It's not secret that a morning Starbucks run is pretty much an integral part of daily life these days. Most of us can't function without our grande skinny vanilla latte or the occasional treat like an iced lemon pound cake. But in the craziness of waiting in line and trying to pull up your reward for before the person in front of you finishes ordering, sometimes we all unintentionally make other people's jobs a little harder. Here are five ways you might be driving your barista crazy.
1. Arguing over surcharges.
Let's get one thing straight: Starbucks is expensive. There's no way around it. While it's frustrating, arguing over a couple extra cents for a drink modification is helping nobody, and when you say "well they never charge me at the other Starbucks," you are most definitely going to be the butt of a joke as soon as you're gone. Baristas are required to charge you, even if they don't want to because they can get in trouble if they don't. At most Starbucks, they literally can't put your order in without adding the surcharges, because the orders are done through the computer.
To make things a bit easier in the future, let me clear things up. One shot of espresso is 80 cents more. Substituting almond milk, soy milk, or coconut milk is 60 cents more (unless it's in an iced coffee, then there's no charge). Adding extra pumps of syrup is 50 cents more. One extra pump is usually not enough to constitute a surcharge, but other baristas may do it differently. Like I said, surcharges suck. But you know what else sucks? Being yelled at over 60 cents when you're just trying to get through an eight-hour shift.
2. Assuming we know what you're talking about when you order off the "secret menu."
First of all, there is no secret menu. When you work at Starbucks, you are never trained in a "secret menu." It's just various recipes that people have come up with and posted on the internet. That doesn't mean there's anything wrong with secret menu drinks. A lot of times, they can actually be really fun to make or even try out! But if you try to order a secret menu drink without bringing us a recipe or just assuming we know what it is, that's a problem.
Another thing to keep in mind is that we may have to charge you extra, depending on what's in the drink. We're not trying to punish you. It's just that because these drinks don't exist in the register, we have to use our judgment to decide what the right price is. This is by no means an attempt to discourage you from ordering secret menu drinks. All we ask is that you bring a recipe!
3. Ordering waters at the handoff station.
At the Starbucks where I work, lots of people come up just to order waters because we give them out for free no matter the size. However, sometimes people order at the handoff station rather than the register which can be problematic. See, if there are already drinks that need to be made, or there's a line of customers, ordering at the handoff station can mess up the order of drinks. Plus, it's not fair to customers who are waiting on drinks that they paid for.
Of course, most people don't mean anything bad by this, but when customers do this, I still have to put their drinks at the end of the line. If they already have a paid-for drink that they're waiting for, this can double their waiting time. In the end, it's just simpler and more convenient for everyone, the customer included, to order waters at the register.
4. Getting angry over misspelled names.
This is a tricky one. I always make an effort to spell people's names correctly, because otherwise, it can lead to difficulties identifying whose drink is whose. If somebody has a foreign or unusual name, I almost always ask for the spelling. But, if it's extremely busy, I may cut corners just to quicken things up. For example, if your name is Ashley, but you spell it "Ashleigh," I'm probably just going to spell it the easiest way so that I can quickly help the next customer. It's not a slight against you, but it's just a necessity in order to keep the line moving. Also, all of these cups are going to be thrown away as soon as you're finished with them anyway, so we're generally not too concerned with our handwriting or our spelling, so long as you still know it's your drink. If you do want your name spelled correctly, just immediately spell it out for us!
5. Coming in right before close and expecting us to be fully stocked (or still serve you after hours)
At the Starbucks where I work, the rush always comes right before we're closing. It sucks. It usually dies down maybe 10 minutes before, but not always. It makes sense, because my Starbucks is located on a college campus, and we close right after classes tend to let out. That being said, sometimes we get the occasional customer who comes in two minutes before close and expects us to have everything ready and available for them. Unfortunately, this might not always be the case. Our espresso machines might be shut down and our coffees and teas might be thrown out already. This isn't to deprive people, but if it's three minutes before close and it doesn't look like any more customers are going to show up, it just makes things easier.
Now, if it's 9:58 p.m. and you come into a Starbucks looking for a drink, you have to accept that they might not be able to serve you. In the end, baristas also have had a long day at work, and they also want to go home. Also, the hours of the store are almost always posted outside, so there's no reason not to know when the store is closing. While most customers don't have bad intentions, to some, it can come off as rude if you come in right before close. Obviously, we understand if you need a late pick-me-up before you go into your night shift, or maybe you just want to treat yourself, but please understand that we just might not have everything as opposed to if you had come in earlier.
