So I meet the cousin and her new baby for a little cup of joe in the afternoon. As many of you know and as I am learning, anytime you go anywhere with a baby, it's a big production. Strollers are now far more intricate and high tech than the rickety ones we had when I was a baby back in 1863, and there are always extra bags, and stuff and equipment and what have you. (I have made feature films with less gear than a baby has to go for a cup of coffee.)
Anyways we meet up in front of the Bucks on 81st and Columbus, across the street from the Museum of Natural History. So I open the door and hold it so that the cousin can wiggle the tank as I call it into the store. A gentleman who was trying to get out got out of the way of the tank and I held the door open for him to leave before I went in. As I held the door open a woman pushed her way passed the fella who was in the doorway, completely unaware of her rudeness. Now this has nothing to do with Starbucks at all, I just wanted to point out that she was rude. Thank you.
So I go in and the cousin is already on the queue in front of the rude lady who gave ME attitude when I stood next to the Cuz for cutting the line. "Yeah I was holding the door for the other guy but that's okay, no worries. We're all good." was my response to her teeth tisking at me for "cutting" the line.
Again nothing to do with the story at hand just wanted to point that out. Again, thank you.
So I order two coffees and pay for them and go over to the fixings bar for sugar etc. The Cuz orders a premixed Yogurt, Granola, and Berries combo. In total it came to $4.01. Now on he counter there was a small jar filled to the brim with pennies. Many people like myself throw the penny or so change into it which serves as an ad hoc tip jar slash emergency coin center for the register. Many stores have these penny jars for those times when something requires an extra penny so as the saying goes, "Leave a penny, take a penny." Well apparently not at 81st and Columbus Avenue Starbucks.
The cousin asks if she could use one of the pennies from the jar because she had four singles and a twenty dollar bill. "No." was the response. "Could you please help me out with the penny so I don't have to break the twenty and get 99¢ back in change?" "No" was the response. So The Cuz got $14.99 back in change and went on with her day.
Now I understand about making sure the register balances out. And I also understand about not wanting to contribute your own money to help a customer but come on people. A penny? You can't pay the penny forward when it is not even your penny but a communal jar which will get evenly divided amongst the staff at the end of the week? It's not a question of policy it's just common sense. So next time 81st and Columbus I shall save my penny to pay forward at another Starbucks where the staff (not to mention the clientele although I won't really hold Starbucks accountable for that) are pleasant and understand about how to make things friendly and pleasant. It takes so little to do something right.
And all it would have cost is a penny.
Friday, October 29, 2010
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Let me be clear...
I do not hate Starbucks. I love the product and the presentation. Yes I am a die hard, bleeding heart, downstate Starbucks Democrat. I am not a Dunkin Donuts conservative Democrat. But this is not about politics. This is about respecting one's job, and respecting one's customers. I know working in customer service can be a sucky thing. Most of my career such as it is has been on the frontlines, from movie theatres and video stores, to call centers and now the Ole Dirty Bastard. Sometimes you deal with nice people, sometimes you deal with jerks. But guess what? That's the gig! That's what being a professional is all about. We are at a time when having a job is starting to seem like a privilege than a right, an exception and not the norm. I can remember a time when I carried at least two, sometimes three jobs at the same time. Now I barely have one. And that's precarious. But neither here nor there.
People say to me all the time, "If you hate Starbucks so much, why do you go?" I don't hate Starbucks. I love Starbucks. In fact I am grateful for Starbucks. Starbucks has revolutionized the way we do business, the way we meet potential clients, business partners, dates, use the internet, do school projects, keep warm, keep cool, stay dry, do homework, do work work. Everything. It is the great equalizer. You have to meet a stranger for something, I'll meet you at Starbucks. It's safe.
No the point I am taking up in this blog is not just about Starbucks bad customer service, but a larger evil that is going on in this country, a sense of absolute entitlement. Not a sense of pretention the way some of the these facacta drinks are named. Granted there is that. No I mean I see young people working all over, in many places (including where I work) and their Blue tooths are in their ears, they are texting, they are tweeting, they have an attitude that they must be wired in at all times, and that WORK...the thing that they are being paid to do, is an interference with their "other life," not the other way around.
So that's where this is coming from. Until next time, I am off to get my Tall pike in a grande cup.
People say to me all the time, "If you hate Starbucks so much, why do you go?" I don't hate Starbucks. I love Starbucks. In fact I am grateful for Starbucks. Starbucks has revolutionized the way we do business, the way we meet potential clients, business partners, dates, use the internet, do school projects, keep warm, keep cool, stay dry, do homework, do work work. Everything. It is the great equalizer. You have to meet a stranger for something, I'll meet you at Starbucks. It's safe.
