The Joe — Restaurant in Fairmont

i have been going to the joe for nearly a decade now. I’ve rode with them through a lot of ups and downs, trials and tribulations, pandemics and everything in between. In the last 6 months the level of commitment to quality and service that has always compelled me to have their back has sadly left and no longer will i support a place that prioritizes profit over humanity. Oddly enough, this appears to start at the store management level.

When you dedicate as much time and money to patronizing your local cafe, you tend to notice how the workers are treated, what their roles are, and sometimes even a glimps into their instructions from their uppers. I have been privy to quite a lot in my time. I’ve seen several managers come and go, and saw how they performed their duties, and handled customer and employee interactions, and it seemed like that was a cohesive training program to have the managers doing managerial things.

Boy was i wrong. This new manager seems like a “beautification hire” (the practice of hiring attractive but less qualified women to appeal to a sexist male clientele. Hooters does similar), or perhaps someone who slept their way to that position, because clearly she has no business being in the position she’s in. She doesn’t make coffee, i’ve yet to see her latte art. Doesn’t jump in behind the counter to help when there is a rush. She just sits there on her computer. She’s talked with me at great length on how she loves her new position… i can see why…

On more than one occasion i’ve heard her berate other employees behind their backs ironically enough for not doing “their job” though the tasks she described seem like they should fall on management or assistant managment. For example, “so-in-so hasn’t even counted the backstock yet, and last week she was late putting the order in so thats why we ran out of [whatever] size cups.”

Oh, i’m sorry…? But everywhere i’ve ever worked, the manager is responsible for doing inventory, and making sure the store has what it needs to operate. Then to top it off, she badmouths the employee that has been tasked with doing her job for her?? I was astonished. Absolutely astonished. Especially for doing it so FLAGRANTLY out in the open that customers could hear.

And then it happened.

Come to find out, the girl who she was bad mouthing was fired. I had just assumed that since she hasn’t been there in a while, she moved on. Or went back to the other store. Nope. Came out that she was terminated by the very same manager who’s job she was tasked to do.

Maybe she should go back to pretending she’s the next taylor swift, that fantasy land didn’t hurt others.

I’ve noticed a slow decline in quality, and service since she’s taken the reigns and that incident could be a reason why. After all, her first power trip cost the joe my favorite barista (shout out caden.)

Editing this review which was in defense to someone elses bad review. Now,...

Yesterday I went to the joe like I do often. I will admit I haven't been in about a month but I knew I had two free drinks on my rewards. Me and my daughter decided to stop and redeem them. I order my coffee and redeem the points. Order my daughter's, system takes the points and the girl then does something and my says I owe. I explained I used my points. She says I saw what it says and you owe very rude. Which she was from the beginning. I pull up my points and it says that 2 drinks were redeemed. I show her and she says I still owe. I tried to show her and again rudeness. So I ask her to cancel the both orders because I honestly didn't want to deal with her rudeness. I check my points this morning and my points were never returned. I have been going to the joe since it opened and have usually received great service. However the last few times I've been there it hasnot lived up to past experiences and yesterday made me honestly rethink the joe altogether. I've worked in this service myself and I would have never treated someone like I was treated. Hopefully they get better servers. I miss the days with Ray, Jodi and them were there. Seems customer service left when they left. I guess that's why I stopped going daily and will now go back to dunkin or McDonald's for coffee. Extremely saddened by losing great coffee due to poor...

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