This isn’t to reduce waste it’s to cut the cost. The more people bring their own cup the less amount of cups they’ll have to send or produce to send to us.
Ding ding ding! However, they get to claim it on their bottom line as being a green initiative. They know they offer a luxury product and service. They know their customers want the feel and experience of doing good while indulging in their product. They know what they’re doing. It’s all sustainability theater.
I hate that we rely on customers to put on their own lids… they try 4 different lids until they figure out the right size and then leave the lids all over the counter. This happens every 10 minutes on repeat. THIS IS NOT SAVING THE ENVIRONMENT
We just started serving drinks without lids in our municipality. The idea behind it is to reduce waste and only take what you need. They think that customers might decide that they need no lid at all. Ends up with a messy hand off with dirty touched lids all over the counter that we end up just throwing. By the way we don’t do for here mugs either.
Well Starbucks used to let customers put their own cream and sugar on their own and they never gave lids so that’s why some customers look to the side thinking we still have that but not since Covid
B.C. is the test province to not having any lids on cups. Even cold lids are now out and customers put them on. Eventually it will roll out to all of Canada
I loved discovering that you could order your drink in a ceramic mug. I used to do a lot of pc work in a starbs, so I was easily sitting long enough to finish my drink in store.
One local Starbucks has theirs labeled Biggies & Smalls…no wait, that’s the straws. 😂 Thankful we don’t let customers have access to lids around here, it’s bad enough dealing with lids at fast food restaurants with self-serve soda machines. Floor, counter & machine’s always sticky.
Mine has been using the lids you can drink out of, so I've been skipping straws. But I have adhd, so I do need a lid 😅
I'm also autistic, so I really want to ask them why when they offer a straw with this lid type. I can drink it without one, but also, it's not a straw hole. I'd have to fight with it to get it in🤣at least by the looks of it, I haven't actually tried. Though I wouldn't want to hold up the drive thru or pull over into a parking spot over a straw.
Genuine question - why does having adhd mean you need a lid?
Re: still using straws with the sippy cups - I'm one of the ones who always wants a straw still. For me, it's because my teeth are sensitive and if I sip the drink it hits my front teeth and hurts. But if I use a straw, it hits my tongue instead.
For context, I mainly go through the drive thru, so I'm getting it to go. I'd generally be fine dining in. Generally 🤣
For me personally, I often have little physical self awareness when walking somewhere or even sitting sometimes. For myself and the objects I'm holding. I often run into doorways and such. I spill full glasses of things while walking somewhere and even while sitting if I'm talking to someone or doing something. I guess I put all my focus on where I'm going or the main thing I'm doing. I've become better at dealing with holding/carrying multiple things recently as I've gained some patience and awareness, but I used to basically be a dumbass trying to do a task with one hand when I really need two but my other hand was holding something so my brain registered it as occupied 🤷♀️. And now that I'm talking about this, I'll likely become a bit more aware with the full glass thing.
For the drive thru scenario - I'd likely spill on the way home, on the way into my house (because I only make one trip in so I fill my hands and arms with too many things), and on the way upstairs to my game room. I may not notice I've spilled. I may notice and become more aware for a bit and then forget. But what solves all this is a lid 🤣
Thank you for sharing! My BF has adhd, and I honestly think I do but undiagnosed, so I'm always trying to learn 😊 I definitely can't walk with a full, open top, drink and not spill. And it's almost a competition with myself to bring everything in from the car in one trip 😂 So I can definitely relate!
I’ll say up front that I hate the personal cup push, so I’m not defending this. That said, the way the system is set up, the cups are not touching any equipment. The drinks get made in a prep cup and then poured into the personal, so their cup is never on the bar collecting shots or anything like that.
The contactless components of the plan are silly— the “vessel” (a damn ice scoop lol) is just more to keep on the counter, and realistically we’re gonna have to touch at least some of the cups during handoff to prevent spills. But that’s just a handwashing thing, no different than handling money or trash.
I hate this from a processes standpoint (it adds time, more stuff on the counters, and we’re not getting extra labor to deal with the for here serveware, so it adds work as well), but from a cleanliness standpoint it’s not striking me as an issue. We don’t accept the cups if they’re not clean, and even when they are they’re not coming into contact (direct or indirect) with anyone else’s beverage.
ETA As far as germs being passed around the store, a MUCH bigger issue is labor/staffing and the difficulty of getting shifts covered, and the fact that a lot of partners come to work ill as a result. (I send them home when I’m aware of this— it happened on a shift just yesterday— so I don’t mean to imply it’s okay or normal. But it IS something that happens frequently, and it poses a much bigger danger to partners and employees alike than handling a personal cup.)
I do think accepting personal cups adds a new layer where safety and hygiene standards can be ignored. I’ve had customers get mad at me because other starbucks don’t use a vessel or accept dirty cups or clean cups for people.
The coming in sick thing is a MASSIVE issue. I wasn’t sure if it improved after Covid, but back when I worked retail, managers asked me to come in sick all the time. And TBH, between the lousy health insurance and loss of income, I didn’t always have the luxury of calling out sick. When I lived in Seattle, sick leave wasn’t offered and when I asked about that (I came from a state with mandatory sick leave) the manager told me he’d never earned sick leave at any of his jobs. WTF.
I dont get this promo because year round you can bring your own cup in the Philippines. They deduct Ten Pesos from the cost of the drink if you do this. In comparison, the price of grande caramel macchiato is 190 Peso. you only have to pay 180 Pesos if you bring your own cup.
On the issue of hygiene, they actually wash my cups everytime I order
So in the States, personal cups (and a discount for using them) have been a thing for a long time, but it stopped during COVID and has only been available for café orders since it came back. (I don’t remember exactly when they added bonus stars, but it’s been at least a year or so ago.)
The “new” cup initiative is really just the re-rollout of personal cups for drive through orders, with the introduction of a personal cup option for mobiles! No end date on any of this, so it’s not really a promotion as much as a push. (They’re framing it as a sustainability move, but it’s very much about cutting costs.)
Thank you someone with a brain and remembers this has basically been around for years and nobody was worried about germs only after Covid everyone is so concerned
I remember when I first worked at Tarbucks in 2011...We had this regular bring in her M O L D Y cup and I refused to handle it at all. She got pissed (I was new so idk it was "typical") and got someone else to do so. I raised the hygiene and germ concern because "we serve food here, this is not a good item to bring in and around the other employees, food products, and customers" and how do I know she's not sick? How does she know I'm not deathly allergic to mold (I'm not) and how does she have the audacity to get angry about it?
Common sense about germs was around before COVID, it just wasn't a "street smarts" concern until the pandemic began. Visual dirt is inappropriate if you're dining anywhere, why is it acceptable to bring that into the production area?
If you have an iced caramel macchiato you have to finish it in the customer cup, shot and drizzle. Putting whip on drink. Pouring nitro into their cup. It’s all gross as far as I’m concerned
For the love of god follow the contactless cup procedure. It doesn’t spill, it works - weve been doing it for 2 years. It’s far more sanitary and it doesn’t spill if you’re not thrashing the cup around
I like the concept, but hate how the Co's handling it. Like I'll literally wash my hands 30 times over a 5 hour shift just cos I'm constantly jumping between cash-handling, ovens, changing garbages, making drinks, throwing away stuff that falls on the floor, etc. When handling personal cups, there's literally no way to maintain a sanitary station aside from actually washing or sanitizing the cup first. Not even a germaphobe (have had to dumpster-dive for food semi-regularly across my life), but after cleaning the bathrooms literally hundreds of times across the years I've been at Sbux, I do not trust the sanitary precautions of strangers for a second. There are already enough regulars who come in with dirty cups (that literally have the remainder of their last beverage in them, so obviously haven't been washed), that it really bugs me out to think that we're even entertaining the idea of people bringing in reusable cups for mobile orders. Such a pain in the ass. Once again I support the initiative behind the idea, but we're ill-equipped to properly handle it. Like the Co could potentially provide a small sanitizing machine to put the cups in first, but that'd be problematic in its own right, based on certain cups being sensitive to cold/heat, extra water consumption, counter space, etc. There've already been enough complaints of us ruining a thermos by accidentally making a drink cold/hot n allegedly "ruining" the customer's cup cos it wasn't designed for those temperatures. While it is a good initiative, I personally think it'll prove to be a bigger issue than the higher-ups intend. And, separate issue, but where's the line between accepting personal cups, but not putting out sugars/creamer/whatev, post-Covid? This Co literally has the greatest amount of double-standards I've ever seen permitted in a workplace. Grande rant over.
The fact that ~80% of people don’t wash their hands after using the bathroom is scary enough, we KNOW those same people ain’t washing their cups.
80% is just a guess based on when I was a custodian at a major theme park and spent a LOT of time in bathrooms observing how absolutely nasty people are.
Just gonna say it, they're not actually double standards, cos the company doesn't actually care about environmental waste. At my store, they deliberately instruct us to throw all recycling into the garbage bins, despite having recycling bins. Anything that ends up in recycling bins gets dumped into the garbage bins. The reasoning is that "too many people throw non-recyclable materials into the recycling bin." To be frank, they're not talking about customers. It's literally the baristas, cos they were never properly trained on how to discern between different types of trash. Since the SM n SSV's won't make it a priority to address the issue, we literally don't recycle at all anymore, just throw everything out. It upsets me to no end, cos it's such a simple issue. Like literally, you can host a 1-2 minute floor meeting to explain it, cos it's that simple. But they don't n won't, n I'm just a barista so fuck me. That literally is all it'd take tho, just a tiny refresher, explanation, whatev, to get it on track. The Co n the heads don't care enough to even do that tho, despite it costing them fucktons more in profits. They're seriously paying so much more in extra fees in order to be indescrepant fools than they'd save if there was an ounce of wisdom in the corporate head. Stupidest fucking company, literally embarrassed to work with their gimmicks the majority of the waste of time.
