i work at a cafe only store, the pros are not having to worry about drive thru times, or pretty much any struggles that come with drive thru. a con is how TINY our store is, you have to squeeze past anyone if you’re leaving behind the counter/bar. we get lots of mobile orders and during a rush it can be hard to keep up with mobiles and cafe, but due to the size we usually 1. don’t have enough people scheduled to have two people on bar or 2. if there’s two people on bar it’s likely that they’re in each other’s way

So I work at a reserve bar. I’d say the pros are that it’s strictly cafe and mobiles only, so you don’t have to deal with delivery orders, and that the work pace is a lot more chill. There’s a lower emphasis on getting drinks out as quickly as possible compared to a normal Starbucks, so as long as you can sequence drinks and make them according to standards well, you’re basically set. Customers come to a reserve bar with a higher expectation of quality, so they’re usually more patient. You’re also working with a lot more tenured partners. As a 3 year partner, I basically went from being one of the most experienced baristas at my old store to working in a store where at least half of the employees have been with the company for at least 4 years. I’d say the cons are a stricter dress code and less tips, but the last one could just be for my store. Depending on the type of person you are, things like higher expectations on customer connections, coffee knowledge (ie. describing flavor notes, explaining brew methods), quality, and work cleanliness could be cons.

I work at a regular one off of the highway. Our peaks are typically 7-9am, I think 3-5pm, and 7-9pm.

Pros: We get a lot of tips in drive thru and meet a lot of different people. The frapp bar is by drive thru so if need be, they can make one or finish some up, same with vsccf.

Cons: Drive thru and Cafe stickers come out of the same sticker box. We’re tiny for being how busy we are. Our back room is tiny too so it’s hard to walk through if someone is in the fridges.