A Tale of Two Starbucks

I stop in at Starbucks pretty much every day. I always have the same thing (a quad grande skim with energy caramel macchiato, for those of you keeping score or wanting to buy me a coffee). I almost always manage to make it into the SB in my town, but occasionally I'm running a little late and have to hit one in the city. I love my hometown SB, but I haven't had horrible experiences at the NYC SBs (except for the time they forgot to put the coffee in. Seriously. But they were nice about it and fixed it.). So yesterday I was late for my train, and I was going to have to take the PATH instead of the ferry into the city, and when I take the PATH I don't actually pass a Starbucks on the way to work.

So I decided the best course of action was to pop into the SB in Hoboken, because it's only a couple blocks away from the PATH/train station and easier and more convenient than detouring on the way to work once I get into the city. Also, it's very pretty. I've been there maybe twice before and had no problems. So I walk in, and there are two baristas behind the counter. One is helping a customer with her oatmeal (if you are not an SB person and the idea that someone needs help with oatmeal confuses you, just move past it. It's not worth worrying about. Trust me.) and the other is making a coffee/chatting with her friend/customer. Which is fine. I like the friendly baristas. Except that neither one of them so much as makes eye contact with me to acknowledge that I'm waiting.

I continue to wait. And wait. And wait. Another person comes in and begins waiting behind me. Still no eye contact, much less a "Can I start a coffee for you?" or even "I'll be right with you." Finally another guy comes out from the back and he's refilling hte milk and whatever and after a minutes or so, he finally asks if we're being helped. I say no, and he takes my order and starts my coffee, and then proceeds to hassle me about my custom card (which has my regular coffee order printed on it). Not okay!

Fast forward to this morning. Believe me when I tell you I had a morning. There were canceled trains, fat old ladies screaming at me for having the audacity to cross with the light, and so on. Also, I grabbed the wrong coffee when I went in to the SB. I was just barely in time for the train so I tossed it and gave it up as a lost cause, and just figured I'd mention it when I go in tomorrow, but then (as noted above) the damn train was canceled so I had to walk uptown anyhow. So I popped into my Starbucks for the second time this morning and said, "I was just..." and they stopped me and said, "You grabbed the wrong coffee! Let me remake that for you! You must be having a really rough day!" There was no charge, I didn't have to explain why I no longer had the other coffee...they were just awesome and sympathetic and it was about the only nice thing that happened to me after I left the house this morning. I love my Starbucks.

Okay, you deserve a reward if you've made it this far. Choose your poison. I've got kids:





or yarn (In order, Schaefer Heather that I fell in love with, Sublime Organic Merino that inspired me to design a new sweater and SWTC Inspiration that inspired me to design a lacey little surplice wrap thingie -- none of these things are any further than the jot-it-down stage, but I haven't designed anything fresh in a long time so it was nice to be inspired again. All three are from The Point.):

posted by Laura Y. @ 6:12 PM