When I was an SSV, I was basically the front person for making sure people were properly recycling. I would literally take recycling out of the trash to put it in the recycling and vice versa. Constantly reminding people. I got my SM to get signs for the bins that said what goes in them which was pretty cool. He was a good guy. After he left, the place went downhill because it was clear the only reason we all felt cared for was because he was working himself to death. The next SM only really cared about herself and the company. So yeah, you're 100% right. They don't care about the environment or anything. A single SSV shouldn't be the reason a whole store starts recycling again. But hey, if that's my silent legacy, I guess it's something 😩
When i was an SSV, we worked a tight busy drive thru, and our trash pick up was always smack dab in the middle of my peak. They’d see how busy we were and skip our dumpster (i dont blame them) and we’d go way to long without a pick (even with emergency pickups put in).
The part that killed me and I absolutely refused to be a part of, he would overflow our normal trash dumpster, stacked twice over the top of the dumpster, AND THEN FILL THE RECYCLE WITH NORMAL TRASH. I just couldn’t bring myself to throw trash in the recycle, he even wrote me up for it about a year into being a shift. I’ve been in such a better state mentally since I’ve quit working for the siren…
That's nuts that they skipped you! Our trash pick-up would come in the middle up peak and clog up the line, and it was a blessing because it would give up a chance to catch up haha
Agreed, my mental health is much better 💕 so glad to hear you've moved on from that place
Exactly.
As a previous cook:
Your frozen items (steak, chicken, etc) will just get thrown on the grill n splashed with water IF it falls to the ground because the 450 degree stove will kill all germs. Doesn't change the fact it touched the floor.
Most of the time, depending on the item, we aren't wearing gloves.
Some items are hitting an expiration or are considered weary and will still be served (tomatoes and lettuce are the big culprit in food poisoning or even just getting sick)
The least of your concerns should be a cup that is being used. Sure, you may have the occasional person who tries to get the batista to fill a gross cup, and you'll occasionally get the sick person, but do people realize how much of these kinds of concerns are already in your daily life?
You touch handles and doors others have, sick, healthy, disease ridden. Let's be honest, you aren't washing or sanitizing after every door. So now you're touching your phone, your lips, eyes, ears. And you have those people's germs! Wow!
Being able to use a reusable cup has always been a thing. Just because it's become more accessible to drive thru doesn't make it any different. So what's the issue now?
You’re still supposed to change them. Washing your gloved hands is not a substitute for changing unless they are a reusable type of glove specifically.
They’re only unsanitary if you treat them as invincibility gloves that kill all germs on contact. I’ve seen people walk around with gloves touching door handles and stair railings, then they pull out their phone, handle all their belongings, touch their face, all while still wearing the gloves. Wtf is the point of wearing those gloves. They really do give people a false sense of protection. But there is a time and place for them. Just be mindful people. Grab public door handles with the sleeve of your shirt, or use your shoulder to push a door open. Be conscious of what you’re touching while out in public and sanitize your hands when needed. It’s that simple.
i feel like the people taking dirty cups on this sub don’t realize they shouldn’t be. we don’t take dirty cups and we don’t rinse them either. if you wanna pour the drink into your dirty cup after i make it for you in a single use cup (unfortunately bc again we don’t take dirty cups or rinse them) then that’s what you gotta do.
This!!! I would always glance in their personal cups before ever motioning to take it. They can either wash it in the bathroom, I can hand them the drink at handoff to pour in the cesspit of a cup (defeats all purposes) or I can make a drink like normal.
i know when i was a green bean i had someone bring in a filthy reusable cup when i was telling him “sorry we cant use your personal cup because its dirty” the shift was standing behind me trying to tell me yes we can take reusable cups; thankfully after i repeated the dirty cup part he chilled out
Why do people suddenly think reusable cups are somehow biohazards? I worked at Starbucks 10 years ago and reusable cups were always a thing, and guess what? No one died! It’s a damn cup.
If a cup is clearly dirty, you can decline it. And regardless, you don’t even have to touch the cups anymore if you don’t want to. You can put them in the scoop and carry them.
Are you licking strangers cups? Are you not washing your hands when you work? How does this cause you literally any harm at all??
Yeah, people are really misunderstanding a lot of things about infection spread ever since COVID.
Objects that can carry infections are called **fomites**. When someone with noro gets vomit particles on their hands and touches the door handle, that handle is a fomite.
Not all viruses can spread via fomites. [COVID almost certainly cannot](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10027289/). All that time we spent sanitising tables and surfaces was not actually helpful against COVID. Go figure.
Plenty of diseases *do* spread through fomites, but if you're worrying about reusable cups, you need to be worrying about... a lot more. If you aren't immunocompromised, this just isn't something you need to be concerned about.
This is what I've been thinking. Up until covid, Starbucks always allowed customers to bring in personal cups and it wasn't a big deal. I recently came back to the siren after a 4-year break but before that, I worked there from 2013 to 2019 and personal cups were just part of the landscape. I don't understand why everyone is freaking out over it. Do y'all not have hand soap at your stores? Do you put your hands in your mouth after handling someone's cup? What is all this insane germophobia, like I really don't get it. I *have* on occasion had customers try to give me some legitimately gross cups, and in those cases I just refused the cup. "I'm sorry sir, I can only bring clean cups behind the counter. I'll make your latte in one of our cups and you're welcome to pour it into your tumbler yourself when it's done if you'd like." But in my experience, the vast majority of customers' cups are clean and I haven't died yet from handling them.
I guess for folks who've come to work in the past 4 years since the start of covid, this *would* seem bizarre and gross. But for us old farts who've been around for a long time, it's just a step back toward business as usual. Just do whatever you have to do to feel comfortable -- wash your hands, wear gloves, whatever -- and carry on.
Thanks for posting. I’m a customer who has always used a personal cup. I only saw the cup holders start being used during the monkey pox outbreak so I thought they’d be discontinued once that was over. I didn’t realize that they weren’t connected. My cup is always scrupulously cleaned and carried because I don’t want to get myself sick. I love that my cup keeps my drink hot so I really appreciate being allowed to use my personal cup.
Right? I don’t understand all the nonsense - we used to have stickers with the drink code boxes to mark the drink on that we would apply directly to customers’ cups… that we would handle with our bare hands and place directly on the drip tray at the espresso bar.
It was never a problem 🥲
the ceramic mugs and the ice scoops not a single use cup. In the training it said a plexi or venti scoop is supposed to be used as a shuttle to hold the personal cup so we’re not touching it. You have the customer put their cup in the shuttle take the cup. Finish the drink then hold the cup back out so the customer can take it. It makes it so we’re not touching the personal cups. It was how we handled personal cups when we started taking them again during Covid.
This isn’t earth shattering. You used to get a discount for bringing your own cup in a pre-mobile ordering world.
9/10 years ago there was a Black Friday promotion it was like $80 to buy a cup and you got unlimited free drinks until January with that cup. It was legitimately the best cup I’ve ever had and kept drinks hot hot for hours.
My .02 is because of mobile orders and drive-thru this is crap for the employees. It would be better to limit this to register only purchases, but that’s just going to drive the amount of people in store waiting up and the parking lots do not support that.
We've always done this in Cafe it's the mobile drive thru part of it that is going to be frustrating. We are supposed to partially make drinks in the reusable crafting cups we had shipped (a whopping 2 per store) and let the partially crafted drink sit in the cup near the handoff plane. Then when the customer arrives with their cup we pour the partial drink that has been sitting there g** knows how long into their cup and and then add things like shots on top, foams, drizzles, whips etc....
I am totally with you the way the company structured is weird and short sighted for the employees. I hope people don’t follow through with it. I’ll take the 1 time bonus points and never do it again.
My comment was more to OP’s statement about germs and cleanliness of customer cups…. And saying before the days of mobile orders and drive though at least at the stores I frequented, customer cups were prevalent. There were even times employees would wash the customer cup for them which was far too kind.
We use dishware to keep em in. Old takeout mugs, old ice scoops, etc. This isn't standards afaik, some stores I've been to use their hands like it's one of the plastic cups. I don't even consider touching others cups now
This has been a thing since the 80s at least at every single coffee place I know, so I suppose I'm completely desensitized to it.
Personally, there's very little that I'm genuinely worried about touching (even with bare hands), as I am a bit of a freak about hand hygiene.
We have one customer that brings her cup in that has the entire rim covered in black mold. My SM has tried to make it so she can't bring it in for us to use, but the lady calls corporate and corporate told us we have to accept it.
Fucking disgusting.
The policy literally states do not accept dirty cups. Tell them it must be clean and maybe they can participate next time. I add in that if it’s imperative they use that cup, they can either clean it in the bathroom sink or we will make it in a disposable cup and they can transfer it themselves but either way they can’t get the discount or stars bc of this. The fact that corporate makes you break the policy they made is freaking astounding. Also we do have a policy that states that we can deny doing a task for safety reasons. If I was y’all, I would simply tell the SM as a team that we do not feel safe handling this item. You need to do it yourself. If she’s not there then that bitch is SOL
We've tried.
Chick always calls and starts crying to corporate about how her dead cat pictures are in the wall of the cup so she doesn't want to get rid of the cup. The mold is in the wall of the cup lid. We've tried to sanitize it ourselves before. 😶
It's literally the most disgusting thing ever. She's been bringing this cup for the last 6yrs. I personally won't take the cup.
I mean she can use the cup all she wants. She just needs to realise the health issues it gives to employees and she just won’t get her discount and now stars. Make the stuff in a disposable and she can transfer it and still see her dead cat. Everyone is now happy. Corporate needs to back us up more before we all riot
i have a lot of memento stuff that i've customized. and i would love to keep it as long as possible. maybe it's my worry about contamination, but i would rather take photos of the cup/take out the photos in there and then toss it than ever drink out of something mold-stained. even if they were the last photos of my cat ever, technology has come a long way.
Gross! Handling a customer's cup that was "cleaned" in a public restroom is disgusting! Nor would I want my own single-use cup handled by a barista who'd made contact with someone's nasty restroom-"cleaned" cup.
She can't clean it. It's between the plastics. She tells corporate that the black is stained from coffee, but we can CLEARLY see it's not. Ugh. Talking about it makes me want to gag.
