Weekend OPEN THREAD: Let's get the chatter going!

Discuss the bold coffee promotion -- are customers taking the sticker books? (I've got mine!) -- or anything else Starbucks-related. || Jump to the second page of comments.

Comments

[BOSTON STARBUCKS REBEL]

@Sbuxgangsta

We already had a discussion about the BOLD outage in this region apparently it is York's fault. They did not send us the correct shipment for this promotion. I even checked the order sheet myself and guess what York screwed up and every other store in this region.

[javagirl666]

I didn't have any trouble getting Yukon.

[Manny]

For those of you that think you do not have Via goals think twice. You have been warned!!!! How come some stores give you a free coffee when you buy a 3 pack of Via and others do not? What is the standard????????????????

[CD]

I have a question for baristas and store managers:

Three different stores that I've visited the past two days did not have Yukon brewing, but instead were brewing a different bold (Verona). However, there were still Yukon 1 pound Flavorlock bags in those stores.

Are the one pound bags considered "sacred?" I remember the "old days" when bags were opened on a whim but those days seem to be long gone. Are the newer baristas afraid to open a one pound bag? Has there been something that has come down from corporate about not opening the one pound bags?

I know they were opened en masse when the new bag designs came out to "brew through" the old style bags, but why the change? Why not brew it if you've got it?

[notalwaysasitseems]

@metastable-no juggling...you can only get ONE pound of free coffee at the end...yea

[notalwaysasitseems]

they are pretty sacred CD...they should NOT be

[gmreat]

i usually receive my order on weds, but since the bold promo launched on tues, they separated my yukon bullets from the rest of my order. on the portal, they were listed as a separate order, scheduled to arrive on tues. they did not come tues, nor did they come wed with the rest of my RP order. I was relieved but also more than a little miffed when they showed up late thursday.

[foamy latte]

is it true that dazzle is going away? It works so well on the stainless steel. Hmmmm my mngr said we can't order it anymore....and we had Yukon for a couple of hours of the first day of the promo...1 lb. bags we were ripping open. Then switched to Sumatra...we had some in back and it is not the featured coffee for several weeks ( ;) plenty of time to reorder!)

[foamy latte]

Also to my partners EVERYWHERE...make sure you get on the portal and give your feedback with the survey. This is an opportunity for us to tell corporate WE WANT OUR PERSONAL DAYS BACK! If everyone mentions that, maybe Howie will "git her dun".

[Waltie]

"SM - "You guys are waiting on bold?"

Us - "Yes, Pike Place is dishwater.""

You had that kind of smug attitude and then criticized the manager for not wanting to have a conversation with you? Maybe it's because you came across like a jerk.

[Melody]

@notalwaysasitseems - It wasn't always that way about the flavorlock bags. There is a lot of profit in whole bean even if you sell 1/4th bag, and historically - the Starbucks of yesterday - baristas ripped open the bags easily to connect with customers over a French press, make a press for the customer who ordered a cup of coffee different than what is brewing, have an in-store coffee tasting, introduce them to a new coffee, sample whole coffee beans, brew something different, sell a 1/2 pound of a bean, create a different blend by mixing two core coffees per customer request, make a half-caf blend for a customer, ...If you're about the beans, you can't view the packaging as a wall between you and the coffee experience.

That Starbucks of yesterday is gone I guess. The modern Starbucks sells less than 3% of its store sales in whole bean. Wonder why. *NostalgicMoment*

[yournotsouthernstopit]

foamy...it's GETERDUN...just sayin...this is why non -southerners should not attempt to use southern sayings...they don't understand them nor know how to apply them

[SBUX Customer]

The new bold promotion is great. However, I think they are going to have the same problem Subway had a few years ago. If I remember correctly, Subway had a card that you could fill with stickers to get a free sub. However, people started selling them on eBay. Subway had to stop the program.
Now Starbucks is doing something similar. Just out of curiousity, I searched eBay for the bold promotion passport and found passports that are fully filled with stickers.

