11.13.2006

drinking and driving

only two incidents from this weekend stuck out:

incident #1 -
after a rush i noticed there was a drink left unclaimed on the bar. seeing it was a cappuccino, i asked the register partner if they remembered who ordered the drink. she pointed at a guy sitting by the window who was working on his laptop and had his bluetooth headset on (which presumably is why he didn't hear me call out his drink). when i handed him the cappuccino he apologized for leaving it on the serving bar.

"i'm sorry you had to bring it over to me," he said. "my car was stolen and i was on the phone with the police."
"oh no, that's horrible." i really was concerned. "you're checking to see if they've found it yet?"
"no," he informed me. "i was reporting it stolen."
i was a bit confused as to why he waited until he was at bux getting coffee to report his missing vehicle.
"i noticed it was gone when i went to get my reading glasses out of the glove box." he continued.
"you mean it was stolen, just now?" i was shocked.
"yeah, but it's cool. it's been stolen before and they found it. i have lo-jack so it's no biggie." he explained, then went back to typing on his laptop.

he hung out in our store for another hour, and when his ride came they both ordered drinks and hung out some more. i've never in my life seen anyone so calm after having their car stolen. he even tipped us before he left because we'd been so nice to him.

incident #2 -
a customer ordered a tall iced coffee in a venti cup sweetened with irish creme syrup. when we explained that irish creme syrup had been discontinued, the guy threw a bit of a hissy.

"well, what the hell am i supposed to put in my coffee?"
"uh, some people use classic syrup, or you can try vanilla." my fellow barista brat explained.
"that doesn't go!" he rolled his eyes.
"well, you can try caramel syrup. or there's raspberry, hazelnut, cinnamon, gingerbread -"
"none of those taste like irish creme!" he huffed. "what do you have that tastes like irish creme?"
"uh, nothing." fellow barista brat informed him.
"fine, just put some chocolate in it." he said and tossed his money at her.

two minutes later we found out why he was so hard up for irish creme. immediately after picking up his drink he popped the lid off and pulled a mini bottle of whisky out of his man-bag. right in front of us he began pouring the whisky into his cup.

"i'm sorry sir, but you can't drink that here." i informed him.
"why not? i paid for it!"
"you can't consume alcohol in our store." i told him and pointed to the door so he'd leave.
"starbucks sells liquor! i've seen it in the store."
"sorry guy, but you have to leave." i told him again.

he started to protest but shut his mouth and left quickly when he saw a police car pull into the parking lot. the funny thing is, the cops weren't getting coffee - they were getting sandwiches from next door.

partner rant: it's fine you wanted coffee on your day off. it's even acceptable that you asked us to grind your weekly mark-out. but holding up the line while you called your family to see if they wanted frappuccinos, then expecting us to give you five drinks for free is beyond rude. it's inconsiderate AND dumb - especially when the person you asked to hook you up is our newly promoted manager.

21 comments:

Writeprocrastinator said...

"well, what the hell am i supposed to put in my coffee?"

What, did his mommy run out of breast milk?

"after picking up his drink he popped the lid off and pulled a mini bottle of whisky out of his man-bag. right in front of us he began pouring the whisky into his cup."

Ohhhh, I get it. In this day and age of crack and meth, it's so nice to see an al-key throwback.

I used to work at a Safeway and every morning, there would be these old retired men who would come in and buy that junk no-name gin or vodka in the plastic bottle, with a pack of gum to get rid of the alcohol on their breath. It always struck me strange that they would buy gum, because they drank so much that you could smell it from a few feet away, their pores were so saturated.

Unknown said...

I can identify with the silly free loading partner rant, At my cafe we had a guy who was constantly stealing the sugar free vanilla syrup. It was quite annoying. I noticed when I was counting for ordering, and noticed we were down 3 bottles in a week. We usually went through like 1 every two MONTHS.

https//:detourfromsanity..blogspot.com

Cup said...

Sweet. I didn't think of spiking my latte. Do y'all carry Bailey's, if not whiskey?

Anonymous said...

I don't know how I'd act if my car were stolen. I guess it'd depend on how desperately I needed the coffee...

SkippyMom said...

What kind of car did this guy drive that it had already been stolen once before? egad...I would be freaked out! He seemed pretty cool tho'

Brat...where's that "liquor" Bux sells?....I would definitely be going to Bux if you liquor....yeah, right - what an alcoholic tool [what time of day was this anyway?]

and the partner - can he actually expect to keep his job after that little show? really...

Always entertaining Brat, always!

mellowlee said...

