# Working at Starbucks!!



## AntonyO (Aug 7, 2008)

Well, here it is, the long awaited for thread!

Ok, so. The begining of the summer holidays after secondary school before college i really wanted a job, to kepp the time over the summer occupied; Starbucks was one of the first places that i applied to in the late June 07, applied for loads of other jobs too, anyway.. my summer passed, no replys from anyone. Got a call from starbucks calling me in for an interveiw; so im waiting for the interveiw watching the girls behind the bar..

'Wow. how the hell am i going to remember all of that?!'

anyway, interveiw goes well, i get what Sbux call an OJE [on job experience]. im given a really quick basic training session on the bar [literally 5 mins] and im left on my own for an hour to see how i do.

Turns out ive done really well, the hour passes really quickly and the only thing i struggle with is remembering the difference between latte and cap









Im offered the job [the same day as offered a job at Woolworths[turned out i hated shelf stacking and boring till work, so i quit]]. Employment started on *13 August 2007* [this time last year! Exciting huh?]

Ok. so, i get to know all the old people, have a laugh and really enjoy working at the Bux, tbth, i had absolutly no problems with any partners[starbucks word for collegues] [although, me and a new girl got told off for having a joke with another partner, that was taken a bit to much to heart, slapped wrists, appologised, and were really good freinds now, and the new girl left!]. Once had a problem with the manager.. She changed the rota without giving me notice, and turned out i had to work that day [i only went in to get a drink] at 3 oclock, this was at 12.30! what a cow. anyway, had a few harsh words with her, and she swears she didnt change it. well. i know different, but you cant exactly argue with the boss only being 3 weeks new..?

Anyway, trained on the automatic espresso machine, trained on cafe, tills, and food.

[incase your interested, discounts are 30% at all times; Free Drink before,during,after shift on handmade drinks[lattes,hotchoc,cap,frap..etc] before,during,after shift:1/2price food and one free bag of coffee every week!]

Christmas came, big big hype about it: New red tshirts, new drinks, new coffee beans on offer [Christmas Blend, i can give you my tasting notes if you are interested?] i volounteered for a close down on xmas promotion, we stayed a few hours late to do a proper *major* clean up;walls, ceilings, behind boards. and had a laugh with everyone else.

Weve all been out for a few drinks [maybe i shouldnt be saying this..?] but weve all gone out got drunk, had a great laugh, and maybe thats why i get on with everyone..?[im shy usually on first meetings you know?]

Then, news of the new Starbucks store in basingstoke opening has traveled through our store, All the newly employed staff are to be transfered to the new store [literally 3mins away from old store..]. Me and the girl that i kind of bullied[?] helped set the new store up and i was suprised to see how cool it looked, alot brighter than the old store [but exaclty the same set up.. hmm.. haha].

over the last 4-5months that its been open weve had several managers:

Manager of the old store --> She was ok, but didnt really seem to care about the store, or the people, only getting it set up..

Newly Trained manager[who had previous experience, working for sbux as a supervisor somewhere up north.. ] --> really nice and friendly, pretty old though!

Asst. Manager of old store --> Really funny, easy to get along with, could probably get away with murder..

Current Manager[newly trained, new to sbux, used to be a manager for Next..] --> well, lets say hes more interested in our store making money than he is interested in what the staff think of him..

Ok, hes not *that* bad!! but. he realy does have his moments, and when he does, theyre major!!

[For instance.. Last sunday, we had 3 people in from 12.30 til 6, about 1+1/2hrs of breaks to cover, and no hope in hell of being out ontime, well we were out 30mins late.. not too bad, but because he hasnt hired any new people yet, we couldnt get any other people to come help us, so we had to suffer..

Well, current status of our store:

-Some new people joining our store..

-Two supervisors leaving, one barista training to be a supervisor [that leaves our store with 1 manager, 1 supervisor.. should be funny..]

