I figure before I get any further, it might be a good time to tell you my side of the story. My “Coffee-shop Journey”, or as training would have me call it, my “Coffee-Shop experience,” had its own unique start...
“I will never EVER work at a coffee shop” ....Ok, so some starts can begin with reluctance.
Yes, I’ll admit I never wanted to be a coffee shop barista. Not only that, but I had only been to my coffee shop three times in my entire life and each time I ordered the same thing: something cold and without coffee.
Yes, it’s true. I’d also never drank a cup of coffee, even the smell turned me off.
And then there was the menu board. I’d stare up at what seemed like an endless amount of drink options and thought to myself, there’s no way I could ever remember all that (let alone all the drink modifiers, that I was currently unaware of). But soon enough the manager of a little coffee shop, romantically tucked away in a bookstore, was in need of some new hires, and seeing how I was in need of a job, somehow I convinced myself it was the perfect match.
I was calling out decaf, triple, tall, sugar-free vanilla, non-fat, wet, cappuccinos in no time.
Ok, I lie again....
It definitely took some time and a few overwhelming internal panic moments of, “what have I gotten myself into!?” But after the constant help from my training coaches, I felt set. On top of that they seemed like the most welcoming group of people I’d ever met. Let me introduce you to them, to whom I like to call my Coffee Shop Family.
First there was Claire. I clearly remember her complimenting me on my scarf, when I happened to come in (for my fourth visit ever) the day before my interview; back in the day when I was just a customer; when I was just “one of them.” Claire must be one of the most accommodating and considerate people I now know. On top of that, she’s also the only vegetarian I know. Not that that’s a big deal or anything; but it was when our hotdogs got mixed up at a work bbq, and I got my first delightful taste of tofu. Regardless, she’s a sweetheart. And sad to say, as I write this, she is no longer working at our store :(
Next there’s Ellie. I always compare or equate her with Audrey Hepburn; and you must know, I love Audrey Hepburn. Like Hepburn, she has this almost regal presence about her, (along with an intelligence that brings her straight A’s); not to mention I think she looks quite similar to Audrey, which is a compliment to say the least.
Kenzie. Probably one of the most compassionate people I’ve met. If you ever discuss something tragic going on, you can see the tears rise in her eyes. And I must mention her eyes. Everyone comments on what beautiful big eyes she has. People also continually ask if we are sisters, sometimes if we are even twins, even when we’re standing right next to each other!. So I guess that’s a compliment to my eyes as well. Although either of us think we look that much alike! But we’ve really become good friends, and I’m so thankful for that!
The guy who hasn’t come up with his alias name yet: quiet & pensive. I used to never be too sure what he’s thinking. And I used get quite nervous around him and feel like a complete and utter dumb blonde (no offensive made to those naturally blonde) with every question I asked, like I should know the answer by now. But to leave you with that description of “The guy who hasn’t come up with his alias name yet” would be far too incomplete. That was just the beginning...things are totally different now! We laugh a lot, I truly look forward to working with him!
And then there’s Hayley, who I was about to say is the baby sister of our family, but that has changed recently with the addition of two younger ones. She joined us when she was still in high school. There’s something about working with Hayley that puts me in the silliest mood ever, which is awesome cause it makes every ridiculously annoying customer somehow still seem funny and shifts go by way faster.
Marc-Joel. Where do I begin? Well I’d start with 20 questions. The day he began as my shift supervisor he wanted to know all about everything, like most importantly what movies do you watch? His favourite? Back to the Future. On top of that he is one of the funniest people you’ll ever meet.
Seriously, NEVER a DULL MOMENT.
And doesn’t make you feel stupid when you ask what seems to be a dumb question. Like the time I was reading my training manual and it told me where to store the ground COW. I stopped. Cow? We put ground cow in our coffee? This can’t be right! And thankfully it wasn’t...COW = Coffee Of the Week....all the vegetarians simultaneously breathe a sigh of relief.
