March 12, 2015 - Maxie
Working at Starbucks in Target
I feel the need to post my experience on this site. Even though I applied for a different job at Target, I ended up being hired to work as a Starbucks barista on a part time basis. When I interviewed for the barista job, I was very upfront in asking how they train their employees in Starbucks. I’d had no previous experience with Starbucks or Target, and I made that clear. The person I interviewed with, while very nice, was new at his job as a….not even quite sure…. as Target has so many acronyms for different jobs in the corporation. He told me that the Starbucks training is around 40 hours. I felt pretty good about that.
Fast forward…I was sent to train at another Starbucks in Target located near my home. The volume of this location turned out to be MUCH less that the location I was hired to work at. I didn’t realize this at the time of training. I had two days of training, totaling 12 hours. Everyone at that location was very nice. However, because it was a lower volume location, I really didn’t have a chance to learn much. I did participate in two “openings”, but it kind of consisted of chatting with the people training me. I caught on to some things, but it just wasn’t busy enough for me to learn the “ropes” of Starbucks. I don’t blame that location for what followed. They were very kind and considerate. I actually wish I would have been hired to work there.
When I showed up for my first shift at the location I’d been hired at, I was like a fish out of water. I was under the assumption that I would be continuing training. NO!!!. And, this place was SWAMPED, from the store opening. I knew that I had no idea what I was doing, and it scared me because I want to do a good job. If it wasn’t for the guy I worked with, I might have just walked out right there. However, I had to cover for a half hour shift while he went to lunch. I didn’t even really know what I was doing on the cash register, let alone, know how to make the drinks. People will say that it’s “just coffee.” The heck it is! It’s tea, frappuchinos, pastries both cold and heated, pour over coffee, ground coffee, “Refresher” drinks, blah blah blah.
But THIS, THIS is the biggest problem I had. They had a little loose leaf set of cards showing how to make the drinks. They were probably around 6″ by 4″. Supposedly, all the recipes for each drink were on those cards. There were so many cards missing at the location I worked at. Plus, customers want to customize their orders. I was told to refer to these cards when a customer ordered a drink, but what if they wanted something non-standard? I found myself shuffling through these cards while looking like a fool. People were generally nice, but some weren’t.
When I looked at the schedule for the upcoming week, I was horrified to see that I’d been scheduled to open the Starbucks by myself. Say What?!! I had no idea what I was doing when I showed up. I had to ring a bell to even get into the store. If it wasn’t for the guy I worked with who walked me through it on his own time, I wouldn’t have had any idea what I was doing. I was ticked off to say the least.
I know I’ve lost a lot of you by my ramblings, but in the end I just quit after three weeks of this. There was a lack of proper scheduling, a lack of training and a lack of management. I can’t say it was local management’s fault. Maybe there exists a lack of corporate management.
All I know is that I wasn’t properly trained, felt like a fool when I didn’t know what I was doing, knowing I am very intelligent, and upset that this had to happen.
Ok, I’m exhausting myself. Lol
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Yup! That sounds about right. They have a poor business model and don't invest in proper training or proper scheduling. Everything they do is for their benefit not yours. You are fortunate to be gone so quickly... Good for you.
The training overall SUCKS throughout the whole company in all departments. Your experience sounds very typical in how people are "trained". It's mostly going over the basics with another team member (like 15-20%, 25% if you've got someone "real good" ha ha) while the rest is trial and error. It's saddening just how terrible the training is at this company, most likely because they don't expect people to stay long (and for good reason!)... I hope you found something better when you left, although minus a paycheck you're bound to be better off without Tarshit anyways.
I've never worked for a company where there is such a huge lack of training. My first day I had orientation, lunch, and cashier training. Cashier training consisted of me being left alone reading a book on how to ring up Guests. When I was done reading the book they through me on a register BY MY SELF! Guests were mostly understanding when I kept apologizing I was new and it was my first day. One douchebag guy was pissed I didn't know how to ring up his produce. Sorry, it wasn't in the book and I have no idea how to read this PLU guide. He said "it's a potato" and I almost cursed him out. Oh really sir, it's a potato, I had no idea. Let me type the word potato into the register to ring you up, you stupid ignorant asshole! My HR training was even worse as it consisted of me reading how to DL my job. That's all I did for a straight week. My second week of HR training at another store I was expected to do everything solo while being observed. They were surprised I didn't get any hands on experience my first week. I came back to my own store knowing a bit, but not enough to do my job properly and got COACHED! That should have been my sign to get the fuck out immediately, but I stuck through it and left 2 years later when I just couldn't deal with the BS any longer. Fuck you Target.
Ouch.... at my old store at least you were with another cashier or whatever other team member is in your department for a couple hours if not for a whole 4 hour shift. I lasted about 10 close to 11 months at this place, and I tell you the sooner you get out the better!
I had almost 2 hours with another cashier. customers are always going to be annoyed, i ring up quickly and i'll still have people with $200+ orders tapping their credit cards on the counter, annoying as hell, and people who look at me when i have to look at the sheet for produce like i should have all the codes in my head or something. just be glad you don't have to sell red cards, turns cashiering into a stressful and phony experience.
techically it's tarshit's fault for not giving their cashiers at the super center enough hours. Not enough hours at the job means you don't retain the memory for the produce codes. And yeah kinda feel you. Some people go it's xxxx! Um yes sherlock, I have to look up the damned code because you just bought something that is rarely bought. Or it's a seasonal produce item and cashiers have to look up the code when bought. And sometimes the product hasn't been sold in so long the cashiers don't even have to memorize the code since it's hardly sold anymore
lol I dropped in and picked up some post it notes as on sale they were cheaper than what staples wants. >_> the cashier i lined up at was slow as hell. The other till got though his customers faster than this lady cashier i lined up at. At least he managed to whittle his line down to only two customers and this lady still had a full line up after he managed to whittle down his equally long line up. And they weren't large orders either. 4 small orders? Less than 12 items that's for sure. Would have qualified for the express lane if they had a dedicated one open. And I thought I was slow! She seemed slower than me xD.
Yeah.. The guests are the worst. Rude, entitled and impatient. Everyone is so quick to complain about the perception that customer service has declined. The reality is the expect more and we are paid less. Human nature. Why would people (store employees) continually go out of their way for rude after rude person. Here's the deal... It's a business transaction not a popularity contest. When i shop i dont care if the cashier is nice or not. I'll see for maybe 5 minutes not a big deal in the grand scheme of things.
It's more like the guests are ruder and ruder.
working at starbucks in target is rough, 1st position to cashier that is the worst IMO in the store, i commend all of those that stick to it and do a good job.
just confirmed, according to starbucks rules you aren't supposed to open on your own. I just confirmed with my starbucks corporate friend. Tarshit is breaking starbucks standards if they schedule you to open on your own. Good on you quitting. Blatantly breaking the rules is a no no.
at least you had training. I was shown once on how to make drinks and then had someone write on lined paper on how to open or close. That was it, i was scheduled to open and close with no training. And if someone calls in (which it happens more than once a week) they take someone from soft lines or throughout the store to close it even though they've never been trained before and to just follow the how to papers and the drink recipe books.