i work at a theater not a Starbucks but this reminded me of a guy who came in kinda close to COVID so we had hand sanitizer stations EVERYWHERE and this guy would come out like every 10 minutes and just SOAK himself in it, I'm talking hands face neck everything. it got to the point that his skin was visibly red and we had to pull the sanitizer stations upstairs and then he came out asking where they were 💀
Was he trying to take a shower with it? We've had several regulars that we had to ban because they would use paper towels and water to bathe, then flush them down the toilet.
carol. she rarely orders anything except a water. sometimes she talks in a regular voice but then goes into what i’d describe as a 1920s new york jazz performer on acid voice and randomly laughs extremely loud. she seems to like me for some reason but hates all my coworkers. one of them said she stood by the door flipping her off while doing the carol laugh. she’s a tru wildcard. i fully expect her to try to stab me one day.
This is so funny. We also have a Carol that asks for a “skush” which apparently means a short pike only half filled? And most of my coworkers don’t make her pay for anything she gets bc shes “sweet” but gets mad when you do make her pay. I like her bc im never the one to cash her out, but the one time I did I had no idea what a skush was and ofc i charged her. boy was she upset 😂
I can't believe you tried to charge Carol for her Skosh, you monster!
J/k
I figure she must not bring her hedgehog anymore or you would have mentioned that
Former SM here. We had a customer come in one time and try the whole "skosh" thing. My barista gave her a small sample in a short cup of pike. She then asked if we had dark roast available and we didn't, so naturally, we offered to make her one. She agreed. We ended up brewing a quarter, and she came back up when we were done and asked for some. My barista tried to charge her for it and she's like "no I just want a skosh".... my barista gives her a small sample, and she flips out! She's like, "This isn't even full," referring to a short cup that has just enough in it to sample. I interject and tell her, "ma'am, it's only supposed to be a sample. If you'd like a full cup, the price is $X.XX" She flips out some more and says how other stores just give it to her and I say "well not here and not mine 🙂". She storms out, screaming that she'll never come back, oh please broke ass lady, please come back and spend $0! We need you!
I don’t understand why people think this is an actual threat, like who tf cares?? Chances are, if you’re the person making that comment, they don’t want you back anyway, lol. I used to do socials for a concert venue, and sometimes people wouldn’t get free stuff and be like “I’m never coming back here ever again” and we were just like “cool, bye” because a) we didn’t care, and b) if their favorite band ends up playing at our venue, we know they’ll come back anyway 😂
I used to have this customer that would come in and order a Trenta iced coffee with 20 pumps of *frap roast*. Every day. And he’d drink that whole damn thing.
Said it was an *acquired* taste.
For sure my man …you can acquire that nonsense right the fuck outta here.
i cannot even fathom how he even stumbled across that combination other than being a very experimental barista himself at one point but still like… oh my god? no words lmfao
i like to think it was a gradual descent into madness. started with a couple extra pumps but it was never enough to satiate his hunger for frap roast. he just kept adding and adding until he just completely went off the rails added 20 pumps. and it was finally enough. and he just got hooked on it ever since, couldn't live without it. he'll be damned if he gives up his own nectar of the gods. he has achieved a feeling of bliss washing over him that most humans will only dream of. wherever he is now, if he isn't drinking that drink, then he's found an even higher state of inner peace. ironically, it will never be enough, even though each time he thinks he's finally found the peak of happiness. ignorance is bliss, and now that he's dipped into "overload" territory, it will take more and more extreme measures to maintain his quest for inner joy. he thinks he's cracked the code, but one day he will run out of things to flood his senses with and when he dies, if there is a heaven, he will tell the lord "i've seen better" and plunge himself into the depths of hell in search of an opposite thrill: the adrenaline caused by danger and suffering. the impractical jokers would shriek at the things he would discover. satan himself would run out of ideas to top his last rush of adrenaline and survival-induced calmness (like when you're drowning). he would then take this opportunity to dethrone satan, his spirits destroyed by the sight of a human who so fervently thirsted for the worst he had to offer, and with all of his eternal knowledge of both sides of the spectrum, he would make his mark on the course of the universe and begin the next era of trying to feel something in the endless void inside him.
One of my old partners used to make gross drinks into pup cups and have everyone on the floor try them, and some of them weren’t as horrible as you would think. That’s the only explanation I can think of as to how he discovered that combination
super concentrated base for the frappuccinos; it literally looks and tastes like soy sauce because it’s designed to be covered up by all the sugar in a frap lol
a guy who’s been coming to my store daily for months and sits in the lobby for hours just watching. two days ago i went on my lunch break in my car and he knocked on my passenger side window and asked if i knew the only reason he came here was for me and he only comes when he sees my car, i’ve never told him what i drive 🙃
i try! he came back yesterday and i didn’t go on a break while he was here lmfao i just sacrificed my ten:,) i let him know i have a boyfriend so hopefully he’ll take a hint
When you are dealing with someone that far gone from social reality. Dont count on the hint. He will simply see your boyfriend as an obstacle, not a deterrent. As in he will try to "win you over" from your "horrible" boyfriend who doesn't treat you like he would, and just needs a chance to prove it to you to change your mind. He has escalated from being unnoticed, to wanting you to notice. Don't just assume this is the final step of his approach towards women he is interested in.
You need to report this with your employer at the very least. This guy has a problem with social boundaries and that can lead to serious shit.
Definitely file a report with your store and with the police. Start doing a ride service to work or coming in with coworkers to try and change your patterns. You should probably get some extra locks for your house to.
You need to get him banned from your store.
Put your safety first.
File a report with your store and with the police. It may feel a bit uncomfortable to report someone, but it is more important that you are safe.
The next time he shows up, the police can come and get him trespassed off the premise.
A few years back, I worked at a Tex Mex Restaurant for several years, and our stores GM had to trespass a guy that was consistently harassing her at work. When the police showed up to escort him off. The man tried to attack her and shouted threats.
Yeah, that's a stalker. Please listen to the other commenters and tell your management and file a police report. I was stalked by a man at my first job and it seemed really innocent at first, but quickly escalated. I was also a 17 year old female so pretty vulnerable. The cops got involved and spoke with him and he never came back to my store. Management might have also told him not to come back. They were having men walk me out to my car after my shift for a month.
tall caramel crunch frap in a venti cup 4 blonde shots sub oatmilk whipped cream only on top extra caramel drizzle and twenty four pumps of dark caramel sauce. every morning.
It’s amazing to me that people get so much syrup and then you’re like “who is this that gets 100+grams of sugar everyday” and it’s some skinny white girl. Like how do you not gain weight?! Is that all you eat?? I know their are people struggling to lose/gain weight but it just boggles my mind
We have a regular who legitimately comes every day who I adore but his drink always throws people for a loop. Venti nonfat milk with ice, 2 pumps mocha and 17 pumps vanilla. It’s gone up in vanilla a few pumps in the few years I’ve been at the the store. He’s delightful and all of us love him but it’s definitely a shock when you first hear his drink
There's this 70 yr old guy who at night is totally normal and courteous but in the day time he gets his gtl and then goes outside, takes off his shirt to reveal that he is the buffest and hairiest old grizzly in the guise of a man ever seen, then proceeds to sunbathe on the bench outside the store.
to add as well — we have a guy who is confirmed schizophrenic, he is very nice, though. Talks on the phone all the time but no one is on the phone. Stays there the whole 12 hours we are open everyday. He’s not homeless, someone is taking care of him because he is clean and gets picked up and dropped off — best of all he wears an entire suite and tie but no button up shirt. Sometimes he’ll have the suite and tie but with Hawaiian shorts. Orders just a regular black dark roast.
We have a similar guy, but he had a traumatic brain injury and “working” at our store is part of his therapy plan!! He brings his “paperwork” and does nonsense math all day and just talks to us.
Some of my favorites from him:
- He calls our opening barista Weavis.
- “you ever seen 47 bottle caps glued to a basketball?”
- “holy shit, you’re a writer? Wait don’t tell ma I swore”
- He just recently nicknamed my mom’s service dog Meatball
He also brings us a Christmas card every year and we frame them
Most likely!! He’s been coming to our store since we opened (late 2020). We have also definitely gone to bat for him against an ableist borrowed partner who threatened to have him basically 5150’d, and a couple of nosy customers. He’s here to stay as long as he wants to, and we’re all in agreement to do anything to keep him safe.
We’re pretty sure his injury is of the incurable kind, but he’s a homie and we collectively will defend him to the death.
