OPEN THREAD: What's on your mind this weekend?

Go ahead and discuss it, as long as it's Starbucks-related. || Jump to the fourth page of comments

Comments

[FormerAZBarista]

I'm a little surprised at all the resistance here on strawberry waters.
We started getting orders for them a couple years ago, and I would say that most of the baristas who worked at my Starbucks loved them. We would all come in, order our regular drink, and get a strawberry water to go with it. And when we charged for it, it was Cup O Water, Add Strawberry.
If a customer came in and asked for a water, I gave it to them. I didn't charge them for a cup, and I admit I usually forgot to ring it into the computer for labor. But water is water and a cup is a cup. We lose more cups when those darn plastic coverings on the sleeves rip and the whole stack falls on the ground than giving people water cups.
So a splash of strawberry in water - which, usually, was never, ever blended - just didn't bother me. It tastes good, no one complained about having to pay $0.30 for strawberry, and we kept customers and continued legendary service. The amount of product used was minuscule. I honestly don't think our customers were trying to be cheap. Strawberry waters taste way different than strawberry lemonade, regular water, juice, etc.
If you roll your eyes every time someone comes up and orders what they want, and you judge them and convince yourself that all they want to do is cheat the system, then the next time they want a different drink - a hot drink during the winter, or an espresso beverage when they need caffeine - they're not going to come back to your store.

[fedUP]

Wow, that doesn't surprise me that people are shocked that SMs have to work one open and one close. The manager at the local Starbucks never closes. I doubt she even works past 4pm. I rarely see her on weekends and she's the worst cashier/barista I've ever seen.

This is in CA, where SMs are SUPPOSED to work one close and one open. What's the point of having an SM that comes in in a bad mood almost every day and treating customers so bad? No thank you, no hello, just give me your money and leave. She doesn't even brew coffee. She literally stands there like a rookie, no scratch that, worst than a rookie; because at least a rookie and smile and have some eye contact.

You would think that an SM that has worked for Starbucks for 5+ years has some sort of professional work ethic.

Long answer to a short question, but this SM has maybe closed 10 times in the last 5 years. That's only to get out early on eves of Christmas, Thanksgiving, and New Year's. Oh yeah, did I mention that when she closes, she puts TWO other people on? The closes are complete crap.

[The External One]

sadly lots of partners will be fired by the end of march...the optimized schheduling will take effect....if the store is heavy gone they go...sucks

[toffeenut]

external one--what exactly is optimized scheduling? I'm hearing a lot about it....

[OverCaffeinated]

To the customer that wants their Venti Frappuccino in two cups for their kids....."no problem".....proceeds to make the Venti size they ordered and hands them an extra tall cup so that they can split it themselves. End of problem.

[A Customer]

I am just a customer but the post regarding working an opening and closing shift caught my eye. Now as a store manager why wouldn't you work all shifts/all days in a week? If you don't then how do you ever get to work with all people that report to you and how do you know what is going on in all parts of your business? Just a question from one business person to another. I could not fathom not working with all my employees at some point during the week and during all business parts (morning, afternoon and night).

If this has not been the standard then it should. The store manager needs to own the whole store. I travel a lot and have seen many Starbucks at many different times of the day, afternoon and evening. Lots of interesting things going on.

What time do you "close" the pastry case? Any operator would say at closing. Well, I have seen them either shut down or pretty much empty 3 hours before closing. I just went and spent my money some where else. Happens a lot at Starbucks.

[Moola Boola]

I'm giving up on Starbucks! Here in San Diego, 50% of the time when I walk in and order a Venti Decaf, they say I have to wait for them to brew it. Screw that! I'm coming in during a commercial of my favorite radio program and I am not about to stand around waiting for something that they should have ready to go. In the 5 years I have also frequented a local coffee shop, not once have I ever been told to wait. No wonder Starbucks are closing stores around the country with that attitude! In these tough economic times, I would think Starbucks would be trying harder to keep their customers.

[green_cup]

I'm giving up on Starbucks! Here in San Diego, 50% of the time when I walk in and order a Venti Decaf, they say I have to wait for them to brew it. Screw that! I'm coming in during a commercial of my favorite radio program and I am not about to stand around waiting for something that they should have ready to go. In the 5 years I have also frequented a local coffee shop, not once have I ever been told to wait. No wonder Starbucks are closing stores around the country with that attitude! In these tough economic times, I would think Starbucks would be trying harder to keep their customers.

