Be sure to give Alec Baldwin extra-special treatment when he's at your Starbucks

The "30 Rock" star tweeted that a barista named Jay from the 93rd and Broadway Starbucks has "an attitude problem." Let's hear your side of the story, Jay! His colleagues -- or anyone else, actually -- are free to weigh in here, too. Discuss this or anything else Starbucks related in the the OPEN THREAD.

Comments

[Ben]

If Alec Baldwin is gonna call out Jay on Twitter at least He could spell his position right. It's "Barista" not "Barrista"!

[Noah]

Who the flip is Alex Baldwin and why do I care what he thinks of Jay the barista?

[Barista Ben]

He was probably right. I've worked with a few people who had attitude problems. They take every complaint as a personal attack against themselves. I never understood that you're risking your job when you argue with a customer so why bother?

[Jeff Tom]

I have been in many, many Starbucks. I have been "served" by some of the most incompetent/worthless "barista" on the planet. BUT

From everything I have read about Alec Baldwin in the news of the years, about his ego and personality....

I am 100% the only dbag in the store that day was Alec Baldwin.

[I <3 music]

Do any of you remember a few years back a voice mail was leaked to media. It was of him verbally attacking his own daughter. He was cruel to his own family. How do you think this person treats others?

[otterinthewater]

And what's with the "Uptight Queen" part of the tweet?

[Craig]

Alec Baldwin isn't used to buying his own coffee... he's used to people sucking his ass. Sorry, that's not on the menu

[P]

If i were Jay i'd just enjoy the free press. Everyone has their bad days. Some peoples' bad days are just funnier. I'd love to be a douchebag to Alec Baldwin, what a story.

[Marcus]

Alec Baldwin has too much access to public media where people will listen to him. He once wrote a two sentence column on the Huffington Post about how he didn't like AT&T. Some of the columns he writes sound like they were written drunk. Maybe this tweet was too. Given how weird the rest of his family is, maybe it's not fair to blame him. Something is amiss with the Baldwins in general. I hope Jay isn't taking it personally, and I hope Starbucks doesn't try to appease Baldwin, especially in light of him using the word queen in a derogatory way.

[Long Timer]

Only a coward would call somebody out by name, publicly, to thousands of twitter followers instead of following the proper channels like any rational, normal, non-famous person. Whether this Barista acted appropriately or not is probably only known to a few people, but now he's being dragged through the interwebs for the entire populous to judge.

[frapatte]

Good point LT, even if this guy was somehow the worst employee in the world, it would pale in comparison to how rude it is to publicly call some stranger out and insult them to thousands of attentive strangers. I can't imagine how embarrassed I would feel if that somehow happened to me, especially if it was only over a minor misunderstanding!

[Done]

I once kicked Stephen Baldwin out of our store in 1998 or 1999 for being a douche.

[Judy]

"barrista"? Isn't that the British word for lawyah?

[Streakn_it]

So I'm now in charge of the At Home coffee sales at my store. Any one else in charge of the same category? If so what kind of things do you do to help increase sales?

[starbucks sucks]

Thank God the former DM is gone or "Jay" would be out of a job!

[Ian]

Open thread. Can we just talk about how some managers schedule you for closing one day (until 10:30) and then for you to some in to open at 5 - with a 30 minute commute? ...

[Streakn_it]

@Ian I didn't think they could schedule two shifts that close together. 8 hours apart is the law I thought?

[Chrissizle JR.]

@Ian,

I don't want to hear it. Try working for Applebee's. I Manage the applebee's in my neighborhood and I have to sometimes close on a saturday night (leaving at 3:00AM) and Open on sunday (arriving at 6:00AM) And that is no exaggeration there.

PS before I get attacked by people saying 'APPLEBEE'S?!?! WHY ARE YOU HERE?!?!?!'

I'm chrissizles brother. His video was posted here I enjoyed your content. So i'm reading along.

[STL_Nick]

@chrisizzle Jr

There is a difference though between you doing that as the manager, when it is your choice because you knew long before you became a manager that that would be required of you, and it is your full time job, and when baristas who are trying to balance full time college workloads along with work get scheduled those clopens.

[Jeff]

I think the 8-hour rule is only in some states. I know in PA, where I live, there isn't any required time off between shifts.

[Sheik]

I really really wish we had the ability to "LIKE" some of the comments people make on this site..... Especially love:

Alec Baldwin isn't used to buying his own coffee... he's used to people sucking his ass. Sorry, that's not on the menu

Posted by: Craig | September 10, 2011 at 11:06 AM

[That Guy]

He comes into our store on a fairly regular basis, he seems nice, quiet. We always treat him well, just like the rest of our customers...

