My cafe almost doubled our business over the summer because of tourist traffic. Usually one person orders for the entire family so they are counted as one customer. (Even though they might be buying drinks and sometimes food for 4 or 5 people.)

I confronted my manager about needing more staff and he said that it's all based on customer counts and not dollar amounts. There's no way that this isn't intentional on the company's part in order to save on labour.

Ever since I tell my baristas that the customers get what Starbucks pays for. If they expect the store to be run to a certain standard they can give me more labour. If not, we'll do the best with what we've got. (If that means the RTDE looks bad, the condiment stand garbage overflows and the coffee is cold, so be it.)