Posted by: Moola Boola | February 24, 2009 at 06:41 PM

Thank. You.

Now can you tell me why the folks at SBUX can't figure this out? As well, can you maybe let me in on why they have every dumb excuse as to why they DON'T have decaf or bold. Furthermore, they try to make it the customer's issue when really, it's Starbucks problem. I have many, many alternate coffee choices, Starbucks really only has a finite number of customers.

... and that pool of customers is dwindling. Fast.

[Coffeehouse Revolutionary]

lattegal said:

You can't sell your vacation pay, your health insurance, your free drinks, your discount, so why would you think you can sell your coffee markouts.

Hey, I had an SM at a store a couple years ago who encouraged me to do it--It's MY pound of coffee, and part of my direct compensation. I cannot possibly consume 4 pounds of coffee per month by myself, so WTH am I supposed to do? Give it away for free to some random person on the street? If I can't use it, it's not a benefit.

I'm not disputing that there is some language in the manual saying it's not kosher to sell it, but IMO it's insane for such a policy to exist.

Selling vacation time??? Are you serious? And what about partners who come in and buy things for their friends/family on their discount? That happens every day.

[Supahvisah]

@ Mrs. Tillinghamshackles:
Thank you for clarifying! I will inform the rest of my partners to ring in as a cold juice. I appreciate it :)

[Jones]

Texas, Fort Worth: Hulen & Camp Bowie. Serves the real movers and shakers of the city. You can see all the bigwigs of the country club and political set each morning. Store ends up on the closing list! What a shame. Starbucks corp get a clue!!!

[Lindsey]

green_cup:

Okay, before you start getting all high and mighty (which I see you already have), I have NEVER turned away a strawberry water customer. The issue is the price. If I charge too much, customers throw fits. But if I just charge for strawberry sauce the mgmt has their mini meltdown. Once again, I have NEVER turned anyone away, it's just that the confusion is driving me nuts. You're reading too much into my one sentence.

My store is most likely not closing but it would be nice to know for sure. Waiting this long is hard on all of us baristas/shifts.

[Ju]

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2009/02/24/ap6091188.html

So that senior executive, Geraldo Lopez, that left Starbucks last week, is now the new CEO at AMC Movie Theaters.

[Melody]

http://investor.starbucks.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=99518&p=irol-govmanage

^ It looks like the Senior Officers page has finally been updated to include John Culver & not Mr. Lopez. One thing though, there had been gossip in another thread that Mr. Paul Twohig & Mr. Cos LaPorta had left Starbucks, though their names are still showing on the senior officers page. I guess that gossip could've been totally wrong ... that's the danger of gossip! LOL

(Link in name goes to "it's the coffee" thread at MSI)

[MyGiveADamnsBusted]

Wanna hear about "working the system"...there are these two customers who during the warmer times go into a store and order a venti hot coffee....then they ask for two venti cups filled with ice to the top...then they ask for the carton of soy...then voila!!!they make their own iced coffees and spend just over two dollars for their drinks...Thats working the system.

On another note to JONES: ok so a store in ft worth texas is closing. I think that in itself is sad for the partners who will be most likely out of a job...But for you to say that a store shouldnt close because of a specific country club or political clientele that patronizes the store. Dude you must be as snobby as those people are.
And out of curiosity why dont parnters just give cups of water in paper cups? They are less expensive to hand out than plastic cups.

[Melody]

@mygiveadamnsbusted: Why don't you use the "add dairy" button at least for that guy? I know it exists. I have many times grabbed a fruit cup, got a beverage, and told the barista that I wanted an 8 ounce cup filled with whipcream so that I can dunk my fruit in it, "and if you need to charge me for that I don't care". Surprisingly, most baristas will politely decline to charge for the small cup of whip, though some will. Btw, is it possible with your registers to use the "add dairy" button twice? Since he is getting 2 cups, you could charge for the Venti coffee (the idea of iced PPR makes me shudder), and add dairy twice?

If I were a barista, and that character who does the hot venti trick is also buying a pastry, beans, and other things at the same time, I'd be less inclined to be concerned about it. I'd try to look at the whole picture.

[jones]

Hey mygiveadamnsbusted
So if I had said that the Fort Worth store was in the ghetto and served all the day workers, criminals, and homeless, would I then be your hero?? Snob? Guess what, I live in the ghetto and it seems to me that a store is fortunate to be popular with the crowd that has the money and power to promote starbucks within the community.

