Working at Starbucks

[.:SnazzyPizazz:.]

Hello! The name's Snazzy. Five days a week I work slaving away at a hot espresso bar to bring you the highly cafinated, ridiculously over priced beverages in the most famous coffee chain in the world, Starbucks.

Now you must be thinking, "WOW, she must get a lot of free coffee!!!". (Probably the number one response I get when someone first finds out where I work.) Well, you're right. I don't have to pay for drinks when I'm on the job, thirty minutes before my shift starts, and thirty minutes after my shift is over. Many people assume that we baristas just sit around eating scones and drinking coffee all day long.

God if only. A day in the life of a Starbucks barista is as follows:

Make drinks perfectly, as quickly as you possibly can, even if that means splattering huge globs of milk on the counter or spewing whipped cream onto your fellow barista in the midst of your ninja drink making escipade.

When we're not spewing our customers with a metaphorical vomit of our famous legendary customer service, taking orders, or making drinks you'll likely see us busily cleaning EVERYTHING possible. And that's about it.

Not exactly THE most exciting job in the world but the atmosohere is definitely great, your coworkers are (USUALLY) pretty cool, and you meet some pretty awesome people.

Now we've come to the thing I both love and despise about my job: the customers. There really is no neutral category when it comes to the Starbucks customer. But there are a few categories that most people seem to fit into. These are only from my personal experience, but I'd say my observations are quite accurate. (Done this a while, and deal with these people all day long, sometimes multiple times a day!) Which one are you??

#1) The Newbie

You've rarely, if ever, stepped foot into a Starbucks. Our drink menu might as well be in Chinese, and don't even get me started on how confused you get when we ask what size you'd like your beverage to be. But you MUST ask what the proper way to say the medium size is because, of course we won't serve you if you don't say Grande.

#2) The Teenage Girl

Most likely a white girl, drink of choice is a frappuccino. Every.single.time.

#3) That "I'm going to make my drink as complicated and unhealthy as possible" person.

These drink orders consist of x amount of pumps of multiple syrups, splendas and sweet&lows galore, nonfat or soy is usually the milk of choice, and there better be extra whipped cream and chocolate drizzle because HOLY CRAP my drink isn't already horendously fattening as it is right? Some people need to realize that eventually their drink ceaces to be coffee at some point and rather just a cup of caffeinated syrup.

#4) The Hipster

My kind of crowd. Usually very cool and patient. Piercings and tattoos adorne their physique in some way. Sometimes these guys fit into the complicated category but EH. They're usually awesome its okay!

#5) The Snob

Filthy rich, I'm-too-good-to-even-breathe-the-same-air-as-you kind of people. Usually women with giant rocks on their fingers driving their sports cars that cost more than my house. A lot of them won't even acknowledge your existence. Looking down at their rhinestone encrusted cell phones, or sometimes just staring straight ahead, not bothering to even bless your life with eye contact of any kind.

"Oh you can keep the pennies."

Well thanks a ton.

#6) The Regular

You get regulars that fit into one or more of the previously mentioned categories, but this category is for those regulars that are the awesome people you look forward to seeing every single day. They grow to be your friends, can sometimes grow as close as family. And god are there a lot of these regulars. These people are, among other things, exactly why I enjoy working for this company. It really is like being apart of a family.

If you ever go to Starbucks, for the love of all that is holy and righteous, PLEASE be patient, don't pay with big bills, and for the love of GOD, use your manners that you should have been taught way early in life.

Oh yeah, don't forget that tip!! Even if its just a dollar, we really do work hard and aren't paid much to do it. Even if its just a dollar. Help your fellow poor people in need of gas money!!

I hope my musings have entertained you. You just may see more in the future!

 

[Eternal Mametchi Fan]

There is no Starbucks in my country, I don't think, but this was very interesting to read Thank you for sharing your experiences!

 

[Camoth]

I've never been to Starbucks because rumour has it you pay 8 Euro's ( 14 dollars?) for a coffee that isn't even that good.

I feel your pain though. Worked in customer service for three tech companies and it can be horrible. Looking back though it makes me laugh a lot. The utter stupidity of some people can be hilarious when you're not IN that situation but rather looking back on it. Good thing you have nice coworkers though!

 

[.:SnazzyPizazz:.]

The most expensive price I've ever seen on a single drink is nearly ten dollars. But that was with a bunch of additional things added to it and at the largest size possible on top of it. So of course the drink IS going to be pretty pricey.

A standard drink with little to no modifiers however, most it will cost you is between 6-7 dollars. Definitely off the wall STILL but I'll be shaved bald and stabbed in both eyes with a pen before I pay 14 dollars for a drink that doesn't have a decent amount of alcohol in it LOL

 

[Itsumo-nana]

I think you could get negative about every job on earth. A job isn't supposed to be fun and the number one goal isn't to enjoy yourself and have fun... it's work, you're doing it for the money, and you wouldn't be working if you had a money-making tree.

 

[.:SnazzyPizazz:.]

No no. I disagree. If anything you're encouraged to do the opposite. Don't do it for the money! Do something you enjoy! You never want to work at a job that sucks, you spend most of your life there!

And was I really that negative? I specifically remember saying more than once that I love working for this company! What I wrote is purely for entertainment purposes and is not in any way a "my job SUCKS because of the following reasons" kind of thing! You come across all kinds of life at my job and I like to poke fun at it!

 

[tamagirl1017]

I enjoyed reading this a lot seems like a fun job. Hope I can work in a star bucks when older. We just need to move to a place that has one x3. A job Starbucks seems pretty epic. I love talking to ppl (even though I'm pretty shy) and I love coffee. Working at a job like that helps ya keep in touch (in a way) with the world ya live in. I live in rather small town (lived in a tiny town, in the middle of almost nowhere, which was a at least an hour away from anything like a walmart, and we only went there about once a month ) and I live in a more populated Area. Don't get me wrong, it was a lot of fun living in small town usa, but get rather lonesome at times. So ya, can't wait to get a job. And would love to do it to talk to ppl. And Not just work for money. There much you can learn for jobs like that.and it's always fun to make new friends. Especially if ppl like regulars come in almost every day! You can make some great friendships there. Anyways, have fun at your job! And thanks for sharing what your life with us, I like hearing about others . You seem like a very nice sweet and funny person, and I know that Starbucks is lucky to have someone like you working there! And I would LOVE to hear more about you working at starbucks. Maybe you could even make a little log on here (tamatalk) about some of the ppl you meet ) love y'all lots and see you around sayonara!

 

[Amat Gotchi]

I love this kind of writing. It's the straight-up truth, the goods and the bads.

Would now enjoy a visit to Starbucks, but dang it's like ten miles away lol