Starbucks — Restaurant in North Carolina

KUDOS to the Starbucks company ethic and management for creating a warm and socially inviting commercial space in a world growing cold and sterile trying to kowtow to the ever growing population arrogant narcissists.

I have been an ardent customer since the opening of the Gateway & Western stores. When they decided to open the Yopp Road location, my son applied and got a job first training at Gateway & Western, then being one of the original crew staffing Yopp Road. We are very proud of his continuing growth and enthusiastic love for his job.

Yesterday was Red Cup day, the day all the holiday merchandise and menu is introduced and available. He was excited to be part of this special day for the second year in a row and I was excited because this is were I get a goodly number of my holiday gifts. My son teases me a bit because I have such a high point balance on my rewards card, but this is where it pays off.

The posted hours of operation monument to the right of the door as you enter tells you that the store is opened 5:30 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., but when you check online it says they are open 5:00 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Either way, I wanted to be there early to get my annual holiday red cup! I was awake at 3:45 a.m. and we pulled into the parking spot at 5:02 a.m. LOLOL I didn’t want to be TOO early.

The crew was already up and running full steam ahead with a hand full of other regulars. Everyone in a cheerful, holiday mood. We immediate went to shopping and got 2 of nearly all the tall cups and the 5 packs of cold and hot cups. The ceramic mugs are particularly lovely this year. I got myself the round bottomed mug for my morning cappuccino! I spent 2000 points on this little shopping trip, but I also went home with nearly all of my Christmas shopping done!

I also paid for the person behind me, and left an extra $20 and asked that $5 be put towards the 4 customers that were after her. The staff really enjoys being able to pass gifts like this around and I think it really helps jump start the season.

We sat and chatted with the other folks, sipped our holiday drinks, and enjoyed the early morning hour in a calm, peaceful, and quietly busy space. It was very affirming. Very uplifting. I hope that everyone else felt that as well.

We left at about 6:00 a.m., but I was back to drop my son off for his shift at noon. There was still a lot of merchandise on the shelves (I had been feeling kinda grabby earlier, but you know what they say, “Early bird gets the worm.”) I was back again at about 8:15 p.m. for an after dinner flat white. By this time stock was dwindling.

I hope the staff gets the corporate pat on the back they deserve for being on top of their game in every way on this day and every other day of the year. Thank you Team Starbucks! Yopp Road...

I come here as a delivery driver for Doordash, so I've never tried their coffee or other products. The building is one third of a little strip mall type place, so parking can be a pain when it's busy. There is a drive thru, and it's generally got a long line. I'm unsure how fast it moves though, I always go inside to pick up orders. The inside has a surprisingly good amount of space. There are lots of places to sit, and an area to stand with adequate breathing room while waiting for orders. The lighting reminds me of a cave; the further back you go the dimmer it gets which is kind of cool. Despite that, there is something I can't really put my finger on that makes me profoundly uncomfortable here. The employees I've encountered aren't the most friendly. They aren't rude, but I get the impression they can sense my discomfort, can tell there's no way I'm a customer, and I don't look like the type of person they want around longer than necessary, so interactions are very business like. Luckily the orders are typically ready when I arrive, so I can just grab them and go. Speed is an area they excel at here, in my experience.

My only major complaint, is I despise the way they put single cups of coffee in bags. The bags are unbalanced then, and they lean heavily to one side if you try to carry them by the handle causing the coffee can spill a little, so you either need to hold from the bag from the bottom, or smoosh the bag and hold from around the cardboard holder inside the bag. They also won't fit in my cup holder inside the bag, so I have to buckle it into the passenger seat, but the bags are so small they have lots of room to wiggle and slide around even with the seatbelt tightened to the max, so I've either got to take attention away from the road to make sure it doesn't tip over. I can't just take the cup out either because the bags are sealed, so if I open them the customer can reasonably suspect I tampered with their order. It's a waste of bag and extra hassle with only a single cup. It's a lot better when the bags are balanced with two cups. They don't slide around or lean to the side, but you still have to carry them from the bottom because the bag handles are awful and tear off easily.

Overall it's not a bad place though. If you can afford it and like their coffee, I will happily...

I placed a DoorDash for 2 grande iced lavender cream matcha lattes with blonde espresso, both were made incorrectly with dark roast. After getting a refund through DoorDash and placing a second delivery order, I decided to call to ensure that the drinks were made correctly and was very polite about it. When I called, I told her that I had a DoorDash order that was made incorrectly and we placed a new one and just wanted to make sure it was made correctly. She said she didn’t see either of our orders and then said “is this for a mobile order?” And I said “no, it was a DoorDash order” (which I stated when she picked up the phone) to which she replied with “that’s a delivery order, that’s a little different” with clear attitude in her voice. Then after finding my order, she said “I packaged those and they definitely had blonde coffee in them”. To which I stated that the matcha was extremely dark so I could tell it didn’t have blonde coffee in it right away, especially because this is my go to order and I’ve worked in the coffee industry. After I noted the appearance color of the drink, she then proceeded to tell me that it was matcha and the color had nothing to do with if it was dark or blond coffee (which is false, because if you’re putting 3 shots of dark roast coffee in a light colored drink, it’s going to make the drink darker as a whole). Then after I stated I could also tell it was dark roasted based off the taste as well as there not being any lavender cold foam (because matcha does not taste good with dark roast in my personal opinion and my s/o and I haven’t even touched the drink since because even he noticed something was wrong with the drink and there was no foam on the tops of either drink), the worker started talking over me to where I started to get frustrated and said “never mind, it doesn’t matter”, the worker then hung up on me. At least they remade our order correctly. Pictures posted so that you can clearly see it was made incorrectly the first time and can see the clear discoloration of the matcha due to there being dark roast and not blonde as well as no lavender cream cold foam. I also RARELY EVER post reviews and was trying to be kind about it when I called, but the worker who answered was so...