Discuss "Frappy Hour" or anything else Starbucks-related in the weekend OPEN THREAD

Drinks, customers, store policies and even Starbucks Popcorn -- they're all up for discussion on the weekend OPEN THREAD. Let's get the chatter going. || Jump to the second page of comments.

Comments

[actually]

I can not wait for it to be over.
Oh, they are half off! Then I need a VENTI for me and my 82 cousins! make them all non fat with EXTRA whip!

[SBUX Customer]

I see on the Starbucks frappuccino site that the coffee caramel frappuccino and the extra coffee caramel frappucino are separate items. Are they both the same price? What if you ordered a coffee caramel frappuccino and customized it with extra coffee pumps to equal the same number of pumps as the extra coffee caramel frappuccino? Will it be cost more or less or the same as an extra coffee caramel frappuccino?

[energybolt]

Partners will be glad when this promotion is over! It has become a stressful 2 hours of not enough labor & not enough patience with customers who are ordering 25 at a time & wonder why it is taking so long in the drive thru!!

[Doppio Con Karma]

@ SBUX Customer
aside from the extra coffee they are the same beverage. The extra coffee is a surcharge for adding the additional Frappucino roast (coffee) to the drink. you could try ordering a 6 pump coffee caramel frappucino, but you should get dinged for the extra coffee, just as if you had ordered an extra coffee caramel.

[Karl Dahlquist]

It is interesting how different stores prepare for this....one store I go to set up an assembly line a half hour before hand...and dang if 25 middle schoolers dont roll in 5 minutes before three....and it goes from there.

Another store doesnt seem to make any preparations, other than making sure people have taken their breaks before hand and not during.

[nopenoloopholes]

it's listed as a different price. It's not the same drink, and not matter how you order it it's an extra charge.

[Darth Discontined.]

Actually, frappy hour is the first time in a year and a half we are adequately staffed. I love it. This is the easiest way for us to hit our frappuccino goals. Two hours of hardcore rush for ten days so we can get a wonderful store party is awesome.

Some nice customers (love the people hate the drinks) get frappuccinos, tip well, and are always polite. They spend more than anyone else. I am happy to give them a break. Its not permanent, this is for like ten days out of the whole year. Way better than treat receipts.

[javagirl666]

Are we seriously complaining about price point? You have 3 more days of them being half price..take advantage of it.

[SBUX Customer]

A licensed Starbucks just opened at my university. Anyone know why they accept Starbucks cards but not the Starbucks gold cards as forms of payment?

[Kate]

I am currently enjoying my first-ever Frappuccino - I can't drink milk and I watch my calories... surprisingly good! I won't make it a habit, but it's nice to have an alternative to my usual Americano. The store was understaffed though - I felt bad for the poor barista handling the special orders.

[Jim Romenesko]

I heard lots of customers wishing "Happy Birthday!" to baristas today after seeing their hats. Of course, the baristas then proceeded to explain it's the Frappuccino's birthday, not theirs. I assume that was repeated in stores around the country.

[Bushrod]

I'm gonna miss it when it's done. I had forgotten how much I love the green tea frappuccino!

[me, myself and I]

I'm happy this time we haven't had to humiliate ourselves with supposedly funny hats. Apparently some baristas weren't as lucky...

[Barista Ben]

Hats? Hah. Maybe the stores that are required to wear hats due to health codes.

[javagirl666]

SBUX Customer: Why do you continue to ask the same questions on every thread?

[Marcus]

I see Starbucks changed the nutrition information for the frappuccinos after I e-mailed them. They did it much, much faster this time I think because I threatened to contact the FDA if they didn't correct it. Once again, all I got was a standard and misspelled, grammatically incorrect recognition of my e-mail, no thank you, etc. I am not too impressed with their CS. They used to seem overly friendly and want feedback but not anymore. I wrote back to the e-mail they sent me asking if they actually understood what I was saying (their e-mail only said they appreciate customer feedback, etc.), and they never replied to my reply e-mail.

Well, at least the info is fixed. Like last time, I thought they might have offered me a free drink or something.

Sorry to sound so bitter.

[Brown Dot]

Frappy hour is fun. I wish my DM wouldn't come up with these bright ideas the day of and demand that it be done for frappy hour that day.

[Melody]

@SbuxCustomer - There isn't an easy answer to your question. Licensing agreements are essentially contracts, and Starbucks and licensees may having varying terms and agreements: It is just a matter of what licensee has agreed to do and honor as part of their contract. Not a helpful answer, I know.
As to Starbucks popcorn ...hmmm... Jim, what a coincidence, I was just talking about that at my site. ;) It is really good!

