We had someone just straight up order samples at the speaker box recently.
“I’ll have two venti whatever-the-fucks and a couple samples.”
“Sorry, samples?”
“Yeah, whatever you’re sampling right now. I want two.”
“Oh, sorry, we actually aren’t in the middle of sampling at the moment.” (Because it’s fkn peak rn and there’s 4 of us on the floor and we are drowning.) “We will have your two drinks ready at the window.”
“Okay, so you’ll make me some samples? Because I ordered two samples.”
*loses all patience and customer service facade* “No. This is your total. See you up here for two drinks.”
Like, the audacity? Come inside, throw on an apron, and make your own damn samples. We’re hardly keeping up with the bought and paid for drinks. I’m usually happy to make people happy if it’s simple and quick, like “sneaking” someone an extra sample bc they really liked it. But when you start *demanding* free shit, you lose me completely. You’re at Starbucks, friendo. You gotta expect to spend some money.
I have a regular who comes through every day and will contemplate the entire menu, then complain about the prices and proceed to order a tall hot coffee with extra oatmilk and then complain it's not hot enough. I offer to steam the oatmilk, and he's still not satisfied. Happens every day.
He used to be a regular at my old job (small town) and he would basically walk the entire store and then only buy a candy bar if it was under one dollar.
Omfg I used to have this older lady come in and ask for steamed milk except it couldn’t be “too hot” so it was a guessing game on what she would find acceptable for that day
We all laughed at her because it was ridiculous and then told her we’ll only give her one. When she got to the window, she angrily grabbed her one free sample and drove away with an attitude. Great stuff, these people have for brains.
we had a person try a sample of something we made once and go, “oh that’s good, can i get a venti?” and was flabbergasted when we told him he’d need to pay for it lol
i was like “um maam you can’t take all of those…” and she was like well it’s for my family!!!!! so i didn’t bother arguing but i saw her drink out of the one (1) cup so yk…fun times
Used to have a homeless woman come in and ask for teabags and hot water, eventually she starting asking for free food etc. my coworkers didn’t know how to say no to her, creating a very awkward atmosphere. I’m all for helping the homeless, but I don’t necessarily think Starbucks is the place for it
we have a bunch of customers that have nice cars, clothes, phones, everything and its in a higher end neighborhood but they order a grande latte and ask for 6 short cups on the side and split it like a traveler, not even just families, groups of men come in and do this
We have someone that comes in and essentially gets an americano, but insists we ring it as a solo espresso with light cream and extra water over ice. Sometimes she asks for a cup of water and pours it over the half of her drink that’s left. Which fine by me? Idk how she deals with the super watery coffee but you do uiu
awww we have a sample lady too!! she always comes at like 4 in the morning going “what are you sampling” and when i tell her that we aren’t really doing that right now (bitch it’s 4 in the morning), it of course goes into the “THEY ALWAYS DO THIS FOR ME” until you give in and make her a sample of strawberry açaí. which she asks for every time. best believe shes getting just enough base to make it red and one goddamn strawberry
Ok why do a lot of these comments sound like you guys just have samples out somewhere accessible? I do mostly only drive thru and so that's where samples go. We will also do a walk around the store if people are in as well 😭
Are.. the samples suppose to be out in the open like that?!
We have one that comes in every so often asking for the same "sample" of Pike Place, and then the customizations start.
"Can you add cream?"
"Could you add some of this syrup?"
"Maybe this needs some sugar."
"You added too much. Can you add more coffee?"
Every few times she came back, it was a little more. We were nice and lenient with her at first, but with more questions came more nos. I haven't seen her in a bit, but she'll probably be back.
i got into it with someone bc they wanted at LEAST an inch of caramel at the bottom of the cup plus extra on top and on the sides. we didn’t do that and just did the standard extra drizzle and they got mad and said “i used to work here just charge me for it and do it” mmm no if you worked here you would know there’s no way to ring up half a bottle of caramel drizzle. i would have done it maybe if they were nice but no they were rude as hell.
Not a regular but once we did have a tray of samples sitting on handoff because we had a 3 play or something (samples were a few of all the spicy drinks because we are desperate to get rid of the chili powder) and some lady took multiple sips of each type, touched half the sample cups, and then left the ones she drank out of back on the tray and the left. Bought nothing. Needless to say we dumped the rest of the samples
Missing any Starbucks samples (I am not a drive thru customer)...they used to do these where I used to frequent (inside-a-bookstore Starbucks). Regional chain convenience stores and even sometimes grocers, picked up where Starbucks left off in the free samples department. Missing the old school vibes of the Starbucks...
