Starbucks — Restaurant in Richmond

I usually like Starbucks, but this location is the absolute pits. 1: THE SEATING- There's not much room for individual seating, so you're often forced to sit beside total strangers. They got rid of the small tables and instead put a huge table with lots of chairs in the middle of the shop and a long bench along one wall with small tables in front of it. This kind of setup may work in a small town where everyone knows everyone but in a larger city like RVA, it makes for a very uncomfortable experience.2: THE DOGS- This location allows people to bring their pets in with them (note I said "pets", not service animals). Don't they understand that some of us are allergic to dogs? What will they do when someone goes into anaphylactic shock inside of their shop due to allergic reaction to someone's dog? I'm surprised the health dept lets them get away with this. Also, I had my daughter with me once and someone's dog attempted to bite her. I told the barista on-duty about it but she didn't seem to care. I could not get through to either the store manager or the district manager. 3: THE HOMELESS. Excuse me for being politically incorrect, but this is a restaurant, not a homeless shelter. It looks really bad when you have one homeless guy taking up the entire big table with all of his belongings and a homeless woman passed out over two armchairs with her trash all over the floor. And then there's the body odor. 4: THE DIRT. Often the place is really dirty with drinks spilled, food on the floor and trash laying around. 5: A couple of the employees have attitudes towards the customers (and I can name names. Hint- they're both guys.) I live two blocks away and would like to be able to patronize this Starbucks, but there's no way I'll be back to this one unless drastic changes are made. The only thing good about the place is that the baristas, except for two, are pleasant and the drinks and...

I've been to this Starbucks four times in the last couple months, in the evening, simply because it's open later than the Mom & Pop cafes close by. After the fourth time, I decided not to go back. Each time, I was greeted very rudely by the staff. Twice by a female and twice a male. The fact that they hated their job and didn't want to be there was very palpable. The coffee was really horrible. I don't know what kinds of chemicals Starbucks loads their coffees with but it produces a funky aftertaste and tears up your guts. The place was also very dirty with stuff spilled on the floor, trash laying around, garbage can at the commissaries overflowing. The last time I went there was some old, smelly drunk guy walking around in the store begging for change and cigarettes. He was there every other time as well, loitering in the armchairs. Crackheads were coming in, grabbing fistfuls of straws from the commissary counter and walking out. I thought at first it was a one-time thing and went back hoping it would improve....

I frequent Starbucks just about every day. I do not however, go to this location. I was excited to try a new location today and after biking 17 miles I was ready for some coffee and some water! Overall the customer service was great until I asked for a trenta cold brew and a trenta water. The barista looked and me and said “you’ll be getting a tall water”… I’ve never had an issue ordering… WATER of all things. I was in full bike gear and was hot, clearly needing something else to drink. Maybe they were running low on trenta cups, and to that I could understand. Maybe communicate that? However I was more than disappointed to get a very small, and unhappy cup of water. I am not letting this experience ruin my overall appreciation of the coffee chain. Just not the same level of excellent customer service as the Willow Lawn location. I don’t know if the policy is to only give tall waters out to guests, but for a repeat, paying customer this needs to...