Starbucks — Restaurant in Florida

As the days go by and I continue to advance in age, I find myself enjoying far fewer things that I once did. The creature comforts disappear, the joy elicited from things diminishes, and the small pleasures number fewer and fewer. Starbucks up until very recently remained one of the few treats I could count on to brighten my day and add a little pep to my step. However, that is no longer the case, and this specific location is a big reason why.

My drink of choice is not that complex. A trenta green iced tea, no added water, regular ice, and take two packets of honey and melt them with some hot water, add to the drink, and shake well. Other stores consider this concoction trivial, but not here. One of the baristas took GREAT offense to my potion, and stated several times that the crack team of beverage experts would "do their best" in carefully performing the alchemy required to engineer this unbelievably complicated brew.

I calmly reassured her that countless employees at not only this current location but at countless locations across the continental US have had no problem making this drink. But these reassurances were in vain. She repeated the "we'll do our best" line ad nauseum until I pulled around the building and waited in line for my order that I had made at this specific location no fewer than 24 times before (I've been a gold card member for over 10 years, I checked).

Apparently this Rhodes scholar-turned-barista was unaware that sound travels, and her very vocal complaints about not only me as a customer but my Wolfsbane Potion of an iced tea and the enormous effort required to make it traveled from the drive-through window to my car. I guess in the Year of our Lord 2023 asking people who work at a beverage shop to make you a beverage is akin to some form of harassment, because this women spent at least 2 minutes loudly complaining to the car in front of me about what an inconvenience my drink was and what a hardship it impressed on the fragile and delicate team who works here.

I understand that times are tough, I really do, and I know how difficult customers can be working in a service industry. I myself have been fired from fast food jobs as a result of unruly customers looking to just make life unnecessarily difficult for the laborers. I, however, am not one of those people. My order remains the same about 98% of the time. In other Starbucks locations, the workers greeted me by asking me whether or not I wanted 1 or 2 of my drinks of choice. When family members have stopped by these locations and asked for my drink to be made, the workers have asked if these people knew me because of how often I get it.

Additionally, I tip just about every time I go. Sometimes generously (if it's the holiday season or I happened to hit it big at the Blackjack table). So it would be difficult to convince me or anyone else that I'm a difficult customer in any sense. Make the drink that I want nearly 100% of the time, I give you money and tip you. It's an arrangement that up until recently used to be pretty well understood, but I suppose times have changed.

As a result, I've largely stopped going to this place, and have stopped going inside altogether. I know my review screams "First World Problem," but what's the point of living in the First World if you can't even get an iced tea without getting cancelled as a consumer? Maybe Starbucks and the people who work at Starbucks hate money.

Maybe it's a good thing that I've been discouraged from going here. Starbucks uses enough plastic to rupture the stomachs of approximately 100 humpback whales per year, and their political activism is nauseating to say the least. Perhaps I ought to bite the bullet and go fully curmudgeon, never visiting a coffee shop ever again. I will enjoy the absence of the complaining, and I'm sure Starbucks will take pride in one fewer straight cis-male buying their products.

Or maybe I'll just find a location that will make me a freakin' iced tea without...

Why does Starbucks suck so bad now? For nearly 24 years I spent more money with Starbucks than dining out. Outspending fast food to 2 star Michelin I spent an average of over $5,000.00/yr at Starbucks. Now I’ve deleted my account, uninstalled apps, tossed my Starbucks mugs, French press, and assorted paraphernalia, and no longer consume anything made by their inept staff. They are not baristas and you will not find young workers who give 2 cents about making safe coffee to consume.

Since I don’t have a burr grinder I had been begrudgingly purchasing whole bean to grind on site. Do you think they can get this right? No, Starbucks doesn’t keep much whole bean these days. Must be because they claim to be a coffee house. You should play the lottery if you manage to find a bag of coffee in a Starbucks! I returned 2 bags at the Blue Angel location only to bring the third to the Rave location (the only polite staff in 50miles with a “coffee manager”) to get it ground correctly. I made a mistake ever returning to this location (nine mile/pine forest known amongst Starbucks staff as the worst by reputation in Pensacola) and bought Italian roast since their were only garbage blonde mixes. I relaxed a little as the woman was around my age (47) and imagined she must be a manager since she was dressed casual attire (no uniforms which seems to be acceptable at all Starbucks now), and I asked for espresso ground. This location is the darkest location I’ve ever visited and after inspecting the grind it seemed okay despite the fact she just folded it over once and I had to correct it.

Of course now that I’ve put it into a better container and tossed the bag I found on my first attempt it was way too fine. I tried 6 times to measure and/or weigh the coffee and tamped at varying amounts trying to get any liquid to come from the machine. On the fourth try, though I thought I had purged the system enough, I was burned by steam, hot grounds and coffee exploding from the machine. I do not have a cheap $200-$300 machine and I’ve been making espresso longer than most of your staff has walked the earth. It’s become apparent I need to invest in a burr grinder and find another company to buy whole beans from.

I find myself with a shortened shelf life (terminal diagnosis) and went from being a successful artist to a cripple in poverty. Coffee and cigars are my simple pleasures. I can no longer afford cigars and honestly shouldn’t be spending money on “high end” coffee, but they made my life enjoyable for an hour of each day. A reprieve from the pain and suffering of my mind and body failing me. If only there was a Dietrich’s...

On a busy Sunday afternoon, the lines wrapped all the way to the exit, I decide to do a mobile order to go in store & pick up. I’m inside waiting for my order to be called & there’s multiple people just standing infront of the counter also waiting for there drinks so it’s hard to get in to see if yours came up prior to walking in. I see multiple people walk up pick a drink up see that it’s not theirs , set it back down and come back and grab the same drink and leave with it. After a few minutes my name was called & the guy set both of my drinks down along with another order that had two drinks as well. It took a minute to get up there to grab my drinks because again there were multiple people surrounding the counter, well the other person took my order so I was left with 1 of my 2 drinks. I’m not mad at the service or the employees I just think their should be a bit better organized way to secure drinks so people aren’t walking away with things that aren’t theirs to begin with. I had my drink made 3 times before I was able to actually leave with what I paid for. I watched 3 other people on the 10-15 minutes I was in the store also get there drinks remade because people kept walking off with others drinks. All that to say I think there’s got to be a better option to secure drinks so people can’t just grab whatever they want . And it’s also keep the employees from having to remake drinks...