The Livejournal Baristas Community

It was a pretty good morning...rockin the DT...
after morning rush we lost 2 people (1 lunch, 1 home) and of COURSE 5 minutes after they leave we get a group of about 20 people from the huge corporation across the street...who think it is HILARIOUS at how many drinks they are ordering.
*eyeroll*
so i switch from DTR to bar, since I am faster than the partner who was originally there...
needless to say, a drink got lost in translation for a lady who walked in just before the big group.
she's standing there...and standing there...and so on...
me: me! :D
SML: stupid mocha lady

me: hi! what are you waiting on?
SML: ignores me
me: continue to make drinks
SML: um hello? I've been waiting for like, 10 minutes, where is my drink?
me: what were you having today? *smilesmile*
SML: an iced grande latte
me: -scan cups in que- sorry, that cup must have gotten dropped or not marked, let me get that made for you. -finish a grande mocha, call, start making grande latte-
SML: -tapping foot, giving me evil eye-
me: here ya go! iced grande latte! have a nice--
SML: IS THERE MOCHA IN HERE?
me: um, no...you said iced grande latte?
SML: i ordered a damn mocha! what the hell happened to my order?
me: im sorry, what your mocha iced or hot?
SML: it was iced
me: OK! easy fix! -add mocha, stir stir stir- here ya go!
SML: took fucking long enough.

o.O

also, dear lady who asked for directions:
you wanted to know how to get to Shepherd Dr...I told you how to get there, honestly forgetting that @ I-10 you have to take Durham south until it merges with Shepherd. Im sorry for that...but was it really necessary for you to drive BACK 20 MINUTES FROM WHERE YOU CAME TO YELL AT ME ABOUT IT?! Was it REALLY worth your time?  ugh.

tomorrow is going to be *fun*

( YOU RUIN MY PANTS! )

I apologize ahead of time that this first post of mine seems so weird/out of context. I had originally posted it on another site, and I finally joined this one. I just had to share it. I just had to.

Hey baristas!

I just got hired at Starbucks last week. I'm really pleased, since I absolutely love their drinks, am a very regular customer and I've always had good service. I was really impressed by the hours/pay they offered, too. Best of all the staff seems really nice. I'm excited to begin my training next week!

Today I went in to fill in booklets/forms relating to disabilities, fire safety, hygiene etc. It took 4 hours! Talk about thorough. I was shocked at how dense it actually was (I used to work as a Party Host at a farm and even there they went through that stuff in about 15 minutes), but kind of impressed too. It really does seem like a company that's passionate about pleasing customers.

That's it really, just wanted to share. Does anyone have any tips for my first week? Or any amusing anecdotes from your own?

:)

What's the sickest you've been and still came to work?

I called out Monday to take my mom to the hospital, got food poisoning yesterday (which is still going strong this evening), and went to work today 'cause I felt like it'd seem like I was faking if I called out twice in a week. I tried getting coverage for my shift tonight, because aside from feeling terrible I don't like handling food/drinks when I've been throwing up, but to no avail. I want to call out tomorrow, but there'd be no one to cover me--and again, it looks kinda fishy to call out so often in such a small time frame. So I'm just going to tough it out again, unless I actually throw up at work, and then I'm just going to leave because it's a health hazard. Blah.

As I was walking a ribbon of highway
I saw above me an endless skyway
I saw below me a golden valley
This land was made for you and me
This land is your land, this land is my land
From California, to the New York Island
From the redwood forest, to the gulf stream waters
This land was made for you and me

If I hear this goddamn song one more time at work, I will purposefully vomit into the ice bin. Then I will transfer to the Canada/UK/anywhere where this song doesn't exist.

[EDIT]: uh oh, it looks like I spoke too soon about Canada and the UK.

last night i got to witness first part of the installation of our new mastrenas during my close, and this morning i had the oh so lovely pleasure of being back at 6am bright and early to use them...

when i came into work this morning my manager (who opened) informed me (very angrily) that they never finished the installation and that our machines weren't running at all. apparently the calibration team never showed. fml, right? lol

from the time we opened at 5 until 9 or so we went without working espresso machines. let me tell you...it was interesting trying to offer people iced coffee or coffee with syrups or fraps or any other non espresso drink we could think of to offer instead haha. most people handled it well with a couple exceptions.

it was just kinda funny. i loled inside every time i had to tell a customer we had no espresso or hot drinks.

Hey guys :]

I recently was hired to work at a Starbucks out in Buffalo, NY. I live in Albany, and I go to school at UB. While I've had *plenty* of customer service experience at my current job (retail, ick), I've never actually worked at a place quite like Starbucks. I'm intimidated! I've heard loads of great things about how involved the training is -- but I was wondering if any of you awesome people could fill me in with some tips or advice from when you first started out as baristas?

