There wasn't an available chair at the Kenosha, Wis. Starbucks (off I-94) on Friday afternoon. Someone wrote below about customers grabbing travel mugs off the shelves -- and not paying for them -- to get the free coffee; I believe I witnessed that. Discuss this or anything else Starbucks-related in the Open Thread.
April 23, 2011
This is going to sound like I'm complaining about the .10 discount, when I really don't mean to. What I was wondering is WHY it's set so low? My "green" friends don't care one way or another, as reusable cups are a matter of habit for them. And most of the rest I know don't find the cost off to be enough incentive to have a dirty mug in the car, at work, wherever. Obviously, Starbucks doesn't want to give their coffee away (outside of promotions), but maybe offering a higher discount would prompt more people to take advantage? That they're not doing so... surely there's some logic, there? Even if that it's an old policy never updated? Or am I just terribly naive?
Posted by: Katherine | April 23, 2011 at 01:22 PM
I agree. 10 cents is nothing at all.
The convenience of using a paper cup (ie not having to lug around a mug all day) is worth WAY more than 10 cents.
Posted by: aeiou | April 23, 2011 at 01:45 PM
we should not use plastic cups for any purpose, paper cup is ok but not recommended!
Posted by: Googler | April 23, 2011 at 02:31 PM
Bump it up to 10% instead of 10 cents.
And, no, we weren't swamped. Not at all.
Posted by: erstwhile | April 23, 2011 at 05:32 PM
We were swamped. Seriously swamped! We also, doubled our sales for the day. We sold out nearly every pastry, sandwich and cookie in the house. Retail sold too. Plus, people tipped great.
Posted by: spence | April 23, 2011 at 06:43 PM
It made holiday look like a walk in the park!!!!
Posted by: Tired SM | April 23, 2011 at 06:55 PM
It was insanity! My lowest customer count for a half hour (cafe store) was 35. Top was 55! It was amazing. We hit our target for the week on friday. Booyaa. Only issue, should have bumped up the float, we all forgot the bank was closed and of course, no $5 and no loonies to be heard of. Oh well. It was a great time either way!
Posted by: WPGBRSTA | April 23, 2011 at 08:00 PM
I couldn't tell you how much I laughed to myself as I filled customers' (if you can call them that) styrofoam cups up with teas and coffees. Folks, Oklahoma just doesn't get it haha. BTW can I get someone else's input on banana date dotting? I was under the impression it was 4 hrs after a 1 hour slack time, but this other gal says it's 10 hours. Anyone?
Posted by: P | April 23, 2011 at 08:05 PM
it is 4 hours after a 30 minute slack time, so the day dot should be for 4.5 hours. you should also run a timer to signal when the slack time is up and when the product expires so that it is immediately replaced.
Posted by: slaw275 | April 23, 2011 at 08:11 PM
Were supposed to date dot our bananas??? Here's our system. We peel a few in the morning. We peel a few about noon. We peel as we need to when they run out. Works for us.
Posted by: spence | April 23, 2011 at 08:14 PM
I'm pretty sure they're referring to the frozen bananas. Frozen Bananas should be day-dotted with 5 hours immediately. 4 hours of shelf life + 1 hour of thaw time.
Posted by: NaturallyDecaffeinateMe | April 23, 2011 at 08:40 PM
That's what I am also looking for. Hmm, perhaps it could more nice to talk to.
Posted by: wfs | April 23, 2011 at 10:11 PM
Frozen bananas are pretty much the most terrible thing ever. I never thought I'd ask for banana puree back after it left a few years ago...but... please, give me banana puree.
Posted by: erstwhile | April 23, 2011 at 11:05 PM
The promotion was to fill re-usable cups..not single-use cups..which is what styrofoam would be considered. Those cups shouldn't have gotten free coffee. Our cafe' store on averages 90-120 trans/half hour..I wouldve loved to only had 50 people coming through at a time! And on the frozen bananas..NatDecMe is right about the time and if you don't have the time written on the day dot that is considered a QASA violation.
Posted by: javagirl666 | April 24, 2011 at 06:52 AM
It wasn't crazy. Lots of customers brought in tumblers for the free coffee or tea which we were happy to oblige. Went smoothly for us.
Posted by: mojo jojo | April 24, 2011 at 08:15 AM
Tumblers? What cheap bastards!
Posted by: Julicifer McJiggis | April 24, 2011 at 12:33 PM
the store I was at, didn't seem to have any more traffic than regular. There was no promotion for free coffee, other than the 20% discount on mugs "today only" but they were still selling them on Sat.