Anyway, back to Marc-Joel. I always say he’s like the brother I never had, except...normally you wouldn’t get along half as well with your brother or think he’s half as charming.
Moving right along...
Nadine, she is our manager. We get to open together almost every Saturday morning...and let’s just say there is lots of singing that happens, and as lot of timing espresso (....and then drinking the espresso that we HAD to time...) She is definitely full of energy...and I love to stop and say that was the perfect “manager quote!” Lol.
And then there’s our newest addition to our coffee shop family, Esteban, as he would like to be called. I’m pretty sure that’s Spanish, which he is not...Hmmm, how to summarize Esteban? Well he likes ninjas and sometimes wants to fight a bear or eat hotdogs, and add random drink modifiers into calling drinks, or quote Elf with me. But mostly, he just makes me laugh. Oh and he doesn’t know much about John Mayer, but I somewhat successfully tried to change that...I will keep working at it. lol. He also gets way to excited when we are out of soy, which makes me sad...But, on the other hand, he fully supplied us with new boxes of tea that we were running out of, which is sweet, cause my favourite kind was almost extinct in our store! I can’t live without my white tea!
Then there’s our “newbees,” Stacy and Tamara. Stacy is great for laughing a lot. A lot, a lot. At a lot of things....which is fun. Funny story on that coming later. And Tamara, she is the tough but nice one ;p and my new little sister, which she didn’t like me saying at first. Lol. For good reason, but I changed that
And then there’s Nik, note that it’s Nik with just a "K", not Ni"ck". He was clear on that. I’m never quite sure when he’s serious or when he’s just joking, or if he’s ever really sincere in the compliments he gives. Lol. But, no, he too is a lot of fun to work with. And is overly charming with all the customers, which they seem to like. Oh and sometimes he just starts laughing at me when I talk, and apparently finds my chattering entertaining because he wants to record it one day. Lol. I just take that all as a compliment.
So that is my Coffee Shop Family in a nut shell...or a coffee bean..sorry, that was just too lame. But too late. Lol.
Story time...I’ve decided there’s basically only two approaches to rude customers: approach #1: Give up entirely, and be only as civil as necessary. Or appraoch #2, my approach: “I am going to make you be nice to me!”, aka killing them with kindness....Take the Grande extra pump white mocha frappichino blended coffee for example. Every time she comes in it’s either one of, but most of the time two of three things: She’s either on her cell phone or so wrapped up in her boyfriend (which over the last six months three different guys have come, totally violated the PDA (public displays of affection) to the point where you want to yell or, and pretty much all the time she is masked behind sunglasses. Seriously, Corey Hart’s sunglasses at night could be the theme song of her life. I’m not sure she even has eyes...at least that was until I “broke” her. Yes, I, actually managed to get her to take her sunglasses off, not that I actually asked her to remove them but I tried my hardest to strike up even the smallest amount of small talk. As shallow as a conversation it may be, I just had to get through to her...and I did ! Even though, EVERY topic I tried she rained on with her pesimissim.
“It’s a beautiful day out today.” ... “And of course I have to work!” Seriously...there’s wasn’t one thing that she couldn’t find wrong! But that wasn’t the point...I was getting somewhere, she was talking to me, and now I knew she had eyes!
I’ve also decided to promise to end off every blog with something positive or funny, cause to just blog in order to complain about customers would be so lame...
This one was from a while ago, like maybe two years. But, still just as funny. Apparently maybe something wasn’t working well with our dishwasher one day because this young guy, with uber long hair, and talks like a surfer came up to the counter and displayed his in-store use (ceramic) cup to us and said, “Um, I don’t mean to complain dude, but there’s like some lipstick on the ceramic mug you served my coffee in. I’d take the blame for it, but y’know...it’s not really my shade.” What could I do but burst out laughing? You’ll learn that’s what I do about pretty much everything. Lol!
