Starbucks — Restaurant in Lafayette

Recently my wife had outpatient surgery, so I located a nearby Starbucks (565 West South Boulder Rd., Lafayette, CO) to wait for the call to pick her up.

On entering, I went to the counter and requested a venti cup of ice. The lady behind the counter told me it was contingent on making a purchase. I responded that I had never been refused a cup of ice to which she responded that it is Starbucks’ policy. I told her to forget the cup of ice, walked over to a table, sat down, took out my laptop, and began reading emails.

After a few minutes I received a call from a business associate. During the conversation I happened to look up. The same employee who refused the cup of ice was standing in front of me. Realizing that she had no intention of leaving, I ended the call. The Starbucks employee proceeded to tell me that she had been watching me for 15 minutes, that I had not made purchase, and I needed to leave unless I did so. By the way, it wasn’t like I was taking up space for another customer. The place is huge and was virtually empty at the time.

Allow me to digress for a moment. I’ve been a Starbucks customer since Moses parted the Red Sea. One of the attractions of Starbucks for me is that it’s always been a place to relax, enjoy the ambiance, have a cup of coffee and a danish and connect with friends, colleagues and clients. As an aside, my wife loves having a hot chocolate with extra whipped cream. If fact, so much so, I could probably wallpaper a room in our house with receipts.

The employe who gave me the ultimatum to purchase something or get out had no idea what I intended to do whether it was while there or before leaving. If she had any understanding of customer service she could have given me the cup of ice as a courtesy after explaining the new policy.

Perhaps Starbuck’s management, ought to think about posting this policy so its employees aren’t forced to be the bad guys.

Meantime, Starbucks customers beware. It’s buy or goodbye. Oh, I forgot. Same goes for using...

Not sure whats going on with this location. Been here a dozen times over the last couple years. Not upset, but one star to attract attention to an issue.

Always well staffed, with small lines (2-3 cars in drive through and rarely any line inside when I am here) but the wait for simple shots of espresso take at least 3 times as long as at any other location.

Speaking with the staff, they say they are just super busy. I don't get it. Ive worked starbucks and food service. Is it possible there are many large mobile orders coming through that put walk in customers second?...IMO, walks ins should be prioritized to a separate “inside” espresso barista/machine and let the other two or three handle drive through/mobile orders. This locations has more production resources than many of the other stores, and yet it (more than a few times) yields simple drink production times over TEN-minutes! They say sorry, and sometimes don't charge me for my drink, but that doesn't fix it if it keeps happening.

I am not angry, but I am disappointed. There are no business cards in sight to contact the manager, so this gets a google review. When I worked at Starbucks we aimed for a 3-minute turn around. Sorry, I wont be back, I can only assume that management at this store is sub-par, which is strange considering it is a bigger location. Coffee shop? Or McDonalds, profit greedy corporation? Sounds like...

sigh Worst Starbucks location in the area. I would say the staff is nice, and most of them are, but there are a few that are completely unfriendly at best so it sort of cancels. This, on top of the fact that half of the time my drink is wrong has really just made going here a generally unpleasant experience. Also, dining is open, but unlike all other coffee shops in the area there is no condiment bar so you still can’t add your own cream/sugar which I find maybe a little more aggravating than I should.

End of 2021 Update: Adding to this that they still have the slowest drive through. I can drive up 287 and go to the other Starbucks by Walmart or in king sooper in less time than it takes to sit at this drive through. The sign that says “thank you for your patience we are training new baristas” has been out since at least February 2021. Updating this review as I’m sitting in what looked to be a short line (only a few cars) going on 15 minutes now.

2022 update: They are now giving me a hard time about ordering half and half on the side. Maybe if they opened their condiment bar back up this wouldnt be an issue. Regardless, I don’t feel they should argue with me about my preference for having a very small amount of half and half on the side of my espresso….

2022 update part 2: How does this place keep getting worse? I guess a more important questing is why do I keep finding...