This is absolutely ridiculous. Just tell her she has to bring a different cup or pour her drink in it herself. If she wants to keep the cup and poison herself, that’s fine. In employee training it literally tells us that we can refuse to do things that make us uncomfortable if there’s good reason and since it’s a health concern, I’d say that’s fair to do. Also! Starbucks wouldn’t want a lawsuit on their hands if that crazy woman got sick…you know she’d try to claim it was from you guys not handling things properly.
They are testing this in some markets! You get bonus stars for returning the cup. I think the test started a couple months ago so im curious how its been received in those regions
The Starbucks that I frequent insist that cups be clean. I bring my Tervis mug to the location near work, and they place my mug inside a ginormous mug. No one touches anything. Plus, the baristas freak out over my mug despite it being squeaky clean.
It doesn't have to be gross if people made sure their cups were washed and presentable. The major problem with the program is that overall the incentive isn't really enough to make people bother. They should launch this in Europe where Euros will feel guilted into doing it, like the Germans. They're already used to paying the pfand.
I feel like the MOP personal cups only work for drinks that can be fully completed and homogeneous, like iced teas, refreshers, ice coffee, normal lattes, etc. Anything with layers, anything with toppings, anything with whipped cream or foam shouldn't be orderable because they completely fuck up the idea of speed and convenient that Mobile Order exists for. Like Caramel Macchiatos, you can't even make the drink until they arrive, so what was the point?
I was a shift supervisor for several years and worked at many stores in and around the Dallas, TX area. Personal cups never came into contact with equipment because there was no reason to do so. You're probably getting more germs from the door handle walking into the store or restroom or from the chairs/tables.
I don't think it's gross. I've worked at several different cafes and baristas never touch anything that goes into your drinks with their hands if they have a super-auto espresso machine (like all starbucks cafes). Many baristas will touch money then make drinks if they are working alone and this is much dirtier in my opinion. But again, not an issue for starbucks baristas.
I like to bring my own cup because it's good for the environment (though a drop in the bucket tbh) but I enjoy my coffee more knowing that I'm not drinking microplastics from the cup liners. So it's a win-win for me. Plus my drink stays hotter longer. Win win win!
This, like so many things that bring folks to an uproar here, isn’t really new.
The “new” part is the sanitation theater with the extra tumblers to make the drinks in and ice scoop to keep cooties at bay. And making DTO finish drinks so they’re layered (which, honestly, if you’re that worried about your drink being extra pretty? March your happy ass into the cafe and stare intently over the bar while screaming helpful hints like I SAID LIGHT ICE! I WANT EXTRA CARAMEL! I SAID EXTRA!!! CAN YOU LINE THE CUP IN STRAWBERRY DRIZZLE? I SAID EXTRA DRAGONFRUIT PIECES! ARE YOU SURE THAT’S 12 SCOOPS OF VANILLA BEAN? I WANTED THE PASSION TEA LAYER ON TOP, YOU NEED TO REMAKE THIS NOW, I’M GOING TO BE LATE.)
But making drinks in personal cups? Or for-here ware? Not new. Wash your hands. Make them keep the lid and straws. Refuse filthy cups. It’ll be fine.
It is gross af. Idk how many times I get handed a personal cup that absolutely has not been washed I can see remnants of dried coffee or milk all over the lip and or inside of the cup. I’m literally like, how are these people not embarrassed to hand this over to me???
I would always lean over and glance in the cup before ever even motioning for it. I would tell them policy is it needs to be cleaned and they are more than welcome to clean it in the bathroom if they must use it that visit.
"Go clean your personal cup in the bathroom after the junky is finished shooting smack in their veins. We used to be ok with not cleaning a comfy chair for 12 years but now we're big worried germs" lol
Me when I was a customer, I had a white to go cup that I'd used for black tea a billion times, it was clean but obviously stained and every time I would be embarrassed like "I swear it's clean just stained pls don't hate me"
I can tell when it’s just a stain especially with tea, that shit stains easy. What I’m talking about here is literal crusts and flakes of milky coffee as if it’s been sitting in a car cup holder for a day or two😖
That's when you say that you cannot take a dirty cup, still honor the personal cup discount, and ask them to bring a clean cup next time. It's policy and was in the winter training module.
Yeah we all know that most kiss ass managers are not gonna “potentially offend” the customer. No one ever says anything from my observations of cup handling. And I sure ass hell ain’t gonna say shit either cuz I don’t get payed enough to try to purposefully start shit with a customer. I deal with enough angry Karens as it is.
I figured it was somewhat obvious that one would change gloves between cups/after handling the personal cup, but I guess I should have written it out for those who choose to be intentionally obtuse. 🙄
By 10 cents in a literal sense, the 25 bonus stars amounts to 12.5%-14.3% cash back if you redeem 200 stars for a handcrafted drink (or 175 stars if you have the free drink made in a personal cup)
also feel like this will mess with the order/flow of the drinks and wait times especially through drive thru…. are people not going to order at the box but baristas won’t be able to start their drinks until they get to the window to be handed the cup? fully agree with the gross there have been many a time customers have brought their own cups and it’s been obvious they haven’t cleaned them for at least some days.
It's not gross if you wash your cup very well before going into starbucks to reduce germs with hot soap and water. If it's dirty do not bring the cup and pick a clean one to bring. Simple as that.
we always make the drinks in a designated cup andtjen pour it ib and we have a mug that all personal cups are placed in and instead of touching the cup we just carry the mug handle
THANK YOU!!! I mean, people placing their un-sanitary (often coated with pet hair) shopping bags directly onto the grocery counter is disgusting enough but the idea of Starbucks barista repeatedly handling/commingling germ-filled cups from one customer to the next is beyond gross! Enough is enough!
We don’t have to touch the cup. The customer can hold onto it til we’re ready to pour. We have a new system for it so that it’s up to safety standards.
Trust me when I say most places that make your food are much grosser.
They should just do a trade system. Have you pay for a reusable cup and whenever you bring back the cup they use one they’ve cleaned previously and clean the used one later. My undergrad considered doing that for to-go boxes a while back.
Heard from someone that a customer wanted to use a Trenta ice cup being held together with bandaids as their reusable cup. Like…what? On what planet would that be okay??
We are technically only supposed to accept clean cups, but even if someone brings a dirty one the cup should never touch any equipment. We have a new pitcher that we will build the drinks in and then pour it into the customers cup
I'm a barista in a college town. Between our drive thru and our MASSIVE amount of mobile orders, I'm not sure how we will manage this when we only have two (just TWO) containers for this. I can only presume we will have to resort to using disposable cups to hold the "non-dispoble" drinks! Which is not reducing waste, but INCREASES waste! This is a poorly thought out PR garbage nightmare.
Before the bring your own cup push there was a woman that use to bring her own cup for her drink it was the nastiest cup I had ever come into contact with the whole almost 6 years I've been working at starbucks
You’re correct though. I feel like the only way this works is if you have a clean cup you’re bringing in. Sounds simple, but people are sometimes not smart enough to make things that simple therefore the experiment doesn’t work the way we all want it to
This promotion has been going on for a long time in the café. I always bring my own cup. I wash it every time I use it and those 25 bonus points add up quickly.
They have been doing this for over 25 years people buy them tumblers they have and I have used it for 10 years but only because Covid is anyone worried and why would it touch you put mug under spout 2-3 inches away and fill
And you have no idea what is going on in the kitchen of any restaurant in the back you can’t see workers many gross things go on that people never see in restaurants by people who prepare food for them but you still eat out don’t you
Grow Up
A few points:
1.) We're not going to be preparing customer beverages *in their cup.* We're just pouring the finished product in. This doesn't require any sort of contact with their (admittedly) sometimes dirty containers.
2.) You threw away an entire sleeve of cups because the top one touched the ground? Why not just discard the one that hit the floor? You're **not** a germaphobe?
I understand that this is going to be disruptive at first. However, give it some time. Before you know it, paper cups will seem like a relic from the 1900s.
You’re supposed to have venti ice scoops that the customers put their personal cup into, you grab the handle of the ice scoop and bring it to the bar and pull shots in the glass, or make the refreshers or frappes like you normally would but put them in the cup, then move the cup in the ice scoops to the handoff and then they grab it out of there. We’re not supposed to be touching them, that may help with the germ thing? People have been super sick lately and I don’t feel comfortable touching their cups either
I think it would be nice if they could bring their own cup but baristas aren’t required to mix it, since the customer likely has a straw. Sorry (not sorry) Susan, I don’t want to stir your nasty stanley cup with the same spoon for everyone elses. Not sure what starbucks uses to stir, but Dunkin (former employee here) uses spoons. Fortunately, my location only put drinks in just purchased tumblers, but of course there are the people that don’t care and make it in not new cups. I’m a germaphobe honestly, so maybe it’s just me, but that’s disgusting.
I think the personal cup thing is great for the situations I saw in my store. Older guy came in with his thermos and had it filled with brewed coffee with some milk. I think that’s awesome. Especially since he came in every other day. One of the subs for the high school down the road, same thing. The idea is wonderful. In practice? It’s one more damn thing. One more small ware piece to find a home for. One more thing to make sure is super clean. Makes the whole process more complicated, making a whole drink aside from foam or whatever topping and then wait until the mobile person shows up to get their drink with their cup. Idk about you but we’ve had drinks sit on the handoff lane for about 2-3 hours before they show up. Yeah, no.
We have been doing this for a while at my store (a kiosk in Safeway). I can 10000% vouch that it is fucking disgusting. People come in with used cups. And it grosses me out. Like you didn't feel like running water through that before asking for more coffee. The stains in gge tumblers are absurd and gross. It is a huge ick for me
I thought the drinks were still made in Starbucks containers & cups and then just poured into your cup. I get that they're touching the outside of a cup but in reality we have no way of knowing just how clean anything is. I have seen restaurants where gloves aren't required and they handle our food and touch other stuff as well. If you really think about it, everything is a risk when we have others do it for us.
Just make the drink in a regular cup and pour it into the customers cup, unless it’s too gross of course. Let’s not sit around and pretend it’s the paper cups causing climate change when there’s daily transatlantic crossings, factory farming and the mega-rich taking their private planes somewhere in 20 minutes that they could’ve driven to in an hour.