[javagirl666]

Marcus: I doubt it was your call that prompted them to put out the nutritional information. We have had it available to us in-store for quite some time now. They were waiting to release the new brochures until the official launch date.

[Marcus]

@javagirl666, I should have explained more, but I assumed most readers of this thread would have remembered my rantings from the previous couple of weeks. When the frappuccino.com web-site launched they had the wrong nutritional info by way of reversing milligrams and grams for both the sugar and cholesterol content. I was upset because they had made mistakes before with the Signature Hot Chocolate drinks' nutritional info, and it took them about four months to fix the info then. This time they fixed it much more quickly but were not terribly appreciative. Sorry to be unclear--I guess I was a bit tired when I wrote my previous post.

[NewbiePartner]

As a new partner, Frappy Hour has been the craziest thing I've ever seen. We were chugging out fraps like crazy this afternoon! The only problem with moving that fast is when someone drops one in the rush to get it from the prep area to the serving station. Can you say Strawberries & Cream "depth charge"? My pants are pink from the ankles to the knees ;)

[baristamclane]

I am (dare I say) "Frappy" that I have not been scheduled once during "Frappy Hour"...

[Dancing Goat]

Show me the Money!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Northwest]

Yah, lovin it. My store hit 335 USD's yesterday!

[Marcus]

@ Miguel.....what do you mean they were going to update them? You think they had a plan to have the incorrect nutritional information and a plan to update it at some point?

I am possibly assuming you are misreading what I wrote and assume that I was asking them to update the old frappuccino nutritional information to match the current product.

That isn't the case. When they launched the new site, their information was completely off--it wasn't that it was old information. It was wrong information for any drink. As I posted before, they were claiming each frappuccino had less than 1 gram of sugar (a glass of milk has 13 grams) and that each drink had the 50 grams of cholesterol (which would be like eating more than 270 eggs at once).

Why are you so mean?

[Marcus]

@ Miguel, continued...and after the names you called me, why are you asking me to leave Javagirl666 alone? I apologized to her for being unclear. I have never used any untoward words toward anyone on this site for any reason. I am not enjoying the tenor of people's posts.

And @ Big Dick (sigh, I don't like even having to write your name out) . . . what have I ever done to you? I was simply trying to get Starbucks to correct their wildly incorrect nutritional information. A lot of people care about what they put in their bodies. They wouldn't post the information if people didn't care. They're not at this time required to by law, so obviously people do care about it.

[nopenoloopholes]

@marcus. I highly doubt your email did a thing. They were still in the editing mode.

[east coast mgr]

man ... we started today fairly normal .. and then got destroyed during frappy hour .... been a long time since we had such crazy lines.
Literally 10-12 people in line for 2 hours, mostly multiple drinks per order (or course:)

good fun though with 5 people on and 3 partners rocking CBS!
curious what tomorrow will bring!

[whattheheck]

3 parters on CBS. yikes

[miguel]

Wow so from my spanish name you guys are able to infere that 1. I am mexican and not any other of the 20 or so spanish speaking countries, 2. That I am an indocumented mexican living here even though most hispanics living here are born here or are documented you guys are amazing and yes please cause ICE and I will gladly show them proof of legal status and I will be visiting arizona, doesn't surprise me how racist white people are I mean this is the country who had slaves,didn't allow women to vote, and has there hopes for 2012 on sarah palin lol pathetic. Go obama!

[Cafe Nervosa]

@SBUX Customer:
"You will receive a Star for each visit to any U.S. store that accepts the Starbucks Card. However, in-store benefits and coupon redemption will only be available at participating U.S. stores."

That took me four. Minutes. At the card FAQ at Starbucks.com. Two of those were looking back to your original post for clarification, and scrolling back to that bit on the FAQ that dealt with that issue, as well as getting distracted by the refill policy (I'm still as right as ever). If they take Starbucks cards, they should accept the Gold Card. Maybe they don't understand or think it's a Duetto. But instead repeatedly asking a question that nobody seems to know the answer two, just ask the company and have DONE with it already...

http://www.starbucks.com/customer-service/contact/starbucks-card-form

[matt-]

my store killed during happuccino frappy hour. No additional labor...just the usual afternoon crew that normally operates like a goddamn machine! just for the last week operating like an even faster, stronger, better machine!

