gramma's cup o' joe

today, i realized there is a new culture developing...thank you starbucks.
now i am definitely not one to loath starbucks, considering i've worked at two.
but i have to admit that their influence is going places i never thought possible: turning sweet old ladies into picky coffee drinkers.

today was a pretty busy day for a monday...i didn't have much time to do anything, always one step behind another task i had to do.
i saw quite a few customers, young, old, middle aged.
nothing really stood out to me as a good story today-until:

two older ladies came in. i knew it was going to be a hassle from the start. while i'm sure these ladies themselves are genuinely kind people, as customers, lets just say they aren't the favorite kind of customer of any barista. (unless maybe if you work at starbucks...but even then we probably are just faking it when we love how particular you are and how fast, and efficiently you can announce your order).

everything was complicated. we didn't have this like at starbucks. they drink looked funny. where do we fix it up? how long can we possibly stand at this counter, and hold up the line. funny face, funny face. chocolate croissant...looks funny. it's hard to mix the dry sugar in the hot coffee-it's not hot it's iced coffee. new drink please, out with the old, in with the new. finally they got sitting down.

now it wasn't so much the order that was frustrating: a small coffee with some (what turned into at the second attempt) steamed soy, and an iced coffee. this should have taken moments for joyce and i to bang those out.

the problem is the attitude in which it was given, and this is what i'm getting down to. this world of starbucks, which i know like the back of my hand, has created a pseudo-coffee-world when everything is handed you on a silver platter, 30 seconds after you order it, and not a whole lot of human interaction in between. their desire is to get the customer what they want, as soon as they want it!

personally, i'm not in favor of giving people what they want when they want it, especially when it is expected, even demanded of me.

like i've said, it's not these particular women i have a problem with. yet it befuddles me that these woman that i suppose a good 10 years ago didn't mind that they were drinking folgers with some milk and coffeemate are the most high maintenance customers.

one of my favorite customers frequently comes in and says "surprise me." i love customers like this. she trusts my coffee knowlege and my understanding of her likes and dislikes. i pay attention to these things. now i believe that my dynamic duo today could have, if open to it, tried a drink i made for them and enjoyed it. but they were so set on getting exactly what they have, to the T, just like every other time.

i'm in awe of this new culture. next time you go into your coffee shop, remember that your barista is a human being, with genuine feelings and a presumably expansive knowledge of coffee.
trust them to treat you well. treat them lovingly and they will treat you lovingly. come in on a day where everything was crappy in the morning and your kids kept you up all night, and let it all out on me and i will encourage you.
i am your confident, your compadre.
now, come in a take all that rage out on me, and i will try my hardest to not take it personally.
but i probably will.
i promise you i will try my hardest to genuinely care about how you are feeling, how you like your eclair and how your job interview went.
i just ask you to do the same.
hopefully, when i smile, it will help you smile.
i'm going to at least keep on trying.