OPEN THREAD conversation-starter: What should be done with unsold food in Starbucks stores?

A STARBUCKS GOSSIP reader/barista writes:

We always have a lot of expired and marked-out food at closing time -- sandwiches, yogurts, pastries. The closing partners sometimes go home with a dozen sandwiches and two loaf cakes! This food supposedly should go to the local food pantry, but with delivery problems this doesn't happen.

I know of stores where nobody is allowed to take any marked-out food and it goes out with the trash....stores where the shift supervisor takes what he wants and throws the rest out. Does Starbucks have an official policy on unsellable food? What is it?

Discuss this or anything else Starbucks-related in the open thread.

Comments

[JohnAengus]

Well, Monday is the day! in our small tow, the Safeway store will have a Starbucks opening Monday morning!! I can't wait!!!

[Tam]

In our store, we mark each pastry out as donated, wrap it, and put it in a bag for our local AIDS food bank. The person from there comes by and gets it 2-3 times a week. Very simple. I understood policy to be we are absolutely not allowed to take pastries for ourselves.

[STUCKINTHEDRIVETHRU...NO LONGER!!!]

The official policy is that we're not allowed to take any marked out pastries/foods home, reason being, they don't want people hiding pastries/sandwiches/parfaits in the back so they won't be available for the customer to purchase. They tell us the reason why we aren't allowed to take sandwiches home is they "don't want us getting sick from the expired product" which I call BS because why would it be okay to sell it to a customer at 9:59 pm before we close but then not be able to eat the sandwhich 45 minutes later after we leave the store?

[PunkyBrewster]

We have the same arrangement as Tam- mark out as donated, and two cute, shaky old men come by 2-3 times a week for the huge bags of pastries for an outreach program.

The biggest BS thing ever is that my BF works at Whole Foods which used to be a Wild Oats, and when it was a WO, he was allowed to take home any of the leftover sushi in the case at close, and we'd usually eat that for dinner. As soon as it became a WF, he was not allowed, and they throw away trays and trays of delicious (and a lot of non-fish!) sushi. I understand the concern over food safety pertaining to seafood, but I still find it wasteful and ridiculous.

[astoundedcustomer]

here's a better idea: get to selling those pastries, learn to order only what you think you'll sell and there will be no waste.....

i'm sort of ok with donating them to charities, but why do the baristas think it's ok to take something for free that customers pay for? there's a lot of unearned entitlement in that idea.

also, talk about a waste of profit! geez!!! i mean, this is not good for shareholders or customers who will have to pay a higher price down the road so starbucks can generate profit off of this stuff.

once again, self-entitled baristas who think they deserve much better than the customers they're there to serve. remember, without your customers, you've got nothing!!!

i say learn to do your jobs better and then there won't be any of this nonsense or waste.

between this website, i can see why people have bad experiences in the stores. starbucks needs to hire a new staff and do it fast!!!

[SisterOfBarista]

My sister used to work at a Target Sbux and they had to throw everything away at the end of the night, just like they had to do in the Target food court area.

Not that she wanted to take home anything anyway - that area had a serious problem with flies. Being situated directly at the entrance was good for business, but the automatic doors that stayed open all day were not good for flying pests. Ick.

[jabanga]

i know he is just a troll but clearly astounded customer has never worked in the foodservice industry. no matter how efficient you are it is impossible to eliminate a certain amount of waste unless you are willing to eat all kinds of lost sales opportunities.

"here's a better idea: get to selling those pastries, learn to order only what you think you'll sell and there will be no waste....."

get a clue, because clearly you haven't got one...

[Waste Not]

AstoundedCustomer, wow - this really has nothing to do with so-called "entitled baristas". First of all, Starbucks WANTS us to have pastries for markout - basically because if we have none left at the end of the night, that means we weren't maximizing our profits - we probably could have sold more after we had run out. Secondly, no one is complaining they don't get things for free. If someone wants to buy a pastry during the day, they pay like customers do. But at the end of the night, when it's either go home with it or throw it out (in the case of sandwiches) people don't see why they can't just take it home. How is that self-entitled? Geez.

