NYT's story on Starbucks bathrooms is online. Your thoughts?

"You're talking to a guy who never drinks Starbucks coffee," one man told the Times reporter. "But, I am a habitual user of Starbucks bathrooms." Read the story here; you might want to check out the comments below the reporter's letter to Starbucks Gossip.

Comments

[baristabot147]

Don't we have a strict no talking to media policy?

[stan]

any name in that story is reprimanded at the very least. most likely fired.

[Former NY Barista]

I'm surprised Anne got a current employee to go on the record and a shift supervisor no less! I wouldn't even go on record with my comments even though I no longer work for the company, because a lot of my information came from my former coworkers and I didn't want them to get in trouble if their managers saw my name in print.

[Anne Barnard]

Yes, but he was the happiest shift supervisor in the whole company!

[sydney crawford]

I have always thought it outrageous that the people making our coffee and serving food should be cleaning those bathrooms. Starbucks should have a traveling cleaning crew,SEPARATE, from the Barista's doing this work.
I stopped going to Starbucks when I learned that they were doing the cleaning. Not sure I wanted the same people serving me food.
What Starbucks doesn't make enough $ to hire a separate crew?
I say keep those bathroom locked until they make different arrangements.

[EAG]

Sydney, you may to stop eating out all together then. I have worked in many places, some big corporate chains and mom and pop places, in the food and beverage industry. More often than not, the employees are in charge of cleaning the bathrooms and checking on then hourly. If people would use the bathrooms properly, flush, not clog the toilets, wash hands, and put trash in the can, it would not be as necessary to clean up as much. You would be shocked to see what people do in public restrooms. They throw stuff next to the garbage can, leave water, soap, and urine on the floor and or seats. They don't flush toilets and much more disgusting things. Companies nowadays are not able to afford separate cleaning crews for the ANIMALS that have no manners.

[drive]

Did anyone else's store have a vomit cleanup kit? It was some kind of sawdust-like material that you were supposed to toss on human waste to make it congeal. Something like that. Maybe it worked the way clumping cat litter works.

To my knowledge, my store never used it, even though we had human waste to clean up. I don't think anybody knew about this kit, which a shift supervisor once showed me.

[baristabot147]

if there are any bodily fluids you are supposed to call for special cleaners to come in, my sm has said not to call them but call her to come clean it up (she doesn't want the p&l to be hit with that) however this is a woman that takes 2 days to respond to a phone call and our toilets been clogged now with feces for 5 days. I refuse to touch it unless they want to pay me double time for the entire day!

[stan]

bodily fluids. easily cleaned, sugar will soak it up.... and then swept and erased from memory... you do have to mop a couple of times to get rid of the stickiness of the sugar.

[Martha]

I work at a Barnes & Noble, and our cleaning person only comes three times a week. The other four days, us peons (NOT the managers) are responsible for cleaning the two bathrooms.

I agree with whoever said some people are animals. And from experience, the women are the WORST!

[ChoMomma]

I've cleaned up numerous amounts of syringes, blood and fecal matter from Starbucks bathrooms. The problem isn't the bathrooms, the problems is we put our lives at risk at times should we get punctured, come into contact with the blood, etc... Starbucks never talks about this.

[drive]

If you read the bathroom story in the real newspaper, you will see that the story below it on the very same page is this one:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/23/nyregion/at-rikers-roasting-turkeys-for-a-new-start.html

The guy is in prison at Rikers Island......and he used to work at Starbucks!

[goingcrazy]

unrelated question: I work in a drive thru store that makes about 30,000 a week. I have a manager that takes an average of 20hrs of non-coverage. Is this normal? We have CV scores of about 65 and I cant imagine how we will pass QASA because we are so swamped on the floor and dont have enough coverage.