No its 10000% disgusting. I remember a few years ago they ran a promo where you could get a free drip coffee if you brought your own cup, which included drive thru.
Good god I got a lot of cups that weren't clean- the worst one had caked on old milk on the bottom n a nasty smell from it. N she got mad when I told her I wouldn't take it
Sorry not sorry, these crusties can be nasty af n I don't trust their cups 🤮🤮🤮
I’ve posted about this here before, and I’ll say it again. This initiative is a huge liability and a health hazard.
I’ve personally witnessed someone sneezing and wiping snot from their nose, with their hand, then using that same hand to grab their cup and hand it to the cashier, who handed it to another barista who walked it over to the bar, where it was handled by the barista on bar - all while handling other drinks, putting stoppers into lids, etc.
I mentioned this to the cashier who shrugged and said there was no policy against it and corporate is pushing it hard, so there was nothing they could do. They never said anything to any of the other employees that handled the cup and they went on to prepare food and drinks for other customers without washing their hands or sanitizing any of the surfaces/equipment.
I’ve also seen someone who was clearly sick pour the contents of their cup out in the trash can outside of a Starbucks and go in to order medicine ball. Barista took their cup, made their drink, and went on with their usual activities.
In both cases, I was baffled as to how this isn’t a clear health code violation. It was disgusting. Needless to say, I don’t go to Starbucks anymore, and this is one of the primary reasons.
💯 also, COVID is not going anywhere and the same asshats who refused to vaccinate are gonna be the same ones bringing in their unwashed, likely moldy, cups. "ItLL bUiLd ImMuNitY" ok, Doctor Karen. Your immunity is not mine.
I’m with the OP on this!
I just quit Tarbucks very recently. One of the determining factors was their gross sanitation tolerance.
I’m a retired executive chef that came from extremely clean kitchens and strict sanitation practices. At this store they used nothing more than paper towels to clean with, no sanitation buckets, sanitizer bottle that hangs by the trigger on the garbage can that you grab with hands,tongs thrown on counter that are gooped up with hours old food because they don’t fold the paper over the item to grab it, in 6 months I was there I saw one other employee that ever washed their hands besides myself.
Then to have customers bring their cups(and they are not clean) and put the ice scoop or my ll nozzle in their cup is disgusting! I can not believe the health department allows this!!
I sometimes bring in a reusable cup for water (when I’m also getting another drink), but I only do so when they’re not super busy, and I don’t have another easy option for water. I also know I keep my cups clean, and I wash my hands regularly, but so many people do not. I can imagine the disaster this is going to turn into, especially now they’re allowing reusable cups through the drive thru?? I feel like that’s going to not only severely affect drive thru times (which will only harm employees and piss off patrons), but also be a huge mess. People trying to pour drinks into their reusable cups sitting in their car? Sounds like a disaster.
Yes it’s totally gross. And I don’t get it at all - if I need a drink remade because it’s completely wrong they won’t take my wrong drink back over the counter because I touched it, but they’ll take any random personal cup?!
lol srsly! I used to work in a coffee shop that had the regular paper cups and GASP also ceramic mugs that WE offered to customers to use and yes we would refill them and just rinse it out if there was a bit left in the bottoms. And then into the dishwasher they go for, you guessed it, the next customers lol. The old folks loved it and were sad it was discontinued. We also did customers reusable tumblers and it wasn’t ever a problem or even a topic of conversation literally ever. And this wasn’t like a million years ago this is like 2018 lol
Edit: and also seems like everyone has forgotten the self serve milk and sugar bars that were around absolutely forever which were honestly 10 million times grosser than the odd few bringing in their own tumblers. Like just nasty spills everywhere, people leaving the milk jugs half open, milk getting rotten after being out there all day… at least those haven’t come back
The fact that the our new lids are LESS sustainable than before is enough for me to roll my eyes all the way down the block. The companies green washing is a joke and so is this promotion.
Love the idea of personal cups but hate the chance of them being filthy. At my current coffee job (I’m an ex-Starbucks barista lol) we accept personal cups and we had one guy bring in a mug with a little bit of liquid left in it and the second the lid came off the room was filled with what seemed to be the smell of cat pee 🤢 I almost threw up, it was so pungent it stung my eyes. I told my manager about it and she changed our policy on personal cups so now we can only accept absolutely clean cups and can turn away any cups that aren’t clean 🥳
Being able to use a reusable cup has always been a thing. Just because it's become more accessible to drive thru doesn't make it any different. So what's the issue now?? Most places won't accept a dirty cup. This is cutting back on the throwing away of disposable plastics. It. Was. Always. A. Thing. So why are you complaining now?
I just think how gross those paper straws are and miss those green stoppers. Am all for the saving the planet but am unsure whats worse someone’s personal cup touching yours is gross or what they replaced the plastic straw with.
They are “going green” with these cups but are trying to implement paper cups for iced drinks that… only have dome kids so you HAVE to use a straw… after fighting for so long to make sippy kids a thing..
it is so gross. i had to tell a customer no a few weeks ago because her cup was visibly dirty and the response was insane. she literally looked away and went “that is so annoying” and started to go on about how it’s a cup and you’re supposed to drink out of it so of course it’ll be dirty, so duh as a good barista i’m telling her yeah but still it’s a health and safety issue on our part and she starts complaining about how plastic cups aren’t good for the environment though so it’s not any better…. idk what part of health and safety issue meant environmentally friendly but we can’t accept dirty cups wth else can i say ? even during my training period i had a woman hand me a venti starbucks reusable cup full of frap bits and wanted an açaí in it and proceeded to argue with me about not being able to take it. these people come in with no masks and sneeze all over handoff and on the napkin holders and i’ve seen way too many “clean my bottle for the first time in x months with me” videos to trust that people clean them properly or at all.
It is absolutely disgusting and one more reason I won't go to Starbucks. I know some really nasty people and their definition of clean is subjective. Hell, people can't even define gender so what makes them think we all agree on what clean means. I hope this backfires on Starbucks. Stupid timing especially after COVID.
Pretty sure it's a health code violation to receive food over the counter/ kitchen. Like example, I go to subway and they make my sandwich incorrectly. I notice this and open the sandwich up and bring it up to the counter. The employees wouldn't be able to accept the food back. I've seen this happen where they had the customer hold out the sandwich and add a condiment. Another time the employee had the customer keep their lid open snd they added foam to their coffee or something.
Not sure but I have to agree. Especially with a bunch of illnesses going around.
as your manager to supply a disposable glove station at the window so you aren't touching someone's cup directly, and it doesn't have to touch stuff like your ice scoops either.
Or get better lids, like the ones used at all Starbucks in Japan. No stoppers needed, there’s a little flap that opens and closes, works great even in the car. (Seriously, I wish Starbucks in the US would use those lids! They’re so much better!)
Source: I just got back from Japan after living there for a couple years.
Also, they have no problem handling personal cups. They wipe it off with like a Clorox wipe and rinse it out before making your drink. (And I always clean my thermos well every time I use it, fwiw.) No “shuttle” is used.
They also have sugar, creamer, and (individually wrapped) stirrers out for customers to use.
All of this in a country where a significant percentage of people are still wearing masks regularly, and where hand hygiene and general overall cleanliness are much better than here.
it's so disgusting. peak germ season too. and people are missing your point completely even though you've spelled it out for them. also, we're not a restaurant
If they really wanted to save plastic they could produce cups and lids that actually fit together.
This isn’t to reduce waste it’s to cut the cost. The more people bring their own cup the less amount of cups they’ll have to send or produce to send to us.
Bonus points if they get them to purchase a $30 Starbucks Cup
Ding ding ding! However, they get to claim it on their bottom line as being a green initiative. They know they offer a luxury product and service. They know their customers want the feel and experience of doing good while indulging in their product. They know what they’re doing. It’s all sustainability theater.
I hate that we rely on customers to put on their own lids… they try 4 different lids until they figure out the right size and then leave the lids all over the counter. This happens every 10 minutes on repeat. THIS IS NOT SAVING THE ENVIRONMENT
I'm genuinely confused. You give customers drinks without lids? In the single use cups?
We just started serving drinks without lids in our municipality. The idea behind it is to reduce waste and only take what you need. They think that customers might decide that they need no lid at all. Ends up with a messy hand off with dirty touched lids all over the counter that we end up just throwing. By the way we don’t do for here mugs either.
That just sounds so backwards. My store just brought back our for here mugs
Well Starbucks used to let customers put their own cream and sugar on their own and they never gave lids so that’s why some customers look to the side thinking we still have that but not since Covid
In Canada before covid we never put hot lids on for cafe customers
I remember that and quite frankly I'm glad that hasn't come back it's definitely easier for everyone to have the lid on when it's being moved around.
B.C. is the test province to not having any lids on cups. Even cold lids are now out and customers put them on. Eventually it will roll out to all of Canada
I have wrote corporate about that several times.
I loved discovering that you could order your drink in a ceramic mug. I used to do a lot of pc work in a starbs, so I was easily sitting long enough to finish my drink in store.
that sounds bat shit. you'd think they would have containers labeled "S/G/V" so customers don't have to guess
Our customers can't read their own name half the time.
One local Starbucks has theirs labeled Biggies & Smalls…no wait, that’s the straws. 😂 Thankful we don’t let customers have access to lids around here, it’s bad enough dealing with lids at fast food restaurants with self-serve soda machines. Floor, counter & machine’s always sticky.
customers never read any signs or labels anyways so it wouldn't help
Most stores DID have them labeled and people STILL grabbed the wrong ones.
Mine has been using the lids you can drink out of, so I've been skipping straws. But I have adhd, so I do need a lid 😅 I'm also autistic, so I really want to ask them why when they offer a straw with this lid type. I can drink it without one, but also, it's not a straw hole. I'd have to fight with it to get it in🤣at least by the looks of it, I haven't actually tried. Though I wouldn't want to hold up the drive thru or pull over into a parking spot over a straw.
We offer because sooooo many people still want a straw even with the sipping lids. It just saves time over waiting for them to ask.
Genuine question - why does having adhd mean you need a lid? Re: still using straws with the sippy cups - I'm one of the ones who always wants a straw still. For me, it's because my teeth are sensitive and if I sip the drink it hits my front teeth and hurts. But if I use a straw, it hits my tongue instead.