[Mee]

Thank you for bringing that up here.

The official rules are clear and whowever claims to not know it should get retrained.

Officially we are not supposed to take anything home at all we didn't pay for.

This is a rule a lot of people have problems to understand but it prevents fraud. And believe me, fraud is a huge issue in a lot of stores. And why should the closing partner always get freebies while the opening partner gets nothing? That's causing trouble over time. In my store that led to people guessing at 5 pm what might be left at closing time and marking it out for themselves.
Anyway, since you guys bring it up here and it is now a public discussion they will certainly make sure the rules are going to be followed by the letter from now on. This will leave no room to bend the rules by the shift-supervisor on duty.
I personally can live with getting a treat offered by my shift once in a while, but discard or donate everything the rest of the time. Because I know my shift bends the rules to make me happy I really appreciate the occasional treat from him/her.
I really don't understand why some people (my fellow partners) feel entitled to get leftovers.
Does it feel weird to throw food into the garbage? Hell, yes. But these rules are in effect to prevent this whole entitlement thinking and jealousy feeling between baristas. And again. it is there to prevent fraud. Sorry to break it to you, but not everyone is honest through and through.

Thanks to everyone who takes everything home at night to make sure I can't enjoy my occasional treat in the future anymore.

[STUCKINTHEDRIVETHRU...NO LONGER!!!]

ASTOUNDED CUSTOMER:

I'm not saying that we deserve the pastries any more than customers do. We've attempted to find people to donate our pastries to but we've had no luck. Our store has been doing better about ordering pastries so that we throw fewer away, but it's hard when your business is as spastic as our stores'. Since we're not donating our pastries and we're not selling our pastries, that means we are THROWING THEM AWAY at the end of the night. I have tons of starving college student friends that love when I bring home a donut or two when I close the store. Same thing for the sandwiches which we cannot even donate. My point is that when given the choice between throwing them away and taking them home, I would rather not let them go to waste.

[IllinoisShift]

I'm a shift supervisor who usually gets stuck closing five nights a week. Our store definitely has issues selling our pastires (mostly AM-- we have a ton of scones left over and some shifts who can't pull correctly!). We donate all of our marked out pastires to a local food pantry who come a few times a week. Every once and a while a barista will ask to take like one pastry home. That doesn't really bother me, but I never allow anyone to take like an entire cake home! That's ridiculous. Usually our markouts overflow the crate we use for the food pantry, so I know not many people are "stealing."

I think the worst thing people do is DURING a shift when partners markout out pastries as sampled and eat them. I always pay for mine and make the partners on my shift pay. At 30% off, most only cost a 1.50 at our store. Hardly breaking the bank. If something is expired, we don't lose money like we do when partners take pastries while working.

[aeiou]

There's an easy way to not have things to mark out at the end of the day: sample them to customers before you close! If you're going to lose a sale anyway, why not give the customer the opportunity to try an item for free? To be honest, I don't always think of this when I'm closing at my store, but when I notice that there are a lot of pastries expiring that night, I'll cut them up into very generous portioned samples. It doesn't always work because we get very few customers from around 7pm to close, but if it's getting discarded at the end of the day anyway, why not? (Also, this thread has reminded me that I keep meaning to talk to my manager about finding somewhere we can donate our old pastries.)

[Jen]

At my store, pastries, unless sampled during the shift are all individually wrapped and marked out strictly for donation to local women's shelters. Because everyone knows that these pastries are going to a good cause, people are really honest with them.

Sandwiches are another story though - I and a lot of the other baristas at my store are really bothered by the idea of throwing out perfectly good food especially since there is a global food crisis. I try to sample sandwiches at the end of the night, and when it's 30 mins to close I sometimes give them to people I know will really appreciate them - cops, homeless etc. Not often enough that any customers will start showing up explicitly for that reason, but as a treat once in a while. I haven't seen anyone at my store 'hiding' food so that it can be marked out at the end of the night, which is simply theft - but if we have too much, I don't see problems with people taking what would otherwise be thrown out.