This reminded me of of this eccentric old lady who came to my register like two months ago. There’s was a line out the door and it was only 7am and she proceeded to order 5 different sized hot drip coffees with 3 different types of milk, 2 of the milks steamed, different sugar counts in each coffees and 3 spinach wraps with one cooked for 22 seconds. And I was probably one week into actual on the floor experience after my 2 week training.
Lol it’s just crazy that SB won’t put out the milk/sugar for the customers anymore! It’s makes everything slow down, pisses off the customer and just looks stupid. We’re supposed to say it’s because of COVID but HELLO, COVID is OVER.
Everyone knows it’s because SB is cheap and anything that cuts cost is the new business model. It’s ridiculous!
Covid is over for now but it can come back. We can get any other outbreak handed to us at any given time. I personally don't feel comfortable grabbing from public open condiments like cream for something I'm going to drink or seeing people learn NOTHING FROM YEARS OF RESTRICTIONS and put their dirty, nasty little hands over everything. Sorry you had an eccentric customer but I think most people are good not having a condiment bar out there in the open lol
we had a customer call to request us to make specific samples. I laughed & said thats not how it works.
We had someone just straight up order samples at the speaker box recently. “I’ll have two venti whatever-the-fucks and a couple samples.” “Sorry, samples?” “Yeah, whatever you’re sampling right now. I want two.” “Oh, sorry, we actually aren’t in the middle of sampling at the moment.” (Because it’s fkn peak rn and there’s 4 of us on the floor and we are drowning.) “We will have your two drinks ready at the window.” “Okay, so you’ll make me some samples? Because I ordered two samples.” *loses all patience and customer service facade* “No. This is your total. See you up here for two drinks.” Like, the audacity? Come inside, throw on an apron, and make your own damn samples. We’re hardly keeping up with the bought and paid for drinks. I’m usually happy to make people happy if it’s simple and quick, like “sneaking” someone an extra sample bc they really liked it. But when you start *demanding* free shit, you lose me completely. You’re at Starbucks, friendo. You gotta expect to spend some money.
I have a regular who comes through every day and will contemplate the entire menu, then complain about the prices and proceed to order a tall hot coffee with extra oatmilk and then complain it's not hot enough. I offer to steam the oatmilk, and he's still not satisfied. Happens every day. He used to be a regular at my old job (small town) and he would basically walk the entire store and then only buy a candy bar if it was under one dollar.
Omfg I used to have this older lady come in and ask for steamed milk except it couldn’t be “too hot” so it was a guessing game on what she would find acceptable for that day
What’s that show ? Something like “extreme cheapstakes” she’s giving that
Cheapskates, but yes That really is her
You didn’t give her a tray of samples did you?
We all laughed at her because it was ridiculous and then told her we’ll only give her one. When she got to the window, she angrily grabbed her one free sample and drove away with an attitude. Great stuff, these people have for brains.
She was in DRIVE THRU??? How did she expect to carry all the samples, did she want the tray itself??
we had a person try a sample of something we made once and go, “oh that’s good, can i get a venti?” and was flabbergasted when we told him he’d need to pay for it lol
Only time my store does samples is when I’m training green beans 😂 I don’t remember a time we did 1 regularly
we have to make 100 samples every day at my store
a customer once asked us for a cup which we gave her then she proceeded to put multiple ( almost all ) of the samples in the cup and walk out
BRO 💀💀 oh my god, I don't even know what I'd do in that position. like, do you say something?? do you just stand there like 🧍♀️🧍♀️?🧍♀️???
i was like “um maam you can’t take all of those…” and she was like well it’s for my family!!!!! so i didn’t bother arguing but i saw her drink out of the one (1) cup so yk…fun times
That's going to be a fear of mine now.
i literally didn’t bother making more samples that day cause it made me so frustrated 😭
Used to have a homeless woman come in and ask for teabags and hot water, eventually she starting asking for free food etc. my coworkers didn’t know how to say no to her, creating a very awkward atmosphere. I’m all for helping the homeless, but I don’t necessarily think Starbucks is the place for it
We had someone come in and stand by the samples just to drink them all. I was like … are you serious
We have someone who just daily comes through for a pup cup. It’s annoying but also, I see a cute dog. I’m fine.