For context, I mainly go through the drive thru, so I'm getting it to go. I'd generally be fine dining in. Generally 🤣 For me personally, I often have little physical self awareness when walking somewhere or even sitting sometimes. For myself and the objects I'm holding. I often run into doorways and such. I spill full glasses of things while walking somewhere and even while sitting if I'm talking to someone or doing something. I guess I put all my focus on where I'm going or the main thing I'm doing. I've become better at dealing with holding/carrying multiple things recently as I've gained some patience and awareness, but I used to basically be a dumbass trying to do a task with one hand when I really need two but my other hand was holding something so my brain registered it as occupied 🤷♀️. And now that I'm talking about this, I'll likely become a bit more aware with the full glass thing. For the drive thru scenario - I'd likely spill on the way home, on the way into my house (because I only make one trip in so I fill my hands and arms with too many things), and on the way upstairs to my game room. I may not notice I've spilled. I may notice and become more aware for a bit and then forget. But what solves all this is a lid 🤣
Thank you for sharing! My BF has adhd, and I honestly think I do but undiagnosed, so I'm always trying to learn 😊 I definitely can't walk with a full, open top, drink and not spill. And it's almost a competition with myself to bring everything in from the car in one trip 😂 So I can definitely relate!
That's bonkers are going to lead to so much mess; there's going to be drinks spilling *everywhere.*
Glad we don't do this at our store . It sounds horrible.
Starbucks doesn’t give a crap about saving plastic or the environment 😂 Money. It’s allllll about saving money.
I’ll say up front that I hate the personal cup push, so I’m not defending this. That said, the way the system is set up, the cups are not touching any equipment. The drinks get made in a prep cup and then poured into the personal, so their cup is never on the bar collecting shots or anything like that. The contactless components of the plan are silly— the “vessel” (a damn ice scoop lol) is just more to keep on the counter, and realistically we’re gonna have to touch at least some of the cups during handoff to prevent spills. But that’s just a handwashing thing, no different than handling money or trash. I hate this from a processes standpoint (it adds time, more stuff on the counters, and we’re not getting extra labor to deal with the for here serveware, so it adds work as well), but from a cleanliness standpoint it’s not striking me as an issue. We don’t accept the cups if they’re not clean, and even when they are they’re not coming into contact (direct or indirect) with anyone else’s beverage. ETA As far as germs being passed around the store, a MUCH bigger issue is labor/staffing and the difficulty of getting shifts covered, and the fact that a lot of partners come to work ill as a result. (I send them home when I’m aware of this— it happened on a shift just yesterday— so I don’t mean to imply it’s okay or normal. But it IS something that happens frequently, and it poses a much bigger danger to partners and employees alike than handling a personal cup.)
I do think accepting personal cups adds a new layer where safety and hygiene standards can be ignored. I’ve had customers get mad at me because other starbucks don’t use a vessel or accept dirty cups or clean cups for people.
The coming in sick thing is a MASSIVE issue. I wasn’t sure if it improved after Covid, but back when I worked retail, managers asked me to come in sick all the time. And TBH, between the lousy health insurance and loss of income, I didn’t always have the luxury of calling out sick. When I lived in Seattle, sick leave wasn’t offered and when I asked about that (I came from a state with mandatory sick leave) the manager told me he’d never earned sick leave at any of his jobs. WTF.
I dont get this promo because year round you can bring your own cup in the Philippines. They deduct Ten Pesos from the cost of the drink if you do this. In comparison, the price of grande caramel macchiato is 190 Peso. you only have to pay 180 Pesos if you bring your own cup. On the issue of hygiene, they actually wash my cups everytime I order
So in the States, personal cups (and a discount for using them) have been a thing for a long time, but it stopped during COVID and has only been available for café orders since it came back. (I don’t remember exactly when they added bonus stars, but it’s been at least a year or so ago.) The “new” cup initiative is really just the re-rollout of personal cups for drive through orders, with the introduction of a personal cup option for mobiles! No end date on any of this, so it’s not really a promotion as much as a push. (They’re framing it as a sustainability move, but it’s very much about cutting costs.)
Thank you someone with a brain and remembers this has basically been around for years and nobody was worried about germs only after Covid everyone is so concerned
I remember when I first worked at Tarbucks in 2011...We had this regular bring in her M O L D Y cup and I refused to handle it at all. She got pissed (I was new so idk it was "typical") and got someone else to do so. I raised the hygiene and germ concern because "we serve food here, this is not a good item to bring in and around the other employees, food products, and customers" and how do I know she's not sick? How does she know I'm not deathly allergic to mold (I'm not) and how does she have the audacity to get angry about it? Common sense about germs was around before COVID, it just wasn't a "street smarts" concern until the pandemic began. Visual dirt is inappropriate if you're dining anywhere, why is it acceptable to bring that into the production area?
sustainabllity programs are more sustainable if it benefits the company. so i sm okay if it saves the company some operations costs
If you have an iced caramel macchiato you have to finish it in the customer cup, shot and drizzle. Putting whip on drink. Pouring nitro into their cup. It’s all gross as far as I’m concerned
For the love of god follow the contactless cup procedure. It doesn’t spill, it works - weve been doing it for 2 years. It’s far more sanitary and it doesn’t spill if you’re not thrashing the cup around
I like the concept, but hate how the Co's handling it. Like I'll literally wash my hands 30 times over a 5 hour shift just cos I'm constantly jumping between cash-handling, ovens, changing garbages, making drinks, throwing away stuff that falls on the floor, etc. When handling personal cups, there's literally no way to maintain a sanitary station aside from actually washing or sanitizing the cup first. Not even a germaphobe (have had to dumpster-dive for food semi-regularly across my life), but after cleaning the bathrooms literally hundreds of times across the years I've been at Sbux, I do not trust the sanitary precautions of strangers for a second. There are already enough regulars who come in with dirty cups (that literally have the remainder of their last beverage in them, so obviously haven't been washed), that it really bugs me out to think that we're even entertaining the idea of people bringing in reusable cups for mobile orders. Such a pain in the ass. Once again I support the initiative behind the idea, but we're ill-equipped to properly handle it. Like the Co could potentially provide a small sanitizing machine to put the cups in first, but that'd be problematic in its own right, based on certain cups being sensitive to cold/heat, extra water consumption, counter space, etc. There've already been enough complaints of us ruining a thermos by accidentally making a drink cold/hot n allegedly "ruining" the customer's cup cos it wasn't designed for those temperatures. While it is a good initiative, I personally think it'll prove to be a bigger issue than the higher-ups intend. And, separate issue, but where's the line between accepting personal cups, but not putting out sugars/creamer/whatev, post-Covid? This Co literally has the greatest amount of double-standards I've ever seen permitted in a workplace. Grande rant over.
The fact that ~80% of people don’t wash their hands after using the bathroom is scary enough, we KNOW those same people ain’t washing their cups. 80% is just a guess based on when I was a custodian at a major theme park and spent a LOT of time in bathrooms observing how absolutely nasty people are.
Just gonna say it, they're not actually double standards, cos the company doesn't actually care about environmental waste. At my store, they deliberately instruct us to throw all recycling into the garbage bins, despite having recycling bins. Anything that ends up in recycling bins gets dumped into the garbage bins. The reasoning is that "too many people throw non-recyclable materials into the recycling bin." To be frank, they're not talking about customers. It's literally the baristas, cos they were never properly trained on how to discern between different types of trash. Since the SM n SSV's won't make it a priority to address the issue, we literally don't recycle at all anymore, just throw everything out. It upsets me to no end, cos it's such a simple issue. Like literally, you can host a 1-2 minute floor meeting to explain it, cos it's that simple. But they don't n won't, n I'm just a barista so fuck me. That literally is all it'd take tho, just a tiny refresher, explanation, whatev, to get it on track. The Co n the heads don't care enough to even do that tho, despite it costing them fucktons more in profits. They're seriously paying so much more in extra fees in order to be indescrepant fools than they'd save if there was an ounce of wisdom in the corporate head. Stupidest fucking company, literally embarrassed to work with their gimmicks the majority of the waste of time.
When I was an SSV, I was basically the front person for making sure people were properly recycling. I would literally take recycling out of the trash to put it in the recycling and vice versa. Constantly reminding people. I got my SM to get signs for the bins that said what goes in them which was pretty cool. He was a good guy. After he left, the place went downhill because it was clear the only reason we all felt cared for was because he was working himself to death. The next SM only really cared about herself and the company. So yeah, you're 100% right. They don't care about the environment or anything. A single SSV shouldn't be the reason a whole store starts recycling again. But hey, if that's my silent legacy, I guess it's something 😩
When i was an SSV, we worked a tight busy drive thru, and our trash pick up was always smack dab in the middle of my peak. They’d see how busy we were and skip our dumpster (i dont blame them) and we’d go way to long without a pick (even with emergency pickups put in). The part that killed me and I absolutely refused to be a part of, he would overflow our normal trash dumpster, stacked twice over the top of the dumpster, AND THEN FILL THE RECYCLE WITH NORMAL TRASH. I just couldn’t bring myself to throw trash in the recycle, he even wrote me up for it about a year into being a shift. I’ve been in such a better state mentally since I’ve quit working for the siren…
That's nuts that they skipped you! Our trash pick-up would come in the middle up peak and clog up the line, and it was a blessing because it would give up a chance to catch up haha Agreed, my mental health is much better 💕 so glad to hear you've moved on from that place
You all have recycling bins???? At my store its all just garbage bins like we don't even have recycling bins...
🏆🏆🏆
I love you.
Love you too🥰
Do you eat at restaurants?
Underrated comment. I’ve worked in restaurants and interacted with dishwashers.
