Starbucks Baristas: The daily grind
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9
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Advice/Rant (self.starbucksbaristas)
submitted by malaika07
Hello Friends,
I need some advice. How do I make teas, brew and grind the coffee,make iced coffee and set up the pastry case in 30 mins? Today was the most frustrating day I've ever had. I was alone for 6 hours. Customers were angry because of the espresso machine not working and my ability not to brew coffee every 10 mins. How do you make it work when you're alone?
How do you make it work when you're not set up for success? I don't work at a corporate store. I get yelled at if I stay over 5 mins to help. People are still coming in because the store because it's a grocery store. Today was a disaster. Please help any way you can. Thanks so much!
I need some advice. How do I make teas, brew and grind the coffee,make iced coffee and set up the pastry case in 30 mins? Today was the most frustrating day I've ever had. I was alone for 6 hours. Customers were angry because of the espresso machine not working and my ability not to brew coffee every 10 mins. How do you make it work when you're alone?
How do you make it work when you're not set up for success? I don't work at a corporate store. I get yelled at if I stay over 5 mins to help. People are still coming in because the store because it's a grocery store. Today was a disaster. Please help any way you can. Thanks so much!
iabdu11 6 points 3y ago
Quit
AndrewtheRey 5 points 3y ago
My advice is to do Teas and iced coffee first. While those are going, get the pastry case going and step away from it to brew more iced coffee and add ice and water to the teas. Don’t brew hot coffees until about 2 minutes before opening so that they’re fresher when you’re opening. Also, confront whoever is telling you not to stay 5 minutes past your shift, as sometimes it’s busy or there’s critical things to finish or maybe the other person was late
malaika07 [OP] 4 points 3y ago
Sometimes it's 15imins,one time it was 30 mins
It's at a grocery store and its very strict on hours. So much so my hours are being cut next week or I'm working alone. It's the grocery store manager. The Starbucks manager is on leave because of the corona virus.
It's at a grocery store and its very strict on hours. So much so my hours are being cut next week or I'm working alone. It's the grocery store manager. The Starbucks manager is on leave because of the corona virus.
AndrewtheRey 4 points 3y ago
I’m sorry that you’re being treated this way. I assume that the Starbucks you work in is owned by the grocery store? I don’t know if you have a long line right at opening, but maybe the hot coffee can wait a few minutes to be brewed after opening?
malaika07 [OP] 3 points 3y ago
Yes you're right! The grocery store opens at 6am Starbucks opens at 7am. I have a line by 650 sometimes before.
AndrewtheRey 2 points 3y ago
I imagine it has been getting bad recently. In my corporate owned Starbucks, we probably earn less than you do but we have 3 people to open. It takes me 20 minutes when I’m rushing to get everything brewed. We have someone who only sets up the pastry case
Syrikye 3 points 3y ago
I used to do this regularly at my grocery store starbucks and I had it timed to a science. I know exactly what position you're in and this may help you with your timing. However, our store had our machines so you may have to adapt. Hold onto your britches...it's long.
Here's what you do. I'm assuming you get there at 6:30 to open at 7. You have 30 minutes. Stay calm and think clearly about what needs to be done in order of priority and timing.
1.Walk in, flip on the lights (optional and risky if there are people in the store cause they'll think you're open, but I prefered it). Turn on the oven as you walk by it.
3. Wash your hands. Do not forget this. Especially now.
2.Go to the coffee machine and start your hot water into a large pitcher. (We used the mocha pitcher, but 2 empty 2L pitchers will work if you can pay attention and swap them out).
3.While the hot water is pouring grind your first two coffees and stage them. Don't brew yet. Grind your third coffee and have it ready (should take you about 5mins). (Be careful with the hot water, it's easy to get burned, and if you brew before you have your water you'll run into a shortage because the machine is limited.)
4.Leave the water running into the pitcher, go to the espresso machine. It should be cleaned from the night before, but hit rinse just in case and re-assemble the steaming wand (15-30sec). If they forget to put the tabs in, you have time to fix it now when the message pops up, instead of later when you make a drink. It takes ~15mins if you have to clean it, so be sure to check.
5.Take a glance in the fridge to make sure you have milk and whipped cream and the essentials. Don't go scrambling for things just yet, just make note of what's there and not there so you're prepared whenever you have a few minutes to make a run. (2-5sec)
6.Then go to the pastry case and begin setting up, keeping an eye on the time and your hot water. DO NOT OVERFLOW IT...you'll be very sad...(you'll have~5-10 mins for the case depending on how long it took you earlier, but make sure you shut off the water when it gets full)
7.When it gets to be 6:45 (assuming you're opening at 7)(I sometimes set a timer or alarm on my phone if I'm sleepy) leave the pastry case and hit brew on the coffees.
