Closing slander!

Opening is easier because you’re staffed to do one thing: serve customers. Everything is usually more smooth and things are more planted but the morning staff is not expected to do much more than serve customers as fast as possible. It’s easy to criticize closes because you walk into a store that is clean and ready to go, so anything not clean and ready to go is very noticeable.

Closing is two jobs in one. You need to serve customers quickly but you also need to clean and prepare the entire store which takes hours. This puts a lot of pressure on night staff which is usually a smaller crew due to less sales.

Ive done a lot of both and I still find nights harder.

Personally I think both have their challenges, of course also depending on store volume at certain hours. I was an opener for a longgg time and I always preferred to open as I like mornings better, but I found closing shifts to be just as tedious as opening shifts. As others have mentioned, closers have time to prepare for the end of the evening when they come in. Sometimes you're the opening barista or SSV and you're running around like chickens with your heads cut off because people are calling out at 5:30am, customers start forming a line in drive before open, and you have 3 travelers to prepare by 6am. Then the SSV has to step off the floor to put the order in by a certain time so the pull gets done on time and everyone gets their breaks on time! Not to mention the many many times you come in to an absolute mess or lack of prep done by closers because they were too short staffed to get it all done in time.

I hate these posts…I’ve never closed because I work another job in the evenings so I can’t speak to it. I’ve also opened many times where the other barista calls out and there’s no chance of someone else coming in because it’s 3:30/4am that we have to be there and no one is awake to see the group chat that we need help. My biggest issue though is it’s the higher ups not giving all day parts enough labor that we all end up in this openers vs closers arguments that really depend on each store. If closing crew has a call out & particularly busy night it leads to a bad open the next day and if openers have a bad shift and shit doesn’t get done it leads to another bad close. People get frustrated and blame other day parts, but if we didn’t have barebones dayparts for the most part people would actually be able to get done what needs to be done. Yes, sure there are days when it’s likely that a day part was staffed and people were lazy or forgot to do stuff, but as much as it’s irritating this arguing is just bullshit trying to act like everyone thinks they have it worse. It sucks for ALL OF US.

as a high functioning store that is #1 in drive time in the area not district. and is in the leaderboards for connections with great partner care and the best environment at work , i’m and opener i have to get out four lunches by 6 and we open at 4. that means i’m taking my lunch at 5 and another barista. then the floor only has two baristas, then we go break them and get a third body. this is something we are used to in the mornings as opening is a perk and if you don’t like it you can just opt and switch with someone working later. with all this being said this is done so we can be fully prepared for peak at 6:30. i don’t have time to go deep clean the bathrooms when i have only one other body on the floor and we are doing 20 transactions in 30 min and at night they have 30 transactions in the last 3 hours of being open. i have been the main closing ssv it seems bad until you get stronger at leading a team.

I'm a closer at a licensed store, working 5-6 days a week closing alone. PAIN in the ass. Since I'm pretty much the only closer for our store, it really just doesn't get done well unless I'm there to do it. We're really under staffed at the moment so I will be closing tonight and opening tomorrow, that's one way to clopen, I didn't fall asleep until past 3am last night though so I guess we'll see how it goes 🫡🫠

Opening, just like I'm sure closing can be pretty random. Everyone there and few customers is super easy. One person calls out and for whatever reason we have 2x the customers and all of a sudden everyone is doing 3 positions and SSV has to skip their lunch.

The first hour and last hour is highly dependent on how many customers happen to show up. One drive thru customer with a 4 order frapp is going to ruin it for either openers **or** closers.

As an opener, my frustration comes from no prep, out of date prep and food, and pilled but not cleaned espresso machines (twice in the past 2 weeks). It’s not always that there is something but usually it’s things that shouldn’t happen. I hate when the two sweet creams expired at end of day yesterday but the closers didn’t throw them for no reason. Generally it’s whatever but multiple things frustrate me when I know we sometimes get more customers in the first hour of being opened than the last two hours at night.

I used to be a closer and now I’m an opener, I totally agree but man our closing crew we have now for closing is not great. Today nothing was prepared or cleaned, had to take pitchers, shakers, blenders, pretty much everything to the back because it was dirty. Counters weren’t wiped down and the floors weren’t clean, not to mention it was just me and the shift opening and no one coming in until 7am. Couldn’t get the store fully set up for peak until like 8:30am 🤦🏼‍♀️ There’s been so many times I’ve closed with little to no help and I would never leave the store in that state. But I feel your pain, other than things like that closing crew gets ragged on too much.

I work at a low volume store, and I go in often at night to do school work then open the next day. I only complain when the closers are making tik toks on the clock rather than cleaning the prep that goes out at 6am when we open

I close and open these days and honestly at this point I find opening to be harder. But 1000% the morning crew is SO critical of things that absolutely don’t affect them. It’s like they come in and find ANYTHING to pick apart - and I’m a good closer!!! The station assessments don’t really help the cause, either! I find the tasks during closing to be a little bit less annoying than making cold brew, peak, etc; But only having one or two baristas after 2 pm can really suck, especially since we’re getting busier and busier in the evening.

Both have pros and cons. We don’t have designated openers and closers anymore so all of our managers are doing both. Why we rip the closers apart regardless of who it is, is beyond me.

Plus closers are usually high schoolers or green beans and thus less experienced than the seasoned partners who always get put on for peak. It’s just not worth getting pissed about unless it’s an absolutely atrocious close with no reason (i.e some emergency or something)

My SM requires shifts to close at least a couple times a month, most of us close one day a week. This has helped with the that shift isn't doing their job more than anything else.