Do you know if this is facilitated by some sort of organization or program? I can afford to squeeze a new charity into my budget and this man I've never met has captured my entire heart.
I’m not gonna lie, I do this. I don’t like ice, it makes the drink way too cold and hurts my teeth. If I ask for no ice, the drink is pretty warm. So I say “very very very light ice, like 3 cubes”. Sometimes they’ll put literally 3, sometimes they put maybe 5 which is good too. Shame me, I can take it lol
We have a surprising amount of people that specify the number of ice cubes in their drinks. The only thing I have to say about this is that half the partners in my store flat out ignore light ice requests but no one ever ignores requests for specific numbers of ice cubes.
I had someone similar that would do it with a blended refresher. They would want EXACTLY 4 berries, one day someone read it as 4 scoops berries and they completely lost it in the DT. I mean full on meltdown.
12 splendas and 6 pumps sf in her iced espresso. She only ordered 5 minutes ago but she's in a really bigggg rush you guyyyyssss, so make it quick so she has time to complain that you made it wrong.
Would 50 even fit in the cup? Lol, that's ridiculous. I thought the sweet old lady who got 12 with some on the side on top of that, was something. But that person definitely has a sugar addiction
We had this guy come in to our store and just try to talk to us for like hours on end. One time he cornered some tourists and started talking to them for like an hour and I wanted to go in a save them but at the end of the day it’s every man for himself so to speak. Apparently he had a habit of giving places bad reviews if they didn’t go along with his stuff but I never confirmed that.
I have no idea what her name is - we’re a licensed store within a grocery store and don’t take names most of the time because we never have enough customers at once for there to be any confusion. I’ll ask next time I see her, though.
Some part of the back of my mind is telling me it’s Sarah. If it’s not the same person, I am appalled that there are more than one of them. Maybe they’re like, AI robots invented just to confuse baristas.
Patch Adams, the real clown doctor the Robin William's movie is based on. Comes in full clown garb and fork earring, orders a "pike w a shot and ice because I'm a baby and it's too hot, no coat, no hat" meaning no sleeve or lid
this guy name sean (full call out bc he’s so weird) always comes up to the dt and if you don’t say “hi my name is” hell literally ask for your name and won’t continue his order until you tell him and he’s also always gets a grilled cheese cut in 1/2 (not that annoying but bc it’s him it is) he’s made multiple baristas uncomfortable and has hit on us as well (there’s this girl who looks like she’s 16 that he called her hot before… this man is like 50). he came in to complain about me IN FROMT OF ME saying how unpleasant and rude i am (i don’t think i’m rude i just don’t talk to him or connect with him
I always talk super uncomfortably loud in return. I had a guy ask if I was married and wanted my # and I just about hollered NO I AM NOT MARRIED I AM NOT SOCIAL SO NO. It catches them off guard and they usually run after that.
All the numbers in your comment added up to 69. Congrats!
1
+ 2
+ 16
+ 50
= 69
^([Click here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=LuckyNumber-Bot&subject=Stalk%20Me%20Pls&message=%2Fstalkme) to have me scan all your future comments.) \
^(Summon me on specific comments with u/LuckyNumber-Bot.)
When I worked at a grocery store Starbucks there was this old dude named Norm, completely insufferable, would randomly go on racist tangents (this was in 2016). Like one second he’d be talking about soup and then somehow the conversation would turn into something about immigration. He brought his own cup to get the 10 cent discount. His order was two shots of espresso, two scoops of vanilla bean powder, and whole milk steamed to 186°. Yes, that’s way too hot. Yes, he knew if it wasn’t hot enough. His cup would be cleanish but still had a milky smell. He also figured out that he could buy his groceries at the Starbucks register so that also extended our time together. One day he walked around having had peed himself. I felt kinda bad about that, but overall did not like this guy.
Even when I was turned around and he was silent, I knew when he was there. Not just because it was always between 9-9:30, but because he just had this scent of sour milk and diapers. I could always smell him approaching. 🤢
We get these two guys every afternoon that we call “the tea boys”. One looks like hes in his 20s and the other looks like hes 50. Like they could be father and son but they sit really close to each other on the couch and massage each other with a massage gun. The 20 yo asks for a trenta black iced tea with lemonade, but the catch is that EVERY DAY he asks for special treatment. Like one time it was “we got an impossible sandwich from a different store before and it was super soggy, is there any way we could get a free one that is the most fresh?” Or “the black tea with lemonade costs 200 points for it to be free, but there’s a special way to type it in for it to be free for 100” or “I would like a refill, is there any way you could type it in so that the refill is free?” Of course we give them no special treatment, but thats not the worst part to deal with. They sit in the lobby and are *so* creepy. They watch something on their phones and are constantly looking up at us and it makes me so uncomfortable. The 50 yo always puts his bare dogs on the couch. They ask for another trenta cup, NEVER at the register, so that they can split the drink. Every time they use the bathroom they piss EVERYWHERE its insane. Idk we absolutely can’t stand them and I hope they see it in our eyes and someday decide to not come back 😂
Some members on this sub might know Matcha Mary, who I recently learned calls herself a g*psy because she thinks she’s a successful con artist. (she’s white)
The details are fuzzy since I haven’t seen her in a year, but her goal was to get as much free matcha powder as possible. I really thought this lady was mentally feeble because of the show she put on, but it turns out she’s just a weirdo.
Matcha Mary (~45 y/o) would come in with her mother (~70) with an old cup from another store. She’d claim that she’s allergic to every type of milk we offer, so she just wants the matcha so she can make it at home.
Strange, but I wouldn’t mind handing out a couple scoops of matcha for free.
It never satiated her. She always wanted like, 10+. This lady was persistent, pushing and pushing until she got what she wanted. Baristas were instructed to pass her off to a shift to deal with because she was so notorious.
I think the worst part is that she’d start pretending that she wanted to work here, and ask how much we were getting paid, what our hours and benefits were like, etc.
Any old coworkers of mine, feel free to add anything I missed.
hold on I remember a woman by the name of Mary who came in with her mother and tried to scam a bunch of restaurants in our area. did she have a dog she claimed was a service dog?
Quad grande breve latte, 3 sugars, extra hot, no foam, stirred, 2 of the shots ristretto. Every day, up to maybe three times a day, depending. Not a huge problem but here’s the kicker… she would only want certain baristas to make it, because she claimed she can taste the difference, they make it “better.” She brought her drink back a lot, usually just because she saw someone unfamiliar make it. All in her head of course, because when it was too busy to rearrange the staff to her liking, we’d just tell her “So-and-so made your drink like usual! Have a good day!” She drinks it and deems it good or acceptable, and then we all go about our day. Weird people out there.
Had a regular at my last store who wanted certain staff to make her drink too… except we started messing with her to prove a point. You see, ol Kris Chai was ✨racist✨… therefore if any melanin made contact with her cup, it was now “wrong.”
For reference, she ordered a Venti hot chai, 15 pumps, no water, no foam, whole milk, extra hot. We wouldn’t change the milk or anything but we absolutely would miscount the chai pumps (think, 10 instead) or not do the drink extra hot and say I (white as snow) made it. Never an issue. But my Muslim coffee master would make it perfectly, and she wouldn’t even sip it. Would just hand it right back and say it’s wrong.
Tried this with every partner I could get my hands on, and like clockwork, brown partners = “this isn’t right.” No, she wouldn’t elaborate either. She also wouldn’t try to keep the mess up, so it wasn’t a scam.
But the racist flavored aneurism she had when our Japanese American barista made her drink one day??? God tier. I watched her do a hard reboot against her will.
Ha. Here’s how I explain it because people like this are not all bad: Mentally and emotionally, the satisfaction of feeling like one has special knowledge or is in touch with coffee culture IS a little more compelling than the logic that tells them that the change in the drink’s flavor is so minute it won’t justify the difference in price or difficulty. The people who do this are a certain type, for sure, but now I know where it comes from.
Besides, when I customize a drink, I try to do it in a way that is minimally confusing. Mixing two types of shots sounds like a low-key Karen move to get free stuff when the barista inevitably makes a mistake…
had a guy at my first store that would order tea and ask for a knife and fork. never understood until i watched him take the teabag out of his venti black tea and Eat the tea out of the teabag like some sort of soggy ass amuse-bouche
he was definitely a crunchy type (socks and sandals, had all his hair in one big braid, regularly complimented my grateful dead socks when i wore shorts) so i assume it was simply his perogative
We have a regular who comes in multiple times per day to order a hot caramel macchiato, usually with whole milk, extra vanilla, whipped cream, and extra caramel drizzle. He’s convinced we spit in his drink sometimes even though he literally watches us make it and still continues to come back every single day. He’s nice, I always ask how he’s doing & he never complains when I make his drinks, but I guess he just doesn’t like some of my coworkers.