[@usorthem3]

@Melody even though most on this site think I'm the "slacker" that is too stupid or lazy to buy a mop,(my SM bought it after 3 stores to find the right one) I just wanted You to know that yesterday I personally opened 1# bags to make a customer a custom blend of his choice. He even communicated his order wrong the 1st time and I had to open a different bag. It's strange to me how over the last three years since I was hired that the "culture/passion" of this company has mutated into a whole different animal. As I was trained in the age of the Blue Barista 101 book, we seemed to have been taught a whole different way of thinking when it comes to customers that want coffee. I think this current promotion is quite humorous thou that we are to teach our client base about the various coffees that we sell when that is EXACTLY what we used to do with Coffee of the WEEK. I said it in April 2008, that in switching to Pike Place Roast only as one of the brewed options, Sbux took away their own customer base's choice. Serving as Howard stated then "the best cup of coffee in the world" in his opinion, left the customers behind that had for ?????years had come to stores knowing that they had a choice in what they wanted for brewed coffee. In rare form I'm going to look thru Ur eyes at the positive side because when U said the barista in Seattle didn't even know there was a Peru coffee available I laughed because You of all people probably taught them something about the process/source/method for that coffee that they would not have learned thru training, Thanks for that. One down, 125,000 to go. LOL I think YOU need Ur own personal Coffee Master apron so I'll check on ebay and see if I can get U one. Keep sipping and teaching the history of Sbux that You know so well. Cheers

[(former) FLA SM]

@ waltie:

"There's always the chance, of course, that your DM was misinformed. Perhaps she was lied to about how you all would be well taken care of."

Extremely unlikely. There were no apologies, no explanations. In fact, I was severanced over the phone because the DM was too cowardly to do it to my face. If she was lied to, she would likely have apologized for not following through on her promise. Instead, she brought an HR person with her to cover her ass if there were any problems. Additionally, she has posted on this website a few times under an assumed name trying to defend her actions, with no mention of being misinformed.

[foamy latte]

yournotsouthernstopit:
ok take it easy. You are funny. Oh, and yes, I'm midwestern. You're right. hahahahahahah
But seriously, I want my personal days back. For me, this was an extra 16 hours of pay a year, and every little bit helps.

[AlliSwan]

CD, I know if we used our 1-lb bags, we'd be out of Yukon in a matter of a few hours, no way would it last the week (I see foamy latte had the same deal). I offered to french press the Yukon for the few customers who even noticed but they laughed and said it didn't even matter to them. We finally got bullets of Yukon on the third day of the promotion so it wasn't *that* bad, but still...

Melody, I love that my SM doesn't consider the bags sacred, if we ever have a free moment (rarely), we are more than welcome/encouraged to do a tasting.

[jeff]

Starbucks has spent a lot of time, research and money for a loyalty card that is very limited. Should be able to track bold coffee purchases for eight weeks with a registered card. The sticker books are so eighties.

[Melody]

@AlliSwan - Yeah, I do understand that if you brewed through the one-pound bags all day, you would run out pretty quickly. Glad to hear though you'll open them up upon request. :-)

Just as an aside, I'm not a huge fan of Estima, though it's drinkable. I almost would have rather seen French Roast or Espresso Roast for that week of the 8 week promotion. Most people seem unaware that Espresso Roast makes a fine drip coffee, and it would be great to introduce customers to that. Just as you can pull shots with anything in the hopper (though I realize Starbucks doesn't allow you to just fill the hoppers with another coffee for fun) - You can make a fine shot of espresso with a nice single origin or other Starbucks coffee - You can also make a fine drip brew with Espresso Roast.

While we're on the random topic of which beans used for what, I've had doppio con pannas with Pike Place Roast pulled as the shot, and that, by far, is the best use of PPR that there is. I think it tastes better as a shot than as a drip brew.

[vanillaespresso]

I love this promotion! It's amazing that bold coffee is back. I remember a couple years ago I could go into Starbucks and try a different kind every week - now those days are back :)

[whathappened??]

There are more times than I would like to admit that I learn about the promotion here............not from my SM. We are running -2.5% every week that is with her padding her hours as much as possible to look better. CV is in the low 60s... turnover.......oh lets say we have lost 14 in 8 weeks from SM's behavior, lack of training...throwing new and I mean first shift partners on the register ...... it goes on and on . I thank the SMs that take their personal time( that is over 40 hours ).... to make sure promotions and training are done.....being in a store that this is not ..... we rely on customers and here.......for information!!!!!