Of all the coupon/freebies events this company does do...this one was one of the most fun and easily handled.

[Darth Discontined.]

usually people that randomly turn something unrelated into a racism rant are guilty of the very same stereotyping.

as far as marcus, even if it wasnt the exact comment that changed it, i am sure it could have definitely been part of a group of things to get those updated. every person can do their part to get things changed. it takes one person to start a fire and the rest to help keep it going.

[Darth Discontined.]

and last if you know it isnt a real starbucks and its a licensed one then why not just go to a corporate store instead? i dont expect McDonalds located in my local Walmart to have everything on the menu.

[(former) FLA SM]

So I'm guessing there were some posts deleted in the Marcus v. Miguel conversation, since they don't make much sense otherwise. By the way, you can call it "undocumented", but it still means "illegal."

[Christinschu]

When I run Deployment reports for actual labor earned during happy hour the last couple of days, we have "earned" 4 CBS partners! Crazy! It's barely even possible to have 4 cbs partners. we have been using 2 to put the frappuccions together and 2 to top and hand off. However, the two that top and hand off are on the hot bar. OMG is crazy. But fun!

[miguel]

Yea some very racist thing were deleted but it wasn't marcus. Yes it is indocumented illegal dehumanizes them , undocumented describes the act of being here undocumented remember they are people too.

[Melody]

Am I the only one who sometimes think that reading the comments on this site is like slowing down past an accident on the highway, craning the neck, and wondering, why I wonder what happened and if anyone got hurt? It has a certain 'pull' and makes for a busy weekend thread, but leaves me scratching my head. Yep, there were a number of deleted posts.

[Natalie]

The Starbucks Popcorn is the BEST. Butter and Salt and Pepper, you have to try it! It's tastes great! What a great snack idea, and something savory.

[MO MONEY PLEASE]

I have put in written requests for my vacation time for almost a year now. I am no longer eligible for a scholarship, nor for any acadaemic reasons, and I could really use the money as most of my paycheck is going directly to my school.

If, I mean WHEN, I do get my vacation time I will get maybe a couple of hours or at most 10 hours. I've had 36 vacation hours for the last two years and I want them all. I still have 17 since I began writing it in the book a year ago. Can someone PLEASE explain why my manager is not giving me my vacation hours? Do I not understand the policy? If you write it in the book, they have to give it to you, no?

Also, this manager has been giving other partners (shifts) vacation hours left and right. It's only me, a lowly barista who is too invested in school right now to become a shift that is unable to access these hours.

[Christinschu]

Mo Money call the PCC. However, the official thing about vacation hours is that you get them when you are taking an extra day off, not just as extra money on your check, if I'm not mistaken.

However, if you are under 40 hours I don't know why your manager wouldn't just put them on.

[MO MONEY PLEASE]

I am a part-time worker except in the summer because of school. Even when I open my availability, I average at most 25 hours a week. I don't know either.

Thanks for the advice @christinschu

[javagirl666]

Does your manager look in the back of the book before doing payroll? Sometimes I forget, so, my partners know to verbally communicate that info to me or leave me a note as well as putting it in the book.

[javagirl666]

Marcus: What were you saying about me that got deleted?

[me, myself and I]

Melody, I totally agree with you on that one.

[miguel]

Ill sum it up, I made a bad comment towards marcus , I apologize marcus, and also another comment defending java against someone else, I forgot their name and then a few people began talking about arizona and making racist comments towards me just because of my name please attack me not my people.

[Fox]

You really get to see the worst side of people during happy hour. Unreasonable would be the best word to describe it for me. from 3:00 on the dot until the end, we have a line at the door, people getting to the register saying 'I have a lot of drinks' with that impatient tone in their voice. People asking 'did my drink get skipped?' at bar, and us assuring them, 'no, there's just 20 ahead of yours.' I HATE Frappy hour! My favorite part is 5:00 when the line is out the door and we yell. 'Happy Hour is over, come back tomorrow between 3 & 5 to get half off any 'have it your way' frappuccino!' and the line clears with rolled eyes and whining... justice is served hot and fresh at my store. :-P

[Christinschu]

"My favorite part is 5:00 when the line is out the door and we yell. 'Happy Hour is over, come back tomorrow between 3 & 5 to get half off any 'have it your way' frappuccino!' "

That's horrible. I would never do that! Not a way to create enthusiastically satisfied customers.

[ash_sk8s]

^ I agree. That is horrid customer service.

[javagirl666]

Fox: I think that is awesome!!!!