Starbucks stores to close from 5:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m. on February 26 for retraining of baristas

While stores are closed for three hours that Tuesday, Starbucks baristas "will be trained in creating the perfect shot, steaming the milk and all the pieces that come together in a drink," says a Starbucks spokeswoman. How many customers will freak out to discover their Starbucks is closed just when they need an early-evening caffeine fix? (Read the Seattle Times story)

Comments

[Vicki Verona]

Hey Jim,
The press has finally been informed about this. Here is a link you can add to the topic header.

http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/ticker/article.aspx?Feed=BW&Date=20080211&ID=8175974&Symbol=SBUX

[Melody]

Whoa. I've always had baristas tell me that they can't handle the lid. It's so consistent that I assumed that is the standard. I've never had a personal tumbler handed back to me with the lid on it.

I can't wait to see spoons go. We could have a whole 'nother thread on stirring, which I adamantly oppose.

My stores are hit and miss depending on the barista at the machine. I feel like I learn the standards here and will occassionally have to tell baristas things like "there should be water in the chai" (which does indeed taste right!), and in fact that happened to me last night ... But for the most part, I think the Starbucks stores that I frequent regularly are pretty good.

Nerfebarista & Vicki Verona, wouldn't be nice if this blog had a PM system so I could reply to you without an off topic post here? ;) Of course then it would be a message board and not a blog. ;) Don't know when the tickets are coming but I hope to see you there. I'll be standing in line early so I can get a seat in McCaw Hall. It will be packed, and I suspect some will get turned away! Nerfebarista, sigh, I'm not ready for a change of career at this time, and there's not time for an extra part time job. I'm just a customer, a shareholder, and I work in downtown Seattle. But I have become intoxicated even on the aroma of beans, and I have a bag of casi cielo sitting on my office desk now, wafting wonderful scents my way. ;)

[Bellevue Shift]

Lids on personal cups I think must be a local health code law in Washington State, though I don't know because it was just the way I was trained and never really thought to question it. Go to any store in our area though, and you will be asked to hold onto your lid.

[Nerfebarista]

lol my wife is the same way about bags of coffee.. when i bring home my markouts, she squeezes them and sniffs.. I think it's her crack...

Anyhow, If you have a discussion you'd like to carry on that would not fit in with this board, I beleive someone posted my email up top, which is kinda odd considering it's not supposed to post. But as long as it's not spam, I read email too =)

If yer ever in Renton, wa. spin by some of the stores there, we are a great crowd!

[nycbearista]

having been one of the test stores for this initiative, i can shed a bit of light.
lattes and caps will be free poured. it is all in the steaming technique. there's even a way to do a no-foam that you can free-pour. almost all of it has to do with positioning of the steam wands and timing.
BUT we still hang onto our spoons for those people who want venti BONE dry cappuccinos - bah.

Hints: rinse pitchers every time, all the time. wipe steam wands, every time, all the time. rinse shot glasses every time, all the time.

Is this ridiculously obvious and is it embarrassing to admit that there are baristas that don't follow these procedures all the time anyway? yes. Is is till sadly true? yes. hence retraining across the board.

i can tell you that in New York Metro this retraining was a revelation for the vast majority of our partners, and no i am not proud of the fact. when i got to my present store, not a single one of them, shifts or baristas, knew that you could adjust the grind on the verismo. they didn't even have shot glasses in the store.

sigh.

anyway, it's all good. be proud. and have fun :O)

[Kittymoose]

I wonder how fun it'll be to close the kiosk for a night. We'll have so many interruptions from angry customers wanting their frappucinos that we won't get through anything.

Ten bucks says I wont find out about this "officially" until two, maybe three days before it happens.

7:05,
Maybe you need to take Bar A again. All lids need to be securely in place. After handling a personal lid, barista must wash hand after handling and handing off personal cup. This is for all US store because Canada store lids are available at the condiment bar. Read it again, BAR A!!

[Vicki Verona]

If they make it a new standard to rinse milk pitchers every single time (basically no adding fresh milk to a pitcher that has foam on the sides of it still), I will be able to go to my new district meeting with a huge smile on my face.

I'm the only one in my district who coaches her partners to rinse their pitchers every single time. My DM hates it and says its why my speed of service is still an opportunity. Ive actually gotten written up over it.

[Nerfebarista]

I happen to have just gone through my retraining last week and I could have sworn I read that we are not to take lids from customers for personal cups or refill cups and that we are to was our hands after handling any personal or refill cups.. Of course, I could have been half asleep when I read the book.

