shifty shifts

Chris and I have a plan to run together once a week. We look at our schedules, pick a time when we are both off, and plan to meet. We usually try to do it in the morning, but last week we didn’t have any mornings available, so we planned to do it after one of my afternoon shifts.

The shift was a little overwhelming. I was the shift on duty, and there were too many partners there asking me questions at the same time while I was in the process of training one of our new partners on the bar. This consisted of me trying to explain to Patrick, our brand new high school graduate, that there is one less pump of syrup in a caramel macchiato than there is in a caramel latte, and that it is actually vanilla syrup in a caramel macchiato instead of caramel syrup, and how many shots are in a latte and that there is an extra pump and shot in the venti iced but that’s the only one…all this in the midst of making these drinks for the seven people in line and funneling questions as they come…from every where…while standing on my feet for a full eight hours. I am not complaining (in case that’s what it sounds like). It was actually kind of fun. It’s just that when I sat down in Chris’ car after having changed my clothes to work-out appropriate attire, I let out a big sigh, and she detected from my sigh and the look on my face that the last thing I wanted to do was run. It was also sickeningly sticky muggy hot. She didn’t want to run either. So she suggested we go get ice cream. I didn’t contest. The next thirty or so minutes consisted of us driving around looking at beautiful old homes, Chris in the drivers seat enjoying her mint chocolate chip on a cake cone, me gobbling down my cookies and cream in a cup. Thank you Braum’s for a surprisingly sweetly cool afternoon.

Speaking of overwhelming shifts, I picked one up at a store today in Bixby. They needed a shift manager and I was off and I needed the hours. The only problem is that it is a drive thru store, and I was the shift on duty, and I have absolutely no drive thru experience. I work at a café store. We have no headsets. We have one of everything…one frappuccino station, one bar, one ice bin…we don’t have seven of everything. We do not talk to people unless we are standing in front of their face…and I like it that way. It’s simple and inviting and cozy and personal. We are convenient, don’t get me wrong. For better or worse, that is a key component of Starbucks. But convenience isn’t the only reason people come to our store. Our customers are willing to give a little more. They are willing to park their car and actually walk in, even if it’s raining outside. They have not given up on personal service, in the same way that I refuse to use the self check out lane at Albertsons. I would rather have a crabby check-out girl ring me up for something twice than listen to a computer tell me what to do. And then tell me to undo whatever I did that it just finished telling me to do. It’s infuriating, and I would take being furious at a human over a machine any day. The drive-thru was chaotic and confusing, and I am glad that when I open our store tomorrow morning, there will be no sliding windows to open, no headset waiting to adorn my head upon arrival.