It is a case of overestimating what people will buy, but the point (as has been mentioned before) is that Sbux would rather order too much and always have pastries/sandwiches available to sell that to tell the customer that we're sold out of their favourite item.

[Thoughts]

There is a reason why your pastries aren't selling. They are crap! I bet even Howard wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole, especially in hometown Seattle, where the pastries are a joke!

Get some real pastries!

[100% Kona made in a Clover]

We had a shelter picking up pastries every night, but they stopped coming for them. We have zero problems with jeolousy and such, and leftover sandwiches at close are considered fair game. Most of us are so sick of everything anyway that they get thrown out reguardless. It does seem quite wasteful to me to throw out good food, especially with so much hunger in the world.

[a]

You know, I used to not have a problem with my shifts and baristas taking markout sandwiches, meals, etc. at the end of the day, since we were just throwing them out anyway... however, I just thought of something:

What if Sally Shift is having a party and wants some Strawberries & Creme cake? Why not just up the daily order 1 above or 2 above, so that there's a whole one to markout. Obviously, the incidence here would be small, but taking home free food completely removes the business incentive to keep markouts low...

Sorry guys, no more!!

[ASM]

Pastries are to be marked-out and donated NOT thrown away. Also, we are not allowed to take home any of the marked out pastries, however if I or anyone of my partners is strapped for cash and is seriously hungry then I see no prop with it.

[Joe]

There's a certain logic to the justifications for partners eating mark outs that's, well, interesting...

Starbucks throws out a certain amount of food each night ---->THERE'S A GLOBAL FOOD CRISIS!!!--->Therefore it's ok for me to take the food home and eat it.

Doesnt get much more self serving than that.

[Kate]

We never know until we actually lock up the store whether the "pastry lady" is coming-- she picks them up for a charity that deals with adults living with mental illness. Great cause, but she's never too regular with pickup. So we invariably have wind up with several bags of nicely packed pastries that have to be brought out of the store as we leave if they weren't picked up. Nobody wants to walk them to the dumpster after the mall's closed, or put them into mall trashcans because the homeless people will be after them (it's sort of an open-air mall kinda deal), so we each have to take a bag or two home.

New partners are super stoked about this, but the rest of us curse the pastry lady for not showing up. If I wind up with a bag, I'll usually throw it away once I get home. I'm sick of Starbucks food, on top of not being able to eat things easily if I don't know the nutrition info.

I'm just a barista, but I don't see a problem with this IN MY STORE. It's a small-volume store, and we have markout every night. People who open also close, and vice versa. Everyone has a chance at marked out food, and more than half of us never want anything. By the end of the night, none of our customers want anything that's been there all day anyway, since local mentality is super wary about that kind of thing for some reason.

[Joss]

It's such a waste to throw tons and tons of food when there are people out there starving... We had someone from the salvation army come once in a while.... we always had bags and bags of pastries saved from a whole week and they never came to pick them up... so I just kept throwing them away.... it was disgusting... and most of our partners don't even want the pastries... maybe one or two... but the rest goes in the trash.... glad not many people in my store like our horrible pastries....

BTW has anyone gotten the new espresso machine? We got our yesterday.... it's called MASTRENA and it's the easiest machine EVER!
It looks like a space ship.... We have officially become button pushers...

[Ex-InterstateBarista]

I think I took home a couple pastries a couple of times from the bag and didn't care. Hell, I ate pastries while I was working sometimes (although I'd usually guise it under "hey, let's do a pairing!" )

[Richard]

I think it's nice that all the partners want to give the pastries away to starving people, but people in English speaking North America would have to actively try to starve to death. There are so many programs out there to keep people fed.

The "global food crisis" mostly applies to third world countries, and I think it might be a bit too hard to send all of our expired pastries to Haiti, Mauritania, Sudan, or some other hell hole.

