cards to keep the yelp reviews down, it’s nutty. So I guess I have a few questions:
How are online/app orders prioritized with in-house orders? Seems like they all print out in the order they were received, no?
As baristas, do you hate your job now? The anger and attitude you deal with must be at an all time high. I am extremely calm and generally have an idgaf attitude with these things, but if this gets my blood pressure up, I can’t even imagine what it does to soccer moms everywhere.
Why are there like 5 cashiers, and only one barista at most locations? Add online ordering to this and you must be taking orders in 3-4 times faster than they can be completed.
As a person that has been in the food industry for 15+ years, I know it isn’t the workers fault, it is management or in this case, corporate. The ops and culinary guys, I get it, so I try not to let you feel any of my disappointment, so why can’t most Starbucks employees I’ve encountered come to the same realization? Do they not see it as a broken system? Is corporate telling everyone that a 15 minute Starbucks experience is the new norm?! I’m lost here. It’s not my fault that my food and drink came out 9 minutes apart, so why am I the jerk for asking for it to be heated again? Hospitality standards alone should resolve this, does Starbucks train its employees in those types of subjects? I would have to imagine they don’t, or not anymore.
Why can’t some real estate be freed up by removing a few tables and extending the “line” to add another espresso machine? Is it a crazy concept to think you may have far outgrown the amount of orders you expected once adding the app platform and some changes are needed so you don’t start pushing customers away due to poor experience?
Personally I don’t mind skipping on Starbucks now that cafe Nero’s are popping up everywhere around me. Or maybe Philz can finally make it to the east coast sometime soon. But what are people in other parts of the country doing? McDonald’s? DD? Cumbies? Those places are dogshit but I guess atleast you know what your getting and it won’t cost you $8.
After re-reading this, I realize I probably just needed a snickers before I went full blown Karen with the short hair and started demanding a manager. Although I may seem angry, I’m not. Im not as coffee obsessed as I once was. I just wanted to know if I’m the psycho that gets annoyed by another business’ SOPs or if their workers were annoyed /worried by it as well.
brevebitch 18 points 4y ago
Honestly you are a Karen and you are the worst kind of customer. Mobile order and move on, or go elsewhere. People like YOU make our job difficult.
Maze_kid 14 points 4y ago
I can almost guarantee that you aren’t waiting as long as you think. At my store one machine manages mobile and the other cafe. We have an average of 45 customers every 30 minutes, most of them order more than one drink. Drinks are supposed to take maximum 30 seconds to make (it takes more than that, if you have lots of specifications, extra shots, etc etc). Even assuming each customer only ordered one drink, if you’re my 46th customer in that half hour I’m already pushing 30 minutes in amount of drinks alone. Why do you need your drink in five minutes? Why is it our job to plan for you while we also manage hundreds of drinks a day? Do you go during morning peak? And regardless of your restaurant experience, Starbucks definitely pushes you to be faster than any sit down place, and we DO IT. If you think you see “five partners on register” and “one making drinks” (what starbucks has five registers?) there’s likely a reason. You never know what may be going wrong behind the scenes. Like other partners said, milk can only steam so fast, shots can only pour so fast. We make decent coffee, it takes time. If you want five minute coffee go to a 7-11. You really are honestly a Karen. Even admitting you just “need to vent” doesn’t absolve you of this, partners hear this shit every single day from other impatient customers and it only makes us hate you more. On top of that, I can’t tell you how many times a customer has told me they’ve been “waiting 30 minutes” and I check their sticker to find they’ve waited for all of 5.
BetterBrenly 10 points 4y ago
I’m a four year, going on five year, barista at Starbucks. I’ve worked at 3 different stores in 3 different states. The past two years I have really started to hate my job. Starbucks has completely 180’d in my opinion.
If you go to a store that is a drive thru, those drinks are prioritized so that we have a window time of less than 40 seconds. People mobile order 10-15 drinks at a time some mornings for the office. Drinks print out in order placed, one side is drive thru and one side is cafe/mobile orders.
everything your saying is understandable, and the same issues I have when I come in as a customer. Starbucks doesn’t care about customers anymore, they’re just dollar signs and a time stamp at the window. I’ve noticed quality being sacrificed too, as an older barista I take my time and try and make every drink perfectly and I get punished for it and told I need more sense of “urgency.” And don’t dare try and take a minute to connect and chat with a customer, that sacrifices seconds too.
