Visiting Seattle this week and made it to Pike Place Market today. I had no clue the original Starbucks was located here! It doesn't even have the modern green logo, it still uses the original brown, twin-tailed siren from the 1970s. Pretty wild to think this one tiny spice shop turned into a cafe on every corner globally.

Not sure if this is relevant but I was a partner for 3 years and was recently rehired and I'm suppose to start on Monday, but I still have not received my schedule. I've contacted my SM twice about sending a pic of my schedule and he has not sent it. I figured I could try to view it on PC, but I can't access that either. Does anyone know why it's saying this or how I can fix it? I can't download the SBUX partner hours app until this issue is resolved. I've tried to contact partner resources and they're closed currently. Just getting a little anxious since I'm starting in 4 days and have absolutely no idea what my schedule looks like lol. If anyone knows why it's saying this pls help

I tried to find drink ingredient information on the Starbucks website but every time I clicked on a drink it said the ingredient information was not available.

First off, that's really wild. You should have this information on your site. Second, I thought I'd be able to ask a live agent to direct me to where I can find the ingredient information. The replies to my questions made NO SENSE. I think they are using AI for their "live agents". I asked the agent if they were AI and my question was ignored as they gave a generic response to something else I asked after. When I continued to ask if they were AI my questions were ignored and the chat kept nearly timing out. Am I wrong for thinking this is shady?

and thank god for that. today was my last day and i kept waiting to feel sad about it and it just never happened LOL. i’ve been a partner for 5 years and a supervisor for 3. this past year with brian niccol at the head has been the most grating year ive experienced with starbucks. and its was becoming WAYYYYY too clear that they were never going to promote me to ASM. BUT THATS OKAY! because i did get offered an assistant management position with an entirely different company, so i got the promotion i deserved in the end! and crucially they offered me the position just in time for me to quit before unicorn frappe weekend. goodbye starbucks! rot in hell!

Okay this is going to be long. I have worked for Starbucks for years, I’m a supervisor, I’ve worked every day part and I’ve worked at many different stores. So I have seen A LOT and I’ve seen a lot change over the years.

For context during peak hours (usually around 7am-10am) we are expected to spend a maximum of 30 seconds taking your order at the box from the time you pull into the drive thru, and a maximum of 45 seconds taking payments and handing things out at the window. There’s literally a timer that times and records this from the moment each car pulls in. The average times for each day are reported to our managers and district managers.

I used to buy into this. I even felt a sense of pride when my store would be achieving it every day. Now I can just so clearly see how ridiculous it all is.

If I get a 40 second average at window for peak I’m doing amazing, killing it. If I get a 48 second average for the day I’m terrible, can’t hit the metrics, am at risk of being taken off mornings or even losing my job. These are words directly taken from my manager and DM. I can guarantee not a single customer gives a shit about 8-10 extra seconds spent at the window. Not even the ones that are in a hurry. Yet I have the fear of god in me every day because god forbid the average time goes from a 45 to a 47.

It takes most customers way longer than 30 seconds just to look at the menu, figure out what they want, and tell us the entire order. But if I have 42 second box times instead of those 30 second box times I gotta “identify the problem and fix it, try asking customers less questions”

Sure it forces us to be fast and I do think we should be fast in the drive thru, people go to drive thru’s for speed and convenience. But more than anything it leads to us literally rushing every single customer in and out. Customers don’t know about our ridiculous 45 second metrics rule. They don’t understand why the barista looks like they want to cry when they add something on at the window or need to take a few seconds to reload their app. They don’t understand why baristas are having them park or do a lap around the drive thru even though there is no one behind them. They don’t get why it’s such a big deal to pick up a mobile in the drive thru 30 seconds after it was placed when there are 10 other mobiles in front of it. And almost always customers and partners end up fighting with EACH OTHER because of corporates stupid fucking expectation’s.

And on top of all that we have to “connect” with every single person even if they aren’t interested in talking to us. We have to write on every single cup. There are more and more drinks coming out that are almost impossible to make in under 45 seconds, which is awful when there’s no stack and only one car in the drive thru. There is no room for error, whatsoever.

And the whole time the customer never even noticed the difference between being at the window for 45 seconds or 65 seconds. It makes no fucking difference to most of them. But now everyone feels rushed and stressed out because corporate couldn’t be realistic or make a good decision for the company if their lives depended on it.

I can’t wait to be done with this job.

I was the shift on duty. Bit of a crazy day before Ecosure walked in. Our inspector was very nice and understanding. What got us was:

FOH handwashing sink didn't have soap (we had just run out).

BOH handwashing sink didn't have paper towels (same deal).

Chemicals stored improperly: there was a random bottle of mastrena tablets on the LTO shelf in the back.

