Starbucks Baristas: The daily grind
↑
167
↓
Sizes😅😬 (self.starbucksbaristas)
submitted by Inimitable--original
So I'm sure we've all experienced customers confusion with our sizes. But we have one extra "confused" customer at our store. I was working DTO and she first of all sped through her order which was a short misto and a short decaf latte. She orders them both as smalls but she does this all the time so we know she wants short because she got mad when we put it in a tall. But the problem was when I tried to repeat her order back to her she started screaming at me. She was like "NO YOU DONT KNOW WHAT I ORDER! I SAID SMALL!" and I had to try to calmly explain our sizes to her and she continued to scream.at me until eventually she said she just wanted the smallest size (like always). I honestly don't care what you call it, I'm just trying to do my best to make sure you get the size you want, and I'm used to calling them the Starbucks names for sizes.
lexicfen 116 points 3y ago
I had a customer who came up to the counter chatting with his friend, ordered two coffees, black. I asked him what size and he got flustered and said "whatever, the the smallest." Then continued his convo. Because there was a line and he was clearly not paying attention enough to talk to me, his barista, I charged and gave him two short drip. When he got his order, he gave me a WTF look and was like "really?". I just looked at him and said "you asked for the smallest, the short is our smallest." He shook his head and walked away. Like c'mon people, if you need help with your order *communicate* with your barista!!
MonstrousGiggling 37 points 3y ago
And then when you try to make sure someone is ordering the right size and they get frustrated with you for asking but it's like we gotta deal with people who have no idea what they're ordering so we have to try to confirm orders. Ugh.
lexicfen 16 points 3y ago
I work at a different cafe now, and one that really gets me is when someone asks for the regular size. Our medium is 12oz, sbux's grande is 16oz. So I contlstantly get people annoyed by either the difference or the fact that I'm clarifying. It's incredibly frustrating.
sass_mouth39 5 points 3y ago
This. This shit is what I fucking hated the most. I just put on my most ‘I am dead inside’ face and voice and repeated “small, medium, or large?” until they made a decision.
SkylerSayys 5 points 3y ago
Yesterday someone ordered a drink and I was dto and I asked him what size because he was done with drinks and wanted food and he said "can i talk or are you going to keep asking questions?" And at that point I decided what size he wanted and what food he REALLY meant when he asked for the bacon egg white bites and they better have bacon and egg whites.
MonstrousGiggling 4 points 3y ago
Omfg what an asshole. Like who raised these people???? How is there no one there to be like wow you're a dick.
sass_mouth39 3 points 3y ago
What a prick
SkylerSayys 5 points 3y ago
Yes. Like sorry I tried getting your order right. My bad. Won't do it again. 🙄 I did interrupt him twice prior but thats because he pulled too far forward by a lot and it was to say "excuse me, im having a hard time hearing you. Would you mind backing up a little or talking louder please?" And I think that's a valid interruption. Why let him say his 5 item order all the way more than once if i can't hear him? He was there shortly after open on a Sunday morning too like I did NOT want to deal.
megameatloafcake 3 points 3y ago
I usually just grab extra cups and show them the different sizes if they’re super confused
Deeeeeevvvv 3 points 3y ago
We started displaying the cups at my store with the names written on them and it has changed everything.
IPinkerton 10 points 3y ago
I always took the two cup. (short and tall) and said this is our normal small and this is our extra small for kids to make them feel better.
lexicfen 3 points 3y ago
I usually do that to make sure they are informed of the sizes. But this guy was not paying attention to me at all. 🙄
kdstevens04 41 points 3y ago
I also experience customers like this on the daily. I have one who insists the Trenta is called a Tri Venti and when she first ordered it that way I rang it in as a Venti and she yelled at me that she wanted the TRI Venti. Then i had to go through the “large” or “extra large” spiel because I didn’t understand her. It wasn’t fun. 🙄
different_as_can_be 30 points 3y ago
we had this the other day, worse than it usually is. i’m always super forgiving when people don’t know sizes bc i didn’t even know them before i started working. so i always do the “translation” to starbucks language like we’re supposed to.