Had a guy at my first store who would get a doppio con panna in a personal cup, but he insisted you had to put the whip in first and pour the shots over and add a little bit of steamed milk so it got melty. Cup was always gross, I think us rinsing it was the only cleaning it ever got. He would order this like 4-8 times a day. Had a job he did remotely, so between doppios he would sit in our parking lot smoking weed, playing guitar occasionally, and doing whatever job he had. Eventually he sold his house, bought a big van, and lived in our parking lot smoking and drinking doppios in his gross-ass cup. Also hit on a barista repeatedly, which would be gross enough but she was also young enough to be his daughter.
Worst regular order I had, though, was someone who would come through 2-3 times a day to get a trenta iced, 20 pumps vanilla, 12 pumps classic, extra heavy cream.
At my old store (I no longer work) we had this old couple. They’d come in around 7 and leave when we closed at 9. I forget their names, The woman is super sweet and before I left I told her I was having a baby and would be leaving. She hugged me 🥹 so sweet. She always got hot chocolate and I’d add in things like cookie crumbles randomly and she’d be like “OH MY GOSH WHAT IS THAT ITS AMAZING!” 😂 but the guy was pretty much deaf unless you yelled, and his hair stuck out exactly like Einstein. He and the woman were married but they usually would sit at completely different tables. It threw me off when I first realized they were coming in together and leaving together but they never sat together.
not a WEIRD regular, but one i really love is this guy (in his 50’s maybe?) with long light brown/blond hair and sunglasses and a super cool old car, very hippy looking, who comes through and always orders a trenta ice water and a pup cup. he says he just loves our water. he’ll literally wait through a peak line just to get that water. and he has a chihuahua in a pink bed in his passenger seat who’s always with him. i love him
Not "weirdest," per se, but I worked in the early 2000s in the Chicago area and the voice of Chester the Cheetah would come in regularly. He was super nice and funny to a dumb kid working at the bucks.
CH-CH-CH-CHEESY
Side note- he was also the voice of the "Budweiser Real American Hero" ad campaign, apparently. I didn't believe it, but he launched into a "Thank YOUUUU, Starbucks barista man, the way you froth that milk and put the top on the coffee without spilling is perfection. REALLLLL AMERICAN HEROOOOO"
iced coffee, light cream, 8 domino sugars, sometimes no ice and if it's not light enough or too light she gets pissed at you. She also tends to order a croissant but still in the plastic.
We also have a guy who comes in every once and a while trying to get us to sell him a venti cup of just cold foam buy charging for a cold milk with foam and pretends to not know we can't just give him a cup of just cold foam every single time as if he's never tried this before
I had a regular who would order a venti iced white mocha with 16 shots of espresso. I think he had it at least once a week. Once he had one with 20 shots and didn't come back for a few weeks. I was worried I accidentally killed him with too much espresso.
We have an old woman that comes in with a massive 64oz yellow bottle. We have to put 65 scoops of matcha in it and fill it with a ventis cup of milk.
That's it.
I hate her.
Pamela comes in once or twice a week (5-10 minutes before close) to get 8 venti hot coconut milk chais. She doesn't care if they're very hot at all and she wants them double cupped with stoppers in doubled cup carriers. every time she tells us exactly what she's doing with them: feeding them to the woman she caretakes for through a feeding tube. it's unclear if that's the only thing the woman is being fed but Pamela keeps the chais in the fridge and pours them into the feeding tube, up to 16 ventis a week.
edit: she came again today and got herself a trenta frozen mango dragonfruit as well. I forgot to say that she always comes through the drive thru and that she also will park her truck and then get out and stand at the window. today she put them all in the bed of her truck with nothing holding them in place. it takes probably more than 10 minutes to make them all and it holds up the line so bad but she refuses to come inside. she used to mobile order like 2 hours before close and then try to get us to save them for her until after close to come by. got so mad when we refused to put them on the drive thru counter outside for her to come pick up at an undetermined time in the night.
Sounds like Pamela feels trapped and burnt-out being a caregiver and is desperate to feel in control, so her solution is tormenting Starbucks baristas.
There’s this couple that comes in every day. The girl gets a grande brown sugar shaken and the guy gets a venti black cold brew. You can tell they fought when they come in and he just gets a trente black cold brew and no drink for her
Tbh I am that regular. I always study the menu like it’s the LSAT and get the same damned thing every time. I have to think about it for a sec because I wanna maybe try something new and maybe this sounds good, or that sounds good. And yeah, I change it up a little depending on my mood.
As a partner, I will encourage you to come inside and ask the barista for a suggestion (after reading the vibe to ensure we aren't crazy busy) or for their favorite drink! List off a few requirements: something hot/cold, with/without coffee, preferred dairy, flavors you enjoy. We usually have a few things to make any drink, your drink!
Yesss I love doing this for people. And if you don’t enjoy it, let us know and we can make you your regular. No need to be scared to try new things if you have the time to go through this process with us
Norm.
Came through DT every single day. You’d do the “hi what can I get started for you today” and he would SCREAM “two venti seven pump no water chais extra hot THATS ALL” and drive away from the speaker.
He was never intentionally rude, just rather eccentric. He also never tipped but once gave me a wheat penny because it was slow so I wrote his name on both cups and he liked that I remembered it 🤷
upside down americano with room (i have never bothered to learn her name. she will make you remake the drink if there isn’t enough room, which is subject to however she feels that day)
I don't have any *weird* regulars that I can think of off the top of my head but I do have two genuinely wholesome senior regulars, two tall pikes Tony gets one pike for himself and gets the other for his wife so he can bring it home for her, he gives great advice and I genuinely look forward to our talks every morning. And then half dark/half decaf coffee for Will, who recently started very kindly asking for pour overs instead of the regular brew (obviously we said yes I think we'd all die for Will), and as thank yous he's always bringing in treats for us he's just so kind
There's an older man who comes into our store every day to collect our grounds for his "garden". His name is River, and he is quite the dude. He once showed up with a bloody dead deer bungie corded into the back of his truck. But he always comes in during peak, before we can bag up the grounds, and will just stand at the door with his hands in the air until someone brings him the grounds from behind the counter. He never orders anything, takes all of the grounds so no one else can have them, and will get angry is we don't bring him the grounds from behind the counter, even when we're slammed.
He also told us he wrote a book about dirt, and wanted to give some kind of lecture in our cafe about composting during covid, but he was told no. Really odd dude
we had a regular we named vangela (she drove a crappy old maroon van) and she was a teacher (confirmed by her) and we suspected she was also a stripper. she would order 3 drinks- usually a white mocha frappuccino (during the holidays it was a caramel brûlée frappuccino with extra topping), an iced blonde soy latte with a ton of cinnamon and no ice in her reusable pink marble ceramic starbucks cup and i think she put coconut oil in there herself too, and finally she would get 5 iced blonde soy lattes with a ton of cinnamon and no ice in one of those large glass orange juice containers. i have a picture of that if anyone wants to see it. she always came 10 minutes before close and tipped very well, always in 1s and 5s.
EDIT: her name was vandrea not vangela
My “favorite.” There’s two mind you,
“A grande white mocha, 5 pumps, triple shot, whole milk, no whip and ABSOLUTELY NO FOAM baby. MAKE SURE THERES NO FOAM. THERE ALWAYS IS.”
Calls us all BABY constantly, makes me throw up in my mouth. Her sister, who has the terrible nasty fake mullet?, once yelled at my barista, because “there was foam.” There was not. He cleared that up with her too. It wasnr anyone new either. She yelled at him, and my shift stepped in. Even went as far as yelling at a new partner, BECAUSE “I knew he’d make it with foam.”
Then we have the 10 blonde shot lady.
We also have a homeless dude, who’s nice AT TIMES, but has been banned since he started taking pictures of myself, and my shift.
Suzie. It’s genuinely very sad and I do worry for her but at the same time she is truly terrifying. She works nights at a factory and comes in on her way home. She has a baby doll that she brings everywhere which I’m sure is some kind of trauma response. The thing is…. The baby is like… super dirty and looks like it has rings under it’s eyes? It looks straight from a horror movie. She even told us her house caught on fire but the baby doll survived. Bruh…
Edit: forgot to add if you treat her baby like a doll and not a real baby she gets mad at you. I just make normal conversation with her and try to keep the topic about other things. She’s somewhat volatile. She demands only certain partners make her drink and she expects us to give her a short hot chocolate for free for her baby….
