YouTube video shows rat enjoying Starbucks syrup

Hey -- it's going to happen now and then. An employee at the Richmond, B.C. store says: "We know about the issue and the issue is being dealt with." Read "YouTube video shows rodent sipping Starbucks syrup"

Comments

[Sheik]

"I have a Tall Mocha and a Grande Latte with RATSberry syrup!"

[Sheik]

Seriously though, this isn't news, but almost every restaurant/food store has either had a rodent problem or still currently does. It's a hard problem to fix and once they've hit it's a pretty hard thing to deal w/

[Petie]

Oh! So my ex SM moved to Canada.

[spence]

I've worked at my store for nearly 5 years. So far, I've seen one large spider and black flies. I'm sure if I saw a rat, it would be my last day.

[drive]

We have fruit flies galore, especially in hot weather.

Once we had a big palmetto bug -- that kind of cockroach thing that is about 2 inches in diameter. We covered it with a cold cup, face down, and it ran around in a circle. Nobody was brave enough to kill it so a customer did!

[RC]

When I used to work at Starbucks I had slick District Manager that had one of his stores refer to their roaches as "butterflies" so as not to alert the customers... kind of like referring to a problem as an opportunity.

[aeiou]

Where's the accountability here?

"Oh! EVERYONE has this problem! It's SO common in the stores! No big deal!"

Why is that the acceptable, almost-default answer here? Why isn't "Oh gross! We work so hard on cleanliness in our stores that this wouldn't ever imaginably happen" the standard?

What's gross to think about is that if the stores, where there (I assume) are SOME cleanliness standards applied, are that gross, what do the employees' homes look like?

[Sheik]

@aeiou: I never said "it's not a big deal"

Mice/rat problems are extremely difficult to fix. You can scrub the floors, walls, counters, ceilings with pure bleach or pure peroxide and have everything visible be as clean as an operating room.

But the problem is that most mice/rats are living in walls. They poop in places you can't clean and they poop inside the walls. Mice are attracted to the smell of their own poop, so that's what keeps them coming back.

Also, mice come in sometimes with the pastry order/other orders...

[drive]

Our store used to have an exterminator who came in monthly and used some of the sweet, sticky pastry items as bait for his traps. I don't know whether he was exterminating roaches or rodents.

I haven't seen him in a while. Now the manager sprays insecticide all around. I always tell him to wait until I am gone because I don't want to breathe in poison!

[Shifted]

turn a problem into an opportunity? easy - summer promo: rat frapuccino! Yum. :)

[PunkIsNotDead]

I'm surprised greentroll hasn't piped up yet with his response to this. Probably some nonsense about how he's been on the phone all day with the RVP trying to get the entire staff of that store fired.

But on the real, I have heard some horror stories from the exterminators that do checkups on my store. Usually not about Starbucks, but very frequently about well-known restaurants in the area that all have a big blue "A" in the window out front.

[G.E.C.K.]

My store has a open field behind it which causes problems for all the businesses around it with mice. When I first got there I had our pest control guy put out outdoor bait traps in the flower beds and got the door sweeps fixed and filled in the spaces that any pests could get in with a spray foam called "The Stuff." Never have had any mice after that. Its not a matter of a store being dirty as much as preventing these critters from getting in and taking up residence.

[javagirl666]

All stores have a monthly exterminator visit. I have been in my store for over 10 years..in those years, I have seen fruit flies..only! It is unacceptable to have this kind of nonsense going on. As mentioned above..there ARE things you can do to keep them out. And I find the comment about mice hitchin' a ride with the pastry order slightly ridiculous.

[G.E.C.K.]

Speaking of fruit flies a way to get rid of those pests that I have used which uses no dangerous chemicals or pesticides was shown to me another partner at my store. Pick up a little bottle of apple vinegar at the store for about $1 and fill a plastic cup with about an inch of it and place a lid on it. Make the straw hole open up a little bit with your finger and then just place the cup strategically where the fruit flies are spotted at (floor drains are a good start). Soon you will find the cup filled with dead fruit flies. They are attracted to the smell of the apple and once they go in the cup they don't come out. This will kill the flies buzzing around the place. Just get those floor drains cleaned and free of gunk and keep the bananas wrapped up to prevent more in the future. We did this a few summers ago when the nasty buggers got a foot hold in a floor drain. Cleaned them right out after a couple of days.

[JoBarista]

I hear one of our 2011 summer promo drinks is an Iced Via Mocha Coconut Ratte.....Yum!

[kiliki]

We have bug problems, nothing too terribly serious. We are clean, doing ice bins and drains daily. And our exterminator comes on a regular basis. Why does it keep happening? Our store is falling apart. The critters come in through the floor cracks and caulk. We need a remodel--badly. :( We just can't afford one!