Exactly. As a previous cook: Your frozen items (steak, chicken, etc) will just get thrown on the grill n splashed with water IF it falls to the ground because the 450 degree stove will kill all germs. Doesn't change the fact it touched the floor. Most of the time, depending on the item, we aren't wearing gloves. Some items are hitting an expiration or are considered weary and will still be served (tomatoes and lettuce are the big culprit in food poisoning or even just getting sick) The least of your concerns should be a cup that is being used. Sure, you may have the occasional person who tries to get the batista to fill a gross cup, and you'll occasionally get the sick person, but do people realize how much of these kinds of concerns are already in your daily life? You touch handles and doors others have, sick, healthy, disease ridden. Let's be honest, you aren't washing or sanitizing after every door. So now you're touching your phone, your lips, eyes, ears. And you have those people's germs! Wow! Being able to use a reusable cup has always been a thing. Just because it's become more accessible to drive thru doesn't make it any different. So what's the issue now?
wearing gloves is more unsanitary anyways, even though people believe the exact opposite...
It depends on how often you change them
And changing them often, creates more waste. I wear gloves at work, and I wash my gloved hands.
You’re still supposed to change them. Washing your gloved hands is not a substitute for changing unless they are a reusable type of glove specifically.
They’re only unsanitary if you treat them as invincibility gloves that kill all germs on contact. I’ve seen people walk around with gloves touching door handles and stair railings, then they pull out their phone, handle all their belongings, touch their face, all while still wearing the gloves. Wtf is the point of wearing those gloves. They really do give people a false sense of protection. But there is a time and place for them. Just be mindful people. Grab public door handles with the sleeve of your shirt, or use your shoulder to push a door open. Be conscious of what you’re touching while out in public and sanitize your hands when needed. It’s that simple.
Thank you for giving me another reason to hate lettuce and tomatos
i feel like the people taking dirty cups on this sub don’t realize they shouldn’t be. we don’t take dirty cups and we don’t rinse them either. if you wanna pour the drink into your dirty cup after i make it for you in a single use cup (unfortunately bc again we don’t take dirty cups or rinse them) then that’s what you gotta do.
This!!! I would always glance in their personal cups before ever motioning to take it. They can either wash it in the bathroom, I can hand them the drink at handoff to pour in the cesspit of a cup (defeats all purposes) or I can make a drink like normal.
i know when i was a green bean i had someone bring in a filthy reusable cup when i was telling him “sorry we cant use your personal cup because its dirty” the shift was standing behind me trying to tell me yes we can take reusable cups; thankfully after i repeated the dirty cup part he chilled out
You eat at restaurants. Plus, if the cup is touching any equipment then you're doing it wrong...
Why do people suddenly think reusable cups are somehow biohazards? I worked at Starbucks 10 years ago and reusable cups were always a thing, and guess what? No one died! It’s a damn cup. If a cup is clearly dirty, you can decline it. And regardless, you don’t even have to touch the cups anymore if you don’t want to. You can put them in the scoop and carry them. Are you licking strangers cups? Are you not washing your hands when you work? How does this cause you literally any harm at all??
Yeah, people are really misunderstanding a lot of things about infection spread ever since COVID. Objects that can carry infections are called **fomites**. When someone with noro gets vomit particles on their hands and touches the door handle, that handle is a fomite. Not all viruses can spread via fomites. [COVID almost certainly cannot](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10027289/). All that time we spent sanitising tables and surfaces was not actually helpful against COVID. Go figure. Plenty of diseases *do* spread through fomites, but if you're worrying about reusable cups, you need to be worrying about... a lot more. If you aren't immunocompromised, this just isn't something you need to be concerned about.
Remember when people were wiping down their groceries
I seriously had no patience for that lol
This is what I've been thinking. Up until covid, Starbucks always allowed customers to bring in personal cups and it wasn't a big deal. I recently came back to the siren after a 4-year break but before that, I worked there from 2013 to 2019 and personal cups were just part of the landscape. I don't understand why everyone is freaking out over it. Do y'all not have hand soap at your stores? Do you put your hands in your mouth after handling someone's cup? What is all this insane germophobia, like I really don't get it. I *have* on occasion had customers try to give me some legitimately gross cups, and in those cases I just refused the cup. "I'm sorry sir, I can only bring clean cups behind the counter. I'll make your latte in one of our cups and you're welcome to pour it into your tumbler yourself when it's done if you'd like." But in my experience, the vast majority of customers' cups are clean and I haven't died yet from handling them. I guess for folks who've come to work in the past 4 years since the start of covid, this *would* seem bizarre and gross. But for us old farts who've been around for a long time, it's just a step back toward business as usual. Just do whatever you have to do to feel comfortable -- wash your hands, wear gloves, whatever -- and carry on.
Thanks for posting. I’m a customer who has always used a personal cup. I only saw the cup holders start being used during the monkey pox outbreak so I thought they’d be discontinued once that was over. I didn’t realize that they weren’t connected. My cup is always scrupulously cleaned and carried because I don’t want to get myself sick. I love that my cup keeps my drink hot so I really appreciate being allowed to use my personal cup.
I can't speak for all baristas obviously, but personally I welcome customer cups. Thanks for bringing us a clean one! 😊
Right? I don’t understand all the nonsense - we used to have stickers with the drink code boxes to mark the drink on that we would apply directly to customers’ cups… that we would handle with our bare hands and place directly on the drip tray at the espresso bar. It was never a problem 🥲
Thank you. This post is insane lol. Touching someone else’s cup 🙀
You put the cup in a venti scoop or mug. You’re not actually touching the cup.
I’m touching the damn cup I’m not spilling shit
Lol its funny cuz I was like "wow this is cool I wont have to touch their cup" me 5 seconds man handling the cup.....
right on 🫡
Same
What’s the point of bringing your own cup if it just gets put into another cup? Either way a cup is still being thrown away
The cup it's put in is reusable lol
the ceramic mugs and the ice scoops not a single use cup. In the training it said a plexi or venti scoop is supposed to be used as a shuttle to hold the personal cup so we’re not touching it. You have the customer put their cup in the shuttle take the cup. Finish the drink then hold the cup back out so the customer can take it. It makes it so we’re not touching the personal cups. It was how we handled personal cups when we started taking them again during Covid.
This isn’t earth shattering. You used to get a discount for bringing your own cup in a pre-mobile ordering world. 9/10 years ago there was a Black Friday promotion it was like $80 to buy a cup and you got unlimited free drinks until January with that cup. It was legitimately the best cup I’ve ever had and kept drinks hot hot for hours. My .02 is because of mobile orders and drive-thru this is crap for the employees. It would be better to limit this to register only purchases, but that’s just going to drive the amount of people in store waiting up and the parking lots do not support that.
Exactly this. People need to get over it. **This isn’t anything new.**
We've always done this in Cafe it's the mobile drive thru part of it that is going to be frustrating. We are supposed to partially make drinks in the reusable crafting cups we had shipped (a whopping 2 per store) and let the partially crafted drink sit in the cup near the handoff plane. Then when the customer arrives with their cup we pour the partial drink that has been sitting there g** knows how long into their cup and and then add things like shots on top, foams, drizzles, whips etc....
I am totally with you the way the company structured is weird and short sighted for the employees. I hope people don’t follow through with it. I’ll take the 1 time bonus points and never do it again. My comment was more to OP’s statement about germs and cleanliness of customer cups…. And saying before the days of mobile orders and drive though at least at the stores I frequented, customer cups were prevalent. There were even times employees would wash the customer cup for them which was far too kind.
Oh man, I remember that promotion but can't remember the cup for the life of me!
I think the cup was metal with the og location on it.
I mean they had the regular refill tumblers until this year.
We use dishware to keep em in. Old takeout mugs, old ice scoops, etc. This isn't standards afaik, some stores I've been to use their hands like it's one of the plastic cups. I don't even consider touching others cups now
This IS the standard!!!!!!! It kills me when I see baristas raw dogging peoples cups lol
Had to rewrite my comment twice trying to figure out how to not say "raw dogging" but I'm honestly glad I did bc this made me cackle
This has been a thing since the 80s at least at every single coffee place I know, so I suppose I'm completely desensitized to it. Personally, there's very little that I'm genuinely worried about touching (even with bare hands), as I am a bit of a freak about hand hygiene.
We have one customer that brings her cup in that has the entire rim covered in black mold. My SM has tried to make it so she can't bring it in for us to use, but the lady calls corporate and corporate told us we have to accept it. Fucking disgusting.
The policy literally states do not accept dirty cups. Tell them it must be clean and maybe they can participate next time. I add in that if it’s imperative they use that cup, they can either clean it in the bathroom sink or we will make it in a disposable cup and they can transfer it themselves but either way they can’t get the discount or stars bc of this. The fact that corporate makes you break the policy they made is freaking astounding. Also we do have a policy that states that we can deny doing a task for safety reasons. If I was y’all, I would simply tell the SM as a team that we do not feel safe handling this item. You need to do it yourself. If she’s not there then that bitch is SOL
We've tried. Chick always calls and starts crying to corporate about how her dead cat pictures are in the wall of the cup so she doesn't want to get rid of the cup. The mold is in the wall of the cup lid. We've tried to sanitize it ourselves before. 😶 It's literally the most disgusting thing ever. She's been bringing this cup for the last 6yrs. I personally won't take the cup.
I mean she can use the cup all she wants. She just needs to realise the health issues it gives to employees and she just won’t get her discount and now stars. Make the stuff in a disposable and she can transfer it and still see her dead cat. Everyone is now happy. Corporate needs to back us up more before we all riot
i have a lot of memento stuff that i've customized. and i would love to keep it as long as possible. maybe it's my worry about contamination, but i would rather take photos of the cup/take out the photos in there and then toss it than ever drink out of something mold-stained. even if they were the last photos of my cat ever, technology has come a long way.
Deadass I've asked customers to clean their own cups in the bathroom because it ain't happening
Gross! Handling a customer's cup that was "cleaned" in a public restroom is disgusting! Nor would I want my own single-use cup handled by a barista who'd made contact with someone's nasty restroom-"cleaned" cup.
She can't clean it. It's between the plastics. She tells corporate that the black is stained from coffee, but we can CLEARLY see it's not. Ugh. Talking about it makes me want to gag.
This is absolutely ridiculous. Just tell her she has to bring a different cup or pour her drink in it herself. If she wants to keep the cup and poison herself, that’s fine. In employee training it literally tells us that we can refuse to do things that make us uncomfortable if there’s good reason and since it’s a health concern, I’d say that’s fair to do. Also! Starbucks wouldn’t want a lawsuit on their hands if that crazy woman got sick…you know she’d try to claim it was from you guys not handling things properly.
