My store usually has 6 people on the floor at a time, maybe a couple during shift changes.

The other day we had 10 people on the floor, including 6 trainee/trainer duos. It was so crowded and you could hardly move, so I’d say 9+ people would be too many for my store.

That depends on your store size/volume.

at my store there is no such thing as too many partners 😂 we average $11-13K a day at minimum and we often run on 4-5 partner plays. The days we have 8-10 partners (granted they all show up) the day runs SO good. sure, people get in the way, but i’d rather have a bunch of people and have everything run smooth than be short staff and constantly having to walk away from bar/front/food to make emergency backups

Before my store opened we all trained at our sister store 20 mins away who average about $11k per day during the week and higher on weekends, and there were some days we’d have 21+ partners on the floor at once. It was absolute chaos. I think 6-9 is the sweet spot for your average DT/cafe store.

I think 7 is the optimal number, when it’s more than that we run into each other and there’s always one or two people left not doing much work. But my store is also kinda smaller. I’m sure big stores can handle more.

we like to have a person per position if we can, usually we cant. we are cafe only and if we are “fully” staffed we have 2 on bar, 1 on mop, 1 on warming, 1 on support and 1 on pos, maybe 1 on cold bar and 1 extra to cover breaks during peak. but that usually doesnt happen. it feels crowded if we have that many but its not “too” many if we are truly busy.

Any more than 8 and everyone is bumping into each other and tbh it’s harder to get work done.

I remember having less than 10 was criminal at my store. 13-15 was normal.

Never had staying planted be so incredibly important. Zero percent chance you'd not get in someone's way if you didn't stay exactly where you're supposed to be. Bless the runners that moved orders around, like green ninjas darting through the chaos.

7 or 8 is ideal imo