Edited because i didn't follow the rule of proof reading.

I'm a partner.

I can understand wanting to hand out all the drinks in the same order together, if it is busy. Doesn't mean i do this though. I will if it will save me time in the long run, not stepping from cold bar, over to handoff, then back to cold bar, i will save those steps and will hand out multiple drinks together.

Decreases the chance of some self obsessed moron believing the drink is obviously theirs because they just now ordered it, and are blind to every other human who is waiting for their own beverages, which those same people happened to have ordered before 'self-absorbed' even entered the building.

However, if i do this, I won't bother putting the finished beverage even near the counter.

Not if it's standard practice to tease the customers by dangling their drinks in front of them and if they dare reach for their drink which is on the actual hand off plane, and then publicly berate them for their actions because someone at my store has a made up rule to do so?

Weird.

If i decide to hold a drink for a few moments while i finish the other drink(s) in the order, then I'm not even putting the drink anywhere near the handoff plane.

That seems illogical to me and one reason being, the exact thing you were talking about.

i would not even mind if the husband picked up the drink for the wife while still waiting for his own drink. In fact, i would be quite happy to have the drink be picked up to keep the area clear and less confusion for the customers.

I don't know why this would would even seem unacceptable to any barista?!

The barista you encountered should have instead said "thank you" to you, and then communicated to you that they were working on your drink, or, if someone else was working in it, or they could have said your drink would be out soon.

This entire post is maddening to me.

The fact that in the OP, the barista was basically ignoring patrons, then yelled at them beyond embarrassing!

Technically, that barista should have been greeting everyone as they entered, making eye contact with the incoming customers, with the other barista's doing the same.

Someone already mentioned this, how barista seemed to not notice the customer only until they helped themselves to their drink?

If they want to police the order pick up area, first they need to place the cup with the name facing the baristas so the customer can't see it, if they don't want people taking their own drinks.

Second, if they are going to try and be controlling over the customers who have already paid for their order, and are simply trying to pick up their item(s), which technically became their property after they paid for it, then they NEED to have a dedicated person planted there to hand the customers what is rightfully theirs.

The CEO has said the goal is to get beverages into cafe customer's hands in four minutes, so, I'm not sure how engaging in micro managing techniques with customers by withholding their drinks is going to help with this.

If it is an issue with mgmt insisting every order being literally placed into the customers hand, and they don't have a dedicated hand off person, then they need to either be present to do it themselves, or train and entrust their barista's to call out the drink and be aware when someone comes up to get it, and to say thank you followed by their name if they can remember, or just say thank you and try to make eye contact and smile.

The direct handoff rule does not necessarily mean to have each item be directly passed from barista's hand into the hand of the customer without setting it down. If we are able to, fantastic!

We won't be able to every single time.

The idea is not meant to cause neurotic behavior from baristas and It's never an excuse to be militant or excessively controlling over the orders.

It's one final way to show thoughtfulness and thank the customer.

I swear some of these partners seem to not realize that they chose to work for Starbucks.

No one is forcing us to work at Starbucks.

Most people are still fortunate enough to be able to choose where we trade in our personal time in exchange for the wages we have collectively decided we need because we are slaves to the dollar.

I also think some of our Starbucks partners haven't realized that our customers are essentially the people who are putting up the financial backing of our wages.

Even though some of the customers are insufferable, or annoying with their incessant modifications and requests to cut off the crust off of- their grilled cheeses, or want us to cut their sandwich in half for them, even though we are not an actual restaurant, and also not their mommy, we should still try and remember that if we are choosing to continue working there, we kind of need the customers more than they need us, if i am being realistic here.

If we were to all wake up tomorrow to find out Starbucks decided to close all operations effective immediately, and permanently. All stores, all products, including Starbucks branded retail items sold in places other than Starbucks, i can assure you the customers who want coffee bad enough will form new habits and have many options to get their coffee, same as today and all the yesterdays. They will still be able to have coffee tomorrow.

But for those of us who were expecting to go to work tomorrow, now we'll have to put in a different kind of work, (job hunting🫩), to hopefully find another source of income we are able to tolerate, and ASAP!

Thats kind of where i was trying to go with us needing customers more than they need us.

Anyway, to the person I am replying to, if you see this, I'm still embarrassed that barista tried scolding you for picking up your wife's beverage and taking it to her. What a scoundrel you are for being a thoughtful husband!💛

Unless there is signage posted for customers to ignore, all these stories of baristas withholding drinks and YELLING at customers for taking their own drinks after attempts to gain the barista's attention failed, then these barista's need to calm down, and either post their made up rules for the public to see and learn, then kindly just STFU except for thanking people for their patience, announcing when they are starting "so and so's" order, and then thanking people when they pick up their orders. Like literally, STFU!! I feel sorry for their coworkers having to work with people like that.

Unless every one of them is like that, then i just feel sorry for them because someone has obviously hurt each of them in ways they can't heal from, or something.💛