I too find the .10$ discount a bit low, if one REALLY wants to encourage habit change. It SHOULD be something like say .20$, or pay ONLY for a tall and get a REASONABLE mug filled.
Posted by: tivoboy | April 24, 2011 at 01:51 PM
change of topic, I have my assessment coming up to promote to ASM, any tips? what should I wear?
Posted by: sbuxshift | April 24, 2011 at 02:07 PM
@sbuxshift, I went to mine straight off of the floor, so I was in dress code. If you don't want to do dress code, business casual is a safe bet.
As far as tips go, I will assume that you are interested in promoting because you are passionate about the company. Let that ooze out of you, smile a lot, be genuine, etc. Make eye contact. Above all, just relax and have fun!
Posted by: slaw275 | April 24, 2011 at 04:19 PM
@sbuxshift...I would definitely dress in business attire. You will be required to wear these items for meetings down the road so showing you are able to dress the part now will only show that you are serious about your future career.
Remember Starbucks interviews are looking for specific examples. The interviewer or panel depending on how your area is currently conducting ASM interviews will be recording your remarks using the S-A-R-I method. Past performance predicts future behavior so being specific about detail providing the S situation, the A action, R result, and I interesting fact will help to keep the interview on track and cover all points.
Slaw275...shame on your manager for not scheduling some time in between your shift and interview to allow for you to go home and dress. I hope you got the position!
Posted by: Coffee Soldier | April 24, 2011 at 04:37 PM
@sbuxshift:
know stuff. specific stuff. about a lot of things.
be able to speak to what you've done to improve things, what plans you've made -- not just identifying issues, but being able to put together actions that are sustainable in ensuring they get done and stay done...
also say you love the new training, new coaching methods and new repeatable routines.
Posted by: or | April 24, 2011 at 05:08 PM
Our store was extremely busy with the earth day promotion...as well we had our drive thru register down throughout the day...so we had to work from one of the front registers the entire time...all the partners helped each other out and all went relatively well...we honoured a couple of misto and chai drinks as well...just say YES! not a single complaint from a customer the entire day...Oklahoma style
Posted by: Rolling In The Deep | April 24, 2011 at 05:52 PM
WPGBRSTA -that is busy?
Posted by: really? | April 24, 2011 at 06:07 PM
@coffee soldier
there were extenuating circumstances and we were severely short staffed, it was a long time ago but I believe I may have even picked up that morning shift. My SM was and is amazing, and I did get the position, thanks in large part to the mentor-ship of said SM.
Posted by: slaw275 | April 24, 2011 at 09:37 PM
@slaw275: Congratulations!
Posted by: spence | April 24, 2011 at 11:45 PM
I read somewhere the cost to produce a cup is over 10 cents so it would make sense to bump it up. I also would like to see for here cups encouraged more (sorry to create more work for baristas to clean!) because I often see people sitting in the store with cups they toss out on the way out. From an Earth friendly perspective its totally wasteful. I go to a local smoothie/burrito chain in Boston which has cold beverage cups made of corn which will desolve in some years on their own - that would be nice if Starbucks switched to those cups for their iced drinks too. I am sure they would bump up the cost of cups to the company though so it is always a balance but Starbucks likes to portray itself as Earth friendly so step it up! :)
Posted by: Justin | April 25, 2011 at 07:06 AM
i too think 10 cents is a bit low, especially when you pay $10-$15 for a starbucks tumbler.
there's a gas station chain local to the northeast that has 84 cent coffee refills if you bring your own mug.
Posted by: Jeff | April 25, 2011 at 10:55 PM
Re: really?
To this cafe store, yea. I transferred to it about 9 months ago where the average count per half hour was between 25-35. Now we average about 30-45. But I came from a DT store that is, from when I was last aware, ranked 9th in Canada for sales, customer count, whole bean sales and UPH on most products. With an average count of 85-115 depending on week day, promotions or what other business around us happened to open.
Going from a truly busy store to one that's a different kind of busy, it's more than an little strange. But fun no less!
Posted by: WPGBRSTA | April 26, 2011 at 01:12 AM
I went to Sbux on Friday and the lines didn't seem longer than usual. There were a couple of us that had our travel mugs. One guy ordered a coffee and the barista told him that if he had a travel mug, it would be free. The barista explained it was for earth day, and then didn't charge the customer. So go figure...
Posted by: Cookiebandit | April 26, 2011 at 11:14 PM
One customer in an 8 hour shift. One.
Posted by: Tropicalbarista | May 01, 2011 at 08:10 PM