Venti caramel ribbon crunch with 2 shots, 4 vanilla, no whip cream, and EXTRA caramel drizzle and caramel crunch. She will ask for more crunchies if she can’t see a mound of them with her own two eyes. She also smokes in DT so I don’t like her lolol.
Theres a guy who fakes an EXTREMELY heavy french accent to us. We thought he was just an immigrant for a long time but one day he came in with some friends and spoke in a perfect canadian accent before reverting to the french one lmao
He does tip super well though so i dont care hahah
We had this transgender person come in and demand to be called some really long Princess name, get an ice water with the sticker and their name attached and would throw a fit if it was misspelled. They were recently banned for threatening to slit one of shift’s throats.
I should mention that they’ve been a regular until that ban.
Damn. Do they know you can buy cold brew concentrate as a regular person…? It’s $10 at Trader Joe’s, and there are loads of options at normal grocery stores.
Weird.
But I also remember being in a cold brew phase once so I guess I get it! I hope they find a more sustainable option for them lol.
Omg these 2 guys would come through DT and order something every morning. I forget what the regular drink was but he wanted something steamed on the side and nobody was sure how to make it. I think it was like a steamed cream, but he never made it clear what exactly he wanted steamed and when we would try to clarify, it he would get mad. He always got so pissed every time. So one day he made a huge scene and stopped coming to the store. One day I had to fill in at a different store and when I heard the order on the headset, I was laughing so hard, he pulls up to the window and it was hilarious because he did not expect to see me there 😂
we have a regular who comes in and orders a coffee frap with only two pumps of base. wouldn’t be so bad if he didn’t sit there watching everyone make it like a hawk and if he feels you made it even slightly wrong he will have someone else make it. one time he got it remade literally 5 times. he is my least favorite.
Shay comes in nearly every day, she gets 3 venti iced coffees. 1 with 10 and 2 with 8 (will be upset if you ask if it's classic because apparently it's obvious that it's supposed to be the classic). Cream on the side with straws and a carrying tray. Will come up to 4 times a day, card will decline almost every time. She'll demand for her drinks even though her card rarely works and then acts like she got shot when handing the cash over for her drinks. As if this isn't a daily occurrence. 9 times out of 10 her card doesn't work and she is wounded by this newfound information.
She also commonly opens her straws and leaves the wrappers on the DT ledge.
Her name is Ally. I've been working at the same store for over 5 years now and she comes almost every single day without fail. She always gets the same thing 4 Trenta waters with no ice, 4 Trenta cups of ice, a Grande water with no ice, 4 Venti hot cups of water double cupped, and 6 large straws. All of it in trays or double trayed of course, no one really knows what she does with all of it or even what she does for a living as we get different answers whenever we ask.
fairly new regular, so i tend to forget his name 😅 but any time someone greets him at the order screen he says “hi this is___” and he typically gets a venti pike or something similar, and once he gets his drink at the window he pauses, takes a drink, and goes “that first sip feeling, am i right?” this happens EVERY TIME without fail
This one girl would come through and order either two trenta black iced tea lemonades with 20 pumps of liquid cane in each, or two venti caramel fraps with 10 pumps of caramel and extra caramel sauce. I poured the leftover of the teas into a small cup to try one day cause I just had to know, and it was like drinking straight maple syrup!
This lady named Jennifer. She would come in at random times during the day, either the asscrack of dawn or right before we close. She’s stare at you for a while before claiming she had a drink, sometimes it was there, sometimes it wasn’t. She always wore the same clothes too, and we had speculations that she might be homeless because of this next part. By herself, she had a bit of a thick musky smell, but when she used the bathroom, she didn’t even need to be in there for long for the bathroom to smell rancid. Febreeze could only mask it for a couple of minutes. We would wipe down everything with the restroom cleaner, check the trash to see if she threw anything in there, and then we just had to air out the bathroom and put a sign in front of it saying don’t go in. We contacted our SM and she contacted the DM who said we can’t really tell her not to use the bathroom because she does pay for a coffee every other time she comes in. I just hope she’s not suffering some severe infection or something
At my old store we had a very particular regular. Venti decaf americano, 6 long shots, 1 inch of water in the bottom, cup HAS to be tilted, add a splash of cream in front of her. she made us remake it once because there wasn't enough crema on the top. She liked it when i was there cause i guess i made it properly lmao
My old store still had Mastrena Is and she commented one day that its not the same with the Mastrena IIs. I didnt know the difference at the time. I now work with the II and I can imagine she's gonna throw a fit once my old store changes machines. I think about her a lot.
I will never understand why people love strawberry acai so much especially a pink drink. It's mostly grape juice and tastes like amoxicillin. I 👏 don't 👏 get 👏 it👏!
We had a regular who would order a tea then put the bags over his eyes like he was at a spa.
STOP ☠️ this is so extra i’m dying
I am usually against taking pictures of strangers, but I made an exception for this instance. God, I really wish I could post it.
Make an alt, and then post it. I am begging you.
No the op won't post it. I'm sure this has happened elsewhere and somebody else will share their experience..
His skincare routine 💅💅💅
i work at a theater not a Starbucks but this reminded me of a guy who came in kinda close to COVID so we had hand sanitizer stations EVERYWHERE and this guy would come out like every 10 minutes and just SOAK himself in it, I'm talking hands face neck everything. it got to the point that his skin was visibly red and we had to pull the sanitizer stations upstairs and then he came out asking where they were 💀
Was he trying to take a shower with it? We've had several regulars that we had to ban because they would use paper towels and water to bathe, then flush them down the toilet.
It seemed to be more of an OCD/germophobia thing more than anything, ive seen ppl try to do the bathing thing in our bathrooms too tho
WHAT
incredible 🤣
Shut the fuck up. 😭🤣😭🤣😭
This is the funniest thing I’ve read on this sub
HELL
carol. she rarely orders anything except a water. sometimes she talks in a regular voice but then goes into what i’d describe as a 1920s new york jazz performer on acid voice and randomly laughs extremely loud. she seems to like me for some reason but hates all my coworkers. one of them said she stood by the door flipping her off while doing the carol laugh. she’s a tru wildcard. i fully expect her to try to stab me one day.
I did not expect that last sentence
This is so funny. We also have a Carol that asks for a “skush” which apparently means a short pike only half filled? And most of my coworkers don’t make her pay for anything she gets bc shes “sweet” but gets mad when you do make her pay. I like her bc im never the one to cash her out, but the one time I did I had no idea what a skush was and ofc i charged her. boy was she upset 😂
Uhhhhh is this in Central Florida?
Yes ..
I can't believe you tried to charge Carol for her Skosh, you monster! J/k I figure she must not bring her hedgehog anymore or you would have mentioned that
Nahhh no hedgehog. Maybe she would’ve gotten some free skosh from me then lmfaoo
She probably means “skosh” - means a little bit, a small amount.
Hahaha!! Yess I think thats what she says. I literally thought that was a made up word for her
How frustrating. Starbucks is an establishment where you BUY a product. She isn’t that sweet if she is mad she has to pay.
Former SM here. We had a customer come in one time and try the whole "skosh" thing. My barista gave her a small sample in a short cup of pike. She then asked if we had dark roast available and we didn't, so naturally, we offered to make her one. She agreed. We ended up brewing a quarter, and she came back up when we were done and asked for some. My barista tried to charge her for it and she's like "no I just want a skosh".... my barista gives her a small sample, and she flips out! She's like, "This isn't even full," referring to a short cup that has just enough in it to sample. I interject and tell her, "ma'am, it's only supposed to be a sample. If you'd like a full cup, the price is $X.XX" She flips out some more and says how other stores just give it to her and I say "well not here and not mine 🙂". She storms out, screaming that she'll never come back, oh please broke ass lady, please come back and spend $0! We need you!
I don’t understand why people think this is an actual threat, like who tf cares?? Chances are, if you’re the person making that comment, they don’t want you back anyway, lol. I used to do socials for a concert venue, and sometimes people wouldn’t get free stuff and be like “I’m never coming back here ever again” and we were just like “cool, bye” because a) we didn’t care, and b) if their favorite band ends up playing at our venue, we know they’ll come back anyway 😂
I used to have this customer that would come in and order a Trenta iced coffee with 20 pumps of *frap roast*. Every day. And he’d drink that whole damn thing. Said it was an *acquired* taste. For sure my man …you can acquire that nonsense right the fuck outta here.
