274*. I feel like the generation who who felt the transition. At my store, they really focused on giving customers sample tastings. A group of us would come in on a day off, hang out, and try latte art when it was dead. We had fun competing to see who was the fastest drink maker while still having quality. I definitely had way more customer favorites come in regularly to just sit and talk with us.

Now…it’s like you said. We’re fast food. My regulars have gone and stayed home, only the ones who make my manager kiss up to them show up. Starbucks says to use in house cups, but my manager told us not to. What’s the point if so few of us can do it anyway (imo). The whole crew I started with is gone, some left to focus on school, others just realized they weren’t getting support from the business. I ultimately listened to a few of them and went back to school myself. I’d rather cry over some assignments than have panic attacks from customers going 0 to 100 about a freakin sugar drink.

At the moment our drinks are being handed out the window in record time, but our connections went down from a 53 to a 42. As a SSV, I can’t even be mad at the shift meetings anymore. You just can’t connect and do drive thru. People don’t care, don’t want to talk, and will straight up ignore you in the window. So, you get what you asked for Starbucks. We’re no different than Wendy’s my dude. And I still don’t get paid enough to care.

hi. i'm a 176\*. it used to be a coffee shop. it used to have ambiance. you would come in & someone with a tray of samples would offer you a passion tea lemonade with lemon raspberry loaf.

the biggest change ive felt recently is the loss of front register as a dedicated position. OS is a joke. i feel so bad for customers that come in & have to stand at front reg for a mintue or 2 bc drive thru is poppin off & i simply don't have enough people to provide the experience we *should* be providing. i remember when you could go bus the cafe & end up chatting with your morning regulars for like a good 5 minutes, it was lovely. there was also comfy chairs! one of my old stores had this big soft couch.

changing from marking cups is another thing. beverage codes are more efficient, marking cups was just a little bit of unique flair to the branded, plain white cup. now it's like WOMP WOMP STICKER SAYS LATTE CARAMEL ADD WHIP. sometimes i make the Ask Mes fun just to feel something. & idk about your area, but Calling Order has 100% disappeared from mine & it kills me. every. day.

the pastry case design with the glass you could actually LIFT being replaced was like, an omen. a dark sign of things to come. the bigwigs took efficient, working designs, & scrapped them for a glass box that is entirely for aesthetic purposes. there's entrances for pests all over it. they took a sealed-cover, accessible, efficient darling of a pastry case, & replaced them with a changeling. a thing that aesthetically embodies the prettiest pastry case, but works *terribly* as one. i'm glad we don't have to keep pastries in there anymore, bc we never should have ever in the first place.

we sold CDs, & had little cards with free itunes downloads! that's not part of a cafe, but it was a nice little bonus that provided some variety in merchandise. The Arts! Culture! Through the Filter of the Siren but Whatever! FREE STUFF.

they used to do more collaborative things. Oprah Chai, La Boulange, stuff like that was wholly unnecessary & we made jokes about it at the time, but i miss these goofy things, it was change! something new! stimulation for my brain which is now starting to resemble a lizard's due to understimulation!!

Coffee Knowledge. when i train baristas, i still go through growing regions, processing methods, etc, because i care. all i hear these days regarding coffee knowledge is "blonde has more caffeine!" like. do you *know* how much caffeine *all* of our brewed coffees *already have???* because if you did you'd realize what you're saying means nothing. a grande dark is 260mg, a grande pike is 310, a grande blonde is 360mg. like oh yeah that extra 50mg really hits when we're in the 300s. TALK ABOUT THE FLAVOUR PROFILE!!! obviously it's never a partner's fault, bc coffee is clearly no longer our main commodity & area of focus. the powers that be have made this clear.

weekly rotating dark roasts also were a coffee-knowledge promoting thing that had to go away bc it decreased shareholder value probably

i *hate* when customers complain at me about not having coffee brewed, or that they had to wait to order & no one greeted them, *because it's something that kills me too*. i should tell these people to go to My Starbucks Idea. does that still exist??? hello?? sbux melody are you listening?? Anyway. i try my best to provide the experience i know & pride myself on excelling at, but me & other older partner's can't do it that well when there's no support whatsoever.

**TL;DR** this company used to put on a clown show about coffee but now there's no clown show & we just sell caffeine juice to children & their parents & i'm sad. :(