8.Line up your tea pitchers and pour hot water in them from the big pitcher and start the timer. (takes 3-4mins, then set 5 min on the timer) I reccomend doing this beside or over the sink if possible, and just leaving them there to brew.
9.Put the empty pitcher under the cold water tap. (At my store it fills the big one at the cold tap in 3mins almost every time so watch that too, but it shouldn't be a big deal if it overflows)
10.Go back to the pastry case. Do what you can as quickly as you can. Again, stay calm, think about what in the kiosk will be finished next. The pastries are not really a priority.
11. When the tea timer goes off leave the case again, finish your teas with ice and the water from the pitcher/tap, put them up.
12. By that point your first two coffees are ready. ( it takes ~6min brew and drip time)
13.Stage the next coffee and hit brew immediately. Go ahead and grind up the next one and stage it, but don't brew unless you'll need it immediately.
14.Go back to the pastry case. By this point you should have it mostly done and it should be about 6:55. As long as you have at least one of everything it shouldn't really be a problem. The pastry case should be low on the priority list because people can still request items and you can still continue to put them out after opening in any lulls without too much concern. We usually rotate sandwiches at this point too. Again, not a big deal, but just throw out the old ones and worry about the rest later.
15.Start the sanitizer in the sink before the soap, you'll need it first, start that timer, set up your rag trays and whatnot, go get anything you might need urgently (like milk). Don't worry about the San overflowing, the sinks are made to divert it. The soap you gotta keep an eye on so do it when you'll be behind the counter a minute.
16.We always had to got get our own till, but there were occassions where time was crunched and that wasn't possible, so have words with management if it's an issue. I know for a fact accounting is supposed to bring all tills to all registers every morning.
17.The last coffee will finish and be ready a few minutes before 7. Put the timer on 30 minutes. Brew Pike and Blonde one time, then Pike and Dark, then Pike and Blonde, etc. Say nothing to anyone about this. It will still be just as fresh but will take some strain off. 10 mins is bullshit and no one gives a flying fuck right now.
18.We aren't putting out creamer at the moment, but I used to just wait until someone asked for it, then poured a carafe, and handed it to them, then started the timer. That way they put it out for you.
You'll get better, don't fret. Things are pretty gnarly right now, normally working there was a breeze but I had to leave when things started getting rough. I was very slow at it in the beginning, but you'll find a pattern and routine in the amount of waiting time for each thing, and align it so you're never waiting for something to get done. I also formed a circuit as I did things so it made sense to do them in a certain order that may not be possible at your store.
Advice for being alone ridiculously long:
When in a crunch: DON'T BOTHER TO CLEAN. I mean, clean reasonably, don't trash the place and expect the next person to pick it up. But if you're alone in the morning, you clean the bare minimum. You wipe the counter when it gets sticky and when there's a lull you do the dishes, whipped cream, iced coffee, etc, but don't worry about anything you don't have time for. Night crew will always be slow, they can handle the bigger things like making a whole supply of whipped cream. Your priority is the drinks and orders (and I'm supposed to say customers but...). Get those done first. If there are no pauses, you do other things as you run out of them and come up.
If you're consistently running out of things in the morning, ask the night crew to step up. Be specific, and be nice. Something like "Would you mind making a few more whipped creams tonight? I keep running out in the morning and I never have time to make any." Or "We've been going through iced coffee like crazy, could you make an extra pitcher tonight?" Write a note. Be sure to thank them the next day.
Run out of whipped cream? Make one, maybe two if you aren't multitasking. Don't stop and make five. Dishes piling up? Timer going off? They can wait until there isn't a line. Run out of iced coffee in the middle of a drink? Start it brewing and let the customer know it'll be about 6-7minutes. Be authoritative about it. State it. Don't ask if it's okay. So long as you're still doing drinks they can wait 10 minutes without getting their panties in a twist.
This is your show and you're doing you're best. If they don't like that they can march right down to the corporate store instead and...oh wait...
The bottom line line is that it's just coffee. At the end of the day it's coffee. Coffee. No one will die if they don't get it. And if management won't do a damn thing to help you when you clearly identify a fixable problem, ask for another dept or leave. Find a crew that cares about YOU.
Sorry for the long rant. I get heated. I hope some of this helps. I've been a barista trainer for almost 3 yrs and I'm bored af at home so feel free to PM me with questions.
