Starbucks Coffee

I’m not particularly fond of Starbucks. A long time ago, I used to complain that I always got my Frappuccino with whipped cream, doesn’t matter if the baristas asked and I told them no. It had seemed to me that Frappuccino must come with whipped cream, and asking was merely a formality.

That was a long time ago. Thankfully, Starbucks do get my Frappuccino order correct most of the times nowadays.

I still go to Starbucks a lot. They have outlets everywhere. Sometimes, at the malls I go to, there isn’t an outlet from that other chain around. While waiting for my kids when they go for their enrichment classes, for example, I’ll occasionally find myself patronising a Starbucks cafe.

I was going to post something not so flattering about Starbucks today. You see, there are still a bunch of things I find myself complaining about Starbucks. Not with Frappuccino orders, but other things about my order that always go wrong. For example, my regular coffee with milk might not come with milk. Or they forget about my coffee altogether.

However, while sitting here in Starbucks now for my usual weekend breakfast, this time around everything just went perfectly well. When things go right, everything becomes so pleasant and enjoyable.

Nevertheless, indulge me as I relate examples of typical experiences I encounter at Starbucks.

In my last visit, I made sure they got my coffee correct, only to find out after waiting a long while, that they had forgotten my food. Many people who had their orders taken after me were already walking away with their drink and food order. I eventually enquired, and found that they had somehow missed my order.

I eventually got my food, a whole 13 minutes after paying for my order. Good thing that I wasn’t in a hurry. Of course in the grand scheme of things, 13 minutes doesn’t seem very long, but if comparing with others who get their stuff in under 5 minutes, it is a relatively long wait.

There was another time, at the same Starbucks outlet, where they remembered my food but lost my drink order. Other times, it would be about whether there is milk or not in the coffee.

Another time, I had a croissant that was so squashed, I thought they should have been embarrassed to serve it. But it seemed it didn’t quite matter to them, or perhaps it was because they simply hadn’t noticed.

Basically, most times I visit, there is a good chance that something or other will not be right.

Once, at 9:15am on a weekend morning, they had run out of mugs, and had to serve coffee in a paper cup. I’m just wondering, perhaps the mugs from the previous day had not been cleaned?

These are not serious complaints. At least the food and drink quality remains consistent, and I’m glad about that. Occasionally, like today, my order was not only correct, I had both my food and drink served perfectly in just about one minute of waiting. That is really nice.

But there’s certainly room for improvement.