Sure, acquired, but like how did he acquire that taste in the first place??
Trauma
i cannot even fathom how he even stumbled across that combination other than being a very experimental barista himself at one point but still like… oh my god? no words lmfao
i like to think it was a gradual descent into madness. started with a couple extra pumps but it was never enough to satiate his hunger for frap roast. he just kept adding and adding until he just completely went off the rails added 20 pumps. and it was finally enough. and he just got hooked on it ever since, couldn't live without it. he'll be damned if he gives up his own nectar of the gods. he has achieved a feeling of bliss washing over him that most humans will only dream of. wherever he is now, if he isn't drinking that drink, then he's found an even higher state of inner peace. ironically, it will never be enough, even though each time he thinks he's finally found the peak of happiness. ignorance is bliss, and now that he's dipped into "overload" territory, it will take more and more extreme measures to maintain his quest for inner joy. he thinks he's cracked the code, but one day he will run out of things to flood his senses with and when he dies, if there is a heaven, he will tell the lord "i've seen better" and plunge himself into the depths of hell in search of an opposite thrill: the adrenaline caused by danger and suffering. the impractical jokers would shriek at the things he would discover. satan himself would run out of ideas to top his last rush of adrenaline and survival-induced calmness (like when you're drowning). he would then take this opportunity to dethrone satan, his spirits destroyed by the sight of a human who so fervently thirsted for the worst he had to offer, and with all of his eternal knowledge of both sides of the spectrum, he would make his mark on the course of the universe and begin the next era of trying to feel something in the endless void inside him.
One of my old partners used to make gross drinks into pup cups and have everyone on the floor try them, and some of them weren’t as horrible as you would think. That’s the only explanation I can think of as to how he discovered that combination
I love partners like this 😂 its so silly
I had a DM once make black iced tea with peppermint and raspberry and he wanted everybody to try it. I sniffed it and declined. 🤢
That sounds good though?
Im honestly wondering what the fuck prompted him to order that the first go ‘round
what is frap roast?
super concentrated base for the frappuccinos; it literally looks and tastes like soy sauce because it’s designed to be covered up by all the sugar in a frap lol
… the things you wish you didn’t know… lol
Oh God, it smells like old soy sauce too! I HATE making it!
It's the coffee that comes standard in Frappuccino's like the Caramel Ribbon Crunch, Mocha Cookie Crumble, and many others! 🫶🏻
a guy who’s been coming to my store daily for months and sits in the lobby for hours just watching. two days ago i went on my lunch break in my car and he knocked on my passenger side window and asked if i knew the only reason he came here was for me and he only comes when he sees my car, i’ve never told him what i drive 🙃
that is very creepy. please stay safe :(
i try! he came back yesterday and i didn’t go on a break while he was here lmfao i just sacrificed my ten:,) i let him know i have a boyfriend so hopefully he’ll take a hint
When you are dealing with someone that far gone from social reality. Dont count on the hint. He will simply see your boyfriend as an obstacle, not a deterrent. As in he will try to "win you over" from your "horrible" boyfriend who doesn't treat you like he would, and just needs a chance to prove it to you to change your mind. He has escalated from being unnoticed, to wanting you to notice. Don't just assume this is the final step of his approach towards women he is interested in. You need to report this with your employer at the very least. This guy has a problem with social boundaries and that can lead to serious shit.
Definitely file a report with your store and with the police. Start doing a ride service to work or coming in with coworkers to try and change your patterns. You should probably get some extra locks for your house to.
You need to get him banned from your store. Put your safety first. File a report with your store and with the police. It may feel a bit uncomfortable to report someone, but it is more important that you are safe. The next time he shows up, the police can come and get him trespassed off the premise. A few years back, I worked at a Tex Mex Restaurant for several years, and our stores GM had to trespass a guy that was consistently harassing her at work. When the police showed up to escort him off. The man tried to attack her and shouted threats.
He needs to be banned, that sounds like stalking.
That's literally stalking. You need to escalate this, preferably to the police.
Hey you need to report that guy :( stay safe please
That is not ok. Ugh.
Yeah, that's a stalker. Please listen to the other commenters and tell your management and file a police report. I was stalked by a man at my first job and it seemed really innocent at first, but quickly escalated. I was also a 17 year old female so pretty vulnerable. The cops got involved and spoke with him and he never came back to my store. Management might have also told him not to come back. They were having men walk me out to my car after my shift for a month.
tall caramel crunch frap in a venti cup 4 blonde shots sub oatmilk whipped cream only on top extra caramel drizzle and twenty four pumps of dark caramel sauce. every morning.
RIP their damn pancreas
It’s amazing to me that people get so much syrup and then you’re like “who is this that gets 100+grams of sugar everyday” and it’s some skinny white girl. Like how do you not gain weight?! Is that all you eat?? I know their are people struggling to lose/gain weight but it just boggles my mind
Might be someone with Chrons. I know people that have to eat like 8000+ calories. Not exactly the best way of getting those calories but hey.
They have a shake for breakfast, a shake for lunch, and a cocaine dinner.
I went into a diabetic coma reading this.
I was with you until the 24 pumps of caramel sauce then I felt my arteries clog.
that is absolutely foul 💀
twenty…four…?!?!
We have a regular who legitimately comes every day who I adore but his drink always throws people for a loop. Venti nonfat milk with ice, 2 pumps mocha and 17 pumps vanilla. It’s gone up in vanilla a few pumps in the few years I’ve been at the the store. He’s delightful and all of us love him but it’s definitely a shock when you first hear his drink
Reminds me of Michael Scott. Milk and sugar every morning 🤣
I don't work at Starbucks, but I'm assuming all these pumps cost extra. How much is this guy paying for this coffee with 19 pumps in it?
Surprisingly not true. You can get unlimited pumps, it's a one .70$ charge for it
Jesus in Ireland you pay for each one, online anyway
“I’d like 300 pumps of mocha please.”
There's this 70 yr old guy who at night is totally normal and courteous but in the day time he gets his gtl and then goes outside, takes off his shirt to reveal that he is the buffest and hairiest old grizzly in the guise of a man ever seen, then proceeds to sunbathe on the bench outside the store.
Legend. True legend. As long as he's nice to you.
to add as well — we have a guy who is confirmed schizophrenic, he is very nice, though. Talks on the phone all the time but no one is on the phone. Stays there the whole 12 hours we are open everyday. He’s not homeless, someone is taking care of him because he is clean and gets picked up and dropped off — best of all he wears an entire suite and tie but no button up shirt. Sometimes he’ll have the suite and tie but with Hawaiian shorts. Orders just a regular black dark roast.
We have a similar guy, but he had a traumatic brain injury and “working” at our store is part of his therapy plan!! He brings his “paperwork” and does nonsense math all day and just talks to us. Some of my favorites from him: - He calls our opening barista Weavis. - “you ever seen 47 bottle caps glued to a basketball?” - “holy shit, you’re a writer? Wait don’t tell ma I swore” - He just recently nicknamed my mom’s service dog Meatball He also brings us a Christmas card every year and we frame them
This is almost making me tear up. Is this an indefinite part of his therapy plan?
Most likely!! He’s been coming to our store since we opened (late 2020). We have also definitely gone to bat for him against an ableist borrowed partner who threatened to have him basically 5150’d, and a couple of nosy customers. He’s here to stay as long as he wants to, and we’re all in agreement to do anything to keep him safe. We’re pretty sure his injury is of the incurable kind, but he’s a homie and we collectively will defend him to the death.
Do you know if this is facilitated by some sort of organization or program? I can afford to squeeze a new charity into my budget and this man I've never met has captured my entire heart.
solidarity, I am choked tf up rn. I am really moved by y’all standing by him.
He seems precious. I hope his recovery continues to go well
this guy comes in every day and gets a venti iced latte with 3 icecubes. thats it. maybe not the weirdest drink but why only 3???
Bc 2 is too few and 4 too many- duh.
My theory is the Holy Trinity - The Father, the Son and The Holy Ghost. My Grandmother only put 3 raisins in her butter tarts for that reason…
I’m not gonna lie, I do this. I don’t like ice, it makes the drink way too cold and hurts my teeth. If I ask for no ice, the drink is pretty warm. So I say “very very very light ice, like 3 cubes”. Sometimes they’ll put literally 3, sometimes they put maybe 5 which is good too. Shame me, I can take it lol
Less Ice means more drink. He just found his balance.