No the point I am taking up in this blog is not just about Starbucks bad customer service, but a larger evil that is going on in this country, a sense of absolute entitlement. Not a sense of pretention the way some of the these facacta drinks are named. Granted there is that. No I mean I see young people working all over, in many places (including where I work) and their Blue tooths are in their ears, they are texting, they are tweeting, they have an attitude that they must be wired in at all times, and that WORK...the thing that they are being paid to do, is an interference with their "other life," not the other way around.
So that's where this is coming from. Until next time, I am off to get my Tall pike in a grande cup.
It's called Starbucks COFFEE, doesn't that mean that they should have ready to serve, oh I don't know...COFFEE???
Okay so I go into Starbucks 81st and Bway. I ask for my tall Pike in a Grande cup. I pay $1.85. He then says, "We have don't have Pike." "Why not?" "We have to brew it. Would you like bold?" "No I want Pike." "Well it'll be about 2 or 3 minutes." Looking at my watch I say, "Gimme the bold."
Now I'm no businessman or nothing, I'm just a working fella trying to get a cup o'Joe before work at the Ole Dirty Bastard ODB. So when I see an employee of a company whose reputation is based on one main product I might foolishly think that that employee might have it readily available for that customer coming in to get some of said product.
"Sir We are brewing it right now, I apologize for the delay" is an acceptable response, PRIOR to taking my money.
"We have to brew it" meaning I now have get the big paper cone, scoop out the grounds, push the button and stand here and wait while I look at your impatient ass because there are no other customers for me to distract me. Thanks. That's what that remark means to me.
I took the bold and got out of there.
Now I'm no businessman or nothing, I'm just a working fella trying to get a cup o'Joe before work at the Ole Dirty Bastard ODB. So when I see an employee of a company whose reputation is based on one main product I might foolishly think that that employee might have it readily available for that customer coming in to get some of said product.
"Sir We are brewing it right now, I apologize for the delay" is an acceptable response, PRIOR to taking my money.
"We have to brew it" meaning I now have get the big paper cone, scoop out the grounds, push the button and stand here and wait while I look at your impatient ass because there are no other customers for me to distract me. Thanks. That's what that remark means to me.
I took the bold and got out of there.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
47th and Broadway, Now she was just a bitch
Times Square is disgusting enough as it is. Too many people, too many peddlers, too much traffic. I'm racing to work in Times Square. I know that 43rd and Bway is always too hard to get to with the friggin lawn chairs -- yes lawn chairs people! -- in the middle of the street. The Winter Garden 'bucks is on the other side of the Broadway...no way will I navigate that one in time. It's 7:00 and I still have three blocks, one elevator, ten floors, and a clicker card away from my 7:15 shift start at the ODB. Lo and behold there are only two people on line in the bucks on 47th and Broadway. Jump in quick. Get the required tall pike in a grande cup.
Well the girl behind the counter was not part of the BDC (or Brain Dead Crew) no she was smart.
She was just a bitch.
She was flirting with this hot chick who was I guess a former employee because listening in on their conversation they talked about people they knew. YES I COULD LISTEN TO THEIR CONVERSATION BECAUSE I WAS STANDING THERE LONG ENOUGH TO HEAR IT!!!!!
There was a very lovely couple of foreign girls who didn't speak English very well and were standing there perplexed and confused. Now not that I was trying to play swashbuckler and save their day - although if I did I certainly won't turn down the credit - but I'm a needy selfish bastard and I want my coffee and I'm gonna be late for work. So I give a "Did you order...? what's happening...?"
The girl pretends to be friendly to the girls but she is condescendingly loud to them. Their German, their not deaf. They pay their bill and she HANDS them their change.
Then I jump in with my rapid fire order, my twenty already in hand.
She slowly pours my coffee, all out of spite because I interrupted her flirt. She takes my twenty slams two nickles and five pennies on the counter and then counts three fives and three ones in front of me and slams it down on the counter.
Fuck you too, I thought to myself.
Not a nice person and she does not represent Starbucks Coffee well.
Well the girl behind the counter was not part of the BDC (or Brain Dead Crew) no she was smart.
She was just a bitch.
She was flirting with this hot chick who was I guess a former employee because listening in on their conversation they talked about people they knew. YES I COULD LISTEN TO THEIR CONVERSATION BECAUSE I WAS STANDING THERE LONG ENOUGH TO HEAR IT!!!!!
There was a very lovely couple of foreign girls who didn't speak English very well and were standing there perplexed and confused. Now not that I was trying to play swashbuckler and save their day - although if I did I certainly won't turn down the credit - but I'm a needy selfish bastard and I want my coffee and I'm gonna be late for work. So I give a "Did you order...? what's happening...?"
