Starbucks Baristas: The daily grind
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my coworkers that didnt work this shift will never believe what happened today (venti rant) (self.starbucksbaristas)
submitted by blue-haired-barista
Omfg
This fucking asshole of a customer
So this dude comes into the drive thru with his wife in the passenger and at the speaker.
Me: "Hi, welcome to Starbucks, what can we get started for you today?" Like any other barista doing their job.
Customer: "Yeah can I get a Mango Dragon Fruit Frappuccino."
Me: "...I'm sorry, did you say you wanted a mango dragonfruit refresher, or a frappuccino?"
Customer: "No, a mango dragonfruit frappuccino. I have a picture on my phone, let me show it to you at the window."
...at this point another barista a year my senior takes over and tries to explain to him that such a thing does not exist, but then insists he shows us this creation at the window.
So he gets to the window, and shows us this monstrosity of a drink thay looks like a venti ice cup, half filled with whipped cream at the bottom, and what looks like a blended mango dragonfruit drink on the top half, with dragonfruit Inclusions on top.
My coworker goes "thats not an official drink.. can you give us the ingredients?"
Customer: "I just have the picture."
Coworker: "We can make you something similar to this, but it wont be exactly like the picture. If you want a custom drink, please try to give us a list of ingredients next time."
...we proceed to make a blended mango dragonfruit, put it on top of whip in a venti cup and serve it to this mf along with another frap he ordered not containing coffee bc he told us it was for his kid- i had to physically restrain my coworker from putting frap roast in this tall mocha frap, ffs-
We give him the monstrosity.
....and he tells us he wanted two of them.
By this time he'd been at the window for almost 10 minutes and there was a huge ass line behind him.
Me: "I'm sorry but there's a line behind you, can you come back around for the second drink?"
Customer: "No, I'll come inside."
I ask my coworker how tf he rang up the monstrosity the first time- he does it again, and before we can charge him for the second one, the dude fucking drives off- then i have to save the order until he comes in.
When he comes into the cafe, he pays for the second one, and proceeds to STEAL A TUMBLER. IN FRONT OF EVERYBODY.
And ofc.
We cant do shit bc of the policy.
So.
Yeah.
Fucking ASSHOLE.
..ty for listening to my rant, no one will believe me but it ok, I'll have this memory till the day i die.
This fucking asshole of a customer
So this dude comes into the drive thru with his wife in the passenger and at the speaker.
Me: "Hi, welcome to Starbucks, what can we get started for you today?" Like any other barista doing their job.
Customer: "Yeah can I get a Mango Dragon Fruit Frappuccino."
Me: "...I'm sorry, did you say you wanted a mango dragonfruit refresher, or a frappuccino?"
Customer: "No, a mango dragonfruit frappuccino. I have a picture on my phone, let me show it to you at the window."
...at this point another barista a year my senior takes over and tries to explain to him that such a thing does not exist, but then insists he shows us this creation at the window.
So he gets to the window, and shows us this monstrosity of a drink thay looks like a venti ice cup, half filled with whipped cream at the bottom, and what looks like a blended mango dragonfruit drink on the top half, with dragonfruit Inclusions on top.
My coworker goes "thats not an official drink.. can you give us the ingredients?"
Customer: "I just have the picture."
Coworker: "We can make you something similar to this, but it wont be exactly like the picture. If you want a custom drink, please try to give us a list of ingredients next time."
...we proceed to make a blended mango dragonfruit, put it on top of whip in a venti cup and serve it to this mf along with another frap he ordered not containing coffee bc he told us it was for his kid- i had to physically restrain my coworker from putting frap roast in this tall mocha frap, ffs-
We give him the monstrosity.
....and he tells us he wanted two of them.
By this time he'd been at the window for almost 10 minutes and there was a huge ass line behind him.
Me: "I'm sorry but there's a line behind you, can you come back around for the second drink?"
Customer: "No, I'll come inside."
I ask my coworker how tf he rang up the monstrosity the first time- he does it again, and before we can charge him for the second one, the dude fucking drives off- then i have to save the order until he comes in.
When he comes into the cafe, he pays for the second one, and proceeds to STEAL A TUMBLER. IN FRONT OF EVERYBODY.
And ofc.
We cant do shit bc of the policy.
So.
Yeah.
Fucking ASSHOLE.
..ty for listening to my rant, no one will believe me but it ok, I'll have this memory till the day i die.
jdsalingersdog 53 points 1y ago
I should just let this go. But. What…do you mean… the policy?
blue-haired-barista [OP] 48 points 1y ago
There's some dumb policy about not interfering if someone's stealing or whatever- my shift on duty just let it go and explainrd to us that we cant do anything that could put anyone in danger- and although we didnt see the dude carrying a weapon, he could have very well been concealing it. I even asked if we should call the cops and he's like "it's only $20 worth of merch, what are the cops gonna do?" so he told us to leave it be and just that we'd mark it out in the system as a loss.
