I’ve only been working at my store for about a month and a half, and honestly we have the rudest customers. I usually am able to brush it off and deal with customers that are unnecessarily rude and entitled, but my incident yesterday halloween morning made me honestly want to quit my job. My morning shift for Halloween started at 9:00 a.m ending at 1 pm, and I had switched shifts with my coworker the day before Halloween bc they asked me on the spot while working my shift to cover their closing shift even though I said I had already swapped shifts with someone else for today. I just agreed bc I was exhausted and didn’t even have time to process that instead of a 4 hour shift, I was now working a 7 hour shift and closing the store for the first time (not to mention night crew is always understaffed so it was just my supervisor and one other barista). I left around 2 am, and didn’t get any sleep for my 9:00 am shift that same morning/day. I was handling my morning shift pretty well for being completely exhausted (which I do acknowledge being my fault): being friendly to customers, being quick at handing out drinks/food while taking orders as well. But as I’m ending my shift, these two women, a young lady (maybe 25 F) and an older woman (maybe 55 F) begin to order. I had them repeat their order many times because I couldn’t hear them, and not to mention feeling dizzy doesn’t mix well in trying to comprehend words. They ordered two grande matcha green tea lattes, one with coconut milk and the other with soy. When they come to the window to pay for their drinks, I double checked if their drinks were iced or hot because my exhaustion made me slip on asking if they were iced or hot. I also wasn’t sure if I missed them saying it either. They automatically passive aggressively say “THEY COME ICED”, insinuating that I was being stupid and didn’t know what I was doing. That honestly told me that they didn’t tell me if their drinks were hot or iced because they assumed they already came iced. I simply tell them they don’t come iced, as the default is hot and so they would’ve had to specify hot or iced. Both the older woman and younger woman proceeded to passive aggressively and out of sync say, “ICED WE SAID ICED”. I told my drive barista (aka my supervisor) their drinks were iced instead of hot to correct my mistake. My supervisor just sighed and scoffed even though it was my first mistake that day. I charged them and waited for their drinks to be remade. When they were ready, I nicely specified which matcha drink was the coconut milk and the soy milk one. This is where I honestly had enough and wanted to cry. The younger woman, took her drink “smelled it”
not even TASTED, but SMELLED and said over and over “ It doesn’t smell like coconut milk”, while tauntingly smiling at me. I looked at her confused and said “it doesn’t smell like coconut milk?”. Again smiling “no it doesn’t smell like coconut milk”. I don’t know how your supposed to smell coconut milk, especially if the matcha would overpower the smell anyway even if the coconut milk had a smell to it. I asked my supervisor, “do we remake the drink?”. They just said nothing and didn’t communicate to me on what I should do. So I tell the young woman, “ I’m sorry I don’t think I can remake it”. I say that because I wasn’t sure what to do because my supervisor said nothing. I just let out a little sigh because I was just tired and was trying to calm my anxiety, especially because she was my last order before my shift ended. She then smiles and says “we’re coming inside”. The smile was honestly like I said, was tauntingly sick. She knew what she was doing (mocking/ taunting me) and she knew it was making me feel horrible. Which it did. I didn’t know a tiny sigh could be so triggering as I was only trying to breathe because I have really bad anxiety. Ironically I got this job to work on that anxiety, which I was doing well in controlling until this costumer. After they leave, I just hand off drive to another Barista, and tears just fall down my face as I go to the back do the house to grab my things. I go and meet my friend outside the Starbucks (who also works there) and just break down. He takes me inside bc there was people everyone outside watching me have a mental breakdown. Even though inside wasn’t any better, I just needed to calm down. I see the ladies come inside, and start complaining to my supervisor. Then my supervisor brings my assistant manager, and the ladies report me. The young lady was trying to look for me on the floor but I was literally sitting right behind her balling my eyes out. Im pretty sure everyone I work with saw me crying. I was honestly just upset that no one supported me and I just allowed myself to get walked all over on. I couldn’t even defend myself because it would be rude to the customer and obviously “the customer is always right”. I literally dread going sometimes because I never feel safe as I worry constantly about having to face getting harassed. I also feel like I’m never not supported by my team and am constantly outcasts bc I’m “new” —I’m just so tired of it. Starbucks genuinely doesn’t give any crap about their partners, as they will always prioritize the customers because of the money they bring to their business. It’s just like, how am I supposed to be continuously friendly and continue to grow as a barista when I’m never respected by customers or supported by my own team? I just don’t know what to do, but it definitely ruined my entire day and halloween because I stayed home and cried about it —which sadly I know is what they intended to do. I still honestly feel sick to my stomach even think about it and am nervous about my next shift. Thank you everyone for listening and I appreciate your kind and helpful advice if you do comment.