For years I had in my profile that I sold stimulants to yuppies. Meaning of course that I was employed at Starbucks. It was a good time, for the most part, and more or less funded my education (at the expense of not having the time to do my own research or work in my field). In the end it was a crutch, as much social as financial, which I just had to throw away to be able to progress in life-- at least professionally. Was I ready? At the time, no; I spent nearly a year unemployed thanks to my lack of professional experience and the fact that there were little if any jobs in my field locally. Was it the right decision? Hell yes; I would still be working there if I hadn't left then.
Crutch or not though, there were many good times over my time there. I met many great, fun people, and most days just had a riot at work. Hell, for the last three years I pretty well just kept the job so that I could socialize and get paid at the same time.
Getting the idea from RedLeader and inspired by a post from OverDone in TDS, I'd like to share a few of those good times.
The last store at which I worked was in a 'city centre' mall, meaning that it was part of an interconnected series of retail centres at the base of a few of my city's largest office towers. Meaning that it was busy as fuck during the week (during the day at least), but completely dead on the weekend. Since I was a student for most of the time there, I worked most of my hours on the weekends, which gave plenty of time for shenanigans. In addition to the usual showing up for work still high/drunk from the night before, or drinking/smoking/etc at work of course.
One of my favourite coworkers was a 2nd generation hippie who I'll call L. She was a tiny little woman, a couple of years younger than me but with a rambunctious sense of humour and surprising intelligence and knowledge on a wide range of topics. One Sunday, her showing up still drunk from the bar before, and me still up from taking a few pills at a house party, decided to close the store just before the busiest time of the day and go smoke a bowl. This was around 4 years ago, when I was still actively doing these sorts of things. When we returned, there was a group of maybe 15 people waiting angrily outside of the store, but we still made sure to wait a good half-hour after getting back before re-opening. They were pissed, but all we could do was laugh at them. There was another place that sold coffee right next door to us, yet they would rather wait an hour and pay twice as much to get horrible service by obviously intoxicated staff. All but one got drip coffee, and all still left tips. Suckers
The rest of the day was spent fashioning a basketball hoop out of stir sticks, attaching it to a wall, and throwing a wadded up ball of napkins and masking tape at it while contrasting existential and solipsist philosophy.
Last I heard, about 8 months ago, is that L had moved to Vancouver. We had kept in touch in a casual way after I left, but my period of unemployment distanced me from many people-- in particular former coworkers--, unfortunately including her. A shame really, since she was the sort of person who could talk about any topic, and provide some excellent insight to boot.
So, does anyone else have a good Starbucks (or other cafe/retail job) story? I have many others, but they'll have to wait for another day.
Crutch or not though, there were many good times over my time there. I met many great, fun people, and most days just had a riot at work. Hell, for the last three years I pretty well just kept the job so that I could socialize and get paid at the same time.
Getting the idea from RedLeader and inspired by a post from OverDone in TDS, I'd like to share a few of those good times.
The last store at which I worked was in a 'city centre' mall, meaning that it was part of an interconnected series of retail centres at the base of a few of my city's largest office towers. Meaning that it was busy as fuck during the week (during the day at least), but completely dead on the weekend. Since I was a student for most of the time there, I worked most of my hours on the weekends, which gave plenty of time for shenanigans. In addition to the usual showing up for work still high/drunk from the night before, or drinking/smoking/etc at work of course.
One of my favourite coworkers was a 2nd generation hippie who I'll call L. She was a tiny little woman, a couple of years younger than me but with a rambunctious sense of humour and surprising intelligence and knowledge on a wide range of topics. One Sunday, her showing up still drunk from the bar before, and me still up from taking a few pills at a house party, decided to close the store just before the busiest time of the day and go smoke a bowl. This was around 4 years ago, when I was still actively doing these sorts of things. When we returned, there was a group of maybe 15 people waiting angrily outside of the store, but we still made sure to wait a good half-hour after getting back before re-opening. They were pissed, but all we could do was laugh at them. There was another place that sold coffee right next door to us, yet they would rather wait an hour and pay twice as much to get horrible service by obviously intoxicated staff. All but one got drip coffee, and all still left tips. Suckers
The rest of the day was spent fashioning a basketball hoop out of stir sticks, attaching it to a wall, and throwing a wadded up ball of napkins and masking tape at it while contrasting existential and solipsist philosophy.
Last I heard, about 8 months ago, is that L had moved to Vancouver. We had kept in touch in a casual way after I left, but my period of unemployment distanced me from many people-- in particular former coworkers--, unfortunately including her. A shame really, since she was the sort of person who could talk about any topic, and provide some excellent insight to boot.
So, does anyone else have a good Starbucks (or other cafe/retail job) story? I have many others, but they'll have to wait for another day.