[Nerfebarista]

wash that is. yay to me for proof reading

Not gonna lie, it's gonna suck not being able to use big pitchers. My store does about $3K during blackout periods every morning, so it'll really suck since our mornings have been understaffed lately.

Also, what's the deal with long shots? Do you pull them straight into the cup?

[tall is small]

BAR A:
Place lid in beverage and ensure that it is securely in place (US only). All beverages must be handed off with a lid already in place, including personal cups (U.S only). After handling personal cup barista must wash their hands.
I like to think of myself as a knowledgeable SMARTY PANTS, thanks:)

[Bellevue Shift]

Interesting about the personal cups. I wonder why everyone and their brother has been trained differently. I'll have to investigate further. Perhaps the old training manuals did not include this.

Oh and if you didn't take BAR A this standard is also in your Barista 101 Learning Journing Guide, Espresso bar, customer care at the beverage handoff (pg 197), 4th bullet point.

[sfbuxmgr]

Hmmm... we ask customers to hang on to their lids too... I don't ever remember reading this in the BRM, I was just taught to do it in training. Nobody ever told me why, but I figured it had to do with handling something that the costumer puts to their mouth. yuck... you wouldn't ask somebody to hold your used straw, right? A used lid is pretty much the same thing. We have no idea if it's clean or not. Plus, if the lid had to follow the cup on the beverage queue, you'd have to handle it everytime you moved the cups, thus requiring the barista to wash their hands over and over. You know this wouldn't happen in the real world.

On a Tuesday, really?

Hope my manager doesn't mind one of her shifts not being there. I'll be in school.

Posted by: brainybarista | Feb 11, 2008 6:55:50 PM

Sounds like brainybarista needs to prioritize some things here... work or school. I'd say they probably need to be fired because they can't do their jobs. Plus, think of the customers who will have crappy drinks because this person did not receive proper retraining.

AND, if you're getting rid of spoons to stir things (which I assume means mochas), I'll be specifically asking for a short, STIRRED mocha, no whip. I'll even hand you a stir stick, but honestly, that's not really my job and you'll probably not get a tip.

FINALLY, it's horribly inconveniencing to customers that Starbucks stores will be closed during a normal business time. I mean, it's not really the customers fault that baristas haven't been/ can't seem to do their jobs right and home office has to come in and do retraining. Frankly, this stuff should be handled before or after normal business hours. It wouldn't kill you all to show up at 2 AM or stay until midnight/ 1 AM for retraining. Especially since customers shouldn't have to work around the help; the help should work around the customer.

Starbucks still has a long way to go if these are considered monumental steps for correcting the path of the company. I'm thinking we need to see massive layoffs and a lot of rehiring of decent help and then we'll discuss retraining.

pouring with no spoon is the only way to go...it's all about the wrist

you are evil.

and as i understand it, we'll still have the stir spoons. were just getting rid of the big foam spoons.

To the quippy quoter at 8:11:24:

If we're so inconvenient, then quit coming to our store. Please. Not tipping? Oh, I cry. I get paid well for what I do. The tips come from appreciative customers who care about their baristas, who you clearly are not. We are not getting rid of stir spoons. Your mochas have never been stirred unless you requested it. If they're made correctly, they don't need to be. Let's do a taste test. I doubt you can tell the difference. Our recopies would not exclude stirring if it did not have little impact on the final product. Hot espresso + mocha sauce + hot milk poured rapidly = stirring and proper mixing.

You're seriously complaining about a company attempting to re-invent itself? You think that people who are dropping by at 7pm for their caffeine fix will stop coming after one day of "inconvenience"?

This re-training is not merely what it appears to be. See that news link above? You think Howard thought this would be without extreme press and hubub? He is a wise, wise man and knows what he's doing. Free advertising without being self-toting.

That internal bean contest? Guess what...it's boosting sales. A lot. It's also solving the labor conundrum that has been plaguing stores for a while. I had to stay my entire shift yesterday because we were drastically UNDER our labor. Increased Q1 sales. Virtually perfect labor. Immediate results.

A wise, wise man.

[Melody]

To anon at 8:11 on 2-11-08:

One thing I will say for you is that your post is well written in terms of grammar and spelling. Surely this is a sign of a good education. You must indeed recognize that very often the best employees are articulate, well-educated, and write quite well too: AHHHH ... all a sign of making school a priority. Hmmmm ... Perhaps this is the reason that so many employers have education reimbursement benefit programs or other education stipend type benefits.