Just what my shift said. I think we had training on this issue as well at one point- watched a video or someshit.
Just what my shift said. I think we had training on this issue as well at one point- watched a video or someshit.
Few_Conclusion_8824 64 points 1y ago
No the policy is to let them take whatever if you’re getting robbed. You’re allowed to deter a customer from STEALING by saying something like hey excuse that’ll be 20$ or can I get you a bag for that so that they know
CoffeeIslander 37 points 1y ago
Yeah, we had digital training for this. You definitely do NOT confront someone you suspect of stealing. But, if you feel it's safe to do so you CAN discreetly let them know you are watching by asking if they need help or if they have any questions about the specific product in a non-threatening way. That indirectly signals to them that you are indeed watching and most likely saw something. Also, make sure to let your partners know before you do so so they can watch your back. And if you're in a store with headsets have your headset on so they can hear the conversation too.
CoffeeIslander 2 points 1y ago
Something else I remember is if you make a side comment about how you like their outfit or their hair while making friendly eye contact with them it signals to them that you took note of their appearance and would therefore be able to recognize them next time or give a description to the police or identify them. I would be careful with this one of course depending on how physically threatened I feel in the moment.
potatopoisoning 23 points 1y ago
Piggybacking off these other replies. You can’t directly confront him. However “directly” is the key word. You can absolutely, as stated above, ask things like “would you like a bag for that merchandise?” and direct them to the register to pay. If they refuse after you’ve made the suggestion of paying then yes, you are supposed to drop the issue. Let them take the merch, enter it in Inventory as a mark-out (“loss of product/theft/other” are options for mark outs I believe), and file an incident report. Your SSV was correct. They probably didn’t want to rile him up anymore than he was and so just let him take it. Starbucks has insurance for stuff like that, it’s corporates problem at that point 🤷♀️
Magnhild94 9 points 1y ago
Your shift is right that you shouldn’t personally try to stop him but you ABSOLUTELY call the police as soon as it’s safe to do as well as file an incident report. You have 24 hours to file an incident report so it might not be too late to do that.
MrWisdom39 19 points 1y ago
Starbucks and their own freaking customers have gone to fart with their customized drinks
gemlikbase 1 points 1y ago
I laughed out loud at this holy shit
CoffeeIslander 15 points 1y ago
I always ask "did you have any questions about the tumbler? I can ring you up for it right over here at the register." And I make sure I do it loud enough to be just uncomfortable enough for other customers to look up and notice. And if they don't cooperate I just keep saying "I don't understand. You can pay for it on mobile if you want to." Obviously, it's against policy to ver accuse anyone so I'm careful not to do that. And I'm also careful to judge whether the situation is becoming dangerous. But you can also remember that you have a few cards to play like I play the innocent ignorance card all the time. It's not against policy to just not understand the situation and ask for more information to help you understand. And don't forget that anyone who steals wants to leave as soon as possible so you can always just hold back his drink and make it slower so that he has to wait an uncomfortable amount of time.
But of course, please consider safety first. There have definitely been times when I just had to let a situation go because I did not feel safe.
But of course, please consider safety first. There have definitely been times when I just had to let a situation go because I did not feel safe.
SegoMyLeggo 13 points 1y ago
Potentially unpopular opinion but this is a situation where you just say “sure, we can blend our mango dragon fruit refresher, does that sound good?” Dude’s still a jerk though.
Edit: this is setting aside the literally stealing part lol, obviously that’s ridiculous
Edit: this is setting aside the literally stealing part lol, obviously that’s ridiculous
_lips_like_sugar_ 1 points 1y ago
People order these all the time. Its not hard...add creme base, add ice, blend. I literally made one today.
blue-haired-barista [OP] 1 points 1y ago
No he didnt want a blended dragon drink, we asked him this lmao
[deleted] 1 points 1y ago
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lewabwee 1 points 1y ago
If someone steals you might not be allowed to stop them but part of that is because you can’t prove that they wanted to steal it until after they left the store. After they leave you can’t chase them down or do much either but you can file an incident report.
[deleted] 1 points 1y ago
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icedcarfee -1 points 1y ago
is it really so hard to just make a blended mango dragonfruit refresher? the first half sounds a bit dramatic but the stealing is of course shitty.
blue-haired-barista [OP] 6 points 1y ago
Forgot to mention that we offered that and it still was not what he was talking about and insisted on his custom tik tok drink lol
mollythewiz -27 points 1y ago
it’s a tik tok drink.
blue-haired-barista [OP] 22 points 1y ago
I am painfully aware of where he took a screenshot of the drink from, yes. He shoved it in my face :)
mollythewiz -25 points 1y ago
i’m also aware. i had the same thing done to me by someone who was speaking korean. i don’t speak korean. but i did it. because they were polite. sorry you weren’t as fortunate.
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