Probably people are just feeling aaaaaaaaa about fall and winter holiday stuff being so soon. If your store is high volume and you end up working red cup day you’ll understand why people have emotional baggage with holiday drinks lol

Last year was my first holiday season. We were slammed every day, all day. Pumpkin foam everywhere. The horror... The horror. But! This is also the start of the season we get the best tips. So just try and keep that in mind when you suffer your first pumpkin spice related breakdown.

Just wait until red cup day 😭

Set the scene, it was November 4th 4am. We just got our new espresso machines, on holiday release day, we got there a half an hour early to practice on them. Everyone was coming in like little Christmas goblins and crawled into my ear, all I heard them whisper was “do I get my red cup” to which I’d say back, “no, it got pushed back” and then I got cursed out all day and got to open for the 18th too which I was cafe bar with an 80 minute wait at some point, and I’m not no weak bar-tner. So🥰🥰

Consider this, the fact that people are asking about it two weeks before it’s even here…it’s hated because we become super busy and it’s just overwhelming. The drink itself is easy to make, but that combined w/pumpkin cream cold brew which unless they drop choc cream will mean we’ll have 4 different kinds of cold foam and you’ll just get tired of every drink being pumpkin. Last year we had crazy lines on launch day & my SM was saying we have an extra 20 hours of labor for that day (I’d assume because of how much more business we’ve done on that day in the past). But as others have pointed out, this is the season when tips start to pick up, so at least there’s that.

Home dawg im warning you now, pumpkin spice season means the holidays. Which means shoppers. Which means boujee shoppers that have saved for this ALL YEAR ROUND for a straight 4 months of running out of things you didnt know you could run out of turning into store trips because PSLs and 98% of the frappuchinos NEED heavy cream.


May god have mercy on us

You’ll soon find out

It's kinda like the song "all I want for Christmas is you". It's good, but insanely repetitive and predictable. It sticks around for just a little too long and seems to go away just a little sooner than you might like

After the 50th pumpkin cream cold foam on launch day you'll know. You'll know.

Every year pumpkin spice season gets a little better though as the syrup gets a little worse.

Or maybe I’m just more used to how annoying it is idk

I started around psl season last year and as a mainly bar person it was so traumatic… so . many. people. nonstop.

My groans are because literally no one has been nice about it since people put it out on TikTok that it’s arriving in stores. I live in a tourist town that is essentially for rich people. Some of them get mean and aggressive when we tell them they can’t have it yet. I’m super excited for pumpkin because it means tourist season is done. And well, pumpkin chais and pumpkin cold brew are two of my favorites

Call me crazy but I really enjoy red cup day and most holiday launches. For the most part people are very friendly but you will still get the occasional "Jack hole"!

It’s because working fall/winter is the busiest worst time for baristas. I worked three pumpkin spice seasons and it sucks. I find the winter season is even worse though. Around November-December

We have a full shelf and 8 more boxes of PS awaiting launch day. As a current SSV, that spent 4 years just being a barista, this is the time of year I tell my partners to take 15m breaks if they so need. 20m max. Between drowning on bar, upset customers because of wait times, and then the “keep the OTW times down!” “Customer connections up” it gets rough. The tips will be the best this time of year but holy cow do you have to work for it.

Makes sequencing easier imo because literally everyone orders the same thing

Because it reminds me that UK gets vegan pumpkin spice syrup but no the US then I get sad

When are they releasing the PSL

Personally I'm not a huge fan of the pumpkin sauce, and after making my fortieth psl based drink on a shift I start gagging. It's also the start of holiday season, where nearly every drink will have some special make whether it be sprinkles or foam or whatever, which slows things down a lot when you have someone breathing over your shoulder about drive times.

You haven’t been through it yet

Starbucks baristas will complain about literally anything and everything tbh. It’ll be busy on the launch week of all holiday drinks, and you’ll have to explain promos and red cup deals to customers and deal with them when you inevitably run out of things. But it’s really not that bad if you aren’t in a uniquely slammed location. (4+ year partner here)

Being honest I think most people arent built for customer service, so an increase in volume scares people. I personally dont give a shit but welcome it. Its a break from the mundane

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