9.28.2006

bux bliss

there must have been something in the air today because i had the most harmonious shift in weeks!
every customer was polite, there were no drink mess-ups and even bitter old dude had a smile on his face.

keeping with the good mood i chatted merrily with my customers and noticed the tip jar was filling quickly with bills. bitter old dude and i bantered good-naturedly and one of our regular customers bought us lunch. it was truly a great day. not even the tour bus that pulled up outside of bux could set me off.

i was, however, a little nervous when the group of thirty came pouring into the store. there was only bitter old dude and myself and i was nervous that he would loose his cool, or that the group would have insanely annoying drinks. much to my surprise the group was well organized and very low maintenance. the group even paid for the drinks of two customers that came in after them so that they wouldn't have to wait for all thirty drinks to be made before they could order. it was the most painless rush i've ever had and i was impressed by bitter old dude - he never got pissy and he never fell behind when making the drinks.

when the tour leader paid for all the drinks he asked if there was a way to put a tip on his credit card.
"no there isn't, but thank you for thinking of us!" i told him.
"well, can you give me change for this?" he handed me a twenty dollar bill.
i handed him back a ten, a five and five ones, fully expecting him to toss in about three bucks. instead i was pleasantly surprised to see him toss in the ten dollar bill instead.
"thanks so much, guys. most baristas totally lose it and give us attitude when we come in but the two of you have been great!" he smiled.
"thank YOU!" i smiled back, happy that he had a positive experience in my bux.

the rest of my shift was just as smooth and i even gave bitter old dude a MUG (Moves of Uncommon Greatness) award for how great he handled bar. here's hoping the rest of my week is just as pleasant.

partner rant: it sucks when you understaff us. truly - it does. sure, today we handled it but really you're playing a dangerous game. i know the district manager is cracking the labor whip, but don't overwork your partners just to look good, ok?

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love your blog ... I envy your patience though!! I would get so mad having to remake drinks for people when you make exactly what they ordered, and they don't like it. When I try something new at a coffee place (or bar, or restaurant) and don't like it, I suck it up and drink it anyway. What a bunch of babies!!

Marni said...

YAY! A good day... I'm hoping your karma rubs off on me...

Citymouse said...

Nice to have a great day at work!

Tom said...

A post that proves that good news is also newsworthy.

Cup said...

You deserved a day like that, Brat! I bet it was the "Absolute Beginners" humming in your head that set the tone of the day ... because, yes, I will grab every bit of glory I can, whether or not it's earned.

The Wandering Author said...

Wow! Not only am I glad to hear you finally got the great day you deserved, you even managed to disprove the adage that says, "you can't write scenes with no conflict and make them interesting".

And thanks for telling us about it. This was one of those days when it was really, really nice to hear things were going well for someone. So you added a nice, refreshing moment to my day as well.

mellowlee said...

Awesome! I'm glad you had such a great day!

Anonymous said...

I love reading your blog because I can relate to so much of it (I'm a Starbucks barista as well).

And I totally understand your disgruntledness about the understaffing because my store is always understaffed and I had one of the worst shifts ever on Wednesday.

But I'm glad to hear that you've had a few harmonious shifts =)

Thy said...

hurrah for good days

everyone needs a couple of those