To end my rant and answer your question. Yes, the older partners are aware. And chances are it bothers us as much as it bothers you.
If you go to a store that is a drive thru, those drinks are prioritized so that we have a window time of less than 40 seconds. People mobile order 10-15 drinks at a time some mornings for the office. Drinks print out in order placed, one side is drive thru and one side is cafe/mobile orders.
everything your saying is understandable, and the same issues I have when I come in as a customer. Starbucks doesn’t care about customers anymore, they’re just dollar signs and a time stamp at the window. I’ve noticed quality being sacrificed too, as an older barista I take my time and try and make every drink perfectly and I get punished for it and told I need more sense of “urgency.” And don’t dare try and take a minute to connect and chat with a customer, that sacrifices seconds too.
To end my rant and answer your question. Yes, the older partners are aware. And chances are it bothers us as much as it bothers you.
realsheeps 5 points 4y ago
this is hilarious, bye karen
kaylam317 4 points 4y ago
I don’t work at a corporate store so I haven’t dealt with the increased orders coming in with mobile order. After reading your post, this is a bit of devils advocate for you. (Just trying to hopefully put a new perspective on it for you! 🙃) Why do you need your food reheated? Why can’t you eat it while you wait? While I understand wanting to drink your coffee and eat your sandwich at the same time, I assume that you would get the sandwich and then still wait a couple minutes for the drink. At which point you probably left the store before starting to eat. So wouldn’t it have already been cooler than right out of the oven? If it’s that big of a deal, why not sit down and eat while you wait for your coffee? Like I said, I don’t work at a corporate store., so no mobile orders. But I do know that during a rush, sandwiches come out before drinks. People will stand around and eat while they wait for the drink. If I had someone come and ask for their sandwich to be reheated I would be a little annoyed since it’s not my fault you waited to eat your sandwich and more than likely I still have a line of customers still waiting to give their order. At our store, it’s normally just 2 of us- one on register and one making drinks. Even if we had a 3rd machine, one person can only manage so much at the same time. If you truly feel that these are issues, bring them up to corporate. Complaining to baristas who can’t do anything differently won’t solve anything, just piss off already frustrated baristas. The more complaints corporate hears, the bigger(still small) chance something will change!
ShutYurButt [OP] 0 points 4y ago
I resolved my issues with Starbucks by just no longer going. But I realize many people rely on them for a paycheck so o wanted to hear their feedback as I’m sure with most giant corps, no one from up high is asking how they feel. As far as not wanting to eat without a drink, does you throat not get dry or irritated while eating? Maybe I’m just a weirdo, but none the less, if your in the hospitality business it should be your entire mission to never tell someone they need to adjust they way they consume your product to fit their shitty procedures. I don’t see that as a great way to gain return business. “I just gave you money for food and drinks, I don’t need advise on how to eat them but if I do rest assured you’d be the first person I ask”.
The way I see hospitality is to imagine the same issue in your own house with a table full of family. Let’s go with thanksgiving for an example, “I’m sorry the turkey still has three hours to cook but all the sides are hot now so dig in”, “oh you want to wait for it all? Why?!? Your aunts are eating the sides now and they’re fine with it, why can’t you be too?” Sounds a little bizarre, no? If you don’t expect your own family to do something when no money is involved, your out of your mind to expect a stranger to do it, never mind one that just paid you.
The way I see hospitality is to imagine the same issue in your own house with a table full of family. Let’s go with thanksgiving for an example, “I’m sorry the turkey still has three hours to cook but all the sides are hot now so dig in”, “oh you want to wait for it all? Why?!? Your aunts are eating the sides now and they’re fine with it, why can’t you be too?” Sounds a little bizarre, no? If you don’t expect your own family to do something when no money is involved, your out of your mind to expect a stranger to do it, never mind one that just paid you.