[Darleen]

I get the whole "we're gonna throw it away anyway" argument however if Starbucks wanted to give away the pastries to partners they would not be given a 30% discount. I know you aren't going to like hearing this but if you take pastries from the store whether it is the end of the night or the middle of the day and you didn't pay for it, it is stealing. If one of my partners asks me if they can mark out a pastry and eat it because they are hungry and have no money I just normally buy it for them with my discount, shows them to use their integrity and also that I care about them but also the company.

[truth]

The voice of compassion has spoken!

[BRUNO]

I work full time at a Starbucks in a city where living expenses are high and I am on the poverty line.
Would every one prefer I dig through the dumpster after the store is closed to get my Thai Tuna wrap?

[Darleen]

You just have to get a dig in don't you TRUTH? What is your problem? Why don't you find someone else to pick on? I'm getting really tired of it.

[Lurking Barista]

Darleen- You have to admit that was funny. Your undying optimism is great and your attitude rocks!(it's also tempting to bait).At least "truth" uses the same name all the time

AND ANYONE THAT RESPONDS TO "ASTOUNDED BARISTA"- iT'S THE SAME PERSON EVERYDAY UNDER A DIFFERENT NAME!!!

-always talks about serving the customer (Serve ME! No respect for you!)
-makes up some story semi-relevant to the topic
-often notes they made complaints to get someone fired
-talks about why SBUX is in trouble.....the partners
-sometimes talks about going to fastfood "competitors"

[SBCManager]

At SBC, we are supposed to log all wasted food for our loss total at the end of the month. Anyone caught bringing expired food home, or eating expired food, is immediately terminated. It's a LP issue.

[Lurking Barista]

Darleen- Oops, looks like you have had your suspicions (yesterday's thread where you mentioned "espressoblend"). I hadn't seen the latest "partners have sense of entitlement" comment. Seems "espressoblend" figured out by changing names, comments will not just be ignored as trolling. Scary thing is, I think it's a partner.

FYI, there is legal liability for the Webmaster in revealing IPs, if one can even see them using typepad to host the site.

[Darleen]

Darleen- You have to admit that was funny

Actually, I don't. This poster has made numerous attempts to mock me or insult me. Five minutes did not go by before he/she jumped on the chance to knock my character. I personally don't find it funny. Glad it gave you a chuckle though.

[Jeff]

I think Darleen has a heart of gold. It's a pity that makes her an object of derision by some of the small-minded dweebs on this site.

Bottom line on the whole taking pastries and sandwiches home, though, is if you didn't pay for them, then it's stealing. One can attempt to put shades of gray to it, but there aren't any here. Buy your stuff at a discount, donate the pastries to a charitable agency or trash it.

For Astounded Customer or whatever nom de plume you wish to use this day, truly come up with some other response than a variation of "you dirt. Me customer. Kneel before the power of me." Geez.

[StLouieDrip]

Change of topic:

If I get a bad americano (e.g. horribly bitter), what's the point of asking for a remake? Is correcting a bad espresso shot time-consuming and complicated? And I know it didn't sit for long, because I was the only customer and stood at the handoff while the barista made it. Thanks.

[Trent]

StLouieDrip:

It its not TOO time-consuming, but it does require a wait. My advice is to ask the barista to time their shots because they taste off.

[Lurking Barista]

Darleen, "Glad it gave you a chuckle though."

Um, I was trying to help you not allow "Truth" to get the best of you. It is always best to be able to laugh at oneself. They say laughing is good for you too :) Don't take yourself too seriously or you'll be miserable. Responding to such comments from "truth" just fuels the fire and encourages it in the future.

You seem like a good person and a great SM, and I've sat and kept my comments to myself long enough.

@Trent, if some customer asks me to, "time my shots", not sure how I would react. It could get ugly since I normally do so.

[seventysix [76]]

@Lurking Barista,

I had a similar situation like this happen today. It slipped my mind that we still had a button for Peppermint White Mocha, which makes the drink cheaper than charging for a White Mocha, add Peppermint. Customer brought it to my attention that it was normally cheaper, and I looked down and saw that he was right. I was almost too proud, but I looked back at him and smiled and said "you're right! Sorry about that, thanks for reminding me!"