My first day of work is August 21st.

I'm really excited/nervous/ahhh!

I've delayed in making this post because it's such a touchy subject for me right now. I really need the advice of some fellow baristas/shift leads here, so here goes:

( Looooooooong. )

tl;dr sent a new girl home to shower, now I'm the BRIDE OF SATAN.

Fake edit: One thing that came up today I thought was interesting enough to mention... one of my favourite regulars came in as I was showing the new girl something on bar, and requested that I personally make the drink (I was on cash). I told the new girl that she was just fussy about how it was made and such, but when I was talking to the customer at the hand-off she leaned in and whispered that she'd worked with our new barista in the past and didn't want her making her drink because of how badly she'd smelled. YIKES.

Today, I was revising my cover letter. My two sentences detailing my work as a barista grew into a free-standing paragraph.

I cannot help but feel this is an important milestone, and worthy of posting.

This week I will be meeting with my District Manager, to have that "fake interview", before you meet with another DM for the real interview for the Shift Supervisor position. I am very excited, but don't know what to expect. I am going to either be french pressing Ethopio Sidamo with Lemon Loaf, or Kenya with a fruity pastry. Also my Manager told me to obviously dress well, and make sure to listen, but I want to know the real details I should work on to impress my DM, because I have been working so hard for this, and I don't want to ruin this great opportunity for myself.

I will be moving to Denver from Boston in about a month and am planning on transferring to a store there. Can someone enlighten me on the transfer process? My SM kind of sucks and I don't trust him to give the right information.

Also, any Denver baristas here? I'm looking for awesome stores (preferably without a drive-through). I'm planning on living in the Broomfield/Westminster/Thornton area so I'd prefer northern stores but am willing to commute for an awesome work environment!

In the philippines, for three weeks, and i'm on my 4rth day here and i went to a starbucks, and talked to the barista who made my drink (thank god they speak english here)

Any baristas here in the philippines? if so, holler!
I'm located in quezon city right now. I'm going to other islands laster on in my trip, and i'll update when i go there. But if there are any baristas in the philippines, i would love to chat/meet/talk to you! or at least have the honor of having a drink being made by you guys!

btw, i went halfway around the world (i'm based in livermore, CA, USA) to have one of the best soy green tea lattes with amazing foam... I dont understand how my baristas at tullys never made something so rich... :D~

Love you all, and i miss the drier weather in the US... bah, so muggy D:

What's the longest you've ever gone without taking a day off?

You guys, I'm very upset and I think that you're probably the only ones that will really understand.

See, I love my job. I go to work excited almost every time and I really do enjoy myself when I'm working. I think I'm pretty good at what I do, I love talking to people all day long, and I take pride in wearing the green apron.
Almost the entire crew opened the store, including myself. We all got the same grueling 2 week training. Our store is very low volume, we serve mainly the military and contractors.

I'm having a very big problem with hours being cut. Our store hours have changed, we aren't making enough money (according to our DM) and everyone's hours have been cut. You know, I'm okay with that. I understand that.
Buuuuut, here is the problem.
There are two older woman, early 40's, and I'm not trying to bash older baristas but these woman cannot keep up with the rest of us. They can't multitask, frankly they suck at hot bar, and there are a multitude of other problems concerning them.
Well when hours were cut these two woman went directly to our DM and cried about how they need more hours. I mean they literally cried. Threw themselves on the floor sobbing, red faced, make up running, and told him they could not survive with the cut hours and they NEEDED more.
So they got more. From the other baristas. So not only did I and my fellow coworkers get our hours cut, but then they were cut AGAIN and more hours were given to these two woman who dont know what the hell they are doing.

You know, I understand that they have kids and families and bills to pay but hey. So do I. I've got a toddler and I'm putting myself through college and bills to pay blah blah blah. Luckily I moved back in with my parents so I dont have to pay rent. One of my friends, on the other hand, is in the same situation but he's providing housing for his girlfriend and son and he truely is on his own and is using this job to provide fully for himself and his family.

Not only that, but when I think about my customers, the people I got to know on the shifts that were taken away from me, getting wrongly made drinks it absolutely makes me cringe.

I feel like because I've done everything right, done the right chain of command when there are complaints and never made a fuss when things didn't go my way, I'm being taken advantage of. I feel like, you know, I should go and talk to our DM and maybe I wont be given the shaft. We have a partner meeting coming up on sunday where we're all going to get together and just talk about whats going on in the store. I really want to talk about this because its something that I feel is very wrong. And its not just me but no one wants to deal with these crazy banshees and have to put up with their screaming and crying.

Should I bring this up? I've heard from the rumor mill that these too ladies might be getting fired soon and my friend says I should just put up with it until then but I dont know if that's true or not.