There will be other chances for brainybarista to learn how to make a latte with no spoon, but school is his or her priority now.

As an aside, if you came into my store with that attitude (well I'm not actually a partner), I'd be delighted to find out that you're not staying to hang out INSIDE the store, but rather, you're exiting promptly.

And, finally, on a separate note, I always hang on to my lid on my personal tumblers. Perhaps there is a Washington law (really it would be an administrative code - WAC, and not an RCW, but that's a legal conversation) on point that requires it. In any event, I'll go with the flow either way. It's no big deal to hold a lid.

[Kittymoose]

Why would a person need to prioritize between work and school? As far as I can tell, this was just sprung on everyone. brainybarista no doubt is logged as unavailable in the schedule. He or she was not expected to work that day until, like I said, this was sprung on everyone.

Secondly, yes, it would be awful for a mandatory meeting/training session to be scheduled until 1 am, or beginning at 2 am. I don't know about everyone else, but that's when I sleep. I do have a life outside of starbucks.

[Danny]

One of the partners complained about impatient customers. I think there is a differnce in stores and times. When I go to my Starbucks which is my "Third Place" time is not an issue. But when I jump off the bus in the morning and need to get a drink quick--or to avoid missing the bus at night-- time does count. I love Starbucks. I love that employees get at least some benefits. I love Howard pushes federal government to get health insurance initiative. So Starbucks is my first choice. But when I look in the window and I see a line I mozy down the street to Tullys or an independent. And ultimately it hurts you as a barista when I do that. It's not the two minutes making a drink. It's the 5 minutes in line waiting to get my order taken-- another 5 for my drink to get through the line th barista already has before them. So it can be a 15 minute for my relatively tall, non fat latte. And that makes me late for work or I iss my bus. To paraphrase Bill Clinton's campaign slogan "It's the lines, stupid" I don't see drink quality being an issue at any of the Starbucks I go to. I think it is the Managers that need retrained to help their work force be as quick as possible that counts for me--especially at those sensitive times.

[Westside Barista]

I'm happy about the retraining...

Just not with my manager... He can't make a decent drink to save his life...

[Zipy]

Store Managers and DMs are required to taste the drinks of their stores?

Awesome.

Some people just make a crappy drink, and I wince when they take over bar. I feel guilty.

What if the personal cup does not have a lid?

[luvalmond]

"It wouldn't kill you all to show up at 2 AM or stay until midnight/ 1 AM for retraining. "

Uhh..yeah..go tell that to a 24 hour store, or my store. Partners are there from 8pm at night till 4am when the next round of partners come in. So you're right it wouldn't kill us, but honestly saying school is less important is just rediculous.

I just wish the company would pick its priority and stick with it. They've been beating us over the head to go "faster faster faster" for the past year or two now..fast forward: Howie takes over, now we're back to quality. But wait, last month it was "dont do anything that will make you spit that drink out any faster" and now suddenly all of the baristas are supposed to "forget that" now we're gonna focus back on coffee. Here are 5 new things to slow you down. I just hope to god they're not gonna beat us over the head for speed taking a hit with all these new standards. Yes, you can be fast after practicing. No, not everyone is going to be working at the same speed immediately after the transition.

Oh, and the personal cup thing. I was always taught we dont put lids back onto non-sbux tumblers because we can't guarantee that lid is going to "seat" properly. So Sally Q. Customer takes a drink of her Caramel Macchiato and the lid pops off on her and she gets horrible burns on her face because she had to have it at 200 degrees, we're liable because WE put the lid on.

[luvalmond]

"lattes and caps will be free poured. it is all in the steaming technique. there's even a way to do a no-foam that you can free-pour. almost all of it has to do with positioning of the steam wands and timing."
NYCBearista, I hope they teach us. Because I'm all about aerating milk, to make my yummy foam, not only because it tastes better, but because it's not loud. I could steam milk so it doesn't have foam, but the milk would be screaming at me as I shout out drinks to customers and strain to hear people. Is this really a possibility? If it is I can't wait.

[Peaches]

Man, that part about prioritizing work over school was hilarious. I love Starbucks, and I'm a long time partner, but school comes before work, and the fact that you think that student should skip class to attend a Starbucks meeting reflects your character.

[imabarista]

BSR
Some of us don't run to the comp to spill the beans, so to speak, as soon as we get the news.