Here's what you do. I'm assuming you get there at 6:30 to open at 7. You have 30 minutes. Stay calm and think clearly about what needs to be done in order of priority and timing.
1.Walk in, flip on the lights (optional and risky if there are people in the store cause they'll think you're open, but I prefered it). Turn on the oven as you walk by it.
3. Wash your hands. Do not forget this. Especially now.
2.Go to the coffee machine and start your hot water into a large pitcher. (We used the mocha pitcher, but 2 empty 2L pitchers will work if you can pay attention and swap them out).
3.While the hot water is pouring grind your first two coffees and stage them. Don't brew yet. Grind your third coffee and have it ready (should take you about 5mins). (Be careful with the hot water, it's easy to get burned, and if you brew before you have your water you'll run into a shortage because the machine is limited.)
4.Leave the water running into the pitcher, go to the espresso machine. It should be cleaned from the night before, but hit rinse just in case and re-assemble the steaming wand (15-30sec). If they forget to put the tabs in, you have time to fix it now when the message pops up, instead of later when you make a drink. It takes ~15mins if you have to clean it, so be sure to check.
5.Take a glance in the fridge to make sure you have milk and whipped cream and the essentials. Don't go scrambling for things just yet, just make note of what's there and not there so you're prepared whenever you have a few minutes to make a run. (2-5sec)
6.Then go to the pastry case and begin setting up, keeping an eye on the time and your hot water. DO NOT OVERFLOW IT...you'll be very sad...(you'll have~5-10 mins for the case depending on how long it took you earlier, but make sure you shut off the water when it gets full)
7.When it gets to be 6:45 (assuming you're opening at 7)(I sometimes set a timer or alarm on my phone if I'm sleepy) leave the pastry case and hit brew on the coffees.
8.Line up your tea pitchers and pour hot water in them from the big pitcher and start the timer. (takes 3-4mins, then set 5 min on the timer) I reccomend doing this beside or over the sink if possible, and just leaving them there to brew.
9.Put the empty pitcher under the cold water tap. (At my store it fills the big one at the cold tap in 3mins almost every time so watch that too, but it shouldn't be a big deal if it overflows)
10.Go back to the pastry case. Do what you can as quickly as you can. Again, stay calm, think about what in the kiosk will be finished next. The pastries are not really a priority.
11. When the tea timer goes off leave the case again, finish your teas with ice and the water from the pitcher/tap, put them up.
12. By that point your first two coffees are ready. ( it takes ~6min brew and drip time)
13.Stage the next coffee and hit brew immediately. Go ahead and grind up the next one and stage it, but don't brew unless you'll need it immediately.
14.Go back to the pastry case. By this point you should have it mostly done and it should be about 6:55. As long as you have at least one of everything it shouldn't really be a problem. The pastry case should be low on the priority list because people can still request items and you can still continue to put them out after opening in any lulls without too much concern. We usually rotate sandwiches at this point too. Again, not a big deal, but just throw out the old ones and worry about the rest later.
15.Start the sanitizer in the sink before the soap, you'll need it first, start that timer, set up your rag trays and whatnot, go get anything you might need urgently (like milk). Don't worry about the San overflowing, the sinks are made to divert it. The soap you gotta keep an eye on so do it when you'll be behind the counter a minute.
16.We always had to got get our own till, but there were occassions where time was crunched and that wasn't possible, so have words with management if it's an issue. I know for a fact accounting is supposed to bring all tills to all registers every morning.
17.The last coffee will finish and be ready a few minutes before 7. Put the timer on 30 minutes. Brew Pike and Blonde one time, then Pike and Dark, then Pike and Blonde, etc. Say nothing to anyone about this. It will still be just as fresh but will take some strain off. 10 mins is bullshit and no one gives a flying fuck right now.
18.We aren't putting out creamer at the moment, but I used to just wait until someone asked for it, then poured a carafe, and handed it to them, then started the timer. That way they put it out for you.
You'll get better, don't fret. Things are pretty gnarly right now, normally working there was a breeze but I had to leave when things started getting rough. I was very slow at it in the beginning, but you'll find a pattern and routine in the amount of waiting time for each thing, and align it so you're never waiting for something to get done. I also formed a circuit as I did things so it made sense to do them in a certain order that may not be possible at your store.