It sucks biting the bullet sometimes, but really, we're just hear to provide legendary service.

Side-note: I love Darleen, the end.

seventysix [76]

[Darleen]

Lurking barista,
I was being sincere when I said I'm glad it gave you a chuckle. I too believe that laughter is good for the soul. Sorry you took it the wrong way. Thanks for the kind words. :)

[Trent]

@Lurking Barista:

But if your shots taste "bitter" to a regular Americano drinker, then it doesn't hurt to just do it. Your customer doesn't know that you time shots regularly. But if you do it, it gives the customer peace of mind that YOU doing everything you can to ensure quality.

[StLouieDrip]

Thanks, Trent. When I tasted it I was suddenly aware I didn't have any idea about the most effective way to express my dissatisfaction, nor what I should expect as to how it gets corrected. Is the "timing" the only thing that could cause bitterness? I don't mind the wait.

Lurking Barista, if a customer finds an americano tastes "off" what do you think is the best way to communicate that to you?

[Trent]

StLouieDrip:

The timing is the biggest contributor to the flavor profile. If its bitter, it could be that the shots are pulling too slow and pulling out too much of the espresso oils from the beans.

Using expired shots is also a contributor. Definitely not noticeable in a white mocha, but probably in an Americano. When we had our espresso excellence training, we all tasted the difference between an expired shot and a good shot, and the difference was definitely clear.

The best way to always bring up your dissatisfaction with a drink is to just be sensitive to the environment. If its crazy busy, probably softer tones are best. We get a lot of people who are "firmer" in their tone with us, and it definitely can put us in a funk. From my personal experience, I'm much more happier to re-make a drink, even if the person ordered it incorrectly, if they are just courteous and respectful.

[Trent]

Oh and also an FYI, the proper shot time range for the Verisimo machines is 15-19 seconds. For the new mastrena machines, it is 18-23 if memory serves me correctly.

[WaShift]

Astounded Customer!

I want to know if you had any luck getting that Barista fired or you finally found out the world doesn't revolve around you.

[Original Versimo Monkey]

My store wraps the baked goods at marking them out, puts them in a bin & nice ladies come and take them to their food program.I always carry the full bin for them if I am able.Their food program is part of the social network that makes starvation something one would have to consciously choose in our part of the country.I'm glad we're part of it.

I'm struggling with my job now for the first time in the 15 months I've been a shift supervisor.So many new expectations seem like just so many new ways I can fail.I can't seem to get the younger people I work with to try engaging customers in genuine human conversation.I'm not having success coaching them on pairing pastries with customer's drink choices, taking ownership of cleaning, etc. I'm seriously considering demoting myself. I would respond to coaching on pairing pastries with customer's drink choices, taking ownership of cleaning,maybe I could go back to exceeding expectations instead of feeling like I can't even see the expectations from here.

I love the Idea of our company, each deployment position is joyful fun to serve customers in, maybe I will do it...

Guess I'm more than a little freaked out by the DM's "first and final" corrective action about 5 minute drive thru times in his presence- I guess he doesn't realize how many 15 & even 30 minute times we have at our store (not on my watch - even as sick as I was the other day) Frustrated. want to exceed expectation...argh

and yes, please, ask for shots to be checked /recalibrated...nobody else may ask...maybe not barista,SS,ASM,SM,DM you never know...

[spork]

Original Versimo Monkey

I want to give you hope! There are young people (Well at least this 17 year old) that are committed to their job, so please don't feel like younger baristas will always be lazy etc. (I know you didn't say that)

ALSO To the rest of us... if you're going to use "Whom" or "Whomever"... try and use it correctly, it looks foolish when you use it as the subject of a sentence.

[StLouieDrip]

Thanks again, all. Yes, I'll probably keep it simple and say it tastes "off" or "bitter," and then let them take the lead in figuring out how to correct it.... I'm sure the word "recalibrated" makes me think it's all very complicated... but maybe not so much?