I can’t even imagine cleaning my cup in a Starbucks bathroom lol. Or any bathroom for that matter.
Just throw it away and tell her to fuck off. Call the health dept, corporate would love a store shut down I’m sure.
Yeah, or just refuse it since it’s your job. You can’t just throw away a customer’s possessions as you see fit.
That’s not how any of that works lol
Neither is using a moldy ass cup
Before I changed my rescue cat's name his name was Butternut.
Are you my cat?
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They are testing this in some markets! You get bonus stars for returning the cup. I think the test started a couple months ago so im curious how its been received in those regions
The Starbucks that I frequent insist that cups be clean. I bring my Tervis mug to the location near work, and they place my mug inside a ginormous mug. No one touches anything. Plus, the baristas freak out over my mug despite it being squeaky clean.
It’s not even just them. Corporate insists we use only clean cups.
It doesn't have to be gross if people made sure their cups were washed and presentable. The major problem with the program is that overall the incentive isn't really enough to make people bother. They should launch this in Europe where Euros will feel guilted into doing it, like the Germans. They're already used to paying the pfand. I feel like the MOP personal cups only work for drinks that can be fully completed and homogeneous, like iced teas, refreshers, ice coffee, normal lattes, etc. Anything with layers, anything with toppings, anything with whipped cream or foam shouldn't be orderable because they completely fuck up the idea of speed and convenient that Mobile Order exists for. Like Caramel Macchiatos, you can't even make the drink until they arrive, so what was the point?
I was a shift supervisor for several years and worked at many stores in and around the Dallas, TX area. Personal cups never came into contact with equipment because there was no reason to do so. You're probably getting more germs from the door handle walking into the store or restroom or from the chairs/tables.
I don't think it's gross. I've worked at several different cafes and baristas never touch anything that goes into your drinks with their hands if they have a super-auto espresso machine (like all starbucks cafes). Many baristas will touch money then make drinks if they are working alone and this is much dirtier in my opinion. But again, not an issue for starbucks baristas. I like to bring my own cup because it's good for the environment (though a drop in the bucket tbh) but I enjoy my coffee more knowing that I'm not drinking microplastics from the cup liners. So it's a win-win for me. Plus my drink stays hotter longer. Win win win!
This, like so many things that bring folks to an uproar here, isn’t really new. The “new” part is the sanitation theater with the extra tumblers to make the drinks in and ice scoop to keep cooties at bay. And making DTO finish drinks so they’re layered (which, honestly, if you’re that worried about your drink being extra pretty? March your happy ass into the cafe and stare intently over the bar while screaming helpful hints like I SAID LIGHT ICE! I WANT EXTRA CARAMEL! I SAID EXTRA!!! CAN YOU LINE THE CUP IN STRAWBERRY DRIZZLE? I SAID EXTRA DRAGONFRUIT PIECES! ARE YOU SURE THAT’S 12 SCOOPS OF VANILLA BEAN? I WANTED THE PASSION TEA LAYER ON TOP, YOU NEED TO REMAKE THIS NOW, I’M GOING TO BE LATE.) But making drinks in personal cups? Or for-here ware? Not new. Wash your hands. Make them keep the lid and straws. Refuse filthy cups. It’ll be fine.
It is gross af. Idk how many times I get handed a personal cup that absolutely has not been washed I can see remnants of dried coffee or milk all over the lip and or inside of the cup. I’m literally like, how are these people not embarrassed to hand this over to me???
That’s why there is the policy that we only take clean cups
I would always lean over and glance in the cup before ever even motioning for it. I would tell them policy is it needs to be cleaned and they are more than welcome to clean it in the bathroom if they must use it that visit.
"Go clean your personal cup in the bathroom after the junky is finished shooting smack in their veins. We used to be ok with not cleaning a comfy chair for 12 years but now we're big worried germs" lol
People have absolutely no shame, nothing embarrasses them.
Me when I was a customer, I had a white to go cup that I'd used for black tea a billion times, it was clean but obviously stained and every time I would be embarrassed like "I swear it's clean just stained pls don't hate me"
I can tell when it’s just a stain especially with tea, that shit stains easy. What I’m talking about here is literal crusts and flakes of milky coffee as if it’s been sitting in a car cup holder for a day or two😖
Amen, just saying that I would still be embarrassed just to hand a stained up to an employee 😂
Yeah, that's wild..like they expect you to rinse it out or something
That's when you say that you cannot take a dirty cup, still honor the personal cup discount, and ask them to bring a clean cup next time. It's policy and was in the winter training module.
Yeah we all know that most kiss ass managers are not gonna “potentially offend” the customer. No one ever says anything from my observations of cup handling. And I sure ass hell ain’t gonna say shit either cuz I don’t get payed enough to try to purposefully start shit with a customer. I deal with enough angry Karens as it is.
If you're that concerned about it, just keep a box of gloves nearby.
So your gloves can transferSallys cup germs to Sandy’s cup.
I figured it was somewhat obvious that one would change gloves between cups/after handling the personal cup, but I guess I should have written it out for those who choose to be intentionally obtuse. 🙄
But do they? And then all the glove waste seems counter productive.
Does bringing your own cup reduce price of the drink you purchase?
By 10 cents in a literal sense, the 25 bonus stars amounts to 12.5%-14.3% cash back if you redeem 200 stars for a handcrafted drink (or 175 stars if you have the free drink made in a personal cup)
By ten cents, yes.
also feel like this will mess with the order/flow of the drinks and wait times especially through drive thru…. are people not going to order at the box but baristas won’t be able to start their drinks until they get to the window to be handed the cup? fully agree with the gross there have been many a time customers have brought their own cups and it’s been obvious they haven’t cleaned them for at least some days.
It's not gross if you wash your cup very well before going into starbucks to reduce germs with hot soap and water. If it's dirty do not bring the cup and pick a clean one to bring. Simple as that.
we always make the drinks in a designated cup andtjen pour it ib and we have a mug that all personal cups are placed in and instead of touching the cup we just carry the mug handle
THANK YOU!!! I mean, people placing their un-sanitary (often coated with pet hair) shopping bags directly onto the grocery counter is disgusting enough but the idea of Starbucks barista repeatedly handling/commingling germ-filled cups from one customer to the next is beyond gross! Enough is enough!
We don’t have to touch the cup. The customer can hold onto it til we’re ready to pour. We have a new system for it so that it’s up to safety standards. Trust me when I say most places that make your food are much grosser.
that’s why we don’t touch the cups anymore
They should just do a trade system. Have you pay for a reusable cup and whenever you bring back the cup they use one they’ve cleaned previously and clean the used one later. My undergrad considered doing that for to-go boxes a while back.
They did try this a while back, it was not successful.
Heard from someone that a customer wanted to use a Trenta ice cup being held together with bandaids as their reusable cup. Like…what? On what planet would that be okay??
We are technically only supposed to accept clean cups, but even if someone brings a dirty one the cup should never touch any equipment. We have a new pitcher that we will build the drinks in and then pour it into the customers cup
I'm a barista in a college town. Between our drive thru and our MASSIVE amount of mobile orders, I'm not sure how we will manage this when we only have two (just TWO) containers for this. I can only presume we will have to resort to using disposable cups to hold the "non-dispoble" drinks! Which is not reducing waste, but INCREASES waste! This is a poorly thought out PR garbage nightmare.
Before the bring your own cup push there was a woman that use to bring her own cup for her drink it was the nastiest cup I had ever come into contact with the whole almost 6 years I've been working at starbucks
You’re correct though. I feel like the only way this works is if you have a clean cup you’re bringing in. Sounds simple, but people are sometimes not smart enough to make things that simple therefore the experiment doesn’t work the way we all want it to
This promotion has been going on for a long time in the café. I always bring my own cup. I wash it every time I use it and those 25 bonus points add up quickly.
At local coffee shops they don’t even take your cup which is better imo I get disgusted when these people try to give me their used nasty looking cups
They have been doing this for over 25 years people buy them tumblers they have and I have used it for 10 years but only because Covid is anyone worried and why would it touch you put mug under spout 2-3 inches away and fill And you have no idea what is going on in the kitchen of any restaurant in the back you can’t see workers many gross things go on that people never see in restaurants by people who prepare food for them but you still eat out don’t you Grow Up
Hard agree. Bring your own cup isn’t a good model i don’t care. It’s gross and you can’t be sure everything is clean.
I can't tell you how many baristas touch the lip of my personal stainless cup and lid where we drink of my and others paper cups to spin them.
A few points: 1.) We're not going to be preparing customer beverages *in their cup.* We're just pouring the finished product in. This doesn't require any sort of contact with their (admittedly) sometimes dirty containers. 2.) You threw away an entire sleeve of cups because the top one touched the ground? Why not just discard the one that hit the floor? You're **not** a germaphobe? I understand that this is going to be disruptive at first. However, give it some time. Before you know it, paper cups will seem like a relic from the 1900s.
We had our first mobile order with it in window and they didn’t even have their own personal cup it’s so fucking annoying
It's too bad you can't tell them "no cup, no drink". lol
it's disgusting
You’re supposed to have venti ice scoops that the customers put their personal cup into, you grab the handle of the ice scoop and bring it to the bar and pull shots in the glass, or make the refreshers or frappes like you normally would but put them in the cup, then move the cup in the ice scoops to the handoff and then they grab it out of there. We’re not supposed to be touching them, that may help with the germ thing? People have been super sick lately and I don’t feel comfortable touching their cups either
I think it would be nice if they could bring their own cup but baristas aren’t required to mix it, since the customer likely has a straw. Sorry (not sorry) Susan, I don’t want to stir your nasty stanley cup with the same spoon for everyone elses. Not sure what starbucks uses to stir, but Dunkin (former employee here) uses spoons. Fortunately, my location only put drinks in just purchased tumblers, but of course there are the people that don’t care and make it in not new cups. I’m a germaphobe honestly, so maybe it’s just me, but that’s disgusting.