Advice for being alone ridiculously long:
When in a crunch: DON'T BOTHER TO CLEAN. I mean, clean reasonably, don't trash the place and expect the next person to pick it up. But if you're alone in the morning, you clean the bare minimum. You wipe the counter when it gets sticky and when there's a lull you do the dishes, whipped cream, iced coffee, etc, but don't worry about anything you don't have time for. Night crew will always be slow, they can handle the bigger things like making a whole supply of whipped cream. Your priority is the drinks and orders (and I'm supposed to say customers but...). Get those done first. If there are no pauses, you do other things as you run out of them and come up.
If you're consistently running out of things in the morning, ask the night crew to step up. Be specific, and be nice. Something like "Would you mind making a few more whipped creams tonight? I keep running out in the morning and I never have time to make any." Or "We've been going through iced coffee like crazy, could you make an extra pitcher tonight?" Write a note. Be sure to thank them the next day.
Run out of whipped cream? Make one, maybe two if you aren't multitasking. Don't stop and make five. Dishes piling up? Timer going off? They can wait until there isn't a line. Run out of iced coffee in the middle of a drink? Start it brewing and let the customer know it'll be about 6-7minutes. Be authoritative about it. State it. Don't ask if it's okay. So long as you're still doing drinks they can wait 10 minutes without getting their panties in a twist.
This is your show and you're doing you're best. If they don't like that they can march right down to the corporate store instead and...oh wait...
The bottom line line is that it's just coffee. At the end of the day it's coffee. Coffee. No one will die if they don't get it. And if management won't do a damn thing to help you when you clearly identify a fixable problem, ask for another dept or leave. Find a crew that cares about YOU.
Sorry for the long rant. I get heated. I hope some of this helps. I've been a barista trainer for almost 3 yrs and I'm bored af at home so feel free to PM me with questions.
malaika07 [OP] 1 points 3y ago
I was able to get most of my morning complete! I got all the pastries in and got the hot food complete maybe 15-20 minutes after opening. I was alone again for 6 hours and I tried to clean as I went. I was going good until a nurse came in with 11 drink orders. After that the place was semi trashed then 2nd shift started and spilled iced coffee every where. I stayed to help clean that up and I'm sure I'll get a talk about it but It was all good.
I think made the nurses drinks correct excepted for the salted sweet cream cold foam. I just made cold foam with vanilla! But I guess one error out of 11 isn't bad. Hopefully they weren't to mad.
Thanks so much!
I think made the nurses drinks correct excepted for the salted sweet cream cold foam. I just made cold foam with vanilla! But I guess one error out of 11 isn't bad. Hopefully they weren't to mad.
Thanks so much!
Syrikye 1 points 3y ago
You're very welcome. I hope it helped a little. Again, the food isn't such a priority because in general you can usually just sort it out as you need it. It's not easy to time. Sometimes other employees want to chat for a minute and it puts me behind, but I like to think it works pretty well. 1 out of 11 isnt bad at all! Especially when you did them at one time while by yourself! Those are the orders that I take my time with, cause if they didn't expect to wait then that's their problem. It's also ridiculous that they won't let you stay to help clean up. We schedule an overlap in the afternoon pretty much no matter how many people just because you need a few more hands on deck to get everything reset sometimes. Order days especially.
I mean, I don't stay over 30 minutes over my schedule for funsies, but I'll stick around for 10-15 minutes max if there's a rush or a mess or we need to run trash. I always feel bad if I have to leave something unfinished, but there's only so much you can do. It's more of a courtesy to my coworkers than anything and my management's never given me shit for it. That's not a good policy imo. Then again, our crew has always been pretty self-sufficient and they don't really care what we do so long as it doesn't affect them or go into overtime. They'll either get bored or back off after a while.
P.S. If it was a salted sweet cream cold foam cold brew (jesus it's a mouthful), its sweet cream in the foam pitcher with 2 packets sea salt, and then standard CR pumps in the cold brew.
Out of curiousity, what city/district are you in?
I mean, I don't stay over 30 minutes over my schedule for funsies, but I'll stick around for 10-15 minutes max if there's a rush or a mess or we need to run trash. I always feel bad if I have to leave something unfinished, but there's only so much you can do. It's more of a courtesy to my coworkers than anything and my management's never given me shit for it. That's not a good policy imo. Then again, our crew has always been pretty self-sufficient and they don't really care what we do so long as it doesn't affect them or go into overtime. They'll either get bored or back off after a while.
P.S. If it was a salted sweet cream cold foam cold brew (jesus it's a mouthful), its sweet cream in the foam pitcher with 2 packets sea salt, and then standard CR pumps in the cold brew.
Out of curiousity, what city/district are you in?
malaika07 [OP] 1 points 3y ago
I'm in Columbus Ohio a non corporate store. Inside a grocery store.
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