[Chrissizle JR.]

@STL_Nick

Good point. I'll give you that much. It doesn't make it any easier though :'(

[former 93 ss]

I used to work at that location, though it was before Jay. Baldwin was always perfectly pleasant when he came in. And we had a fair amount of partners with attitude problems. But calling somebody out on twitter by name, and using the term 'uptight queen' seems out of line.

[Dustdevil]

Ian-Does it happen all the time? or is it Close Sun and Open Mon. The computer program Starbucks runs spazzes out on those two days.

[Jim Romenesko]

A New York Post reporter went to Baldwin's apartment on 9/11/11 to ask about the SBUX brouhaha, according to the actor's tweet.

[Ian]

@Dustdevil:
Yeah, that sounds about accurate, for me at least. I can't really speak for others, but now that you mention the computer program, that would make sense. I wonder why it does that - that's something that isn't really that great to have over one's head, for every week.

[spence]

@ Streakn_it, Honestly, the best way is to sample. sample. sample. Not necessarily in a french press since some people don't like french presses. Sometimes on a Saturday morning, I set up a table where the line is going to be and I set out a carafe of coffee with sample cups, cream, sugar, etc. I also show a bag of what I'm sampling. I post a sign which states that we will grind the beans at the register. I keep a few obvious bags of the beans on the register and I usually sell quite a bit.
Most successful beans: OSGM, Sumatra and Verona.
I also hang a tag around the carafe and tell a bit about the coffee. I offer a 10% discount if they bag 5 pounds.

[medevacs]

@Streakn_it & @Jeff: 8 hours between shifts? Poor Americans, here in UK it is 11 hours and in some European countries even more (I heard that in Spain it is 12 hours).

On the other hand, my genius DM developed idea of split-shift to save money on breaks scheduling partners only on busy times, for example 8am-10am & 11am-1pm, etc. Well, I can survive 1 hour unpaid break, but once I had 2 hours shift, 4 hours break and 2 hours shift again, or other barista after his normal shift had to come back to store after few hours break just for half an hour closing shift!

[Black Apron Shift Supervisor]

I did a road-trip to attend a friend's wedding. I had stopped off at a Starbucks in ... Indiana? Ohio? And the Baristas/Fellow Partners told me that I had "JUST MISSED!" Alec Baldwin.

By their tones and expressions, I could tell that not a single one of them were excited to have him there.

[slaw275]

@Ian, have you mentioned this to your manager? They might not even realize it is happening.

[ST in TX]

Alec is right, except it isn't the barista that has an attitude problem. It is people named Jay. I know this guy named Jay and he has an attitude problem as well.

[leftinthebottomoftheroaster]

I always wanted him to walk in to more store, so when he picked his drink up at the handoff I could do the "Put that coffee down, coffee is for closers..." line from Glengary Glen Ross.

[alex]

left in the bottom of the roaster - genius!!!!

[Vancouver Barista]

I've served celebrities in my store, unfortunately no A-Listers, (though Demi Moore and Michelle Pfeiffer came in while I was running an errand) and they all waited in line, ordered, and waited for their espresso beverages just like everyone else. No one gets preferential treatment unless it's someone with special needs. Same smile, same banter, same quality of work. I don't care who it is.

[ian2]

i know that Alec Baldwin goes to Starbucks at least daily, and he seems to have a deep affinity for the company. So if he tweets one time about some attitude out of at least 365 trips a year, maybe 50% more then that even, maybe we should give him the benefit of the doubt.

[Jill]

@Ian I think you're right about the 8 hour rule, but it still happens. I'm a Canadian barista and I know this Sunday I work until 10:30 then 5:30 the next day. It sucks. Not worth telling the manager sometimes though because I've had it happen where they give someone else my shift to fix it. Rather be tired than lose an 8hr shift!

[Michael]

When I used to work for the company I was in the Nyack NY store. Stephen Baldwin was a customer of ours and he would come in a lot. He was always a very nice guy and a pretty good tipper. One year we closed early on Thanksgiving and Stephen and Alec tried to come in after we were closed. We let them come in and get some coffee to take back for after dinner. They bough a few pounds. They were both very nice and left like $100 tip.

[deborah tayl.]

just another example of the liberal elite with their "i'm better than you" attitude trying to push around the hourly employees.

[Angie More]

Well Jay may me a horrible barista, but he got to wait on Alec Baldwin and got the Starbucks name in the media and social threads! mmm, coffee!