So now. No resteaming. Thank the Lord.

[radiopromoguy]

As for switching to small pitchers... We did that a couple of months ago at my store. We all complained about it. But we all got used to it and within a week, we loved it.

As important as this retraining is, we all know it is also a publicity stunt. Howard confirmed this in his vm this afternoon when he said that we needed to do something that was disruptive to the market that would let our customers know that we are serious about esresso quality.

[Vicki Verona]

Howard is gonna piss off a lot of RDOs and DMs with todays message saying that he wants us to display breakfast sandwiches until the end of the fiscal year when we remove them from our offerings.

We were told when he made the announcement through an action item that we no longer were to display sandwiches in our pastry cases due to so much signage and awareness already prevalent.

[Mary]

How about re-training the employees to provide better customer service?

ANON at 8:11:24 pm on 2/11...closing during regular hours is a STATEMENT about how important this is to everyone. Howard is a genius when it comes to marketing....like Steve Jobs. I just hope the customer care issue gets addressed. I've stopped going to some SBUX because of the mental abuse I've received by young female baristas. I'm not kidding, they are really cruel (I know you older folks understand what I'm talking about!!).

Do you think the screens will be used for some sort of teleconferencing of our training? It would be a good idea if no one has thought of it.

not all stores have "The Screens"

(cue 1984-esque Apple ad)

The Screens should be in all company owned stores by the end of September. That's the latest I heard from my FIM

[Vicki Verona]

^ Oops thats me.

SBUX Stockholder and Coffeemaster - agree with both of your comments. Training in terms of customer service needs to be addressed. I used to love to go to my favorite SBUX....it was my second place! (work, SBUX, then home!). I miss it so much, it's just not there anymore.

You need to care about your customers, not by giving them whatever they complain about, but by treating them like human beings. Stop gossiping among yourselves about the customers or what you did with your friends last night, and just pay attention to the customers.

When I used to work on the front line in another business, I always wanted the customer to feel like a friend, like someone who had entered my home. It paid off big for me in many ways, and I don't remember any abusive customers. None.

If you lead the way and try to be nice to the customer and sincerely care for them, you will be rewarded. Please note that I am not trying to be critical of anyone. Just sharing my years of experience in business. I miss the way Starbuck's used to be....

[Dima K]

It is so funny. I was doing all of this staff (except the shot glasses) for a long time: no spoon ever, always a free pour, always a small pitcher, always foam to order. Guess what - everybody in a store looked at me like a was an idiot. To the point that every time I would need to prove to my SS and SM that you do not use the spoon for a cappuccino ever! HA!

"I've stopped going to some SBUX because of the mental abuse I've received by young female baristas. I'm not kidding, they are really cruel (I know you older folks understand what I'm talking about!!)."

what do they do???

[itsnotamermaid]

i'm excited. some people and their bar skills...ugh. also, i don't care WHAT you do to a mocha or other thick syrupped drink as you pour, i want that drink stirred with a spoon.

my ex-boyfriend is gonna love this! he was always talking shit to me about much better sbux was back in his day...he has now been vindicated.

[Nerfebarista]

if you want a stirred drink, it looks like youll get to stir it pretty soon

[Nerfebarista]

that comment will undoubtedly offend some of you guys and im sorry but the kind of attitude just relayed above me is the kind that makes me hate certain types of people. I like my job and MOST of my customers. But that attitude we can all do without. Pretentios litte .......

[Nerfebarista]

wth.. man I totally flubbed that word eh?

It's too involved to get into here ANON, but (briefly), young women can be very cruel by leading men on and then making them feel like trash when the man just wants to carry on a conversation. I know it works both ways, but for me this has been a very, very hurtful situation resulting in an unbelievable amount of gossip and my having to leave a Starbuck's that I enjoyed very much. The other baristas won't talk to me, I miss out on seeing other customers which were true friends of mine, and all because one young woman has to feed her ego by thinking that I'm after her. I won't give her the pleasure of saying that I have no interest in her, which would probably only make it worse. I just hope that she will be fired or transferred. Men have feelings too.

[CaliSM]

To those way up at the top of this thing, arguing about the shots being pulled directly into the cup for to-go espresso:
Howard specifically asked us to cease pulling shots into any cup the moment we heard (or read) his message...even for to-go ESP. He said that solos and doppios were to be handed off in demitasse mugs, unless specified as "to-go", as they are most often consumed right away. No where did he say that it was ok to make an exception here.