Starbucks — Restaurant in South Carolina

First off I wanted to let Starbucks know that i am posting publicly because I tried to find a way to email corporate via my Starbucks account on my laptop but kept on going around in circles trying to figure out how to contact Starbucks via a message and not by phone since I had a lot to say and wanted to put it in writing. The last time i messaged Starbucks they had a clear link within my logged in account on their website! So I haven't been to Starbucks much in the last few months but decided to give the store by my house another try. The last few times I had gone my drinks were not done right, service was not great and the prices had increased a lot! I visited the Starbucks in Murrells Inlet, sc. When i walked in, I was not greeted as they used to do all the time in the past which is okay but when i stepped up to order I stood their being ignored for about 3 minutes. None of the 3 employees behind the counter looked at me, acknowledged that i was their or at least said that they would be with me shortly!??! I started to walk back out and one of the employees said "We will be right with you" So I thanked him for letting me know and continued to wait for about another minute and received service. Now this would of been understandable if they were busy but I was the only person at the cash register apart from me their was one person sitting in the store! The vibe they gave me was that I really didn't matter and that they had better things to do! I then sat down and nobody called my name after I ordered so in about 5 minutes, I decided to go back to the counter and sure enough the drink i ordered was there but the barista didn't think it was important that I know that it was ready. The one good thing is that the barista made my drink correctly and it tasted good. So I used to be a loyal Starbucks customer since the 1980's. I visited my first Starbucks in Seattle at Pikes Place Back in the 1980's when i lived in Vancouver and was excited when they opened the first Starbucks in downtown Vancouver in the late 80's. In 1996 I moved to Myrtle Beach, SC and was excited when Starbucks opened up their first store at Coastal Grand Mall in Myrtle Beach in 2004. I was a frequent customer and have been but in the last few years (post covid) I have found my self going more and more to the competition, Dunkin Donuts, for a few reasons. They have friendlier employees, better prices, a comparable product plus they are more consistent with the final product that they serve. It also doesn't hurt that they sell a plethora of baked goods. I don't know what direction Starbucks is going in but I don't think that I am part of their target market any more. I am sure that Starbucks would loose no sleep if they lost me as a regular customer after 30 plus years but I don't think that I am the only one that feels this way as the majority of my coworkers in my office feel the same way that i do and mostly visit Dunkin Donuts instead of Starbucks for their usual fix Unless of course they are looking to get a Pumpkin Spice anything seasonal drink. At least for the moment Starbucks still has that going for them!! I will occasionally visit Starbucks but I think I will drive a little further to the Surfside, SC location as their employees seem to care a little bit more about the customers who after all is the reason that anybody at Starbucks get's...

Title: Starbucks Murrells Inlet: Where the Dumpster Steals and Tales of Felinicidic Managers Steal the Show 🚧☕🐈

Some coffee shops greet you with the aroma of freshly ground beans. This Starbucks in Murrells Inlet greets you with… the gaping maw of an open dumpster. The doors sit wide open like the world’s most depressing welcome sign, offering both a visual and olfactory experience: think rotten milk meets spoiled kimchi and tuna. That beach vacation will smilie with delight. While enjoying this delightful bouquet, I had the privilege of witnessing two near-miss fender benders—because nothing says “drive-thru efficiency” like forcing cars to dodge each other and the occasional flying napkin from Trash Mountain.

And just when you think the curbside charm ends there, you spot a lonely bowl of cat food outside the front doors. Never mind the obvious food safety miss, the tale behind it will leave you in stitches while scratching your head out of concern for another episode of incompetent corporate leaderships. The partners (Starbucks term for their indentured servants) told me the bowl is for the community cat—a beloved local mascot adored by customers and staff. Well, almost all the staff. Enter the legend of “Cat Killer Doug”, the district manager allegedly so anti-cat he has engineered several plots to “unalive” the poor thing. Plot twist: the cat has hitherto survived Doug's felinicidic dreams must like that old roadrunner dodged a similarly vain and incompetent predator.

Inside, the smell does improve but you enter a new realm of dumb Starbucks policies, namely the C-Suite thinks customers will flock back to the buck if employees scribble bizarre and borderline inappropriate notes on customer cups. My daughter’s cup read “I’m looking at you,” which was unsettling in the least charming way possible. My son’s cup? “Hot stuff, yum.” That’s not flirty-funny—that’s please-don’t-write-this-on-a-stranger’s-cup territory. And when I raised this to the store manager? Blank stares, zero action. AKA being of the current generation. The whole situation screamed incompetence—if you can’t address basic professionalism issues with your staff, maybe you shouldn’t be running a store at all. But then if your store has strange exterior odors and a district manager obsessed with unaliving a cat, what can you really expect.

In short: the partners here are mostly lovely, their stories Rogan ready. The coffee is… Starbucks so let's not get carried away. But (and it's a big one) the management drama, dumpster theater, and weird cup writing “connections” make this location feel like a sitcom that ran three seasons too long.

Thank goodness for BoxCar @ Lowe’s Foods, where the coffee is fresh, the air is clean, and the only thing making eye contact with you is the barista handing...

A fine little Starbucks, this.

Finding myself in Murrells Inlet and in need of some good, hot tea to go with my lunch, I stopped by this Starbucks, a kiosk located in a Kroger grocery store. I was a bit hesitant to lunch there, amidst the carts and the shoppers and the "ding!" of nearby cash registers, but I went with it, out of both hunger and curiosity -- and I was pleasantly surprised. The kiosk itself managed to be somehow apart from the grocery store, with its few tables and its familiar Starbucks-green architecture; also, the kiosk neighbored the Kroger's floral kiosk, which further brightened the scene. The barista gladly supplied me my beverage, and I proceeded to have my strange picnic, slurping fresh tea and reading a great book and munching tasty food, all as the Kroger-ites circulated like a grocery-seeking river -- good show! I had no issues during my visit, and once I'd finished my meal, I proceeded directly into the store, to pick up a couple things -- my one-stop shop, as it were. I can't say I'd return for a sequel, if given a choice; but my Kroger-Starbucks luncheon was certainly good as a one-off, and I quite cherish the experience.

My thanks goes out to all associated with this business. I am grateful for, and have benefited from, your work and service. Keep it up,...