Starbucks' Christmas decorations are up, but the holiday music won't play until after Thanksgiving

Thank goodness! A Starbucks exec says the chain is launching its holiday celebration now because "this is about the time customers start asking for our annual holiday offerings." (Seattle Times)

Comments

[matthew]

I spent $80 this morning. haha

[socal barista]

oh man, i cant wait to buy that tazo tea set with the little mug. and the show globe. and EVERYTHING.

[Phranqlin]

No Christmas music until after Thanksgiving? I bet Bill O'Reilly will claim this is part of his so-called War On Christmas(tm).

The district bigwigs were in my Starbucks this morning. I overheard them talking about a $25 gift card for selling the $1000 Magnifica machine, and a drawing for giving demos.

I like the little red French Press. Might have to pick that one up....

[socal barista]

one of my shifts won a $50 gift card during the brewing event.

but yes, my manager said something about $25 american express card or something. for that thing being that price i think they should give you more than $25

[VEGASASM]

Yeah I was doing the set until 4:30am. I just now woke up. LOL. Yeah if you sell a Magnifica you do get a $25 card. Also if you demo the machine to a customer you get entered in a drawing for a chance to win 1 of 25 Magnifica's for yourself.

[MUG]

I too was up till 4:30am doing Christmas roll out. So apparently our store has a "Holiday Hero" which basically means they get two hours of noncoverage time a week to demo machines and sell retail. I'm in BC, Canada, is this common in other locations around North America?

[Halee]

NOT ONLY DID WE DO XMAS SETUP LASTNITE...BUT WE HAD TO GET READY FOR ECOSURE TOO......OH HIP HIP HORRAY THE HOLIDAYS ARE HERE!!! LOL....RED RED RED

[imabarista]

Halee,
You get a warning on Ecosure???
We don't.
We didn't.

[geoffro]

I am pretty sure that I heard Christmas music playing in some of the Boston, MA stores today.

[OMG Barista Boi]

A heads-up on Ecosure? That defeats the entire purpose of their surprise visits.

We were out of my store by 11:30pm, with all of our holiday roll-out done. Our store is pretty tiny...

This is my first holiday season at Starbucks, having been hired this past April. I gotta say, it is kinda absurd to be selling Christmas-related products in early November, but I'm quite fond of the new decorations and such. I especially like the new cup sleeves... (I'm a nerd.)

Not looking forward to Christmas music. At all.

[Decorating Elf]

Out by 11:30? What time does your store close? Maybe it was just our region, but we absolutely could not do stuff until we closed.

[BouncingBarista]

Yeah, we weren't out until 3:30a, and i worked a split that day. but my manager is a witch, and we're still not done. I've been working on the setup everday since the setup, and i'll go back in tomorrow and work some more on it. the crappy part is i work coverage because she is stingy with the non-cov, and doesn't want to give it up.

i hate the holidays

[OMG Barista Boi]

To the Decorating Elf:

My store closes at 11pm. I was working with one of my shift supervisors on regular stuff, while our store manager and another shift did all the decorations, etc. on non-coverage. We had basic decorations up before closing, and we just got all of the retail displays assembled in our back office area and didn't put them out until after the doors were locked. Our store is quite small, so with little retail to put out and all the basic decorating done, it was no big challenge to get out by 11:30pm.

[Boston Starbucks Rebel]

I love the "Lifted" CD, its wonderful.

[njbaristachick]

As of yesterday, the christmas CD started playing...::shoots self::

[Jason]

I was in a Starbucks near the Chestnut Hill Mall in MA this weekend, and was shocked at the Holiday explosion already! But, of course, that didn't stop me from ordering my first Eggnog Latte of the season!

[ZU BYERLY]

HOW LONG WOULD YOUR STORES BE OPEN IF CHRISTIANS STOPPED SHOPPING AT STARBUCKS?

[Becca]

our store would be fine, it's at least 75% jewish.

[Tiffani CA-Scrappin]

Does starbucks sell their decor after Christmas. I love the window decal snowflakes

[Michelle Sackett]

A bit off-topic, but is Starbucks open on Thanksgiving?

[jana]

Starbuck's in Marble Falls, Tx. took down its Christmas tree supposedly due to corporate "no preference to any religion" policy, but they are still selling Christmas coffee.