Starbucks — Restaurant in Palatine Township

Starbucks, you’ve officially crossed the line.

Explain to me how you justify charging $8–$10 for a cup of milk with four scoops of matcha powder—and still strut around like royalty, expecting customers to bow to your “brand.” Who exactly do you think the customer is? Because it’s not you, Starbucks. And it’s not your overpaid corporate executives. It’s us.

Case in point: 325 E Lake Cook Road, It’s bad enough that you’ve started nickel-and-diming matcha lovers—charging extra for scoops on top of an already outrageous price—but now you’ve got manager and staff blaming customers for your own sloppy service. They didn’t bother asking what milk I wanted, assumed 2%, and when I asked for whole milk, somehow it was my fault. Then, instead of simply fixing it without drama, they decided to throw the drink away rather than just hand it to me. Wasteful, arrogant, and hostile.

And let’s talk about the $2 upcharge for strawberry foam—already included in a Frappuccino, but suddenly not “allowed” for a latte unless I pay more. That’s not customer service. That’s corporate pickpocketing. It’s this “finance first, customer last” mindset that’s rotting Starbucks from the inside out.

Why do we pay 20 times the value of a cup of milk? Because the deal used to be: if we didn’t like it, you’d remake it. Because we could ask for stronger flavor instead of being handed bland, overpriced milk. That was the Starbucks promise—and you’re dismantling it piece by piece.

You’re going to lose your identity. You’re going to lose your loyal base. And when you do, it won’t be because of competition—it’ll be because of your own greed and contempt for the people who built your empire.

Matcha lovers, coffee lovers—join me. Let’s stop letting Starbucks rob us blind. I’m counting down the days until Luckin Coffee sweeps in and shows Starbucks what quality, reasonable pricing, and actual customer service look...

This is my everyday coffee spot, I always come here and pick up coffee for my coworkers and myself. But today I encountered a rude employee, couldn’t get her name but she had colored hair, glasses and a septum piercing. I placed my order and asked for all iced drinks. I noticed i got a hot one and i had told her i had asked for an iced mocha as well with no whipped cream. She closed that dt window so rude and turned around to tell someone it was iced. Then when the drink was done and gave it to me she nearly drop liquid out the lid spout fron how hard and rudely she handed that to me, if it wasn’t liquid im pretty sure she would’ve tossed it, then proceedes to close that dt window, well she didn’t close it she slammed that thing like if it was her own room door. Also i dont know if she’s the one who took my order as well but that was the worst ever. The amount of times i got cut off trying to place my order by someone saying “anything else” in a rushed manner is a little uncomfortable. I rather drive to arlington and dundee starbucks if thats the case. Customer service jobs are not for everyone and it shows. Such great employees i have encountered here and it only takes that one employee to mess it up for...

Staff is super friendly. I want to start off saying that I know I have an odd name and a lot of times I get grief by baristas not being able to say it or understand me. I start off by saying my name and then spell it. This is the first Starbucks that I’ve been to in a really long time that hasn’t made me feel bad about how hard it is to understand my name through phones and speakers. So that was nice, but every day since I was immediately greeted with correct pronunciations of my name - so clearly they took the time to listen and learn for their customers. I also called today because I noticed my coffees were very light compared to how I get them elsewhere and I didn’t want to complain because they are such a nice staff, but I called and spoke to Robin and she apologised and let me know they’ve been working on training about it and it was just such a sweet and caring conversation. She didn’t make me feel bad at all for speaking up and was just overall cheerful.

Anyway, their coffee is...