Starbucks Baristas: The daily grind
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are these always closing tasks? (self.starbucksbaristas)
submitted by cprevi
the closing list at my cafe store is ridiculous. it’s a college town, so the openers do literally nothing except brew coffee for the first two hours of their shift. i say this as someone who regularly closes AND i open at least once a week (always on the day we receive our biggest delivery). god forbid the regular openers have to make a single backup! what are the normal closing standards? this is the current list at my store:
breakdown, ovens, trash, dishes, bar floors/mats, cafe floors (we have two floors- the upper level is seating only), BOH floors, bar sinks, handwashing sinks, BOH sinks, stock milks, make/date/set out backups (including refresher bases and lemonades, whips, VSC, inclusions, mocha, white mocha, chai, and frap roast), prep kegs, restock cups/lids/sleeves, restock warming bags/utensils, restock sugars/teas, rotate/restock warming fridge (sandwiches, egg bites, wraps, cream cheese, butter, avocado), rotate/restock pastry cart, set up for openers (drip trays, smallwares, clean/empty sanitizer trays and towels), and set out prepped/dated pitchers of iced tea and a cube for iced coffee. depending on the day, we also have to rotate BOH inventory to prep for putting away the truck (we get two a week). all of this as well as normal SSV duties/counts.
i’m sure i’m forgetting some stuff too. we have 2-3 closers that have to pick up the day shift’s slack, and we get yelled at for taking longer than an hour to close. is this normal?
breakdown, ovens, trash, dishes, bar floors/mats, cafe floors (we have two floors- the upper level is seating only), BOH floors, bar sinks, handwashing sinks, BOH sinks, stock milks, make/date/set out backups (including refresher bases and lemonades, whips, VSC, inclusions, mocha, white mocha, chai, and frap roast), prep kegs, restock cups/lids/sleeves, restock warming bags/utensils, restock sugars/teas, rotate/restock warming fridge (sandwiches, egg bites, wraps, cream cheese, butter, avocado), rotate/restock pastry cart, set up for openers (drip trays, smallwares, clean/empty sanitizer trays and towels), and set out prepped/dated pitchers of iced tea and a cube for iced coffee. depending on the day, we also have to rotate BOH inventory to prep for putting away the truck (we get two a week). all of this as well as normal SSV duties/counts.
i’m sure i’m forgetting some stuff too. we have 2-3 closers that have to pick up the day shift’s slack, and we get yelled at for taking longer than an hour to close. is this normal?
Admirable-Whereas283 10 points 1y ago
At my store it is and it’s absolutely ridiculous! The openers complain all the time too, which is ironic because their opening tasks are nothing. And my manager wants us out 30 min AFTER we close.
redcheekboy 5 points 1y ago
Ooph that's a lot. At my store 90% of that is done in the early afternoon when the openers are still there and the closers first arrive. Closers have to breakdown iced coffee and teas, restock milks and cups, clean the lobby floors and set out teas for the next day, and check if there are any trash cans more than 1/2 full. That's it. They're often out by 5 or 10 minutes after close.
Initial-Chance-573 4 points 1y ago
It’s a lot. When I open I just want it clean all that stocking I can do in the morning. I’ll try and do as much as I can with cleaning during the afternoon before leaving and I have it stock and clean before the even partners come.
stillwantthewhip 3 points 1y ago
That list is accurate. At my store however I don’t have my closers make any backups aside from whipped creams. The openers make the backups. All of the small wares should be clean and set out for the openers to fill. Time management as closers is key, don’t leave everything to the last minute.
The closers should do the last restock of cups/lids etc an hour before close (this one is what it’s supposed to be company-wide).
The closers should do the last restock of cups/lids etc an hour before close (this one is what it’s supposed to be company-wide).
