bux hall of fame

we have some phenomenal customers. we really do.

like when we had a manager change and the guy ended up being an unethical jerk. our customers filled out tons and tons of complaint cards, as well as talking directly with our district manager. they were instrumental in the guy being fired, or in starbonics, "no longer with the company".
we have one customer that brings us cupcakes every sunday morning. another that bakes us cookies, and several that give us christmas presents during the holidays. these are the customers (or 'guests' as bux likes to call them) that make our job so much fun.

especially when our customers are willing to throw down for us baristas.
tonight, for instance, we had a particularly bitchy lady waiting in line. she was in a rush (oh, aren't they all?) and hated the fact that one of our loyal customers was telling us about her day. she didn't take more than a minute, but the woman behind her threw a hissy fit and started yelling at us to get the line moving.

"can you hurry it up? how long does it take to give her her change back?" bitch lady asked.
"i'm done talking. you can order now." our loyal customer said with more than a hint of sarcasm.
"i'm not talking to you!" bitch lady practically pushed her out of the way. "how long am i going to have to wait to order my damn coffee?"
"oh, grow up! maybe you should lay off the coffee since you're already so tightly wound." loyal customer retorted (all baristas laughing joyously).
"shut up!" was bitch lady's response.
"yeah, make me," loyal customer said as bitch lady walked away. "you heard me! grow up!" she said over whatever bitch lady tried to yell back at her.

then it was two more minutes of loyal customer putting bitch lady in her place. um, did i fail to mention that loyal customer is a classically trained musician as well as a schoolteacher? yeah, she's always been super cool and nice, but tonight she was like a protective lioness over her barista cubs. she won't let anyone mess with us - not a horrendous manager or a customer with an attitude. needless to say, her drink was on the house.

barista rant: what the hell is it with dumb names on your drinks? i really don't care if you want me to call out "bobo" or "pokeman" but what i won't do is call out "bird flu", "sex machine" or "mike hunt" (<--say that one aloud and you'll know why). you're paying for a drink. you're not paying money to make us look stupid . as our loyal customer said, "grow up".