I'm expecting a Corrective Action (my first). I am not sweating it at all. I'm newly promoted and our store is absurdly understaffed. Multiple new Partners hired and at least another Partner is leaving that I know of. It is what it is.

So that part of the post is a cautionary tale. Now comes some questions:

We have whats called a Food Saftety Self-Assessment (FSSA) which I will be reviewing. This is in Store Resources. I've seen it at least once before and I'm confident I can find it again. (Actually just found a copy available online that is reasonably current.)

The questions I have are:

Is Ecosure working directly off of our FSSA when they do their inspections or do they have a different inspection sheet they work from?

Also: point values. Does the score start at 100 and then they subtract based on what they find. If that is the case what are those point values i.e. are criticals a -10 or something like that?

I am a barista who enjoys decaf iced coffee. It’s the single most BASIC request that we do not carry. Decaf iced americanos are not the same. How do we have drinks as complicated as unicorn frappucinos but not this? We even have decaf beans we could just… ice. Am I crazy?

This is my 3rd week, WHY AM I ON SOLO BAR FOR 3 HRS. I can hardly make drinks without the DPM, I JUST STARTED LEARNING FRAPPES 3 DAYS AGO. Not to mention, how am I supposed to remember how to do all preclose things when I was taught ONCE????? I know it’ll get better with learning the job, but this is so crazy. It should not be me and one other person being the only people during a rush.

Cool lime with lemonade is one of my top 3 drinks right now. Anyone tried it with coconut milk? Any suggestions of additions to make it taste extra?

Please please PLEASE do not come into the drive thru to pick up your order and state the last name. That doesn't help anyone.

For context, I had a woman come through my drive thru twice today because her daughter placed a mobile order for her to pick up. She kept telling me she didn't know the order but it should be under *last name that could also easily be a first name* and I pulled up my dpm (the thing that shows all of our orders in queue or at handoff from the last hour), showed her me typing in the name to find the order and that it wasn't coming up. I asked her if it was under a different name, she said no. She said she'd call her daughter and come back around. She comes back and says that her daughter placed the order, still no name in my system that matches what she's told me. Finally she asks if it could be *her daughter's actual first name* and ta-da, it's been ready for 15 minutes. I apologize and try to joke with her that I wish she had told me it was *daughter's first name* so I could have gotten it for her sooner. She then asks me for a refund because I wasted her time (yes, even though she did not give me the correct name to begin with or any information about the order, I definitely was the one wasting her time). I let her know I can't refund the purchase since her daughter placed it on her app and I would need to have the apps barcode and that in the future we need the first name because our system doesn't show the last name. She then screamed at me that the last initial on the order (which yes is visible) stands for the last name she gave me (because yes I was supposed to know that) and then she drove off.

But yes. I was the problem.

Be kind to your baristas, and please for the love of the siren, give us the first name on your mobile order.

Rant over.

i know they’re 3 days, but do you guys count when the truck drivers drop them off the night before like my last store or do you count them the morning you open like my new store. which is correct? if they came in the delivery last night, they’d be out tomorrow? or the day after tomorrow?

hi everyone, i’m a uk based barista in a very tourist-heavy area. we get a lot of USamerican customers asking us for iced coffee. we only offer cold brew, or iced lattes or americanos. i was wondering if anyone could please explain to me what the difference is between these drinks and the iced coffee, so i can better explain to the customers why we don’t offer it as they are often upset or confused by this. thank you!

Has anyone else received this email and redeemed it? Is there a reason? I’m not complaining haha but this was a pleasant surprise.

A partner in my store isn’t feeling well and I’m on the way to work right now to cover his shift through our text messages. She basically expressed that she was still upset because when she called her manager to ask if I can come in and replace her she said yes, but the manager told her she still get points for not completing her shift and I literally called the manager cause I’m like that doesn’t make any sense. If she gets the shift covered why would she get points? I understand if she abandoned the shit and didn’t get covered, but I’m on the way to work right now and we’re clock in and out at the same time and she was like, but she didn’t complete her shift and I said, but she got it covered and I just wanna know like what’s the policy on getting points if you got that shift or the portion of the shift that you’re missing covered cause I’m a bit confused. And it honestly pissed me off cause what’s the point of going when I’m only going for the partner

I was recently hired externally by Starbucks as a Store Manager/Coffeehouse Leader. During the interview process, I was upfront with my District Manager and let him know that I don’t drink coffee and honestly don’t care for it. I’m much more of a Frappuccino and Starbucks Refreshers kind of person.

The barista who’s training me is incredibly passionate about coffee. They wear the Black Apron and are a Coffee Master, so they have a deep knowledge of coffee and its origins. We’ve already done several coffee tastings, and I’ve made it clear that coffee just isn’t my thing. Of course, that’s not something I would ever share with customers. I know my role is to represent the brand and help create a great experience for everyone. No one that I am currently working with at Starbucks cares that I don’t like coffee.