I have the opportunity to talk openly about it but I'm not quite sure how to even bring up the subject without lashing out because of all my frustrations.

So I left early (legitimately) sick on Monday (went to the doc, turned out I had a sinus infection)
I hadn't been back in the store til today....
And guess what we had??!?!?!?
Counter space!!!!
Why?
Because that m*&#(#()#YI$)(@)ing Sorbetto machine is *finally* gone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, I don't know if there are any partners in the community from the store by the Paseo Colorado mall in Pasadena, California, buuuut...

I just got off the phone with the ASM there. See, I was in town (Alllll the way from South Carolina, wut) about a month and a half ago, and I'd been meaning to make the call for a while to give a great, big thank you to all the partners there!

I was in town for a week for Botcon 2009 (because I'm a huge Transformers nerd, you see) and the store in question is very close to the convention center. As a result, it stayed SLAMMED for the duration of the convention. Apparently, none of the partners there were aware of what was coming, but despite all that, they remained AMAZING! There really aren't words for how great the store was--Legendary service, perfect drinks, an amazingly clean store; it was like a little slice of home over 2000 miles away!

I told the ASM to pass on my praises to everyone who works there, and asked him for a favor while I was at it. There was a partner whose name I never got, who may have been a shift, I'm not sure, who was there on the first and the last day I was in town, and on the last day he remembered me and my friends, and told us we were the first Botconners he'd seen, and laughed about how he thought I was joking when I said there were literally thousands more of us on the way. He remembered I was a partner, and was just generally great. Young guy, somewhat scruffy blonde hair, average height, maybe in his early 20s? If anyone out there works at the store in question or near it and knows who I'm talking about, I still don't know his name, BUT!

I asked the ASM (who knew who I was talking about soon as I described him) if he would write up a MUG award for the partner in question who really helped make a part of my trip enjoyable and memorable. He said he would! So we said it was from "Harmony, the partner from Botcon!" and I can now say I've given a MUG award allll the way from Myrtle Beach, SC to Pasadena, CA. Long distance love!

The ASM was stunned I took the time to call and said I made his day. :)

Any partners who happen to work at the store in question:

You guys are really, truly amazing! :D <33333

Is anybody else aware of gold cards being discontinued?

The other day one of our employees wanted to purchase one for a relative, only we couldn't ring it up. Scanning the booklet and typing in the SKU was just coming up with an "invalid SKU" prompt. After trying several times on two different registers, one of the other shifts called another store to find out if they were able to ring one up. They told her that the cards had been discontinued.

Maybe this is common knowledge, I don't know, but nobody in our store knew about it, and our manager hadn't (and still hasn't) said anything about it. Are they gone forever, are they re-doing them or something? I didn't see anything on the portal about this either.

As annoying as it can get repeating yourself over and over about the treat receipt, does anyone else get a smile on their face when you tell someone who doens't know about it and they get really, genuinely happy? I found that kind of made my shift the other day, seeing people's smiles.

Also, we had an older gentleman come in the other day, while I was working on bar. He was nice and friendly and started chatting to me. At first I didn't catch what he was saying, but he was talking about my personality. He said, "you like to take on big projects, don't you?" He also correctly deduced my slight OCD-ness and perfectionism.

He just kept going on for a little while, and then was like, "oh, well I must be going." Apparently he did the same thing to the partner who rung him up. It was strange, but now I want him to come back and analyze all the partners at our store.

Good people of GTA!

Any chance your store still carry those black and white mugs you can bake?!

This lady bought all of them from our store as well as from others around.
oh life...

Thank you very much in advance!!!

So, yesterday afternoon I hopped over from my main job next door to my store to get some phone numbers to try to find someone to cover my shift for me today (which didn't work out, so boo on that), and when I go into the office and sit at the desk behind my SM (who loves me to death, bless him), he laughs softly and goes "Careful! I'm firing people!"

I lol, because there's been a fair bit of drama in our store as of late, including some stuff I don't approve of at all (hello, forcibly transferring one of my best friends and a fellow closer, who was an amazing partner on bar! D:<) so I figured he was joking.

Turns out, he wasn't.

( Read more... )

On a somewhat more lulzy note: My store, what with being fairly new and all, isn't due to get our Mastrenas for another year and a half or so. The other two stores in the area already have theirs.

Our machines have taken to SCREAMING after pulling shots. Today, SS N and I agreed on something for the first time in FOREVER, and decided that this is the Verissimo Wail O' Death. We spent the afternoon mocking the Gods-awful "SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE" sound. Customers stared and lol'ed. One of the newbie Partners is now even more thoroughly convinced that, beneath the MMA Fighting and the insane amount of tattoos and the love for toy robots, I am completely insane.

Hurrah.