[baristabot147]

depending how many partners there are an SM from a DT store can earn 2 admin days, you should have 2 asm's and a shift team to help delegate cleaning tasks and keep the store at QASA readiness, honestly QASA isn't that hard, you just need to be able to pass the top ten criticals. It's mostly food safe and make sure there is no debris/dirt build up in the store. It just needs to appear that people are actively trying to keep things generally clean, They understand if they come in on a busy day and it looks a bit chaotic! just adhere to food safe handling and make sure everything is dated and all food contact surfaces are in good order/ice is covered/washing hands!

[Marcus]

I worked at McDonald's in the late 90s, and fortunately there was a private cleaning crew that came in to handle the bathrooms.

I would have no idea how to handle some of the things you all talk about. Some of them sound closer to hazmat type situations. Are the partners trained in how to clean the bathrooms and specifically how to respond to the issues mentioned, such as bodily fluids or solids on the floor? And needles and syringes??? How do you even throw those away without a hazardous items type container.

I know someone has to clean it up, but you should have the tools and training to do it—and the pay to match.

[usorthem3]

Totally off topic but Holiday for sure, has anyone seen what the T-shirts that only partners that are working Christmas day look like? I'm sure they are red but any design that we know of? Just Curious.

[Doug Forever]

Hazmat kits are in all Starbucks stores (or should be). Also, partners are told to never push down on garbage in trash cans because of the possibility of sharps (i.e. needles and crack pipes). In addition, we use gloves and wash thoroughly when leaving the restroom, and again when we go "out on the floor". Our internal audits look for any conflict with these rules and downgrade the store as needed.

[My store needs hotter girls!!!]

I wish Starbucks provided a fresh hazmat suit, to clean the bathrooms, because, seriously sometimes you need one.

As well as a rebreather, or gasmask. Then i had no qualms with cleaning the bathroom. Shitty apron does nothing!

Also, wish starbucks provided those tossable strong rubber gloves again, pastry plastic gloves do nothing, and partners don't know how to store or keep the yellow dishwasher gloves clean.

[Facts]

Blood-is never to be touched by a partner.

[Barista4355]

I've cleaned up poo from the floor and garbage, pee on the floor and toilet seats, found beer bottles and used needles (among other things) in the trash, and had to deal with one drug addict's blood all over the walls. (That was not fun. I had to try and psyche myself up to clean it - which I couldn't do.) We do have professionals who come in to take care of these things, but since cost cutting is such an issue in business, sometimes you just have to clean it up yourself. (The bloody wall and needles in the garbage were professionally taken care of.) It saves time and money and is more convenient for customers.

But man, people are disgusting and the drug use that goes on in my store is disheartening. I'd be happy with a buzzer so we can let legit customers/visitors in.

As for the media thing, we're not officially allowed to go on record unless we've gotten specific permission to. I once set up an interview with the CBC to interview a deaf partner, and I had to go through about 5 or so different people, starting with my manager and district manager. Only after the head honchos had agreed (and there was a PR guy there during the interviews) were any of us allowed to speak to the press. They're not even allowed to film in store without permission.

[Aidan Hadley]

To me, public bathrooms are considerably under-designed. They all seem to use the same prosaic materials and arrangements. Their corners, grout lines, faucets and doorknobs all harbor bacteria and viruses by design. They're ripe for some innovation. What if they were designed to be entirely waterproof, with walls and floors that all directed to a central drain. A (self-serve car wash style) hose with a high pressure steam nozzle could blast everything down the drain without anyone having to touch very much in the cleaning process (and without excessive chemicals due to the sterilizing properties of the steam). Just an idea.

[ex barista]

When I was a partner I cleaned feces, blood, urine, crack pipes, vomit, and some of the nastiest sh*t you might ever imagine. In my opinion Starbucks treated us like sh*t by expecting us to do so. My DM told us that the bathroom cleaner was called "spirit" because you had to have a lot of spirit to clean up what we had to clean.

If you called partner resources they would tell you not to touch bodily fluid.If you asked your DM or SM it was another story. The store manager was held accountable for the profits of the store and it was taken out if they called hazmat. RIDICULOUS. Like Howard says "Onward".. and out of that God awful job I went..