[deleted] 4 points 4y ago
[deleted]
ShutYurButt [OP] -2 points 4y ago
My original comment was based on how corporate needs to be more realistic on what they expect their employees to produce vs the reality of what they can produce, with out turning the work environment hostile (from inside or outside influences). Apologies if that wasn’t super clear, hence why I wrote at the end that I realized I just needed to vent. Having restaurant experience, I can tell you I have been in the position of being told it’s all about the customers and culture of the kitchen/foh, pride in the craft, teamwork, etc. but then have owners (I haven’t worked much in a corporate setting, until currently) implement something that directly contradicts that. You can explain to me the dynamics of your shifts all you want and I know most baristas and counter staff are working their asses off, Starbucks are always packed, they don’t have a choice. These angry thoughts of mine usually get started by wondering how hard it is to find staff that can work at that speed... which always leads me to think how is this sustainable, and even more so recently where I have noticed trainers behind the line being very stern with their trainees and getting visibly frustrated if they have to repeat themselves, snappy to move orders along with customers, asking if incorrect orders are okay rather than immediately correcting them... I could go on for a while considering my average wait time has gone up, I have more time to watch the dynamics behind the line (BTW, Is it mandatory that every location have a manager sitting at a table giving interviews as loud as possible at all times while reading from a GIANT binder of SOPs? Or do I just see it so often because the retention rates at Starbucks are so low?... see how easily my random “need to know” thoughts appear? It’s a curse) while I wait for my coffee. I don’t mean to trigger anyone, just ask the questions that seem to drive me nuts on a daily basis. I now realize I could have chose my words and tone differently. So again, my apologies. But I will say, in my experience within the hospitality industry, blaming your guests for your issues will only make you hate this field more. It isn’t their job to understand your struggles, it is your bosses. That’s what they get paid to do with the money from your guests. Guests will typically chose your establishment based on hospitality, quality, consistency and efficiency. At least that’s the way I see it...
silversungoddess 1 points 4y ago
Not all stores are that way. We prioritize cafe on our mobile/cafe bar and the other bar for drive thru. As for food, the timing is preset on the oven for each item. We do get customers that ask for “extra toasty” or “double toasted” so we know to toast it twice for their preferences. That eliminates you having to come back to ask for that after getting your food. It also eliminates the frustration of the baristas when you are handed your food and then asking for it to be heated again. (Pretty sure the longest preset time is like 1:10 for a panini or egg bites, don’t quote me on the exact timing but most foods take less than :50)
Starbucks hiring process is to constantly be hiring. Not because of turn over but because business needs change plus other stores in the area might need help and if one store has interviewed a good candidate but has no use for new staff then they can recommend someone. My store has done this multiple times to help staff other stores and new stores opening in the area. Plus, We have lots of college students working for us so availability changes or they finish school and move on and now we’ve already got a vetted candidate to hire. (Now as for loudly reading from SOP, I’ve never seen my SM do that. She is usually quiet and respectful of the atmosphere we provide for our customers and does her best not to disrupt their experience)
Starbucks hiring process is to constantly be hiring. Not because of turn over but because business needs change plus other stores in the area might need help and if one store has interviewed a good candidate but has no use for new staff then they can recommend someone. My store has done this multiple times to help staff other stores and new stores opening in the area. Plus, We have lots of college students working for us so availability changes or they finish school and move on and now we’ve already got a vetted candidate to hire. (Now as for loudly reading from SOP, I’ve never seen my SM do that. She is usually quiet and respectful of the atmosphere we provide for our customers and does her best not to disrupt their experience)
juliet_echo_alpha 3 points 4y ago
You are absolutely right. I started with the company in 2010. I've left twice and returned three times. Clearly, some of my experiences have been positive enough to sway me away from other, higher paying jobs. There used to be a true commitment to customer service which made it a pleasure to serve the siren. We used to have district managers who had 10+ years with the company, and industry experience prior to that. Like so many giant corporations, these well-paid, tenured positions have been/are being phased out in favor of less experienced DMs who kiss more ass and demand less money. There is no true customer connection any more. We're running on a skeleton crew all day except from 7-9 am. Peak is the only true priority, and DT (especially window times) is more important than cafe, always. Those of us who have been here a while have been like frogs in the pot, so to speak. It's getting hard not to notice that we're boiling.
I spent my last lunch break crying instead of eating my complementary bacon gouda. Sorry your sandwich was cold.
I spent my last lunch break crying instead of eating my complementary bacon gouda. Sorry your sandwich was cold.
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