well this woman ordered three small vanilla bean cream freezes. cool, got it, no problem. so we read it back to her as three talls. and you would’ve thought that we just insulted her and her mother. she LOST IT. started freaking out “no no NO, i said SMALL, do you not have ears, i said SMALL, not TALL, that’s too big”. of course we all roll our eyes, give a little grumble growl, and our DTO gal calmly says “well, we call our small ‘tall’, so you will be receiving a small size” and boy golly GEE was she embarrassed. she got to the window and was so huffy and upset. these people baffles me.
well this woman ordered three small vanilla bean cream freezes. cool, got it, no problem. so we read it back to her as three talls. and you would’ve thought that we just insulted her and her mother. she LOST IT. started freaking out “no no NO, i said SMALL, do you not have ears, i said SMALL, not TALL, that’s too big”. of course we all roll our eyes, give a little grumble growl, and our DTO gal calmly says “well, we call our small ‘tall’, so you will be receiving a small size” and boy golly GEE was she embarrassed. she got to the window and was so huffy and upset. these people baffles me.
SickAndTiredOfKarens 21 points 3y ago
We have a customer always ordering a viente size drink rather than venti, no matter how many times we repeat it back with the proper pronunciation.
maemac 5 points 3y ago
We have someone who orders a “Tri-enta”
Deeeeeevvvv 4 points 3y ago
My favorites are the “ven-TAY” and the “trenti”
randomyucky 13 points 3y ago
I usually tell customers "we speak small medium and large so if that's easier for you, you can use that" and they usually stop stumbling with their order. And if someone says small blah blah I usually read it off using small instead of tall
kanyon01 6 points 3y ago
I do this too. I think it’s easier especially with some of the older customers. If my boss is there though I can’t cause she will get triggered.
randomyucky 10 points 3y ago
I'm pretty sure when i did my training in January when i got hired, it said in the training to use small medium and large if the customer does because it's making them more comfortable and making the moment right
kanyon01 1 points 3y ago
I’ve been working at the bux since November 2018, my old boss didn’t care. But my new boss sucks. She’s so picky about everything and it really affects the atmosphere there. I sometimes just do what I think is best anyway though.
eat-reddit-tv 6 points 3y ago
I resort to asking if they want a 12oz or the ‘off the menu’ 8oz.
It’s always easiest to use numbers; they’re international.
It’s always easiest to use numbers; they’re international.
G37_is_numberletter 5 points 3y ago
I think that a big part of this conundrum is repeating the order back to them in starbucks size. If someone orders a 12 Oz latte, I'm not gonna try and teach them through the order screen. If they say small, I'll just ask if they want an 8 oz or a 12 oz. They might have been to a local roaster recently and been snarked at for not knowing what a macchiato is or something, so I usually just try and throw people a softball. Whenever someone at my store tries to correct someone or teach them it just comes off as cringe. I'm all for showing people sizes if they say they don't know what's what.
rendercilla 3 points 3y ago
One day a woman ordered a Trenta Dragonfruit refresher lemonade and "a regular". So I figured the "regular" one was without lemonade. I kept asking are they both Trenta? And she just kept saying "Regular". It wasn't until I was already handing out two Trenta drinks when I realized she was trying to refer to a "regular" size. Nobody has ever said "regular" size before or ever since. It was pretty annoying.
JCaligirl420 2 points 3y ago
When they don’t know our sizes I’ll try and help them out, but once they start yelling at us that they want it this size that’s when the gloves come off haha
SeniorSalary 1 points 3y ago
This actually happened this morning at my store.
Customer: "I want a medium cold brew."
Shift: "You said a medium cold brew?"
Customer: "I SAID A GRANDE."
Shift: "...Yep."
Customer: "I want a medium cold brew."
Shift: "You said a medium cold brew?"
Customer: "I SAID A GRANDE."
Shift: "...Yep."
lisforlauren 1 points 3y ago
My boyfriend calls the trenta the "tri-tenta"
rendercilla 2 points 3y ago
We have a regular who says "Trinity" 😂
convulsivedaisy 1 points 3y ago
I just call it by how many ounces the size is instead of small/tall or whatever
This nonprofit website is run by volunteers.
Please contribute if you can. Thank you!
Our mission is to provide everyone with access to large-
scale community websites for the good of humanity.
Without ads, without tracking, without greed.
scale community websites for the good of humanity.
Without ads, without tracking, without greed.
©2023 HumbleCat Inc • HumbleCat is a 501(c)3 nonprofit based in Michigan, USA.