The girl pretends to be friendly to the girls but she is condescendingly loud to them. Their German, their not deaf. They pay their bill and she HANDS them their change.
Then I jump in with my rapid fire order, my twenty already in hand.
She slowly pours my coffee, all out of spite because I interrupted her flirt. She takes my twenty slams two nickles and five pennies on the counter and then counts three fives and three ones in front of me and slams it down on the counter.
Fuck you too, I thought to myself.
Not a nice person and she does not represent Starbucks Coffee well.
81st St, B'way "Oh I'm sorry, is my order interfering with your texting?"
81st street and Broadway, Upper West Side. Prime Real Estate. Yuppies. Strollers. Families. Upward mobility. And me. Okay no comment from the peanut gallery about me bringing down the property value, that's a different blog for a different subject.
No this is the Upper West Side of Manhattan. This is where the bar should be kinda high. Well guess what? This is where freshman employees come to die. This Starbucks has an interesting habit of hiring capable women, and barely functioning men, and then seeing most of the women disappear, leaving us with the brain dead crew.
So there was the cute short brunette with the funky glasses who I called "Hun" because she called everyone "Hun". What'll you have hun? She'd say to every customer. I knew she didn't think of me intimately or anything, to her I was another Tall Pike in a Grande Cup, but it made me feel good for 30 seconds while I ordered. She always smiled. Well, she's gone.
Then there was the short brunette with the funky glasses who looked like "Hun" but didn't really smile. She was a manager. She might not have had the personality, but this woman was ON THE BALL. She had that ship running tight and right. they don't have a lot of room behind the counter at this one so I imagine pressure is high, but it was a smooth operation. Well she's gone too.
There's the tall girl with the tattoo on her arm which she covers up with a sock. I don't know if Starbucks has a policy against body art, but they would be foolish to see this one go. She has been there a while, since the Hun Administration, and she can bang out a tall no whip skinny latte in a heartbeat without breaking a sweat. She's the only good one that I have seen lately. Because the rest are all dudes. And they are pretty effing lazy, and pretty effing dumb.
So I go in and to order my tall pike which, when dealing with the member of the BDC they had behind the register(that's Brain Dead Crew) it took a little bit longer and with a little more energy than I expected...
Hence the post title here, which I don't think requires much explanation:
ME: "I'm sorry, is my order interfering with your texting?"
I didn't say it, but I should have. Instead I gave a cold and curt "excuse me." After I was standing there for a while.
No this is the Upper West Side of Manhattan. This is where the bar should be kinda high. Well guess what? This is where freshman employees come to die. This Starbucks has an interesting habit of hiring capable women, and barely functioning men, and then seeing most of the women disappear, leaving us with the brain dead crew.
So there was the cute short brunette with the funky glasses who I called "Hun" because she called everyone "Hun". What'll you have hun? She'd say to every customer. I knew she didn't think of me intimately or anything, to her I was another Tall Pike in a Grande Cup, but it made me feel good for 30 seconds while I ordered. She always smiled. Well, she's gone.
Then there was the short brunette with the funky glasses who looked like "Hun" but didn't really smile. She was a manager. She might not have had the personality, but this woman was ON THE BALL. She had that ship running tight and right. they don't have a lot of room behind the counter at this one so I imagine pressure is high, but it was a smooth operation. Well she's gone too.
There's the tall girl with the tattoo on her arm which she covers up with a sock. I don't know if Starbucks has a policy against body art, but they would be foolish to see this one go. She has been there a while, since the Hun Administration, and she can bang out a tall no whip skinny latte in a heartbeat without breaking a sweat. She's the only good one that I have seen lately. Because the rest are all dudes. And they are pretty effing lazy, and pretty effing dumb.
So I go in and to order my tall pike which, when dealing with the member of the BDC they had behind the register(that's Brain Dead Crew) it took a little bit longer and with a little more energy than I expected...
Hence the post title here, which I don't think requires much explanation:
ME: "I'm sorry, is my order interfering with your texting?"
I didn't say it, but I should have. Instead I gave a cold and curt "excuse me." After I was standing there for a while.
How did Starbucks get so shitty?
As a New Yorker, we take certain truths as self-evident: the subway, the Yankees, ground zero, movie shoots blocking up traffic, the president blocking up traffic, and most of all, you can rely that there will be a Starbucks Coffee on every other corner. Now I can remember a New York without Starbucks, but I am not entirely sure when they started to seep into our collective consciousness.