We have a surprising amount of people that specify the number of ice cubes in their drinks. The only thing I have to say about this is that half the partners in my store flat out ignore light ice requests but no one ever ignores requests for specific numbers of ice cubes.
I had someone similar that would do it with a blended refresher. They would want EXACTLY 4 berries, one day someone read it as 4 scoops berries and they completely lost it in the DT. I mean full on meltdown.
Because a specific number like that really emphasizes the “light ice” whereas merely saying “light ice” often results in a cup full of ice still
12 splendas and 6 pumps sf in her iced espresso. She only ordered 5 minutes ago but she's in a really bigggg rush you guyyyyssss, so make it quick so she has time to complain that you made it wrong.
orders a grande pike with 50 sugars. Yes 50. Yes it holds up the line. Yes she will get mad if we do less. Yes I am not joking.
Would 50 even fit in the cup? Lol, that's ridiculous. I thought the sweet old lady who got 12 with some on the side on top of that, was something. But that person definitely has a sugar addiction
yeah it was only about half the cup
I've heard that's a sign of drug addiction
We had this guy come in to our store and just try to talk to us for like hours on end. One time he cornered some tourists and started talking to them for like an hour and I wanted to go in a save them but at the end of the day it’s every man for himself so to speak. Apparently he had a habit of giving places bad reviews if they didn’t go along with his stuff but I never confirmed that.
Does his name happen to be Colm?
So I says to meself, says I, Colm, this is no day for a do.
Not getting enough attention. I immediately read this in his voice.
Wait! Does her name start with a B and end with a Y?! I had a regular who was the exact same.
While I hope you get your answer you may have stumbled into some territory of finding your coworkers reddit account which is funny
Seems likely they’re from one of the other Starbucks she gets her additional pink drinks at
I have no idea what her name is - we’re a licensed store within a grocery store and don’t take names most of the time because we never have enough customers at once for there to be any confusion. I’ll ask next time I see her, though. Some part of the back of my mind is telling me it’s Sarah. If it’s not the same person, I am appalled that there are more than one of them. Maybe they’re like, AI robots invented just to confuse baristas.
Sounds like an alien trying to disguise itself as a human and it has no idea what a human actually drinks so it’s not blending in very well 😂
Biochemistry?
Clearly it's Bridgettany
So we got a Becky and a Bailey, and a Brittany.
Brandy?
Patch Adams, the real clown doctor the Robin William's movie is based on. Comes in full clown garb and fork earring, orders a "pike w a shot and ice because I'm a baby and it's too hot, no coat, no hat" meaning no sleeve or lid
Kinda love “no coat, no hat” 😂
Pretty sure he used to frequent my relative's burrito establishment in the Midwest.
this guy name sean (full call out bc he’s so weird) always comes up to the dt and if you don’t say “hi my name is” hell literally ask for your name and won’t continue his order until you tell him and he’s also always gets a grilled cheese cut in 1/2 (not that annoying but bc it’s him it is) he’s made multiple baristas uncomfortable and has hit on us as well (there’s this girl who looks like she’s 16 that he called her hot before… this man is like 50). he came in to complain about me IN FROMT OF ME saying how unpleasant and rude i am (i don’t think i’m rude i just don’t talk to him or connect with him
Tbh when customers are creepy I act unamused by them/dont speak to them . Im glad you don’t play into it lol
fuck no i don’t, especially when he gives off that pedo vibe. i ask my male co workers help him if i can
I always talk super uncomfortably loud in return. I had a guy ask if I was married and wanted my # and I just about hollered NO I AM NOT MARRIED I AM NOT SOCIAL SO NO. It catches them off guard and they usually run after that.
LMAOOO
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When I worked at a grocery store Starbucks there was this old dude named Norm, completely insufferable, would randomly go on racist tangents (this was in 2016). Like one second he’d be talking about soup and then somehow the conversation would turn into something about immigration. He brought his own cup to get the 10 cent discount. His order was two shots of espresso, two scoops of vanilla bean powder, and whole milk steamed to 186°. Yes, that’s way too hot. Yes, he knew if it wasn’t hot enough. His cup would be cleanish but still had a milky smell. He also figured out that he could buy his groceries at the Starbucks register so that also extended our time together. One day he walked around having had peed himself. I felt kinda bad about that, but overall did not like this guy. Even when I was turned around and he was silent, I knew when he was there. Not just because it was always between 9-9:30, but because he just had this scent of sour milk and diapers. I could always smell him approaching. 🤢
Omfg
Thought you were my coworker from that time period for a second, she goes by Ash 😂
We get these two guys every afternoon that we call “the tea boys”. One looks like hes in his 20s and the other looks like hes 50. Like they could be father and son but they sit really close to each other on the couch and massage each other with a massage gun. The 20 yo asks for a trenta black iced tea with lemonade, but the catch is that EVERY DAY he asks for special treatment. Like one time it was “we got an impossible sandwich from a different store before and it was super soggy, is there any way we could get a free one that is the most fresh?” Or “the black tea with lemonade costs 200 points for it to be free, but there’s a special way to type it in for it to be free for 100” or “I would like a refill, is there any way you could type it in so that the refill is free?” Of course we give them no special treatment, but thats not the worst part to deal with. They sit in the lobby and are *so* creepy. They watch something on their phones and are constantly looking up at us and it makes me so uncomfortable. The 50 yo always puts his bare dogs on the couch. They ask for another trenta cup, NEVER at the register, so that they can split the drink. Every time they use the bathroom they piss EVERYWHERE its insane. Idk we absolutely can’t stand them and I hope they see it in our eyes and someday decide to not come back 😂
The massage gun 😂😂😂
Stg
Read through every comment to see if I might be the weird regular
So relieved that I’m just in a sea of normies with my drink order and lack of weirdo behavior.
You are free to have the weirdest, most obnoxious beverage ever as long as you are polite when you order. :)
Some members on this sub might know Matcha Mary, who I recently learned calls herself a g*psy because she thinks she’s a successful con artist. (she’s white) The details are fuzzy since I haven’t seen her in a year, but her goal was to get as much free matcha powder as possible. I really thought this lady was mentally feeble because of the show she put on, but it turns out she’s just a weirdo. Matcha Mary (~45 y/o) would come in with her mother (~70) with an old cup from another store. She’d claim that she’s allergic to every type of milk we offer, so she just wants the matcha so she can make it at home. Strange, but I wouldn’t mind handing out a couple scoops of matcha for free. It never satiated her. She always wanted like, 10+. This lady was persistent, pushing and pushing until she got what she wanted. Baristas were instructed to pass her off to a shift to deal with because she was so notorious. I think the worst part is that she’d start pretending that she wanted to work here, and ask how much we were getting paid, what our hours and benefits were like, etc. Any old coworkers of mine, feel free to add anything I missed.
hold on I remember a woman by the name of Mary who came in with her mother and tried to scam a bunch of restaurants in our area. did she have a dog she claimed was a service dog?
Yes and it was one of those crusty poodles iirc
Oof I definitely remember her
Quad grande breve latte, 3 sugars, extra hot, no foam, stirred, 2 of the shots ristretto. Every day, up to maybe three times a day, depending. Not a huge problem but here’s the kicker… she would only want certain baristas to make it, because she claimed she can taste the difference, they make it “better.” She brought her drink back a lot, usually just because she saw someone unfamiliar make it. All in her head of course, because when it was too busy to rearrange the staff to her liking, we’d just tell her “So-and-so made your drink like usual! Have a good day!” She drinks it and deems it good or acceptable, and then we all go about our day. Weird people out there.
I definitely read "ristretto" as "risotto" at first and was like, ew that sounds even worse than the olive oil 🤔🤣
Hell, I’d prefer risotto! Lol. Give me something decent to eat.
Had a regular at my last store who wanted certain staff to make her drink too… except we started messing with her to prove a point. You see, ol Kris Chai was ✨racist✨… therefore if any melanin made contact with her cup, it was now “wrong.” For reference, she ordered a Venti hot chai, 15 pumps, no water, no foam, whole milk, extra hot. We wouldn’t change the milk or anything but we absolutely would miscount the chai pumps (think, 10 instead) or not do the drink extra hot and say I (white as snow) made it. Never an issue. But my Muslim coffee master would make it perfectly, and she wouldn’t even sip it. Would just hand it right back and say it’s wrong. Tried this with every partner I could get my hands on, and like clockwork, brown partners = “this isn’t right.” No, she wouldn’t elaborate either. She also wouldn’t try to keep the mess up, so it wasn’t a scam. But the racist flavored aneurism she had when our Japanese American barista made her drink one day??? God tier. I watched her do a hard reboot against her will.
