Not normal.. do people not come in before store opens to clean and restock?? I thought that was standard

As a closer, I can tell you your store probably isn’t getting stocked because at the end of the night, your closers are probably struggling with the limited time they have to finish all the cleaning that should’ve been done earlier before they can even think about stocking. At least that’s my experience…

i think most stores with poor leadership, (most of them lol) have dirty stores. i go to my sm all the time and the same spiel about “just make time, time manage better, no additional labor”

Holy shit I feel like I'm reading my own store

Grosssss… I’m at a licensed store and we keep stuff pretty clean. The only unsanitary thing I’ve noticed is that the oven tongs get food and grease all over them, but we clean them every day (not enough imo, but not awful)

I think you should ask to be placed on CS so you can help tackle all that cleaning. Mocha expires every 24 hours so make sure the pumps are being properly washed.

This is not every store! I don't know the specific requirements to transfer but if you can, request a transfer to another store in your area. There is ALWAYS time to clean - even if you're still busy during off-peak hours it's pretty normal to interrupt the flow of drinks to clean syrups etc...

I've worked both opens and closes for a long while now, at a slow cafe store and at the busiest DT store in our area - I almost always made sure to clean everything to standard.

This sounds like a case of poor management, whether that's your shift supervisors or more likely your manager, they aren't doing their job properly. I'd notify your DM ASAP if you haven't already, explaining your locations situation. I know people around here like to give them flack but it's literally their job to make sure the stores in their district are being run to standard.

Working at a store with good management is a night and day difference and I'll never again settle for working at a store with bad management. I really love this job, but without proper leadership and standards it is just too draining.


quick edit: I wouldn't blame any of your baristas for the store being dirty. While there are definitely lazy baristas that don't like cleaning, it's the job of the SSV's and (more importantly) DM's to make sure the baristas are tasking appropriately.

hmmm idk this doesn’t sound normal….there’s no way that there’s no time to clean things, especially if your store is fully staffed. at close, all we do is clean pretty much, aside from certain closing tasks that we try to get done before 10pm (the time our store closes). actually, we prioritize cleaning and leave restock for the openers, since we have a fruit fly problem so all of our efforts at night go to trying to get rid of them or prevent them from coming back. it works out pretty well, I do a fair amount of both opens and closes and we usually have enough time to do restock in the mornings before open if we have a good team. CS usually does some cleaning too during their cycle throughout the day, like wiping down the mastrenas, drying the countertops at bar, changing the sani…I think maybe your managers have their priorities mixed up, your partners are too lazy or don’t care about keeping things clean, or you’re actually not fully staffed? sorry you’re dealing with that, being the only one who cares about cleanliness sucks :(

sorry for the long ass comment… TL;DR: drive thru sucks, we are all here helping each other not fighting each other

this is why we need to go back to cafe only, drive thru is first of all taking away the customer experience forcing people to be so anal about drive times. second of all it is limiting labor in itself because there are constantly too many people for morning shifts usually, which causes too many bodies meaning way more messes and less likely to clean it up, unless someone is on CS and really likes being on CS - personally I love doing CS and feel i am pretty good at it, learning to anticipate things needing to be restocked and cleanliness standards. our night shift does an amazing job making the store sparkly clean only for the opening shift to complain about some small thing, and then morning and mid shifts the baristas are so stressed and overwhelmed they don’t want to clean up after themselves or restock, no matter if they are CS or on bar or drive. i think everyone ought to keep their station clean and restock their station as they go, regardless of being busy. do not let anyone rush you or hurry you to perform 120%, because that 20% is someone else’s 80% and they are not doing their job as well as they can be because someone else is rushing around doing 6 things at once, taking away something someone else could be doing. idk, it’s all about balance, communicating with each other, being honest and upfront with each other. imo, this is a workplace and not a sorority. we are all here to work and earn our pay, and if friendships happen, that’s great! but it should not be cliquish and morning shift vs. night shift. we are all here sharing the workload, spreading it over 15 hours of the day. some parts of the day are busier and harder, that’s when a decent SM should staff a little bit more than normal so at least one person can be on CS and one person can be on bar support. idk, just my thoughts because our store is going through some internal issues and your post is very similar to what’s happening here. the best advice i have is to tell your SM your honest thoughts and provide feedback to help everyone perform well, the store be clean and safe, and the morale to be boosted. right now, it’s a struggle because of the holidays and winter frenzy so everyone feels burnt out and overworked and frustrated. it’s a tough balancing act, but we will get through it so long as we are supporting each other and actually listening to each other!