It was around 1999 or 2000 when I discovered this funny little treat called the Caramel Machiatto. It was yummy. I gained weight. Then it stopped being a treat because you could get one ANYWHERE. Suddenly there was this explosion of outlets to get this thing from. Small coffee places were no more. The cart guy on the corner was almost a Dodo. Then I started turning against it. I didn't like the weight and when I tried their regular coffee I couldn't get into it. It was burnt and bitter and not particularly flavorful. I was a Dunkin Donuts man. But the problem with DD was the atmosphere. The coffee was good, but you never wanted to go there. They were disgusting. Dirty. Smelly. That was the thing that I thought Starbucks had going for them: the presentation. That they had down cold., But I ddi not like their coffee. And then something happened at Starbucks. And that thing was called Pike Place. And I was hooked.
It was a delicious coffee and my 4 cups a day habit just increased in price from $1.19 to $1.85. But for that extra .66¢ I got great coffee, beautiful storefronts, cool music playing, free wifi, and most of all, friendly, professional and awesome service. Their baristas, cashiers, and greeters were top notch. Educated, courteous, neat in their appearance, and seemed to take a genuine interest in the direction of the company. Then I find out that Starbucks is -- apparently -- an amazing place to work from a corporate structure standpoint. (I cannot verify this rumor as I have never worked there.) Word on the street is that the workers get health insurance, profit sharing, and other incentives. Holy cow! What service industry job offers health insurance to hourly workers? It was a pleasure to go.
Then suddenly things got lazy. The stores started to get managed poorly. The milk stations started to get sloppy with powder and napkins and spills and stirrers littered about. The bathrooms were disgusting. And the biggest slip of all: the service. Suddenly there was tremendous worker apathy towards the job and towards the customers. Starbucks' legendary and impecable customer service, suddenly fell to shit.
And this is what is prompting this blog. As I give Starbucks a fair amount of business I cannot help but no longer say silent (not that I ever do stay silent) I must report for the good of New Yorkers and for the good of my soul, any disappointing experiences with Starbucks Coffee. Which is not to say that if I have a positive experience that I won't report it. No, not at all. I am going to make mention if I receive outstanding customer service. I won't mention if I get adequate service. I am going to report on a few incidents that happened recently in separate posts, which obviously will not be taken from a real-time perspective, however once these few anecdotes are brought out, I will be reporting my findings day of. But ultimately this blog poses the question which plagues me on a daily basis:
HOW DID STARBUCKS GET SO SHITTY?
It was around 1999 or 2000 when I discovered this funny little treat called the Caramel Machiatto. It was yummy. I gained weight. Then it stopped being a treat because you could get one ANYWHERE. Suddenly there was this explosion of outlets to get this thing from. Small coffee places were no more. The cart guy on the corner was almost a Dodo. Then I started turning against it. I didn't like the weight and when I tried their regular coffee I couldn't get into it. It was burnt and bitter and not particularly flavorful. I was a Dunkin Donuts man. But the problem with DD was the atmosphere. The coffee was good, but you never wanted to go there. They were disgusting. Dirty. Smelly. That was the thing that I thought Starbucks had going for them: the presentation. That they had down cold., But I ddi not like their coffee. And then something happened at Starbucks. And that thing was called Pike Place. And I was hooked.
It was a delicious coffee and my 4 cups a day habit just increased in price from $1.19 to $1.85. But for that extra .66¢ I got great coffee, beautiful storefronts, cool music playing, free wifi, and most of all, friendly, professional and awesome service. Their baristas, cashiers, and greeters were top notch. Educated, courteous, neat in their appearance, and seemed to take a genuine interest in the direction of the company. Then I find out that Starbucks is -- apparently -- an amazing place to work from a corporate structure standpoint. (I cannot verify this rumor as I have never worked there.) Word on the street is that the workers get health insurance, profit sharing, and other incentives. Holy cow! What service industry job offers health insurance to hourly workers? It was a pleasure to go.
Then suddenly things got lazy. The stores started to get managed poorly. The milk stations started to get sloppy with powder and napkins and spills and stirrers littered about. The bathrooms were disgusting. And the biggest slip of all: the service. Suddenly there was tremendous worker apathy towards the job and towards the customers. Starbucks' legendary and impecable customer service, suddenly fell to shit.
And this is what is prompting this blog. As I give Starbucks a fair amount of business I cannot help but no longer say silent (not that I ever do stay silent) I must report for the good of New Yorkers and for the good of my soul, any disappointing experiences with Starbucks Coffee. Which is not to say that if I have a positive experience that I won't report it. No, not at all. I am going to make mention if I receive outstanding customer service. I won't mention if I get adequate service. I am going to report on a few incidents that happened recently in separate posts, which obviously will not be taken from a real-time perspective, however once these few anecdotes are brought out, I will be reporting my findings day of. But ultimately this blog poses the question which plagues me on a daily basis:
HOW DID STARBUCKS GET SO SHITTY?
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)