-3 baristas on holiday, 1 in hospital [appendicitis], leaving... 4[?] to work the next week..

Well.. i hope thats informative.. maybe a bit too much detail.. and i probably rambeled on for most.. sorry if its too hard to read

But, hopefully youve spent some nice time to read, maybe over a nice steaming cup of Starbucks® - Ethiopia Sidamo









-Ant


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## AntonyO (Aug 7, 2008)

Shit. didnt realise id written that much.. 

maybe more than one cup of Sidamo









-Ant


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## Glenn (Jun 14, 2008)

Thanks Antony

An interesting insight and I'd like to hear more

Would you mind emailing me the tasting notes? I'll PM my email address.

Good to hear you get free drinks and discounted food as some cafes do not offer this for their staff.

Resource is always an issue and having a talented pool of backups is a rare commodity

Is the old store still operating and for how long?

Is there a different type of client and have you seen better footfall at the new location?

Did some of your clients migrate across with you?


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## SeamusMcFlurry (Jul 9, 2008)

What an interesting article. I came very close to working for Starbucks. Was offered the job at the Boola as I stopped off on my way to the OJE. Quickly rang Sbux up and cancelled lol. Prefered the Boola hot choc you see.

But no, it's fascinating hearing about Starbucks from the inside. We all bash Starbucks, and Starbucks employees, but we as an industry owe the Green Siren an awful lot, and hearing you speak so elequently about coffee on this site has turned my opinion of the Starbucks employee right around, so good job there









As for bullying, you have no idea what we put one of my collegues through









Like I say, fantastic read. A real eye opener.

Seamus.


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## AntonyO (Aug 7, 2008)

Glenn,

The old store has been open for about 2-3 years now, to my knowledge.. and yes it still functions.. its inside a busy shopping mall, whereas my store is outside in a smaller shopping mall, literally 5min walk from store door to store door!

because the new store is between the main shopping mall, and the train station, we get alot of commuters coming in, and theres an office park near to the trainstation, so we tend to get office workers coming in after theyve finished work.

with regards to clients migrating over, there are a few people who i recognise, erm, Grande Americano with Soy forinstance, he comes in, and we all have a chat with him, he stands around for however long, then goes and sits down. turns out that his wife was a major love of starbucks, and that they would often go in and enjoy an americano each with soy milk.. but she has sadly passed on, and he comes in to have the memory of her[even though he visits the new store which wasnt open while his wife was here] and he also gets the nice chat.. and he also seems genuinly interested about how our college careers are going, and its really nice.

Theres some other characters that ive seen in my store, but not as often, but whenever i see them in town, or out and about, i always say hello, ask how they are, and they always respond happily and i think that boosts the 'experience' they have in the starbucks store.. [ill explain about the whole Starbucks Experience in a second.]

oh, btw Seamus, it wasnt meant to be bullying, jsut joking around [just to clarify that point







]

The starbucks experience, is sometimes also called the Third Place, A place that is not in your own out-of-working world, but also out of your working world: somewhere to escape from your troubles and to sit, relax and enjoy a nice cup of coffee.

To create the third place, simple things like, lighting, sound, atmosphere, temperature, tidyness, burbling of chat, clear tables, comfy seats: everything affects the feel of the third place.

As a barista, we must always make sure we provide the three *Legendary Service Steps* which are:

-Connect:eyecontact, greeted as they walk through the door

-Discover: find out what they want to drink, if they dont know, ask what they like and try and fit a drink around them

-Respond: by creating that perfect, hand crafted drink and thanking them for their custom

So.. thats a brief bit about the 'Starbucks Experience'

More coming soon! [as i stumble upon things of interest to you







]

-Ant


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## TimStyles (Jul 22, 2008)

*-Respond: by creating that perfect, hand crafted drink and thanking them for their custom*

*
*

Just how well do you think Starbucks manages to achieve this aim?


