We have been told to give out non branded, plain, grande sized cups for ice water. I was under the impression that it's due to the supply shortage. (My store has ran out of venti iced cups on more than one occasion.) I wasn't aware that this was something happening at other locations though.

For a minute there they were having us use unbranded 20 oz Co cups for water and ice to avoid running out of branded cups but we quickly ran out of the unbranded cups and are now back to using the branded ones 🤷‍♀️

We do grande only since we don't have many venti, and the trend where people would buy one drink but then get a bunch of cups with ice we started limiting it completely

We give them what they ask for, we had the unbranded ones for only a short time this summer. But we don’t have the local population issues you do, so I should think there is room for a store to set its own policy based on its needs. I would just say it is our particular store decision

My store wasn’t super strict on this (but I haven’t worked at Starbucks since February so it might have changed) but I would always give people Venti’s or Trenta’s and I only had one supervisor who would say something about it sometimes but no one at my store really cared. Unless they ask for a tall or a grande, I almost always gave people the bigger cups because hydrating is important, and my manager didn’t really seem to mind it.

When I worked in a Starbucks in Kroger (not technically starbucks, we were technically employed by kroger) though—and this was about two years ago—we could give them any size for a while but then we got a new supervisor who decided we were giving away too many cups, so she started charging 23 cents for each cup, whether or not the customer wanted an extra cup or just water it didn’t matter. We were to charge everyone 23 measly cents. It was so, so stupid. I guess I get it from a product standpoint but it was just petty and ridiculous because Kroger and Starbucks both have enough money as it is

BUT ANYWAYS I haven’t worked at Starbucks since February so it may have changed at my store since then. But from what I remember my manager and most of my supervisors didn’t mind it, especially in the summer when it was really fucking hot out.

I’m not sure, but I know my store allows customers to choose which size they want.

We just do whatever size they ask for, but we also are in the desert where is very hot and I'd honestly feel bad giving smaller sizes unless that's what they ask for

In South Lake Tahoe, they offer Grande non
-brand cups stacked at a pour yourself iced water dispenser. Wish all stores would do that, but then again it all depends on the customer market.

We do grande only at all the locations I work at. Venti cups are in short supply in my area but we always have a bunch of grande. They stopped sending us the cups with no logo.

Uh yeah we give them whatever size water they want… it’s water.

We had a DM come thru and yell at a partner who tried to tell her that we only do grande water cups. She yelled about how it’s company policy to give customers what they ask for. She was really mean about it but i’ve also heard the exact opposite so 🤷🏻‍♀️

We've been doing tall cups because our water pressure had been absolute horseshit recently and I'm not standing for 10 mins filling a venti with the water coming on and off

Grande is standard. Any size is available.

Technically I think we are supposed to give out talls if someone just asks for a water but doesn’t specify a size. However, my store just usually does grande.

We did have the unbranded cups for water, which I miss, but we haven’t seen them in a couple months.

We had to start using tall cups only bc we started running low on grande ice cups.

It’s Starbucks so if they ask for something else you give them what they want. I could see specific locations or areas having different rules if they’re more prone to running out of larger cups but as far as corporate policy goes if they ask for a water or a grande water you use a water cup (it’s slightly larger than a grande but whatever). If they ask for anything else give them what they asked for.

Corporate really didn’t consider that it (was) summer and everyone just wants venti and trenta waters though.

honestly this is the first I’ve heard of there being any sort of policy on water

We're supposed to use them when the customer doesn't specify a size.

if a customer asks for a water we default to venti unless otherwise specified 😳