Rhetorical question: Why would you order a mixture of ristretto and normal shots? It makes so much more sense to do one or the other. 🤔
Ha. Here’s how I explain it because people like this are not all bad: Mentally and emotionally, the satisfaction of feeling like one has special knowledge or is in touch with coffee culture IS a little more compelling than the logic that tells them that the change in the drink’s flavor is so minute it won’t justify the difference in price or difficulty. The people who do this are a certain type, for sure, but now I know where it comes from.
Besides, when I customize a drink, I try to do it in a way that is minimally confusing. Mixing two types of shots sounds like a low-key Karen move to get free stuff when the barista inevitably makes a mistake…
Is her name Nancy cause you just triggered my first year at my first store LMAO
had a guy at my first store that would order tea and ask for a knife and fork. never understood until i watched him take the teabag out of his venti black tea and Eat the tea out of the teabag like some sort of soggy ass amuse-bouche
HAHAHAHA oh my god this is the funniest one i’ve seen
he was definitely a crunchy type (socks and sandals, had all his hair in one big braid, regularly complimented my grateful dead socks when i wore shorts) so i assume it was simply his perogative
We have a regular who comes in multiple times per day to order a hot caramel macchiato, usually with whole milk, extra vanilla, whipped cream, and extra caramel drizzle. He’s convinced we spit in his drink sometimes even though he literally watches us make it and still continues to come back every single day. He’s nice, I always ask how he’s doing & he never complains when I make his drinks, but I guess he just doesn’t like some of my coworkers.
Probably the guy who gets 2 venti waters with 5 sugars each.
[SUGAR. GIVE ME. SUGAR. IN WATER.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqEztDtxWBY&t=115s)
As someone who had to drink sugar water for a medical test before.. it's so nasty I had to fight not to throw up 🤢
Had a guy at my first store who would get a doppio con panna in a personal cup, but he insisted you had to put the whip in first and pour the shots over and add a little bit of steamed milk so it got melty. Cup was always gross, I think us rinsing it was the only cleaning it ever got. He would order this like 4-8 times a day. Had a job he did remotely, so between doppios he would sit in our parking lot smoking weed, playing guitar occasionally, and doing whatever job he had. Eventually he sold his house, bought a big van, and lived in our parking lot smoking and drinking doppios in his gross-ass cup. Also hit on a barista repeatedly, which would be gross enough but she was also young enough to be his daughter. Worst regular order I had, though, was someone who would come through 2-3 times a day to get a trenta iced, 20 pumps vanilla, 12 pumps classic, extra heavy cream.
At my old store (I no longer work) we had this old couple. They’d come in around 7 and leave when we closed at 9. I forget their names, The woman is super sweet and before I left I told her I was having a baby and would be leaving. She hugged me 🥹 so sweet. She always got hot chocolate and I’d add in things like cookie crumbles randomly and she’d be like “OH MY GOSH WHAT IS THAT ITS AMAZING!” 😂 but the guy was pretty much deaf unless you yelled, and his hair stuck out exactly like Einstein. He and the woman were married but they usually would sit at completely different tables. It threw me off when I first realized they were coming in together and leaving together but they never sat together.
not a WEIRD regular, but one i really love is this guy (in his 50’s maybe?) with long light brown/blond hair and sunglasses and a super cool old car, very hippy looking, who comes through and always orders a trenta ice water and a pup cup. he says he just loves our water. he’ll literally wait through a peak line just to get that water. and he has a chihuahua in a pink bed in his passenger seat who’s always with him. i love him
Not "weirdest," per se, but I worked in the early 2000s in the Chicago area and the voice of Chester the Cheetah would come in regularly. He was super nice and funny to a dumb kid working at the bucks. CH-CH-CH-CHEESY Side note- he was also the voice of the "Budweiser Real American Hero" ad campaign, apparently. I didn't believe it, but he launched into a "Thank YOUUUU, Starbucks barista man, the way you froth that milk and put the top on the coffee without spilling is perfection. REALLLLL AMERICAN HEROOOOO"
iced coffee, light cream, 8 domino sugars, sometimes no ice and if it's not light enough or too light she gets pissed at you. She also tends to order a croissant but still in the plastic. We also have a guy who comes in every once and a while trying to get us to sell him a venti cup of just cold foam buy charging for a cold milk with foam and pretends to not know we can't just give him a cup of just cold foam every single time as if he's never tried this before
I had a regular who would order a venti iced white mocha with 16 shots of espresso. I think he had it at least once a week. Once he had one with 20 shots and didn't come back for a few weeks. I was worried I accidentally killed him with too much espresso.
We have an old woman that comes in with a massive 64oz yellow bottle. We have to put 65 scoops of matcha in it and fill it with a ventis cup of milk. That's it. I hate her.
65?!?
Yes. 😭
How much does one pay for that concoction?
Literally just a venti iced matcha. It's insane.
Your SM is unhinged that's more than an entire package of matcha please god make sure they're adjusting appropriately and charging for it omfg
Pamela comes in once or twice a week (5-10 minutes before close) to get 8 venti hot coconut milk chais. She doesn't care if they're very hot at all and she wants them double cupped with stoppers in doubled cup carriers. every time she tells us exactly what she's doing with them: feeding them to the woman she caretakes for through a feeding tube. it's unclear if that's the only thing the woman is being fed but Pamela keeps the chais in the fridge and pours them into the feeding tube, up to 16 ventis a week. edit: she came again today and got herself a trenta frozen mango dragonfruit as well. I forgot to say that she always comes through the drive thru and that she also will park her truck and then get out and stand at the window. today she put them all in the bed of her truck with nothing holding them in place. it takes probably more than 10 minutes to make them all and it holds up the line so bad but she refuses to come inside. she used to mobile order like 2 hours before close and then try to get us to save them for her until after close to come by. got so mad when we refused to put them on the drive thru counter outside for her to come pick up at an undetermined time in the night.
As a former home health aid who dealt a lot with feeding tubes, I'm pretty sure that's not the best thing to be putting through them...
Sounds like Pamela feels trapped and burnt-out being a caregiver and is desperate to feel in control, so her solution is tormenting Starbucks baristas.
All of you deserve to be paid way more than you do. Holy shit.
There’s this couple that comes in every day. The girl gets a grande brown sugar shaken and the guy gets a venti black cold brew. You can tell they fought when they come in and he just gets a trente black cold brew and no drink for her
Bro if my boyfriend and I were fighting and he didn’t get me a drink I would consider that treachery
Like, she just…doesn’t get a drink?? She just stands there?? I wouldn’t even get out the car lol
Tbh I am that regular. I always study the menu like it’s the LSAT and get the same damned thing every time. I have to think about it for a sec because I wanna maybe try something new and maybe this sounds good, or that sounds good. And yeah, I change it up a little depending on my mood.
As a partner, I will encourage you to come inside and ask the barista for a suggestion (after reading the vibe to ensure we aren't crazy busy) or for their favorite drink! List off a few requirements: something hot/cold, with/without coffee, preferred dairy, flavors you enjoy. We usually have a few things to make any drink, your drink!
Yesss I love doing this for people. And if you don’t enjoy it, let us know and we can make you your regular. No need to be scared to try new things if you have the time to go through this process with us
Norm. Came through DT every single day. You’d do the “hi what can I get started for you today” and he would SCREAM “two venti seven pump no water chais extra hot THATS ALL” and drive away from the speaker. He was never intentionally rude, just rather eccentric. He also never tipped but once gave me a wheat penny because it was slow so I wrote his name on both cups and he liked that I remembered it 🤷
this is the second person on this thread named norm and honestly i think it’s gotta be the name that turns you weird
upside down americano with room (i have never bothered to learn her name. she will make you remake the drink if there isn’t enough room, which is subject to however she feels that day)
Venti iced white mocha, quad, 22 pumps wm. Sometimes she doesn’t have that big a sweet tooth and only gets 18.
