- And then there were some cuties that
came in there too, not gonna lie--
- Yeah. - I was like
(growling (laughing)
here we go.
(girls talking over each other)
(squealing)
- Hey, I'm Rachel and I'm a former Starbucks barista.
- My name is Megan and I'm a current Starbucks employee.
- Hi, I'm Maycie and I'm a former Starbucks barista.
- I'm Tsion and I'm a former Starbucks employee,
and we're gonna be answering your questions
about whatever you wanna know about
Starbucks employees.
(laughing)
(upbeat rock music)
Do you make any Starbucks drinks at home?
Yes!
So, basically it's my bootleg version
of Starbucks, because they have all types
of different creamers that you can buy from
the grocery store, so white mocha
was always my favorite,
it's basically
just the creamer added on to regular coffee,
but that's my Starbucks thing, at home.
- I go to Starbucks every single morning, so no.
(laughing)
I let them make it for me.
- I try to make replicas using what I have,
so I call it, it's like a poor man's mocha,
is my brewed coffee that I make at home
and then I put a hot chocolate packet
in my coffee and it tastes like a mocha.
- I'll make caramel macchiatos.
- Oh ooooh.
- But it's also just because--
- That's fancy.
- But it's also like you need to have
the syrup in your house and you need
to have all this other stuff and
things like that.
- Ooh, what's the worst drink you've ever
been asked to make?
Some people would want so many pumps of syrup
or extra, extra, extra caramel.
- It would be a drink that is
a normal drink, but they wanted it water-based,
so you're mixing water with syrups,
and water with powders, instead of milk,
but this would be water with matcha,
or water with vanilla bean powder.
- Has there ever been a customer at your store
that everyone who works there can't stand,
a famously awful customer, absolutely.
He was the most unpleasant human being
I've probably ever met.
Everybody, we'd just would be like, all right,
Red's here, that was his code word, Red, Red,
Red, we're in there and everybody's like
all right, just put on your best, you know,
basically force field cause he's gonna
be chewing you out for no reason.
- My store had a lot of awful customers.
So it was dependent on what kind of awful
you were, like there were certain people
who would come, throw money on the counter
and wouldn't say words, and I loved them.
But then there were other customers
that was like, if I saw them in the parking lot
you wanted to have their drink ready,
because I want you out of the store
as quick as possible.
- We call her half-blonde, half-dark,
because obviously she wants half-blonde coffee
and half-dark coffee,
in her own personal cup,
that's like this big,
and she only wants to pay for a tall.
When you're doing the machine,
and you're like okay, half-blonde,
half-dark, she's like, that's more blonde
than there is dark.
Can you pour it out and redo,
and I'm like oh my gosh.
- Has anyone ever asked to take a picture of you?
- No one has ever asked to take a picture with me,
but I will say that, yeah, I saw this woman
take a picture of my coworker today,
and it was, like they were like in close vicinity,
so it wasn't like she was like trying to sneak it,
she was just like--
- She was just like blatantly like--
- Wait, what?
What does that have to do with,
my life or at,
Why? - Well no, I assume like while
you were working. - Yeah, but why?
- I bet if you worked at like the one in Seattle.
- Oh my God. - People would be like,
oh that's expected - I would ask them to take
a picture.
Oh, I get it now.
- It would be all ages from
the high school kids, like hey,
you know, can we get a picture?
And I'm just like, I'm like, I got my Starbucks hat,
like it's a really long line, like you could,
you know, if you wanna snap one real quick
you can, but, I just never really understood it.
What was your favorite part, or is your
favorite part, about working at Starbucks?
The coworkers just made it that much easier,
like, okay I got my boy over here,
I got my girl, the managers, everybody was
just cool, young, hip, we'd go out,
and just hang out or whatever,
so that was like the best part.
- This is gonna make me sound like
I'm very antisocial, but I actually
really loved doing the dishes.
- Free coffee.
Free coffee, and more free coffee.
- Everything.
(laughing)
- Rachel wishes she still worked
at Starbucks.
- I loved it there so much.
Okay, what was my favorite thing,
probably the customers.
I became so close with them,
and my coworkers.
- Why do Starbucks baristas hate making frappuccinos?
(laughing)
- I mean--
- I was a Starbucks barista in Arizona
in the summer--
- Oh.
- So people would come, literally a family
would come and be like, we'll have 10 frappuccinos.
- Just fraps. - And you're just like
oh my God, we only have three blenders,
this is gonna take so long.
- [Rachel] Yeah.
- I just don't enjoy making them because,
when everything's like right in front of you
with the hot bar, and you have all
your pumps, and you can pretty much
make everything right here, the frappuccinos
are all the way back here,
so then I have to stop being able
to do at least two to three drinks
at one time, which you're supposed to.
I have to take my stuff and go over to
the frappuccinos, and then just
be at the frappuccino section,
which has nothing but only frappuccinos
and maybe a couple other cold bar stuff.
- Which drink do you think you make best?
