I worked in a licensed store in my college for about two years before I moved to a corporate store and I can say yes the POS systems are different. My licensed store had stickers but it didn’t display/print out the name, just the code for the drink, so we had to know what CHCF, CBIC, B, CCAP, etc. meant as well as modifications like HC, S, CNP, etc.

We had little signs posted at each station to remind us what the abbreviations meant, but after a few months of working you usually learn all of the abbreviations even if you weren’t specifically taught them.

Couldn’t tell you corporate store computers but I’m pretty sure they’re different, but not too different. I work at a Safeway starbs and our interface seems mostly Starbucks and partly Safeway since people can get coupons through the grocery store and fuel points.

And yes we have to memorize what to write on the cups, but it’s not too bad! It usually makes sense like matcha green tea latte (MGTL) vanilla sweet cream cold brew (VSCCB) honey (H) hazel nut (HZ)

At least that’s how it is for us!

I've worked both Safeway Starbucks and corporate Starbucks. The systems are relatively similar, but the corporate one is much bigger because it has a button for almost every modification you can think of, vs the Safeway one pretty just had the drinks and then the modifications that we had to charge for. And yes, license store baristas have to memorize all of the drink codes!

I work at a corporate store and I've been with the company since before the sticker machine (almost 4 years). When you punch in a drink on the POS it comes up with all the abbreviations on the right side on the screen, its great if you forget an abbreviation. Since we make the same drinks over and over, you eventually just memorize all the abbreviations, sometimes bar partner needs to quickly check with POS partner in case they forget but I'm loving this sticker system instead.

I worked at a Kroger Starbucks for a few months before going to a stand alone store. We didn’t have mobile orders or stickers but we could accept the app’s reward system. So I learned all of the codes (and yes we had to write them on the cup every time), and when I got to my second store, I was lowkey bummed that we had stickers because I liked personalizing the cups as much as I could when we weren’t busy, but after the blow
up of Tik Tok drinks, I realized maybe stickers weren’t such a bad idea after all.

Still, my manager was impressed and said that if our sticker system ever shut down we’d be in good hands since I knew all the codes 🤣

I work at a Tarbux and it's a Target operating system and then we click the Starbucks button on the homepage to get to the Starbucks items. We have to memorize codes but it's not that difficult once you have been working for a while. Plus I came from a different licensed location so I had a lot of practice. What is weird is that my Starbucks doesn't use food codes, usually whoever is on register just goes and puts the food in the oven after taking an order (there's usually only 2 ppl working at a time during the week so you can imagine how annoying that is). At my old store (operated more like a corporate store) we would write the food code down on a bag and pass it to CS. No one at my Target Starbucks knows food codes because we don't really have to.

I've worked at one in a Kroger and the register is completely different from other Starbucks AND the other Kroger registers. When something goes wrong no one can save you. It's so important for every barista to learn the register front and back for this reason (everyone works alone regularly, even the poor newbies).

I work at a target starbucks and we have to memorize all the drink codes. It gets trickier when you transfer between stores and learn that some stores have made up their own drink codes for certain items. Most of the time when something like that happens, we just ask each other to clarify.

I work at a licensed store and we have to memorize all of the drink codes, both for the register and writing on the cup (we don’t print stickers)

We're franchised and have a different computer system from the corporate one in my town (UK). We've had to learn all the codes for all the drinks, mods etc. It's been painful.