And Trent, I'm not the typical hell-raising tantrum-throwing get-my-coffee-now! type of customer, so yeah, that shouldn't be a problem either. ;-)

[Original Versimo Monkey]

Thanks Spork! I receive that hope... and no, I don't think any of my partners are lazy, just maybe not very open to coaching. My real frustration issue is really stemming more from internal priorities getting mangled by new directives, and then torqued by partners not delivering Legendary service.

And Trent- Recalibrating is just what we do to get correct shot times- and good shots...

[Original Versimo Monkey]

I mean STLOUIEDRIP...uh GOODNIGHT EVERYBODY!

[thatgirl]

In my days as a Target Sbux barista, we started by marking out the pastries, then wrapping them up and putting them in the break room for the night shift to eat. But that was stopped when a big bug problem was found in the break room. So then it was "toss 'em all", but I did occasionally bring a muffin or scone home for breakfast the next day -- because what's the harm? they were going to be thrown out anyway.

[Lindsay]

i know the new pastry program was put on hold, but didn't it include a day-old pastry portion? to have all shelf life be only one day and then sell the rest the next day at a discount?

I wish someone would come pick up pastries and take them somewhere from our store. i used to work at a homeless shelter that received them and our clients always really appreciated it.

[Mysticboi]

As for taking home pastries, I don't see why not. Initially at our store, everyone took home expired/markout stuff such as pastries and parfaits. We would seperate some stuff for the morning staff so you don't get this whole jealousy issue. We would write names on the parfaits and keep them in the back fridge. We also had an area for markout stuff and if a partners sees something they like, they take it. We would donate our pastries to some women's shelter, but the lady who comes to pick it up is very unpredictable. We sometimes had mountains of patries in the corner which were like a month old. So what do we do? At the end of the night we ask our partners if they want any? It was either that or the garbage.

That was a year ago...

Today, the donation lady is still unpredictable. Initially to get rid of some, I would cut it up and sample it out to customers....now it has gotton to a point where I just sample out a whole pastry to whoever comes a half an hour before closing. I give out like multiple pastries sometimes...you know what...alot of them say no.

As for our partners, no one takes home pastries anymore cuz they're so sick of it. I remember I took home pastries for a 2 whole weeks...I open my fridge and pastries would actually fall out..HAHA who am I kidding...I would have like 2 out of the 10 I bring home a day. The rest of the day I work so I don't have time to enjoy it at home. I think alot of partners were experiencing that too.

The fridge at the back is filled with expired parfaits...again, partners are so sick of it. The corner where we have like markout goodies is overflowing....again partners are so sick of it.

Personally I don't like to see waste. Customers at night already ate dinner so they have no need for pastries. Partners are sick of the pastries because they had too much of it. That and plus they think its fattening (store full of girls), can only eat so much, and alot of them have two jobs which doesn't give them the time to really enjoy the pastries. So for all of you anal about it, the rule naturally enforces itself at my store.
And for anyone who says it stealing....OH PLEASE. There are like over 10000 stores in this world, and we have markouts to show that we maximized profit. Each and everyday we markout pastries...take the amount your store marksout and times that by however many stores we have in this world. Lets say multiple agencies come and pick up the pastries from around the world, take those pastries PLUS all the other pastries and other goodies they pick up at some other stores other than starbucks...do u not think those agencies would throw away some too cuz they're so much, do you not think they would have leftovers too? We would rather throw it all away into the garbage if no one picks it up and not feed our fellow partners that want it? Expecially when theres a food crisis? ARE YOU INSANE?

[wholahay]

Exactly, whether it gets marked out and donated, or it gets marked out and taken home by partners...it's still lost profits. We had the smae problem at our store that the above poster had. The person who came to pick up the donated pastries would show up every other day one week, and then we wouldnt see them for 2 weeks. The pastries in teh back would draw fruit flies, and lord knows we don't need any help with that.

And also, my partners used to take the pastries home at the end of the night after the donation person stopped showing up completely, but now they're all SICK of the crap we sell. I agree, the problem kind of takes care of itself. You couldnt pay most of the partners in our store to eat the pastries.