RyusuiJL 2 points 1y ago
Do a lot of stores just not have CSR cards, or something? Like, nearly half the things you listed are on the 11-2 cards at my store.
bellamythos 2 points 1y ago
as a fellow closer, i am so sorry. my closing ssv’s have mentioned that they feel like they’re always picking up the slack of morning/mid so that’s normal, but i really hope your task list isn’t normal for most stores.
typically our closers do
- bathrooms during preclose
- restock/prep, starting during preclose
- take down pastry case & replace tags after washing, usually 15 min before close
- prep (date dot + put bags in) iced teas & iced coffee
- ice bins
- trashes (no trash runs after the precloser leaves; we only have one closer + one SSV)
- FOH + BOH + bar floors (but not mats, unless they didn’t do midday floors)
- occasionally sinks if they didn’t get done during morning/mid
- plus SSV stuff
typically our closers do
- bathrooms during preclose
- restock/prep, starting during preclose
- take down pastry case & replace tags after washing, usually 15 min before close
- prep (date dot + put bags in) iced teas & iced coffee
- ice bins
- trashes (no trash runs after the precloser leaves; we only have one closer + one SSV)
- FOH + BOH + bar floors (but not mats, unless they didn’t do midday floors)
- occasionally sinks if they didn’t get done during morning/mid
- plus SSV stuff
pupgarcia 1 points 1y ago
wow....at my store mid shift would do preps too! sometimes morning shift would if it was slow. I know mornings would for sure make mocha every day though. that's crazy. my store is limited hours 7-1 at the moment so I have been opening and closing and it's a lot to wait until pre close to prep everything so I try and do preps/backups as early as possible. I'm sorry! that's ridiculous! I'd mention it to your shift and if they don't bring it up to your sm then I'd personally talk to your sm about it because mid shift for sure should at least be helping with backups/preps!!
Ordinary_Theory8534 1 points 1y ago
That list is a lot but most of that stuff isn’t a HAVE TO do. Sounds like they are a bit spoiled if they expect that to get done every single night but that being said, the morning crew should make finish making preps and stocking in the morning what you can’t finish at night. It’s harder to clean in the morning than it is at night. I always tell my SSVs I would rather the store be clean in the morning than for them to worry about me making preps. If you use the CSR cards and play builder it breaks down at what time everything should be done not including preps but that’s a good tool to look at if you are delegating task appropriately and adjust to your store accordingly.
Remarkable_Hold_2342 1 points 1y ago
The only thing that morning shift does out of that list at my store is cleaning the ovens, everything else is done throughout the shift and whatever we don’t finish before we close we finish after, and everyone gets all of the tasks split between them to make it easier on everyone working. We also have the responsibility of cleaning the bathrooms as well (I’d like to point out we are also in a college town but not on an actual campus)
allaurable 1 points 1y ago
the closing SSV's need to have a conversation with the SM regarding task balancing for opens and closes, a fair amount of this can be skimmed off and placed as opening tasks
* restocking warming area (bags/utensils/toppings)
* rotating/restocking warming fridge
* rotating/restocking pastry cart
* replacing smallwares
* prepping/DATING tea pitchers
* rotating BOH inventory
there's absolutely no reason this much hand holding has to be done for those opening when you're primarily responsible for the cleanliness of the store while closing.
you also hadn't specified in your post if your store gets 2 or 3 openers. even if it's bare minimum of 2, the SSV can complete brewing in cadence while doing their tasks and setting up bar areas with smallwares and sanitizer. when they get their 3rd or 4th person in, they can rotate BOH inventory and do the daily order then too.
the 2nd opener can do RTD+warming station, they might not finish all their tasks before the store opens, but they sure as hell can rotate and date label individual sandwiches/egg bites/pastries etc. as well as restock bags/utensils/toppings. the only big time consuming thing i could think of is setting up the pastry case, but once you finish warming most of the breakfast sandwiches etc. you can finish the rest in 5min.
* restocking warming area (bags/utensils/toppings)
* rotating/restocking warming fridge
* rotating/restocking pastry cart
* replacing smallwares
* prepping/DATING tea pitchers
* rotating BOH inventory
there's absolutely no reason this much hand holding has to be done for those opening when you're primarily responsible for the cleanliness of the store while closing.
you also hadn't specified in your post if your store gets 2 or 3 openers. even if it's bare minimum of 2, the SSV can complete brewing in cadence while doing their tasks and setting up bar areas with smallwares and sanitizer. when they get their 3rd or 4th person in, they can rotate BOH inventory and do the daily order then too.
the 2nd opener can do RTD+warming station, they might not finish all their tasks before the store opens, but they sure as hell can rotate and date label individual sandwiches/egg bites/pastries etc. as well as restock bags/utensils/toppings. the only big time consuming thing i could think of is setting up the pastry case, but once you finish warming most of the breakfast sandwiches etc. you can finish the rest in 5min.
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