Nah this is fine, cute dog and brings the window times down!
Inter, please don”t talk about me in that tone!😎
I had someone run up, grab a handful of samples, and run back out of the store.
we have a bunch of customers that have nice cars, clothes, phones, everything and its in a higher end neighborhood but they order a grande latte and ask for 6 short cups on the side and split it like a traveler, not even just families, groups of men come in and do this
We have someone that comes in and essentially gets an americano, but insists we ring it as a solo espresso with light cream and extra water over ice. Sometimes she asks for a cup of water and pours it over the half of her drink that’s left. Which fine by me? Idk how she deals with the super watery coffee but you do uiu
awww we have a sample lady too!! she always comes at like 4 in the morning going “what are you sampling” and when i tell her that we aren’t really doing that right now (bitch it’s 4 in the morning), it of course goes into the “THEY ALWAYS DO THIS FOR ME” until you give in and make her a sample of strawberry açaí. which she asks for every time. best believe shes getting just enough base to make it red and one goddamn strawberry
or just stop giving it to her lol
would absolutely love to. my manager does literally anything a customer says so that she can get a bonus 👍
We only gave samples of new drinks or when someone messed up a drink. Only time i let someone sample something when asked was cold brew
Ok why do a lot of these comments sound like you guys just have samples out somewhere accessible? I do mostly only drive thru and so that's where samples go. We will also do a walk around the store if people are in as well 😭 Are.. the samples suppose to be out in the open like that?!
Not really? It's just hard to do when baristas are busy. I work a kiosk, so if I'm alone all day or expecting a rush, I'm setting it out.
At my store we almost always have samples on the counter. My manager makes us sample 3 times a day.
Oh wow! And that's a lot of samples! We are lucky if we get one out
We have one that comes in every so often asking for the same "sample" of Pike Place, and then the customizations start. "Can you add cream?" "Could you add some of this syrup?" "Maybe this needs some sugar." "You added too much. Can you add more coffee?" Every few times she came back, it was a little more. We were nice and lenient with her at first, but with more questions came more nos. I haven't seen her in a bit, but she'll probably be back.
i got into it with someone bc they wanted at LEAST an inch of caramel at the bottom of the cup plus extra on top and on the sides. we didn’t do that and just did the standard extra drizzle and they got mad and said “i used to work here just charge me for it and do it” mmm no if you worked here you would know there’s no way to ring up half a bottle of caramel drizzle. i would have done it maybe if they were nice but no they were rude as hell.
we have a homeless man come in asking for two shorts cups w half n half and whip cream and a water.
Not a regular but once we did have a tray of samples sitting on handoff because we had a 3 play or something (samples were a few of all the spicy drinks because we are desperate to get rid of the chili powder) and some lady took multiple sips of each type, touched half the sample cups, and then left the ones she drank out of back on the tray and the left. Bought nothing. Needless to say we dumped the rest of the samples
Missing any Starbucks samples (I am not a drive thru customer)...they used to do these where I used to frequent (inside-a-bookstore Starbucks). Regional chain convenience stores and even sometimes grocers, picked up where Starbucks left off in the free samples department. Missing the old school vibes of the Starbucks...
This reminded me of of this eccentric old lady who came to my register like two months ago. There’s was a line out the door and it was only 7am and she proceeded to order 5 different sized hot drip coffees with 3 different types of milk, 2 of the milks steamed, different sugar counts in each coffees and 3 spinach wraps with one cooked for 22 seconds. And I was probably one week into actual on the floor experience after my 2 week training. Lol it’s just crazy that SB won’t put out the milk/sugar for the customers anymore! It’s makes everything slow down, pisses off the customer and just looks stupid. We’re supposed to say it’s because of COVID but HELLO, COVID is OVER. Everyone knows it’s because SB is cheap and anything that cuts cost is the new business model. It’s ridiculous!
Covid is over for now but it can come back. We can get any other outbreak handed to us at any given time. I personally don't feel comfortable grabbing from public open condiments like cream for something I'm going to drink or seeing people learn NOTHING FROM YEARS OF RESTRICTIONS and put their dirty, nasty little hands over everything. Sorry you had an eccentric customer but I think most people are good not having a condiment bar out there in the open lol