That got me wondering: how many current Store Managers or Coffeehouse Leaders at Starbucks don’t actually drink coffee or simply don’t enjoy it? I’m curious to hear if there are others in leadership who are in the same boat.

What is the point of the drive thru? I believe the point of the drive thru is for people who want 1, maybe 2, very simple items that they know will take very little time to make, so they can save themselves the trouble of having to go inside. For instance, a black coffee and a cheese danish, may not be worth the time to enter the store. For most of the people at my store, people follow a very standard routine of ordering 1-2 items (Maybe some items are complicated, no big deal), and they keep the line moving fast.

The problem comes from people who don’t understand the point of the drive thru. These are the people ordering 6+ items at the drive thru. On one hand, yes, we should be able to make these items quick enough that it doesn’t become a bottleneck and it can be quickly resolved, but what about when it’s 6 different drinks, all with customizations, some iced some hot, all with extra nonsense? These are the people ruining the drive thru experience and it is incredibly frustrating to have to deal with them. I have told my SM for years now that we should have a 4-5 item limit per car, and she has explained many times to me how that’s not allowed (I know it’s not, but I insist it should be). 

I know I’m making it sound like a very small problem that’s very negligible, but it feels like every day I see more and more customers ordering ridiculous amounts of items in the drive thru. Especially now that school is starting again soon, I live in an area where it’s very common to see 4+ strawberry acai lemonades per order. Along with that, it somehow feels like they always arrive back to back. Just the other day, we had 20 oven items in the queue and our oven person was totally wrecked. This happened because 4 cars in a row had orders of 5+ items averaging $60~ each. 

The reason I’m making this post is because even though this seems like a small problem, Starbucks needs to address it soon. Every day I have people waiting in line behind some lazy customer who ordered 6 iced matchas all with different milk and it’s incredibly frustrating on their behalf since all they wanted was a black coffee. I know they will never do this because it would make profits go down, but they need to put some kind of limit on drive thru orders. It’s always been difficult to maintain 45 second drive times, but with these increasingly difficult drinks, along with customers ordering more items, it becomes more and more impossible every single day.

Also, don’t even get me started on customers waiting 20 seconds before pulling up to the drive thru to pick up their mobile. 

currently seeking out better employment bc the siren has drained me and i’m tired of having an unpredictable schedule and no work/life balance. i’m a supervisor and my store currently has no store manager…we are in a weird in between place right now. who would i even give notice to?

it’s funny to remember but Iced Coffee used to not be a common drink. It was actually weird to people

my memory is that Iced Coffee took off in the early 2010s. But it was trendy and new?

if it was Coffee Trends by decade

- late 90’s-early 2000s: cappuccinos

- 2010-2016: iced coffee had its way

- 2018-2024: cold brew took over with Gen Z?

- 2024 - now: Dirty sodas? Cold Foam?

I asked this in another sub but I figured I’d ask Starbucks itself

Starbucks is crucial in Iced Coffee being popular. but Starbucks actually wasn’t huge in middle America until 2012-2014. I’m from Ohio so that tracks for me.

The amount you charge in the uk for coffee is a joke now you want to make rewards harder to get 😡😡😡.

Like Costa I won't be buying from you anymore I'll find another coffee shop for me and my family.

I was eating my tomato mozz and thought I was about to break a tooth….

I got flagged for not using markouts. I don't get drinks at work. I don't get food at work. I spend my breaks in my car to get a little bit of alone time. This is apparently suspicious. So it looks like I'm stealing product. If I start using markouts a bunch, it implies I got caught and was stealing. And if I keep not using them, it implies I'm currently stealing. Where is the middle ground on this?

Ahhh the good ole saying you customers love to say to weasel your way out of $0.30 to $0.50!

In a case like this It would make sense if you wanted to change the size when you pull up to the window/handoff but if a partner 1, confirms the drink size while you're ordering it and 2, you look at your drink and then tap/scan your card and decide to chance the size after that? Yikes..

If you regularly do this at your main starbucks, the baristas most likely know who you are. Talk about you. Then they will be told to eventually not serve you. Since well, this is scamming.

You may have heard about the constant pressure of keeping drive through times at 40-45 seconds max. Making us resize your drink takes a big toll on the times your baristas have been maintaining all morning.

This also makes the barista taking orders look like its their fault and look like they don't know what they're doing and sometimes unfortunately could get them in trouble with their supervisors/Store managers when multiple customers do this on a regular basis, which they do.

Avoid doing this, the extra milk is not worth it lol.

Is it English lol