[SBUX Customer]

Went to Starbucks today (March 14) to get a passport and they already started the Italian Roast coffee, which is supposed to start tommorrow (March 15). Luckily I was given two stickers.

[Manny]

If you think that you should not be focusing on Via think twice!!! You have been warned!

[Sbuxnewbie]

The Yukon was zeroed out on the order last week, and a separate UPS shipment was made. The CSR said that the York plant had "issues", and left it at that.
(We've also had 3 or 4 shipments directly from York lately, because they were unable to ship product to DPI Boston. It seems that a couple of weather-related SNAFU days can throw off a roasting plant for more than a week.
The Italian Roast has not been zeroed out on the manifest - we'll see if it actually shows up on Tuesday.
She also apologized because some tea- especially the China Green Tips - is out of stock. No idea when it will show up.

We got some from other stores in the district, but now nobody has the China Green Tips to spare.

[Mrs. Tillinghamshackles]

We've had the opposite issue. We have had out 1 lb bag orders (first Yukon, now Italian) zeroed out, making it hard to fill all the Bold places laid out in the Siren's Eye. We've been bagging one pound bags from the bullets for the basket and wall bay, etc.

[Darth Sidamo]

The bags are sacred mostly because of lack of storage space. We have been getting new syrups or something new added every two months for years now. We are running out of places to put things. Being a coffee master who also places thew hole bean order, I struggle to find places to put one pound bags to keep us stocked well enough to make it until the next order. You can sure bet I get creative. Dont be surprised if you ever walk into a store and you find a pound of coffee stuffed in a ceiling vent.

[Barista Ben]

Dazzle is somewhat dumb. All the partners I work with use it to make the bar area alll pretty. Who sees the shiney bar area? The openers. Then about an hour into being open it's a mess cause of all the drinks. What's the point? I could understand if we dazzled the doors or ANYTHINT the customers see but we don't. It should go.

[BOSTON STARBUCKS REBEL]

I dazzle the bathroom

[ex-flbarista]

i dazzle your mom...

[theywereright]

sbux customer-this is a new week. Today was the proper day to start Italian

[Buxguy]

Are we supposed to be brewing bold all day long now, with this new promotion? I feel kinda crappy telling customers to wait for bold when we have all these signs that say "Something Bold is Brewing."

[gmreat]

as an aside, a few other things that have been zeroed out on my orders for a while now:

*white syrup pumps
*fridge thermometers
*4X4 plexis
*BASKETS

I have not been able to even complete my set-up yet due to the lack of baskets, I have cracked plexis in use (oh, hello ecosure) and my temp log cannot be completed because not every item that needs temped has a thermometer. grrrr.

sorry, i needed to vent for a moment!

[erstwhile]

Can't get a damn pastry tray tag to save my life. Been ordering them every week for over 3 months now. What's the deal?

Also, 2-person coverage in a drive store with a 60-40 split and a constant flow of customers is really tiresome. And they expect us to be deep cleaning?

New frap system is on the portal (and SM's have received the promo material in their mail kits). Those that have experience... should I really be excited about adding more steps and potentially more "complicated orders" to one of our already-most-popular drinks? Why do we have to reinvent the wheel? And now we're going to have to cram even more milk in our refrigerators because the default milk is whole? Where's all this magical storage space coming from? Maybe I'll keep jugs of milk in the cupboards where the frap base used to be...QASA ought to like that.

Sorry for being snarky. It just bugs me when things don't seem like they've been thought about very thoroughly.

[TheDanimal]

Not to hijack this thread, but I figured out a solution to a problem with the pour-over brewing method & thought I'd pass the fix along...

Any partners notice how the stream of coffee comes out straight at first, but then angles out and misses the cup entirely? This is the liquid traveling the path of least resistance and following the plastic to the lowest point of the funnel (one of the four stubby plastic legs adjacent to either of the two holes).

The Fix:

Take a razor blade (careful) and remove the two plastic legs that are adjacent to the two holes. Now the holes are the lowest points on the funnel and the coffee will flow straight into the cup every time.

Hope this helps

[PoP MY DarkCherry]

So what's harder, opening the store, or closing??