[Novina]

people "working the system" always bring good stories:

one of my favs is a grande mocha but in a venti cup with extra milk.

or there is the lady who ordered 4 shots over a venti cup of ice and then used the condo milk to fill it up.

Always thought the strawberry water blended is an odd one and doesn't even taste good.

[MyGiveADamnsBusted]

Melody to respond to your add dairy button. Personally Ive always just said yes to the couple. Others havent! But our soy is utilized as a condiment when it is not steamed so theres no charge for soy. And by the way they never get anything else other than that one cup of coffee. I dont care much about it in regards to them because they dont bother me but it is working the system.
And to Jones my point is that not all cleitele is politicians and country club persons...our store has a great mix of every type of people. even a homeless woman who drives on her bike in the dead of winter. And I treat everyone the same. I dont care what your occupation is or your status or standing in the community. In my eyes they should be treated equally. And celebrities should not be treated with special attention. If you feel they should then you are a snob!

[Christin]

Coz is still with the company but moving to international

[concerned]

Batten down the hatches Starbucks Store Managers, you are in for it. I have it from a reliable source that audits are being done of all payroll records and if ANYTHING is amiss the manager will be fired for misconduct. It is happening as we speak, to people who don't deserve it and whose books are no more out of compliance than the norm. Missed punches not signed off, training labor used at all, punch edits, etc will result in separation for cause making it difficult to qualify for unemployment, depending on your state's rules.
Watch your backs, dot your i's cross your t's and keep your fingers crossed you are not one of the targets of this inquisition.

[I love being a SBUX Partner]

Is anyone else concerned with Eco-sure audits? Do you all have time to make sure the scores are above 90%? We have a clean store & with slim labor that is a accomplishment in itself!!Just curious on other store's scores!

Posted by: energybolt | February 21, 2009 at 03:43 PM

Yes my store received a Ecosure audit last week during my peak time and my awesome team scored a 96.6% on our audit. Keep in mind my store is a high volume store right across the street from an ivy league university. Also my store is 13 years old and has not had a recent renovation. I know that the labor cuts have scared some partners but my partners have understood. One thing I have done with my team is talk with each of them about the P & L and the effect of using to much labor has on that. It was not easy the first 2 weeks to adjust to the new workload but as of last night when I had my meeting I asked my partners how they feel about all the changes. They all replied with "wow looking back I don't even know why we used to much labor before we were wasting so much money". So it goes down to training and communication happening in the store all the way from the SM to ASM to Shift to barista. Utilizing a learning tree and updating communication boards helps! I am happy our company is making proactive and necessary cuts in costs. I get so amazed when I read some of these posts and I think to myself wow do any of these people live in the same country I do?? We are in hard hard hard economic times and I will say Starbucks is one to watch out for when the economy changes back to the good! We will remain on top!

[Kathy]

I live in southern Illinois in a rural community. My nearest SBX is a licensed store 15 miles away inside a Kroger grocery. I have only been to 1 corporate run store and was not impressed. There are 3 other licensed stores 25 miles away in a college town. I tell you all of this because today when I was at my local store (the one inside Krogers) one of the baristas told me that there are only 5 stores in the country who are getting VIA tomorrow and theirs is one of them. She said that was a big honor for them. I know some of you may think badly of VIA but I will say that I have tried it and I like it. Of course it is not as good as drip but it is the best "instant" I have every tasted. I think the reason this store is getting the honor of selling VIA tomorrow is because they are a model of what SBX should be. The store is very clean, the baristas are friendly and they make very good coffee! The drinks are consistent. She even gave me a sneak preview of the tumbler that will be sold to be used with VIA and it is soooo cool. It has storage spaces for the sleeves of VIA. You can just walk in & ask the barista for hot water & brew your own VIA in your tumbler. Although, I don't see why anyone would want VIA when you could have drip or a latte.
I just wanted to praise the Marion IL Kroger Starbucks and all the partners who make it special.

[Melissa]

This is just a random, maybe along the strawberry water thing, which I never heard of til here. But I had a customer who wanted a venti steamed frappuccino mix with caramel syrup, 4 shots, whip and caramel drizzle. Oh, barf.

[FLA SM]

"I have it from a reliable source that audits are being done of all payroll records and if ANYTHING is amiss the manager will be fired for misconduct."