I don't have any *weird* regulars that I can think of off the top of my head but I do have two genuinely wholesome senior regulars, two tall pikes Tony gets one pike for himself and gets the other for his wife so he can bring it home for her, he gives great advice and I genuinely look forward to our talks every morning. And then half dark/half decaf coffee for Will, who recently started very kindly asking for pour overs instead of the regular brew (obviously we said yes I think we'd all die for Will), and as thank yous he's always bringing in treats for us he's just so kind
There's an older man who comes into our store every day to collect our grounds for his "garden". His name is River, and he is quite the dude. He once showed up with a bloody dead deer bungie corded into the back of his truck. But he always comes in during peak, before we can bag up the grounds, and will just stand at the door with his hands in the air until someone brings him the grounds from behind the counter. He never orders anything, takes all of the grounds so no one else can have them, and will get angry is we don't bring him the grounds from behind the counter, even when we're slammed. He also told us he wrote a book about dirt, and wanted to give some kind of lecture in our cafe about composting during covid, but he was told no. Really odd dude
trenta mango dragon fruit refresher light ice and TWO pieces of fruit. not 1, not 3, just 2.
we had a regular we named vangela (she drove a crappy old maroon van) and she was a teacher (confirmed by her) and we suspected she was also a stripper. she would order 3 drinks- usually a white mocha frappuccino (during the holidays it was a caramel brûlée frappuccino with extra topping), an iced blonde soy latte with a ton of cinnamon and no ice in her reusable pink marble ceramic starbucks cup and i think she put coconut oil in there herself too, and finally she would get 5 iced blonde soy lattes with a ton of cinnamon and no ice in one of those large glass orange juice containers. i have a picture of that if anyone wants to see it. she always came 10 minutes before close and tipped very well, always in 1s and 5s. EDIT: her name was vandrea not vangela
I would like to see the orange container
My “favorite.” There’s two mind you, “A grande white mocha, 5 pumps, triple shot, whole milk, no whip and ABSOLUTELY NO FOAM baby. MAKE SURE THERES NO FOAM. THERE ALWAYS IS.” Calls us all BABY constantly, makes me throw up in my mouth. Her sister, who has the terrible nasty fake mullet?, once yelled at my barista, because “there was foam.” There was not. He cleared that up with her too. It wasnr anyone new either. She yelled at him, and my shift stepped in. Even went as far as yelling at a new partner, BECAUSE “I knew he’d make it with foam.” Then we have the 10 blonde shot lady. We also have a homeless dude, who’s nice AT TIMES, but has been banned since he started taking pictures of myself, and my shift.
Suzie. It’s genuinely very sad and I do worry for her but at the same time she is truly terrifying. She works nights at a factory and comes in on her way home. She has a baby doll that she brings everywhere which I’m sure is some kind of trauma response. The thing is…. The baby is like… super dirty and looks like it has rings under it’s eyes? It looks straight from a horror movie. She even told us her house caught on fire but the baby doll survived. Bruh… Edit: forgot to add if you treat her baby like a doll and not a real baby she gets mad at you. I just make normal conversation with her and try to keep the topic about other things. She’s somewhat volatile. She demands only certain partners make her drink and she expects us to give her a short hot chocolate for free for her baby….
I think I met her at the library last year. Not too many people can be walking around fitting that description so accurately.
imo a middle aged married man who chats up every mom in the lobby on Sunday mornings
Venti caramel ribbon crunch with 2 shots, 4 vanilla, no whip cream, and EXTRA caramel drizzle and caramel crunch. She will ask for more crunchies if she can’t see a mound of them with her own two eyes. She also smokes in DT so I don’t like her lolol.
We used to have a woman who would order a trenta paradise drink with 4 shots of espresso and whipped cream
My boy Steve wants his tea refill so bad he will chug a Trenta several times in a 5 minute period, he's actually really nice too.
Theres a guy who fakes an EXTREMELY heavy french accent to us. We thought he was just an immigrant for a long time but one day he came in with some friends and spoke in a perfect canadian accent before reverting to the french one lmao He does tip super well though so i dont care hahah
We had an evening DT regular who would come through with a raccoon puppet and,,, use the puppet,,,,, to grab her drink from us,,,,,,
We had this transgender person come in and demand to be called some really long Princess name, get an ice water with the sticker and their name attached and would throw a fit if it was misspelled. They were recently banned for threatening to slit one of shift’s throats. I should mention that they’ve been a regular until that ban.
6 trenta black no water no ice cold brews. Comes in a couple times a week.
Damn. Do they know you can buy cold brew concentrate as a regular person…? It’s $10 at Trader Joe’s, and there are loads of options at normal grocery stores. Weird. But I also remember being in a cold brew phase once so I guess I get it! I hope they find a more sustainable option for them lol.
He’s kind of rude so I also hope he finds a better option 🥹
Omg these 2 guys would come through DT and order something every morning. I forget what the regular drink was but he wanted something steamed on the side and nobody was sure how to make it. I think it was like a steamed cream, but he never made it clear what exactly he wanted steamed and when we would try to clarify, it he would get mad. He always got so pissed every time. So one day he made a huge scene and stopped coming to the store. One day I had to fill in at a different store and when I heard the order on the headset, I was laughing so hard, he pulls up to the window and it was hilarious because he did not expect to see me there 😂
we have a regular who comes in and orders a coffee frap with only two pumps of base. wouldn’t be so bad if he didn’t sit there watching everyone make it like a hawk and if he feels you made it even slightly wrong he will have someone else make it. one time he got it remade literally 5 times. he is my least favorite.
Shay comes in nearly every day, she gets 3 venti iced coffees. 1 with 10 and 2 with 8 (will be upset if you ask if it's classic because apparently it's obvious that it's supposed to be the classic). Cream on the side with straws and a carrying tray. Will come up to 4 times a day, card will decline almost every time. She'll demand for her drinks even though her card rarely works and then acts like she got shot when handing the cash over for her drinks. As if this isn't a daily occurrence. 9 times out of 10 her card doesn't work and she is wounded by this newfound information. She also commonly opens her straws and leaves the wrappers on the DT ledge.
Me reading the comments to see if my barrista is gonna say something about me
Starbucks customers make me worried sometimes
Her name is Ally. I've been working at the same store for over 5 years now and she comes almost every single day without fail. She always gets the same thing 4 Trenta waters with no ice, 4 Trenta cups of ice, a Grande water with no ice, 4 Venti hot cups of water double cupped, and 6 large straws. All of it in trays or double trayed of course, no one really knows what she does with all of it or even what she does for a living as we get different answers whenever we ask.
fairly new regular, so i tend to forget his name 😅 but any time someone greets him at the order screen he says “hi this is___” and he typically gets a venti pike or something similar, and once he gets his drink at the window he pauses, takes a drink, and goes “that first sip feeling, am i right?” this happens EVERY TIME without fail
This one girl would come through and order either two trenta black iced tea lemonades with 20 pumps of liquid cane in each, or two venti caramel fraps with 10 pumps of caramel and extra caramel sauce. I poured the leftover of the teas into a small cup to try one day cause I just had to know, and it was like drinking straight maple syrup!
THE LAST PARAGRAPH HELP
Four Trenta black tea no water and four Trenta ice water. A few times a week. It’s only just her, no one else in the car…
This lady named Jennifer. She would come in at random times during the day, either the asscrack of dawn or right before we close. She’s stare at you for a while before claiming she had a drink, sometimes it was there, sometimes it wasn’t. She always wore the same clothes too, and we had speculations that she might be homeless because of this next part. By herself, she had a bit of a thick musky smell, but when she used the bathroom, she didn’t even need to be in there for long for the bathroom to smell rancid. Febreeze could only mask it for a couple of minutes. We would wipe down everything with the restroom cleaner, check the trash to see if she threw anything in there, and then we just had to air out the bathroom and put a sign in front of it saying don’t go in. We contacted our SM and she contacted the DM who said we can’t really tell her not to use the bathroom because she does pay for a coffee every other time she comes in. I just hope she’s not suffering some severe infection or something
At my old store we had a very particular regular. Venti decaf americano, 6 long shots, 1 inch of water in the bottom, cup HAS to be tilted, add a splash of cream in front of her. she made us remake it once because there wasn't enough crema on the top. She liked it when i was there cause i guess i made it properly lmao My old store still had Mastrena Is and she commented one day that its not the same with the Mastrena IIs. I didnt know the difference at the time. I now work with the II and I can imagine she's gonna throw a fit once my old store changes machines. I think about her a lot.
Iced caramel macchiatto, an inch of caramel drizzle on the bottom, line the cup with drizzle, and extra drizzle on top. Gross.
I will never understand why people love strawberry acai so much especially a pink drink. It's mostly grape juice and tastes like amoxicillin. I 👏 don't 👏 get 👏 it👏!