Another Starbucks Coffee with a drive-thru!I have never been one to ever run into Starbucks Coffee, order then take off. So, these drive-thrus are just beyond me. From the early 90s when I visited my first Starbucks outside of Seattle, which was in Houston, I've loved the Starbucks Coffee shops. Not only are most painted in colors that I find soothing, but most also have furniture in arrangements that beg me to stick around.
Throw in the music and I'm more than happy to settle in.
This Starbucks Coffee is quite large inside. I headed immediately to the leather couch to stake out my claim. That being done, I placed my order, "Venti China Green Tips, one bag in, one bag out please." I decided to tweak my order just to see what response I would get. The barista didn't miss a beat. She simply asked me if I would like for her to give me the bag or put it into a cup. It felt really good to have someone listen to me and to hear me. It seems that we communicate with one another more now than ever via phones, cell phones, email, texting, etc. Yet so many people say that they feel like no one listens to them. We're all too distracted. Maybe this is the real service and free gift that Starbucks gives its customers. Not only do they listen, but they hear us. Could this be why people are willing to run in, run out or go through the drive-thru passing up the comfortable seating? Being heard, whether ordering a drink, expressing an opinion or saying 'I love you', makes us feel connected and valuable. With my renewed sense of value, I organized myself on the couch and began my soldier's letter. I wondered if my soldier would enjoy 'listening' to me as he read my thoughts on the importance of listening.
Enjoying this Starbucks Coffee with me were several people reading, a group of people having a meeting, a few people working on their computers and a couple of men sitting at a table playing with what appeared to be their new fancy cell phones. I was so entertained by them that I found myself meeting one of the gentlemen eye to eye a couple of times. At one point, he raised up the newspaper that they were photographing with their phone cameras in order to hide his face as he spoke to the other gentleman. I cracked a smile. He just didn't appreciate how lucky he was, someone was listening!
COMFORT COMMENTS: Larger than most Starbucks Coffee shops that I've been in, this shop has a leather couch with a coffee table and two small side tables, four over-stuffed chairs with a foot stool at one of them, two computer tables with a free standing floor lamp at one of the tables, multiple round tables and a small alcove with two more over-stuffed chairs. There were so many good choices of seating that I was almost driven to try them all. I especially liked the the warm touch that two oriental rugs provided. It seemed to me that customers liked using the free standing floor lamp. It put out a nice soft lighting for the computer table. As you can see in the photo, this Starbucks Coffee has many large windows. Most of the windows had pull down shades which the customers could and did use as needed. Besides the floor lamp and oriental rugs, another unusual item in this Starbucks was a large screen TV that displayed the title and artist of the music that was being played. I loved that and found myself using it a couple of times. Nice! I've never mentioned this in previous blogs, but Starbucks gives away cards for a free song from I-tunes each week. This program is called Pick of the Week. Although I do not use the cards myself, I do send them to my soldiers in their letters. I sent a couple to my daughter when she was studying in Venice, Italy. She gave me a thumbs up for doing that.
SHOP CRITIQUE: I found this shop to be very clean except for the condiments table. When I came in the condiments table was messy with sugar, milk spills and paper. After two hours of being in the shop, I noticed a customer ask for more creamer. An employee carried more creamer to the condiments table, but did not tidy-up the table. It was still messy when I left. I've noticed that this seems to be a problem in all the Starbucks that I've been to so far. Is this because the employees get busy behind the counter and just forget or do they not see it as a problem? I don't know, but I don't like the way it looks and Starbucks shouldn't either. I found the women's restroom to be very clean and neat. Not only was there a user friendly trashcan but a soap dispenser that actually works leaving no puddle on the floor. Although most of the windows had pull down shades, the front windows did not. I had to adjust my seating due to the heat and brightness of the morning sun.
EMPLOYEE COMMENTS: I found the employee that served me to be friendly and efficient. Other than that it was difficult to watch or inter-act with the employees due to the size of the shop.
HELPFUL/INFORMATIONAL WEB-SITES:
I feel so passe. Not only do I not have any clue what you ordered I don't know what "one bag in one bag out" means! Good to know about the free song too!
ReplyDeleteSorry. I guess I should have explained better. Audrey tells me that I don't give enough details.... You probably know that the Venti size is the largest of the Starbucks sizes. They always put two tea bags in for a Venti, which makes the tea just a tad too strong for me. So this time I thought I would try it with only one tea bag at a time. You know it almost felt as good ordering the tea as drinking it.
ReplyDeleteThe song cards are great!