Merry Christmas!

I want to thank the customers we have that are just plain awesome. I stopped by work last night and a co-worker brought me $10. At first I thought I actually had a secret santa, and that they got really lazy. Then I found out that a customer gave it to everyone. He didn't even want anyone to really know it was him. I managed to get it out of my co-worker who it was, though. :) There are a good 20 customers that just make my day better, and I'm starting to think that is why I keep at that job. So Merry Christmas to my favorites! Thanks for all the smiles, the encouraging words, the thanks, and the patience you exhibit. I wish there was something I could do for all of you. Merry Christmas, guys!

Sugar and Spice and everything nice.

No, not little girls.

So I get the pleasure of being on headset the other morning. (Hey, it's better than being on bar.) Well, a woman orders a latte and then proceeds to stumble over her words to ask for extra sweetener in it. So naturally, I ask if she wants a flavor syrup (yes, I said SEErup and not SURrup.). Her response was as follows, "I want that artificial sugar." (Woman, do you understand how vague that is?) So I ask her what kind she wants and she replies with "I want that yeller stuff." How do you know you want that if you don't even know what it is called?

I'm constantly baffled by how people can't be bothered to remember what they like, but insist that they get it exactly how they like it. When I ask them things like "Do you want cream or sugar?", they huff and puff. But if i were to forget that or if they were given the wrong drink (say, a black coffee), they would immediately come back and complain and insist on a free drink. Why not go that extra mile and remember what you like, remember how much of it you like, and remember what it is called that you put in your drink.

Actual conversation I had the other day in the drive-thru.
Me: Hey what can I do for you?
Customer: I want that marshamellah mocha.
Me: ok, what else can I do for you?
C: Oh, with extra marshmellah!
Me: Alright, did you want extra SEErup or extra toppings.
C: MARSHMELLAH! I JUST WANT MARSHMELLAH!
Me: OK MA'AM, BUT. DO. YOU. WANT. THE. TOPPINGS. OR. THE. SYRUP. THAT. GOES. IN. THE. CUP?
C: oh, the toppin's I guess?
Me: Ok, sounds GREAT. We'll have that for you at the window.

For Sale!

How hard is it to understand the following: Buy 2 $20 gift sets and get them for $30...?
Well, apparently it is as hard as learning Korean. A woman and her daughter come into my store and they're looking at our gift set. I proceed to go up to them and tell them that they can get 2 gift sets for $30 if both of the sets are $20. So they come up to the front, one $20 set in hand and then a canister with a pound of coffee. The canister is about $14, the pound of coffee $15. I proceed to tell her that the canister and coffee were not part of the deal because it isn't even a gift set, let alone $20. I get the most confused look from the mother as she meanders over to the giftsets and chooses another one. She then brings up a second giftset and even looks at the bottom before getting to the counter, and hands it to me. I turn it over and it says $25. How in the world is this confusing for her? Her poor daughter looked ready to bolt. After 10 minutes of trying to help her out, she decided to just buy the $20 giftset, pound of coffee, and canister. She walked out of there $58 in the hole. Thanks for being dumb and making use of our deals.

Strange people.

It is not a rule, but it is annoying and weird nonetheless. This morning, I came to work at 6:30am. I would say it was about 20 degrees Farenheit. I was super cold. You should've been super cold. So why did you order a blended drink? You weirdos. Before 9am, I made 7 blended drinks! SEVEN! Making drinks like that does not make me any warmer, so I would like you to refrain from ordering those in the winter, especially before the sun has even come up. It is just weird and obnoxious and I just don't like it. It also messes up the flow of drinks. I'll be running right along making hot drink after hot drink, keeping up a system when all of a sudden, I have to go over to the other side of the bar and make a blended drink. You have thus created a back-up in drinks, all because you had to have that frozen drink on a freezing morning. Selfish, I tell ya! Selfish!

watch your language!

Rule number 10: Don't add unneccessary words.

All too often I hear "Can I get a black coffee with cream and sugar?" Please, tell me what is wrong with this statement. Ok, you took too long, so I will tell you. There is nothing black about your coffee if it has cream and sugar in it (except that moment right before I add the cream.). These extra words get me confused and then I sound stupid trying to decipher them. I don't like to sound stupid...and I'm sure my co-workers feel the same way. I would rather YOU sound stupid. It's more fun that way.

Other things you should not add extra words to include, but are not limited to the following:

Mocha (do not add latte or cappuccino)
Chai (latte is fine. do not add tea or infusion to this. its too much. we know what we have.)

Frankly, those are the only ones I can think of, but the point is to NOT add things you do not need? Get it? Good.

Ice Ice, Baby

Rule number 9: Use your words.

Ok, let me elaborate. All to often, people come through the drive-thru and inside the store and order, say, a vanilla latte. Fine. Dandy. But when that is all you say, 99.9% of the employees working are going to assume you mean hot.  None of us will know that you wanted it over ice or blended if you do not say that. We are not mind-readers (deja vu). Also, it is not sufficient to say "I want a cold vanilla latte." Two reasons why this is not ok: (1) we have drinks over ice. and (2) we have blended drinks. These two drinks are both "cold" and frankly, if you let your drink sit long enough, it will be cold.

So say you order that "cold vanilla latte", my next question will then be "Did you want that over ice or blended?" Those are two completely different words with different meanings. If you understood the English language, you would notice this....so why would you order it over ice and bitch when you receive your drink and it is, in fact, over ice and not blended? Are you the kind of person who just needs to bitch at someone, so you say something intentionally wrong when ordering and then proceed to bitch about it? That is NOT COOL. (I would also like to point out that I have had customers ask me the difference between over ice and blended. Am I just a super genius that understands everything ever said and therefore don't realize that I need to define every word I have said because my intelligence exceeds everyone else's? Because I'll accept that.).

Recap time!!!! Please don't say cold. Use the terms iced or blended and realize that your drink doesn't come just one way.