Mequon: Snapshots: Starbucks (Part 2)

Two critical observations about this Starbucks, which is otherwise my favorite:

1)  Teenagers.  At the risk of sounding like a "when I was a boy, I walked ten miles to school in -32 degree weather" type, man, every 18-year-old seems to sound like he or she just had a full lobotomy.  I think if they were somehow prevented from using the words "like" and "text", their vocabulary would be in the negative.  It'd be, like, a verbal vacuum.

2.) Why do they sweep and mop the cafe at 6 or 7 p.m. when they're open until 10?  I'm paying just as much as customers who visit at other times of day.  I feel like I'm interrupting the server in her work as she sweeps and mops the FOH, with chairs going up on tables and everything.  I know that's the routine drill here because I've often driven by in the evening and seen chairs on tables.  For one thing, that makes them look closed.

A general coffeehouse gripe is the amount of time servers/baristas spend cleaning.  I find that the outfit that is most efficient about this is Alterra (for one thing, they staff heavily enough so that there are enough hands on deck to rock the close right around closing time).  Generally speaking, at other coffeehouses, a visit after 7 p.m. or even earlier will be disturbed or at least distracted by cleaning tasks.

For heaven's sake, cleaning labor is probably cheaper than barista labor--so why not have the baristas do the minimum mandated by law/code and have a cleaning service come in overnight?  I remember that about ten years ago, a mother-and-daughter team would clean the M&I branches in WFB every night around midnight.  They drove an absolute junker car that suggested they were making minimum wage or even (shhhh) less.  You'd think if any business would have trust issues relative to letting a cleaning service come in after hours, it'd be a *bank* (I know, the money's in the vault, but still...).

Comments

[Kittymoose]

You think teenagers in mequon are bad? Try teenagers in the mall.

"Can I get like a um....caramel? macchiato? uhhhhh yeahhhhh........non fat? skim? with no sugar syrup?"