Reading this on my break. When I get back on I’m going off on a customer.

If we all storm corporate at the same time they can’t stop us

I completely agree with everything you said. You should be the spokesperson of Barista's for corporate

Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if we could unionize ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ this is why I’m leaving

Honestly guys we just have to Ban together abd make the change ourselves. The higher ups especially the ones in control of the cash flow will never bat an eye to us because they smile and deal with minuscule situations for point millions of dollars we have to smile for 14 or less and get drinks thrown at us on top of that.

One of my biggest bet peeves. Our DM tried to fire one of our shifts because there was a misunderstanding and when the shift was right in that area the DM said "well you should have given them what they wanted the first time"

But how it went down is this guy started yelling at the shift to go make his drink because he was already late for work when he ordered it. When the shift explained theirs an order to the stickers and he will have to wait (he already had another person jump on bar to help out) he got angry and began cussing at him. The shift offered to refund him if he really needed to go. Then they guy started saying how he was being racist because he was black and just didn't want to make a black man's drink (he's a regular and has a history of doing this too) finally he gets his drink and leaves and the shift says something like "man I thought we were about to get into a fight" and of course he was irritated so he went to the back to chill out and filled a report about it.

Either way the DM heard of it, heard one of the Baristas say he tried to fight the guy so he fired him right there. Shift refused to sign the agreement so the DM had to look through the security footage where the shifts story lined up.
So instead of apologizing he says "should have handled it better. Should have just given him what he wanted" never mind the fact this guy was cursing at him and screaming at him and wanting him to skip other people's drinks just to make his...

*read*

PREACH

Some people are just rude. And you can stand up for yourself in certain situations. If a customer is actually berating you and swearing and making you uncomfortable you can ask them to stop. When I was a shift I told customers that they cannot talk to me or my baristas the way they were and that I am willing to help them, but not if they are going to be abusive. My store manager backed me up as well. Obviously you can’t “go off” on a customer but you can keep your cool and ask someone to not be abusive.

We need to unionize

This is any service job I’ve ever had. Before being a barista I worked at a popular fast food restaurant. There I was spit on, had food thrown at me, had a full beer can thrown at me, almost got stabbed by a homeless man. My point is people are terrible. Everywhere! I live in San Antonio and everyone is ready to fight you if you look at them wrong. It’s just the cultural violence. But the one thing I learned to help with these rude people is to make a mental switch. Turn that switch off after a bad encounter. Tell yourself to let it go. Because the companies will always 100% give in to the crazy customer. Pretend your like Spongebob if you have to. But don’t let these bad people change you.

It's shitty that we have to assume the best of them, when they can't just treat us properly

we need to band together im soo serious

we really really need a union.

No joke some bitch got mad at Me for my DTO not including to put a nitro lid on her cup and like I understand, you get what you pay for so i was like sure Nd then say to her "your total is XYZ" and she hands me her money with her change and I notice shes short 5 cents and say I need 5 more cents instead of the penny you gave me, and I go off to get her lid cause shes taking a while and she slams down her money. At this point I'm just like smiling still because at this point is give me your money, let's get your change and FUCKIN LEAVE

I have been saying the same thing! It’s almost like they don’t actually care...

Every week for a year a submitted something very similar to this. Nothing ever happened. Makes me sad.

There’s so many regulars in my store like that. Another shift told me that we can report customers when they act out like that. There’s one lady in particular who will stand at the end of the bar and tell you every step to make her drink and tell you to add a ton of extra stuff and still say you made it wrong and demand another for free. She’s been doing it for years.

That’s weird. I hold my customers to a certain standard, I have no problem giving them a piece of my mind. All my regulars know this and so will all of the uppity people. it’s grow up or get out. 🤷‍♀️

There should always be a line, if customers cross that line and your manager or shift didn’t take care of it, I’m sorry this was your experience. It is not the vision of Starbucks especially if it’s making other customers uncomfortable and baristas being made to feel like they’re not a human being. This is not the mission of corporate and it sounds like you had less than ideal leadership. One bad manager doesn’t make for a bad company to work for, id urge you to take your concerns to your manager, if you’ve tried that go up the ladder your DMs card should be available, write them an email. Don’t assume no one in the company cares just because your manager doesn’t.

Just had a customer demand that my SSV hand a drink directly to his hand, stating he was of a higher status than us. You can't make this up.

My store knows if a customer crosses a line they can be asked to leave, not by a shift or SM but by us as baristas. We just had a third place meeting about this. We are not being held to any abuse. Of course customers feel entitled that’s in every customer service industry. But if you are being sworn at or they have crossed any line you can ask them to leave. Just like in retail you can refuse to serve someone if they are being verbally abusive or ruining the environment. If it is something simple like a drink of course give it to them but let them know next time you will not allow this. But if it is more you can tell them no and if they don’t like it politely ask them to leave. Starbucks cares more about “The Third Place” so if someone is being disruptive and ruining anyone else’s time you can ask them to leave.