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## chrisweaver_barista (Jun 14, 2008)

I don't want to just cause an argument... however just to pull my local starbucks on two of those points. When I used to go in, and be at the till, the person working would give me just enough attention for me to order my drink, and then continue chatting. It was almost alienating!

It seemed very impersonal and rushed. Was this just an issue on a store to store basis, or is it a wider problem?

Chris


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## AntonyO (Aug 7, 2008)

Hello guys, sorry for the very long absence here;

Just to answer some questions that I missed a few years ago..[was it that long?!]

Tim: I've been in alot of Starbucks in the South of England.. and to be totally honest, the service has been appauling; no eyecontact walking through the cafe, barely any customer service at the till, and a quick glance 'here's your caramel mac' at the bar, generally followed by a search for a free seat and a clear of the table. The service was generally improved once i had shown my Partner Card.. but we all know that is not good enough! However, the last 4/5months I've spent outside of the company, I have not been able to use my Partner card, and therefore, I have experienced Starbucks as a true customer, not a Partner. And in that case, I do find it upsetting when i walk into a store and find messy cafes and unhelpful baristas.

Chris, I know exactly what you mean; you want the baristas to be happy, chirpy, but theyre just damn-right rude. This, in my experience, seems to be a company-wide problem.

However, upuntil recently, Sbux have had what is called 'Snapshot' [independant company who employ randomers to goto sbux, rate all the different aspects of the service,cafe,drink,food....etc.] which has been very.. 'rigid', scale of 1 to 5 on things, with not alot of room for comment, this has changed now, and there is alot more room for comment, and the ratings are based on actual feelings/experiences rather than trying to 'scale' the experiences.

This has led to a more serious and severe snapshot, often bringing the marks down.

I'm not sure how much I can say, but as im sure you expect, if the store keeps getting a bad snapshot, then obveously, it is investigated, disciplined and ultimatly shutdown.

This being said, there are now 'partner incentives' which are basically, very generous bonuses given to all partners based on the score of snapshot, coupled with the store's profit.

With this in mind, hopefully the stores throughout the country will start to get their act together!

-Antony


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## AntonyO (Aug 7, 2008)

Just further to that post, I have now, after 4 months of wasting time, I have managed to get a job here in Canterbury, where I am studying Computer Science at the University of Kent.

I got a job in the Starbucks in Burgate, which is a nice old catherderal store, which gets *very* busy at the weekends! but thankfully my manager has had 5/6years experience in the store, and has great team leadership skills, driving our store into a great success, making sure that we meet the standards of Starbucks, and making sure that each and every customer gets the level of service that they expect!

So, Tim, Chris, if you guys fancy popping insome time, i'm sure the store will be able to change your views of starbucks... hopefully..









-Antony

----

This is a picture of my store when we had lots of snow!


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## BanishInstant (Oct 12, 2009)

Thanks for the update Antony.

I have good and quite poor experiences at Starbucks and Costa and I'm not sure if it is due to the personnel or the management. My favourite Starbucks was in a Borders store which has sadly closed down.

The service steps sound great and I might record how successful my local stores are at achieving them


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## standard issue (Jan 10, 2010)

I wouldn't say I have a problem with *$ like a lot of peeps I speak to, however the only *$ I've experienced the "third place" would be Leeds an then only in winter, if you get a good seat upstairs, I actually loved *$ for many years, now I've tasted espresso brewed by my own hand I find *$ americano a little wishy washy (even with an extra shot) and the milk based coffee was waaaaay too milky (not an issue now I'm lactose intolerant :*(

As a result of this I've migrated to Nero (only if I can't find a quirky independent coffee shop) this migration was mainly due to the iced mocha's (why *$ stopped the dark choc mocha I don't know) and secondly there is some awesome italian guys working at Nero on Charing Cross Rd, I was there for a week and there was so much banter it really brightened up my mornings, also the seats are comfier!

Not against *$ just prefer home brew, I'll pop into the Canterbury *$ if I'm ever that way, the building looks amazing!


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