*L* Mr cool and calm is my kind of guy! Ick to the alchy guy. Reminds me of my biological father..what a Looooozer!

Thy said...

i'd be freaked out if my car was stolen

Harry the Hire said...

what an idiot, he surely could have gone, sat down, and poured his whiskey in under the table - not that I condone such behaviour.

Hey, I wrote something on "American bashing" on my blog and it would be great to get an American comment (I'm getting 2,000 hits a day and almost no comments.)

Eric said...

2 things responding to lighterate
1 - Not much of a post on the subject.
2 - Too complex to leave a quick comment on your blog. Email required etc. I was going to but changed my mind.
Sorry not flaming you just thought you my want to know why you get 2K hits but no comments.

Hoodlum said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
First Year said...

It is a little odd that the guy who had his car stolen was so calm, but hey if it happens often he probably can't even bring himself to get all excited over it.

It was nice that he tipped you :)

Anonymous said...

My car was stolen two years ago, there's no reason to be freaking out, nothing you can do about a car that ISN'T there. Everyone, including the cops told me I was way calm too. *shrug* My car was found 24 hours later stripped to nothing... it was THEN that I lost my cool =)

Anonymous said...

Whoa. When my laptop was stolen a couple years back, I wasn't even half as mellow as that guy.

Then again, that was while I was working on my thesis, it's not like I insure my computer, and... my car's not worth very much. K

Anonymous said...

I need to work on remaining calm when bad things happen. Swearing at people probably doesn't raise their impression of me, nor does it bring back a stolen car.

But @#$%&*! that would make me mad.

she said: said...

Why is it that big drinkers don't seem to notice everyone else around them is freaked out.

About a month ago I was at the check-out line and this old lady was in front of me with 3-gallon jugs of Vodka.

I figured if she was having a party there would be a mix of alcohol, or if she wasn't a huge alcoholic she might have bought one a day or something. But 3 huge jugs of Vodka just stood out.. I kept waiting for the checker to react, but she didn't.

Sling said...

If you don't carry Irish cream,I'm thinkin' chocolate with a splash of caramel and half and half might come pretty close..Nothing beats Baileys though..

Anonymous said...

oooh... christmas merchandise... i'm just checking out the malaysian website and it's all red again! hehe... gonna buy a replacement mug and write my name on it so it doesn't get stolen... hopefully...

that dumb partner... what a poo.

that's all i have to say.

i'm in a weird mood today cos of work... so don't mind me.

Tom said...

When I grow up I want to be like the guy whose car was stolen. That's the way to handle life. It's good to see the bright side of humanity shining through every now and then.

Anonymous said...

ooh... just had to say that i bought a new mug! and it's the christmas version... yay!
go mass merchandising

barista brat said...

writeprocrastinator - yeah, it must be denial or something. they think you can only smell the alcohol on their breaths and not their skin.

tracy - wow, he wasn't even smart enough to stealthily steal!

beth - only after hours, haha!

benny - i'm sure it wouldn't be that calm.

skippymom - he had a lincoln navigator, which i didn't realize was so highly desirable for crooks. maybe he had some crazy rims on it.

mellowlee - yeah, the guy wasn't even a pleasant drunk.

thy - me too!

lighterate - it's true, he could have done it without any of us noticing. and i admit, i'm a visitor of the blog but i haven't done much commenting!

hoodlum - solidarity doesn't come by hook-ups.

first year - it was really cool that he tipped!

anonymous - it's true, there's nothing you can do, but i still would have been more than a little freaked out. sorry to hear about your car.

kiz - oh man! while you were working on your thesis? that's more tragic than losing a car!

jpdc - haha, me too.

she said - maybe the checker was already used to that lady's purchases?

sling - good to hear you have other options!

marcus - yay for the new holiday mug! better keep it under lock and key!

tom - yeah, it was cool that he kept his cool.

Writeprocrastinator said...

"he had a lincoln navigator, which i didn't realize was so highly desirable for crooks. maybe he had some crazy rims on it."

It could also be that SUVs are basically trucks that are considerably marked up. Thus, the parts are worthy a lot.

If you look at the top twenty stolen list, you will see cars that are popular in sales like the Honda Accord. Then you will see cars that are easier to steal than others, the VW Golfs were real popular with thieves years ago because both the door and ignition could be defeated by the simpliest of household tools, as well as the beginner car thief.

Why walk or take the bus, you know?

Then you have the cars where the parts are marked up and consider this the next time you get your car fixed; the car is worth more in parts, than as a whole.