"From the Comfy Chair": An "A" for the Aberdeen Starbucks

BY JUAN VALDEZ

Starbucks
1202 Wishkah St.
Aberdeen, Wa.

~load up on guns and bring your friends
it's fun to lose and to pretend...~

Someone who wrote lyrics like that had to come from a pretty damn depressing place and if you know anything about grunge rock, you know that Kurt Cobain came from a pretty damn depressing place otherwise known as Aberdeen, Washington, site of today's visit and column.

Aberdeen is a smoky little logging town about twenty miles inland from the Washington coast bordering Hoquiam, another little smoky logging town. Whenever the residents get damned depressed (which is just about every other day), they cheer themselves up with little witticisms such as "well, at least we don't live in Hoquiam" or "thank God Kurt got out before this place did any REAL damage to his psyche."  The town's idea of honoring it's only famous "son" was to stick a sign at the bottom of the "Welcome To Aberdeen" sign that says "Come as you are."  Which is kinda interesting as how in the world would anyone come anyways?  As something they're not?/CONTINUED IN THE FIRST COMMENT

Comments

[JUAN VALDEZ]

Some of the local rags pronounce the area as being in the midst of a "rebirth" but, driving through a few days ago, it still looked like the same ole afterbirth to me.

Surprisingly enough, though, the freestanding Starbucks that I visited was a sharp little doo-dad...a nice, newish building that bustled like a well run Starbucks should.

The partners were all nice and friendly, the drink came as it were (sorry, couldn't resist) and did so rather expediently and the lobby, while basically dirty when I first came in, got freshened up several times during my visit so it actually was clean and ready for the next round of customers.

The partners all seemed to have a good repartee with each other. As I've noted before, this sure goes a long ways toward making the vibe of a store feel warm and welcoming. After all, it's hard to enjoy serving customers when you don't enjoy working with the people around you.

The pastry case was a bit empty and had some random crumbs spilled here and there at first but that too was taken care of in fairly quick fashion.

And....wait for it....the bathroom looked fine too.

All in all, a good visit which seems to be more of the norm lately. It may make for a boring kind of column but it's certainly a lot more fun to write about.

Grade: A



Time of day: early afternoon







# of partners on the floor: 5


Service time: 1 minute


Business level: steady




Was the bathroom cleaner than a gas station bathroom?: Yes




Legendary service: Yes



Would I recommend to a friend: Yes

COLUMN STATS



* # of stores reviewed where a partner has tried to connect with a customer – 19 out of 39





* # of stores where they've offered samples of anything – 3 out of 39



* # of stores that could have been considered "understaffed" - 0 out of 39





* # of stores with a clean bathroom – 23 out of 39

"Juan Valdez" is the nom de cyber of a former Starbucks manager who became disenchanted with the increasingly bitter taste of the Starbucks experience and fled to the mountains of Colombia where he now rides his burro and ponders the glittering sunsets. On a crisp clear day, when atmospheric conditions are just right and the moon is in the seventh house, he can be reached at juanvaldezsbux@gmail.com.

[nematode]

how come every store has so many partners my store only has 2 at a time.

[///]

My store only had 3 partners for 4 hours today. Me, the gal I was training and a newbie who hasn't come close to mastering the register and calls out for me to pour coffee on top of everything else.
I wish I had worked with a partner who knew what he/she was doing.

[Heimer Schmidt, Jingle]

Because Starbucks wants it every which way and if it's not done than it's your personal choice and you are at fault. True to the fact that labor is the most controllable variable in expenses, but wake up and smell the coffee higher-ups! No non-coverage for deep cleaning tasks so you have to spend barista time to clean drains/back room refrigerators/nooks & crannies/yadda yadda yadda...which ends up depriving paying customers and having the barista jeopardize their job and its' description. 1 person on the floor and another running around cleaning and breaking a sweat like a landscaper. And the DM's wonder why you can't sell more Anniversary blend or push the new Via (instant coffee...don't b.s. me, I'm a caffeine dealer).
The cup is always 1/2 empty at Starbucks and needs to be filled. Achievable if we have the manpower.

[Pat Nerr]

Juan... I usually like your posts, but I have to say I loved this one... I don't think anybody has ever painted a picture of Aberdeen so well... if Aberdeen wasn't the gateway to the coast I don;t think Starbucks would have built a store there...

that said, I've always had a good experience at that store... perhaps working in a Starbucks located in Aberdeen makes you look at life a little differently...

[burnt out]

It's funny you're writing about Aberdeen sbux. I personally worked with partners from a store that was shut down a year or so ago.

[is it so hard to be civil]

burnt our

Did you work in Aberdeen?

[burnt out]

no, but i worked with several partners who did (before it closed) and transferred.