[Jason G. in N.C.]

im not a fan of Sbux bold coffee...most of the time it numbs my mouth...what i dont like is being forced to take the passport...i only drink Pikes Place...i now have to explain to the cashier "I DONT DRINK THE BOLD, I DONT LIKE IT, SO WHY WOULD I WANT THIS PIECE OF PAPER WITH A STICKER ON IT." if i say no thanks, or im not interested they dont seem to care, they still hand me the card and smile and say next customer in line...GOOD LITTLE ROBOTS!!!if i had something to do with advertising at Sbux corporate, i'd be proud...but i dont, im just a customer and it annoys me...

[.]

Whoever in Seattle felt like we needed 27 baskets on the floor for this promo is quite out of touch (to put it nicely).

[holylackoftraining]

@the danamail...what the heck are you doing when you pour over? No fix is needed! If it's poured slowly and in a swirl motion it all goes in.

[North Star Barista]

Hey - the partner survey got hung up on my saturday night and I was never able to finish...did this happen to anyone else? (Of course I was the last partner scheduled to do the survey and it got pushed out 2 days becuase of poor planning - and Enterprise application could only advise to start over, which it then hung up on my 2 more times.)

[mousie]

I love the idea of the bold promotion - the local stores tend to stick with either Sumatra or the current seasonal blend as their morning pick, and this is a great chance to try the other bolds (although I love Sumatra). I don't mind the old-fashioned sticker book. It's kinda retro, and hey, free beans.

But for cryin' out loud, the partner at the register didn't have a clue what I was talking about when I asked for my sticker. Eventually another partner came over to show her the sticker roll and explain how it worked. This was on day #6 of the promotion!

[bayareabux]

Oh, boy. Fresh for you Frappuccino is comoing. Brace yourselves and enjoy the next 7 weeks while you can!!

[baristamclane]

baristamclane: I hate the be the bearer of bad news..but there are still VIA goals for your store. They are just not in the forefront of this promo. VIA is now an ongoing metric that we are being measured on, you might want to talk to your sm/dm about it. My store has to do $18/day to stay on track for the next 2 qtrs.

Posted by: javagirl666

NOOOOOOOOOO! My SM was telling us we had no known VIA goal for this promo. Somehow, this lack of communication does not surprise me.

[BOSTON STARBUCKS REBEL]

Hasn't anybody else noticed that the video stutters alot. Guess they didn't get good video cards for those computers.

[Melody (@Mousie)]

@Mousie - I still love the bold promotion too. I saw something that I thought was sort of touching today. An older guy in a total business professional suit(white hair, looked like late 50s) was immediately ahead of me in line at my Starbucks. He was getting the bold coffee, and collected his sticker for his sticker book. You could see he was genuinely smiling as he got his sticker, and suddenly he stopped and chatted with the baristas about how he remembered the old 90s customer passport books where you collected the stickers and turned the book in for free whole bean coffee when the book was full. It sounded exactly like the kind of thing I would say. I jumped in spontaneously with, "Hey I collected those too!" and he smiled and said something like, "weren't those great" and pretty soon he was on his way. It was just one of those cool moments, hard to describe totally with words.

[adoubleshotofclarity]

@BSR - That's the internet connection, not the video card. Let it buffer.

@baristamclane - Why complain about it? If your manager isn't giving you a hard time, enjoy the reprieve.

[Darth Sidamo]

@Melody

You know it is things like that which keep me from finally throwing in the towel for this company for the unfulfilled expectations i have had. Finally focusing on coffee is like reinserting a once beating heart into a marathon runner.

I still have to force VIA upon people at the cost of customer satisfaction (our score has gone down 25 percent since the push) but I will enjoy these last 6+ weeks. That is until Build-A-Frappuccinobear debuts.

[happily moved on]

When you break it all down, every issue and every barista complaint can be linked to Sbux inability to distribute and stock its product.
new frap= less skus in warehouse
coffee calendar=less skus to roast
seasonal syrups= less skus
PPR=time to rescue sinking ship
Every decision is made with one goal in mind and NO it is not customer satisfaction, it is sku reduction.

[formermanager]

The frap thing will go like this: I want mine with skim milk, a splenda, extra ice, and a pump of mocha. "Ewwww, this doesn't taste like the mocha light frappuccino. Can you remake it?"

[dreadingthenewfrapps]

absolutely...I'm really dreading it...