I feel your pain…. This morning I came into empty frap roast, expired mochas on both the hot and cold bar, expired dark caramel, expired white mocha and a shit ton of expire/undated/mislabel/mid dates inclusions/and back ups. Nobody wants to rotate/ check anything unless I do it. Our night shift sucks- they have more people than we do but they’re always playing around. Customers keep telling my manager after 3pm it sounds like a disco there and the place looks like a party.

Sheesh no one does the cleaning cards? And closing duties is restock/back stock and espresso machines. It doesn’t take that long to clean it.

my store is short staffed and unbelievably filthy. i wish i could tell our customers not to buy stuff here LOL

This is not acceptable, it takes consistent maintenance. The more you maintain the faster it will be too. I think bad management who are not willing to guide and lead the team in cleanliness routines (do y'all even do your weekly clean play?) Are the worst and always the biggest reasons stores end up like this. And honestly laziness from a lot of people overall is a factor (it doesn't take long to rinse bottles that are crusty), just personal experience as I've worked in very busy high traffic store with better cleanliness than described

Ummm… yeah… it totally is someone’s fault. That is all stuff you’re supposed to be caught up with all the time. My store is half staffed and we still keep up with these things. I have literally done 2 person closes (and I mean like the last 5 hours we’re open it is 2 people) and we still get all of that done.

Edit for typos

are you a closer? most of the stuff gets cleaned around like 1-4 pm, morning crew is always way to slammed to do anything except push out drinks. some stores are just not doing what they should though,

I hope you’re missing the syrups cause oof. But they should be ran under hot water daily to clean off the build up. Bars are usually cleaned once to twice or more a day so frankly wiping isn’t too much my concern until I’m cleaning it as long as it’s busy. Otherwise I’ll try to wipe it when it’s slow cause OCD. Sauce pumps, you’d be surprised how fast those build up actually. Milk is a habit that isn’t my favorite since I like my drinks extremely cold. Jars, hmm, inclusions? If they have lids try closing them, personally it’s location based. I used to have em higher than everything else and they’d stay clean and dry as long as we didn’t set the rinser off by mistake. (It’s a delay with a delicate touch 🥲)

Definitely not normal except for the milk spilling everywhere that happens at every store as long as it gets wiped up that’s not an issue. The restocking should be done by both shifts not just night crew maybe that’s why they stopped doing it? Y’all need to set aside a person on your crew called customer support for restocking. And the sugar needs to be done every shift as well. Sounds like your morning shifts are shirking responsibility like crazy and the night crew too, might be a case of a morning crew vs night crew rivalry, which happens a lot. But it’s *everyones* responsibility to keep things clean. Doesn’t matter how busy you are. All hands on deck for customers during peak but when it isn’t peak your shifts need to delegate partners to cleaning tasks, yes that means wait times will be slightly longer but that’s the way the cookie crumbles.

Omg that’s not normal! Please transfer somewhere else! We clean our syrups every day! We always break down machines, wipe inside them, and even clean the expresso cup multiple times a day!

Yeah that isn't normal or okay. We get each espresso machine and all the syrup bottles cleaned daily, stocking and wiping counters happens literally all day, and we make backups like mocha and whipped cream 2-3 times a day. (Not to mention the hours of other cleaning tasks done throughout the day.) There are tons of resources, guides, and planning tools to make sure everything gets cleaned without it piling up in certain times of day. If your store manager doesn't care, take it up the ladder.

At my store pumps and jars get cleaned twice a day in the machine...

my store is like this too, but I wouldn’t go as far as saying it’s unsanitary. i typically work open, but i pick up closing shifts once in a while. it’s so hard to get everything done (we are short-staffed and there’s a lot of new hires so people are still learning) and as much as the closers try, sometimes they forget/have to prioritize other things so the morning shift can run smoothly. so yeah, no one’s fault. just clean and stock as you go I guess

I’m new and I have thankfully not experienced this. We’re very much short staffed yet our store is very clean and I love it, this sounds like you’d need to talk to the manager and they have a big staff discussion.

Faux healthy virtue signaling grass flavored sugar