- I don't know if I make it the best,
but my favorite drinks to make were the hot ones,
because I felt like I was like a little scientist.
- Brewed coffee.
As long as you just tell me you want like
a grande pike, and I go over there,
I'm like, easy, done, my favorite.
- The drinks I was the best at is
the people that I knew the best,
or like the people who told me exactly
what they wanted.
- I was actually gonna say that frappuccinos
were my favorite drinks to make.
- Really?
- What's the biggest thing customers
complain about?
Everything!
Nah. - Yeah, no, not everything.
- Honestly, a little bit of everything.
It could be the drinks, it can be the line,
it can be the price difference.
- A lot of times people complain about the price,
which I didn't make that up, just so you know.
- It'll be down to like too much whipped cream,
not enough whipped cream, not enough caramel,
the temperature's way too hot, but you didn't
say you wanted it kids' temp.
- I feel like people didn't tend to complain,
but if they did it was more about the drink,
like, oh, this isn't-- - Oh yeah.
- Hot enough, or like oh, it's too sweet,
it's not sweet enough, it's like you made
it different in some way, but I feel like
it was really rare that I personally was a
part of getting-- - I didn't even think about
the drinks being a complaint. - Any complaints.
- I was like, no, I made the drinks perfect.
- Do people eat the display food?
Um, my store, no.
I see some stores sometimes pull out
the display food and I'm just like,
I don't wanna eat the food that like
has been chillin' all day.
- People ate the display food when I was there
because it wasn't-- - Oh-oh.
- It was like every, but it was also like
everything was displayed too.
It was like we didn't have one of each
that was left in there for three days.
- Oh.
- It was like we had it out in the morning.
- We'd have like, just little pairings,
so it was like, okay, you have the lemon loaf
with this, that pairs good with that,
or like a piece of chocolate chip cookie.
So you did have plenty of people,
no matter how long it was sittin' there,
they'd like kinda keep comin', or you'd
have a kid and be like, thank you,
and like grab the whole thing and
just run off.
- I guess I didn't realize if people
ate the display food at my Starbucks,
but there was like sandwiches, and yogurt
parfaits, and stuff like that,
that at the end of the night, if they were
gonna expire, then you could take them home,
and then any ones that no one wanted--
- Yeah. - We would take to a homeless
shelter down the street.
- Have you ever had a favorite customer?
I have, so, I feel like I have like
a handful of my favorite customers,
and everyone always knows because
they're like, ope, here comes Megan's
favorite human.
- There was this guy that was really
sweet that would come.
One time, he like pulled my manager aside
and told him that every day when
he sees me it just makes his day,
and I'm always so happy and smiley
or whatever, and then because of that
my manager gave me this like special
card, and-- - Oh and it was like
a big deal. - It's been like 10 years
and I still remember.
- That's a big deal!
- Yeah.
- I definitely had, like, a big smile
on my face when it was specific customers.
Ooh, ay, he's comin', you know.
And then it was some cuties that
came in there too, not gonna lie--
- Yeah. - I was like.
(growling) (laughing)
Here we go.
(girls talking over each other)
(squealing)
(laughing)
Just act natural.
Ahh, so what kinda drink you gonna get today?
- I definitely have a couple favorite
customers, I'm still friends with them
on Facebook, like I chat with some of them,
like I definitely had a few people that
I keep in touch with their kids and stuff like that.
- Do people always freak out about the holiday cups?
There are multiple customers that actually
did freak out for having Christmas cups,
or Thanksgiving, or specific actual
named holidays of that actual time,
so they just was like, okay, well, from,
I don't know if it was September to December,
or if it was October to December, I forgot, but one of 'em
was like holiday cups, and that's it,
it's gonna be neutral colors.
- People actually do freak out about them, though.
People would come in in like the summer
and ask if, like, we had any idea of like
what the cups were gonna look like,
and I was like, I don't--
- Like you care?
- Yeah, like, I didn't realize that it was such
a big deal, and then I think the first year
I worked there it came out on the news,
and I was like, oh my God, I was
like a teenager, and I was like,
people care about this stuff.
- I do remember a couple people,
and I just remember being like, I'm not sure
what side you're on right now,
like I'm not sure if you're for the cups,
or against the cups, like all I know is that
you're shouting at me, and I'm a little confused,
and we've got Christmas music playing,
and you're killin' my mood.
I'm glad I got to, like, relieve your brains
and answer some of these questions,
cause, I mean, these are things
that people ask me all the time.
- Starbucks was definitely my most favorite job,
for sure, and all this stuff made me remember,
though, like all the different things about them,
I mean, even just what you were saying about
being able to wash the dishes in the back.
- Happy to answer these questions that
some of you guys have probably been
thinkin' about for a very long time,
every time you go into Starbucks.
- I really loved working there,
and literally as anyone who works with me
can tell you, I go there every single day
to this day, so I have a lot of love
and respect for my Starbucks peeps.
- [Rachel] It's good when you leave a job that is like,
food and beverage, and you still go there
afterwards, like, it's clean too.
(acoustic guitar music)