I doubt it. Let's face it, no one has 100% perfectly filled out books with zero omissions or errors. If what you say is true, virtually EVERY SM would be fired. Plus, do you realize how many hours it would take to go through every single T&A page of every CML? Given the number of people being fired at the corporate level, I don't see how it could be physically be done. True, DM's are looking more closely at our books, but so what? If you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to worry about. Nobody's prefect.

[Mrs. Tillinghamshackles]

Kathy, I don't know where that store got their information, but there are way more than 5 stores getting Via.

[concerned]

I doubt it. Let's face it, no one has 100% perfectly filled out books with zero omissions or errors. If what you say is true, virtually EVERY SM would be fired. Plus, do you realize how many hours it would take to go through every single T&A page of every CML?
This did not come from the stores, this came from the SSC and NWRO...

[MyGiveADamnsBusted]

Miss Kathy from what i was informed of...In the USA Chicago and Seattle were launching the Via product. As well TARGET stores will be carrying it too. So whomever informed you about the VIA product in marion illinois was misinformed.

[FLA SM]

Concerned: Again, I think the logistics of reviewing EVERY single book from EVERY single store would be prohibitive. My guess is there will be SELECTIVE review of targeted stores who have shown history or some reason to be reviewed. Similar to P&AP audits that are now only targeted to stores with a cash over/short problem. Of course, I could be wrong, but I envision the Iron Mountain storage facility looking like the final scene of Indiana Jones. :-P

[Hayley]

Open thread question - Do any Starbucks keep some of the older gift card designs in the store? I assume not every gift card design sells out, so what happens to them...do they have to be sent back? I ask because I was going to load my normal monthly amount on a gift card today but I there were a couple of old designs that I wish I had. Should I bother asking the barista if they have any older designs on hand that are not displayed?

[concerned]

This isn't about cash, it is about labor. ANY missed punch sign offs will get you one corrective action. Second offense is separation for misconduct.

[FrmrLADM]

Regarding Cash Mgmt Logs and T&A audits - As a former DM I will let you know what the expectation for us auditing is (or was, ugh) in So Cal.

I was expected to review each stores book on every visit, which would have been once per week. Absoutely EVERYTHING had to be filled out correctly - no empty spaces. We review times of entries compared to store open/close and clock in/out times, who was initialling compared to who was Cash Controller, etc. We even audit the safe activity for a month using our #6 key.

If a mistake was a 1 time thing, no issue. If it was consistent - a write up was required. There are reports in T & A that can be printed to review punch edits, etc. If a partner was consistent I had to see documentation on that partner or the amnager got a write up for not "managing".

It was REALLY serious stuff. I was forced to seperate 2 managers simply because till drop times were not filled in completely in one month.

In fact, in Los Angeles/Orange Counties for 2008 the #1 reason for manager seperation (there were dozens - honestly)was incomplete Cash Management Logs.

It's not a game folks. AND if the DM is consistently looking it doesn't take too much time. The reality is, the CML and T&A domumentation are legal documents. Don't screw them up. Just read the blue pages and follow EXACTLY what is written. If your Shift team is messing up, make them read the blue pages and document it. In fact, having them initial the CML entry they screwed up is a good best practices.

It seems trvial, I know, but it is considered a solid indication of how serious the manager is in running their "business".

[concerned]

Thank you FrmrLADM. That was always the expectation when I was a store manager. A family member was termed a couple of weeks ago for punch log edits not signed off by partners (there were several apparently) but there was no warning given and the DM had signed off on the books and not given any coaching or direction about this critical area and it was regarding books from Q4 '08 and Oct/Nov '09...it is February! Also this person was transferred to another store and has no access to those records to dispute the allegation. Never had a corrective action for anything before and all other metrics were in order.

[Moiraine]

green_cup...and whoever else commented on the decaf not being brewed....
I thought that the policy was that we are not *required to brew decaf after noon, but that its up to us depending on business. At my store, we literally sell 4 cup of decaf coffee, all day long. The one or two customers that I might have later in the day who sometimes order decaf have no problem waiting for a fresh cup.
I would think that in a much busier store, they would be more likely to be brewing decaf later in the day.

Also, despite having my own issues with the company, I totally back them up on this one. I mean, aside from trying to cut costs or whatever, its just plain wasteful. At my store we dump sooo much coffee down the drain. It's really sad. I understand that everyone is in a rush these days, but seriously, we should be happy to save resources where we can.

Several people in my store have suggested going back to the one hour hold times. It was working just fine before and would still save waste, while possibly allowing some stores to have decaf available more often...but that's just my opinion.