That’s Why She’s Manager
It was a few days before Christmas…yeah, I know that was like a month ago, but this is still aggravating me. My wife had sent me on a special mission. She had received a Starbucks gift card as a Christmas gift and asked me to pick up a bag of the Christmas blend.
That seems simple enough. I don’t go into Starbucks unless it’s the only place to get coffee but, we had the gift card. All I had to do was go into Starbucks, grab a bag of the coffee she wanted and take it to the register to pay.
As I studied the racks of coffee I saw Sumatra, Veranda, House, Pikes Peak , French Roast, Peakless Pike …I think that’s decaf, everything but Christmas blend. Maybe they were sold out. Then I spotted a bag next to the register. They must keep them behind the counter.
There was only one person in line. After they got their order, I walked up to the counter, grabbed the bag and told the coffee girl…Oh, I’m sorry, the barista…I wouldn’t want to be politically incorrect and upset some idiot.
Anyway, I tell the coffee girl,
“This is all I want.”
“They’re at the front of the store.”
Somehow, I had walked right by the bags I was looking for. It didn’t matter, I had one in my hand.
“What’s wrong with this one?”
“That’s the one that goes here. You can grab one from the front of the store.”
While we were having our little discussion, I noticed about nine people were now lined up behind me. I could tell by looking at them, they wouldn’t be ordering regular coffee. No it was going to be,
“I’ll have a frappe-thing a mota…”
“I’ll have a grande mocha-freak-a-lotto…”
Then she was going to have to write their stupid name on the cup and I was going to have to wait thirty minutes to get a bag of coffee I was holding in my hand at the cash register.
“I’m not going to the back of the line.”
“Those are at the front of the store.”
“What is that? The only thing they trained you how to say? I don’t think I should have to get back in line for something I have right here!”
“Those are at the front of the store.”
“Wha we have here… is a failure to comnikay.”
At that point, I was ready to hurl this bag in that direction and say…
“So, is that one!”
Then I would walk out of the store and there would be no sale. See how those quarterly earnings reports look without the $13.99 I was about to give you. Ok, I had a ten dollar gift card so it was only $3.99. When you’re about to chuck a bag of coffee across a crowded room, you really don’t take time to think things out.
Right at the moment I was about to cause a scene, the girl in charge walked over.
“You can scan this one and he can grab another on the way out.”
What a simple solution, but it took management to figure it out. So in five or ten years, when you are being waited on by a robot at Starbucks and say,
“It’s a shame the way humans have been replaced in these jobs…”
Remember this story.
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