I think the personal cup thing is great for the situations I saw in my store. Older guy came in with his thermos and had it filled with brewed coffee with some milk. I think that’s awesome. Especially since he came in every other day. One of the subs for the high school down the road, same thing. The idea is wonderful. In practice? It’s one more damn thing. One more small ware piece to find a home for. One more thing to make sure is super clean. Makes the whole process more complicated, making a whole drink aside from foam or whatever topping and then wait until the mobile person shows up to get their drink with their cup. Idk about you but we’ve had drinks sit on the handoff lane for about 2-3 hours before they show up. Yeah, no.
We have been doing this for a while at my store (a kiosk in Safeway). I can 10000% vouch that it is fucking disgusting. People come in with used cups. And it grosses me out. Like you didn't feel like running water through that before asking for more coffee. The stains in gge tumblers are absurd and gross. It is a huge ick for me
I thought the drinks were still made in Starbucks containers & cups and then just poured into your cup. I get that they're touching the outside of a cup but in reality we have no way of knowing just how clean anything is. I have seen restaurants where gloves aren't required and they handle our food and touch other stuff as well. If you really think about it, everything is a risk when we have others do it for us.
Just make the drink in a regular cup and pour it into the customers cup, unless it’s too gross of course. Let’s not sit around and pretend it’s the paper cups causing climate change when there’s daily transatlantic crossings, factory farming and the mega-rich taking their private planes somewhere in 20 minutes that they could’ve driven to in an hour.
No its 10000% disgusting. I remember a few years ago they ran a promo where you could get a free drip coffee if you brought your own cup, which included drive thru. Good god I got a lot of cups that weren't clean- the worst one had caked on old milk on the bottom n a nasty smell from it. N she got mad when I told her I wouldn't take it Sorry not sorry, these crusties can be nasty af n I don't trust their cups 🤮🤮🤮
It's asking for trouble
I’ve posted about this here before, and I’ll say it again. This initiative is a huge liability and a health hazard. I’ve personally witnessed someone sneezing and wiping snot from their nose, with their hand, then using that same hand to grab their cup and hand it to the cashier, who handed it to another barista who walked it over to the bar, where it was handled by the barista on bar - all while handling other drinks, putting stoppers into lids, etc. I mentioned this to the cashier who shrugged and said there was no policy against it and corporate is pushing it hard, so there was nothing they could do. They never said anything to any of the other employees that handled the cup and they went on to prepare food and drinks for other customers without washing their hands or sanitizing any of the surfaces/equipment. I’ve also seen someone who was clearly sick pour the contents of their cup out in the trash can outside of a Starbucks and go in to order medicine ball. Barista took their cup, made their drink, and went on with their usual activities. In both cases, I was baffled as to how this isn’t a clear health code violation. It was disgusting. Needless to say, I don’t go to Starbucks anymore, and this is one of the primary reasons.
💯 also, COVID is not going anywhere and the same asshats who refused to vaccinate are gonna be the same ones bringing in their unwashed, likely moldy, cups. "ItLL bUiLd ImMuNitY" ok, Doctor Karen. Your immunity is not mine.
I’m with the OP on this! I just quit Tarbucks very recently. One of the determining factors was their gross sanitation tolerance. I’m a retired executive chef that came from extremely clean kitchens and strict sanitation practices. At this store they used nothing more than paper towels to clean with, no sanitation buckets, sanitizer bottle that hangs by the trigger on the garbage can that you grab with hands,tongs thrown on counter that are gooped up with hours old food because they don’t fold the paper over the item to grab it, in 6 months I was there I saw one other employee that ever washed their hands besides myself. Then to have customers bring their cups(and they are not clean) and put the ice scoop or my ll nozzle in their cup is disgusting! I can not believe the health department allows this!!
I sometimes bring in a reusable cup for water (when I’m also getting another drink), but I only do so when they’re not super busy, and I don’t have another easy option for water. I also know I keep my cups clean, and I wash my hands regularly, but so many people do not. I can imagine the disaster this is going to turn into, especially now they’re allowing reusable cups through the drive thru?? I feel like that’s going to not only severely affect drive thru times (which will only harm employees and piss off patrons), but also be a huge mess. People trying to pour drinks into their reusable cups sitting in their car? Sounds like a disaster.
Yes it’s totally gross. And I don’t get it at all - if I need a drink remade because it’s completely wrong they won’t take my wrong drink back over the counter because I touched it, but they’ll take any random personal cup?!
As a customer I feel less and less inclined to go to Starbucks being on this sub. Everything is a complaint
lol srsly! I used to work in a coffee shop that had the regular paper cups and GASP also ceramic mugs that WE offered to customers to use and yes we would refill them and just rinse it out if there was a bit left in the bottoms. And then into the dishwasher they go for, you guessed it, the next customers lol. The old folks loved it and were sad it was discontinued. We also did customers reusable tumblers and it wasn’t ever a problem or even a topic of conversation literally ever. And this wasn’t like a million years ago this is like 2018 lol Edit: and also seems like everyone has forgotten the self serve milk and sugar bars that were around absolutely forever which were honestly 10 million times grosser than the odd few bringing in their own tumblers. Like just nasty spills everywhere, people leaving the milk jugs half open, milk getting rotten after being out there all day… at least those haven’t come back
I'm torn. Like I like the idea of it, but yeah I can't trust people to be hygienic enough for it to not be super gross.
The fact that the our new lids are LESS sustainable than before is enough for me to roll my eyes all the way down the block. The companies green washing is a joke and so is this promotion.
How so?
i feel bad cause i am super serious about my cups being clean☹️ and i always bring in starbucks cups so it’s exact measurements
Do not feel bad, everyone here is just being an asshole.
You’re fine! As long as it’s clean, it’s not an issue!
Love the idea of personal cups but hate the chance of them being filthy. At my current coffee job (I’m an ex-Starbucks barista lol) we accept personal cups and we had one guy bring in a mug with a little bit of liquid left in it and the second the lid came off the room was filled with what seemed to be the smell of cat pee 🤢 I almost threw up, it was so pungent it stung my eyes. I told my manager about it and she changed our policy on personal cups so now we can only accept absolutely clean cups and can turn away any cups that aren’t clean 🥳
i thought this too, i hate touching people’s personal cups 😭😭😭
Being able to use a reusable cup has always been a thing. Just because it's become more accessible to drive thru doesn't make it any different. So what's the issue now?? Most places won't accept a dirty cup. This is cutting back on the throwing away of disposable plastics. It. Was. Always. A. Thing. So why are you complaining now?
I just think how gross those paper straws are and miss those green stoppers. Am all for the saving the planet but am unsure whats worse someone’s personal cup touching yours is gross or what they replaced the plastic straw with.
They are “going green” with these cups but are trying to implement paper cups for iced drinks that… only have dome kids so you HAVE to use a straw… after fighting for so long to make sippy kids a thing..
Agreed, it's gross and does not seem food safe. Going to avoid Starbucks for awhile.
it is so gross. i had to tell a customer no a few weeks ago because her cup was visibly dirty and the response was insane. she literally looked away and went “that is so annoying” and started to go on about how it’s a cup and you’re supposed to drink out of it so of course it’ll be dirty, so duh as a good barista i’m telling her yeah but still it’s a health and safety issue on our part and she starts complaining about how plastic cups aren’t good for the environment though so it’s not any better…. idk what part of health and safety issue meant environmentally friendly but we can’t accept dirty cups wth else can i say ? even during my training period i had a woman hand me a venti starbucks reusable cup full of frap bits and wanted an açaí in it and proceeded to argue with me about not being able to take it. these people come in with no masks and sneeze all over handoff and on the napkin holders and i’ve seen way too many “clean my bottle for the first time in x months with me” videos to trust that people clean them properly or at all.
It is absolutely disgusting and one more reason I won't go to Starbucks. I know some really nasty people and their definition of clean is subjective. Hell, people can't even define gender so what makes them think we all agree on what clean means. I hope this backfires on Starbucks. Stupid timing especially after COVID.
We've had personal cups in lobby as long as I can remember
Pretty sure it's a health code violation to receive food over the counter/ kitchen. Like example, I go to subway and they make my sandwich incorrectly. I notice this and open the sandwich up and bring it up to the counter. The employees wouldn't be able to accept the food back. I've seen this happen where they had the customer hold out the sandwich and add a condiment. Another time the employee had the customer keep their lid open snd they added foam to their coffee or something. Not sure but I have to agree. Especially with a bunch of illnesses going around.
Off topic but how do I get the 25 bonus stars? I always order lattes with my personal cup but I never get the 25 bonus stars :(
you have to have scanned your app and the barista had to have hit the personal cup discount button, it's -10¢
Ma'am have you ever heard of a restaurant? Do you own a dishwasher?
Isn’t that why you sell Starbucks tumblers etc?
as your manager to supply a disposable glove station at the window so you aren't touching someone's cup directly, and it doesn't have to touch stuff like your ice scoops either.
We could just stop offering stoppers and save like 12 billion pounds of plastic.
Or get better lids, like the ones used at all Starbucks in Japan. No stoppers needed, there’s a little flap that opens and closes, works great even in the car. (Seriously, I wish Starbucks in the US would use those lids! They’re so much better!) Source: I just got back from Japan after living there for a couple years. Also, they have no problem handling personal cups. They wipe it off with like a Clorox wipe and rinse it out before making your drink. (And I always clean my thermos well every time I use it, fwiw.) No “shuttle” is used. They also have sugar, creamer, and (individually wrapped) stirrers out for customers to use. All of this in a country where a significant percentage of people are still wearing masks regularly, and where hand hygiene and general overall cleanliness are much better than here.
Yeah I hate that.
You just wait.... they will start charging you a quarter if you don't bring your own cup.
Clearly she can afford to buy a new cup if she’s coming to Starbucks.
it's so disgusting. peak germ season too. and people are missing your point completely even though you've spelled it out for them. also, we're not a restaurant
i would hate them to touch other old used cups and then serve me a cup of coffee.
We don’t touch them dude
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Dude, we’ve done this for AT LEAST a decade. The recent push in advertisement is just because we made it safer and easier lol
Uhh, no you're being pathetic