If there is anyone you want to keep on your good side during the morning rush, it is your local barista. Starbucks baristas are doing their best to fill coffee orders and get customers their caffeine to start their day. As noted on several Reddit threads, however, customers can unknowingly make the life of a barista much more challenging and messy.
Though you might think that splashing a bit of coffee into a trash can is a harmless move, the combination of hot coffee and plastic trash can linings is not a pretty one. When the barista has to take out the trash, pulling the bag upward will result in an unnecessarily unpleasant situation to have to clean up. Hot coffee can damage and tear the plastic, resulting in liquids seeping out into the bottom of the trash container — or worse, spilling all over the clothes and shoes of the Starbucks team member. “I would rather walk back and forth from the coffee urns to a customer a million times to make sure I left the right amount of room than deal with that a dozen times a day,” one barista wrote on Reddit.
Save Starbucks team members from sloppy spills
While ordering coffee and asking for less to be poured into your cup so you can gussy up your beverage with milk or cream might sound like a demanding inconvenience, the request is comparatively small when considering the potential consequences. Speak up, or if, after ordering a Pike Place roast, the barista asks if you want room in your coffee for cream or milk, understand that the barista is trying to circumnavigate this issue completely without you having to ask.
Ideally, a small sink would be situated for Starbucks’ customers to access for themselves, but at most locations, this accessibility isn’t a reality. Even pouring out splashes of an iced coffee into the bin can result in a sloshy situation, so keep your baristas in mind as you doctor up your coffees with add-ins and sweeteners and help maintain the quality of your local coffee shop with kind and considerate etiquette.