I mostly open or the 7:30-4 person, so I get almost alll the rushes. As an opener as long as it's clean, kegs are made, and nothings expired I don't get mad about a close. I can bust most backups out between drinks, especially the scoopable ones. Thought the first hour is usually our store's slowest. We do a lot of things that many stores consider to be closing's responsibility. Like drain and clean the cold brews and take the machines apart and clean them.

The story as old as time: openers vs closers.

Hands down closing was significantly harder at every food service job. Didn't get done in the morning or mid? Oh well we'll have the closers do it.

Tbf sometimes mornings can be really rough, depending on where it is, but usually not as bad as closing

As a shift who opens primarily but closes once or twice a week, it really really depends. For starters, I’ll never blatantly disrespect any of my partners for any reason, even a shitty close.

When it comes down to walking into a bad close/shit show. I factor in who closed and if they were short staffed. If they had new baristas or they were short staffed I’ll let pretty much anything slide. I might leave a note if the baristas were new so there’s a coaching opportunity for the evening SSV (if I don’t get a chance to see those baristas). it’s never rude or disrespectful, more so a friendly reminder so they know what needs to get done for next time. If they were short staffed the night before, I’ll generally just let it slide and not say anything. We’ve all been there and they probably tried their best.

If I know they were fully staffed with tenured/well trained baristas, then I might be a little disappointed. When I close as a shift, even if my baristas are goofing off/having a good time I still try to meet them in the middle and say let’s have fun but let’s get it done. I hold the shifts at my store to the same standard as I and if they can’t get their baristas to get the job done, or theirs, I am definitely going to have something to say.

Overall though, I think the main thing is that there’s respect from all parties and everyone tries their best given the situation their in.

🎶... A tale as old as time...🎶

Opens vs closers. If this is happening in your cafe, your SM needs to do a better job of splitting the work between shifts.

i’ve done a clopen before where i almost lost it on the barista opening with me because she was complaining that there was only 1 sar backup instead of 2 (LITERALLY EVERYTHING ELSE WAS PERFECT!!!)
i frankly told her, “i closed the store yesterday and it is cleaned and stocked, so i don’t see one small thing as a reason to complain.” ... & she’s never said anything since.

Opening is much more structured. Closing is the ultimate flex play. There’s more to juggle when closing, but there is more pressure to open (to hit good DT times). Both can be fun and both can suck at times.

I will say when I used to close, I did a final walk though to make sure all the little things are done (fridges are closed, no coffee in the urns, ice is stocked, milk is stocked, no expired product, etc.) but some other closers at my store neglect the final walkthrough.

Both have challenges, but I would say closing is more difficult. This is coming from someone who opens 5 days a week as SSV.

I personally do not care for the drama between openers/closers.

Yeah.... Closing and clean play ssv. Most nights we dont have a precloser. Have to do inventory 2 nights a week......count and pull pastries every night. Our scheduling has been odd as of late so tonight we were incredibly busy (very unusual for a sunday clean play night)....i was not able to do my pull until after we closed.....finished the inventory around 7pm. I had 4 people till 745 but i had to squeeze in 4 breaks and 3 lunches because of super long shifts today. I worked from 1-11. Next person was 130 to 745. Next was 215 to 11 and final was 515 to 11. It was a dumpster fire. We got to everything but on most nights i go ahead and put out the pastries and breakfast (foh to boh) but just wasn't able to get that done.....it makes it easier for openers especially when we get our delivery which usually shows up well after we close.

There are challenges to both but when we need to cut hours....they almost always come from night.....

As a main closer who has worked morning, morning is so much easier. Closing is so tedious, but I always communicate what I wasn’t able to do. I write in MyDaily what they’ll need to make in the AM and I apologize

You must work at a really low volume store if you think that opening is easy and only consists of brewing iced coffee and setting up the pastry case ? What? Do you understand what peak is, what window times are, what "go mode" is? Does your store do break blackouts for 2 hours so those partners have to wait to take breaks until after peak? Does your DM come in and analyze deployment, times, drink quality, and anything else under the sun under a microscope during this period? You said you're an SSV...do you know how labor hours are calculated in relation to COSDs? More customers equal more partners on the floor, so mornings are going to be staffed heavier if there's heavier customer traffic. Mids and nights won't have as many partners working for the same reason, less traffic.

That being said - I disagree that opening is easy and closes are super hard. I've worked them all. However...while each store has its own dynamics, generally the focus is on customers and fielding business in the AM as that's the busiest and when the most money is being made. Mids and closes focus more on cleaning and prep because they don't have as many customers. Opens, mids and closes are all important and have different challenges. I hate the constant bashing I see so often, the day vs night toxicity...we are all on the same team and should strive to help out and set up the next shift for success no matter what that may look like, and also try and understand what another daypart deals with, instead of dismissing them and demeaning what they do. Communication and understanding go a long way when it comes to working out issues and expectations

This is my store . We do clean plays stay late etc . But Morning can be very rude and also would barely preps or do trash runs for us . Especially since they are heavily staffed I feel like it’s so unfair . How we get criticized even after we cleanplay , run a 2-3 person floor , put their boxes up , and do extra prep but when it’s mid day shift nothing is done .

I think closing is way harder. You have a time limit to get things done and usually work with a skeleton crew. I worked solo in a cafe before and I always stressed about closing duties more then opening.

As an opener/mid, I appreciate all the stuff night crew does and always make sure to thank them. Opening is ez mode.

Had to tell a green bean that we literally all work here, all make mistakes, and all are under the sbux stress. Stop pointing a finger and find a way to support your team members. It all sucks sometimes!

i’m a serial closer and agree 100% opening is so much easier!! they push everything onto the closers and expect us to get things done when we rarely ever have enough people to do our normal jobs let alone all the other things they’ve left for me!

I opened and closed before. Closers definitely have more work. So openers need to shut up

298 partner and never closed not even one time, im 100% an opener and can attest that it is so easy