Starbucks Defined

Good morning... What can I get for you?

It's Friday! And like all Fridays should be we're gonna keep it fun. Many of you out there are aware that there are some words at Starbucks that are unique to them. Frappuccino®, Christmas Blend®, Coffee®, etc...

Today, we'll look at some others...

10 Minute Rule: A store must open up 10-minutes prior to the posted time and stay open 10-minutes later than the posted time. It also refers to the minimum amount of time that an SSC partner must be late to meetings at the SSC.

Exploring Other Opportunities: Quitting.

Promotion to Customer: Fired or quitting depending on the origination of the promotion.

Re-evaluating the partner's contribution to Starbucks: Partner on an Action Plan and most likely on the way to being "Promoted to Customer". Also can be phrased "Re-evaluating the partner's contribution to "The Mission".

Clopener: Working the close and then the open.

Marking out pastries: Using the register to take pastries out of inventory while simultaneously choosing one for lunch tomorrow.

Lunch Program: Whatever the Food/Marketing folks can guess is what people want to eat on any given day.

Markout: Whatever a partner wants but doesn't want to pay for.

"Just say YES": The golden rule with customer service... Give the store away.

Uncle Howie: reference to Howard Schultz

Uncle Jim: reference to Jim Donald

Why Bother: Venti, half-decaf, non-fat, latte... with 1 Equal® and 1/2 Sweet-n-Low®

Fireball: Any drink over the standard 165 degree temp (e.g. Tall Latte 200 degrees)

Siren's Eye: Instructions for setting up too much product. Created to prevent store managers from messing up the beautiful displays of products that looked great on the sample wall in Marketing during the Holiday Road Show.

Freebar: Another use for the condiment bar at Starbucks. (e.g. customer orders 2 shots in a Venti cup with ice... fills it up with milk from the Freebar)

Siren's Tale: A newspaper used for reporting the decline of tenured partners.

Mermaid's Lagoon: A child care center that's subsidized for corporate partners so they can spend more time working on things that don't have a business driver.

Global: Not to be confused with International, this refers to an attempt at centralizing an operation or business unit.

Fruit Fly: The "State Bird" of every Starbucks store...

I'm sure you have some good ones as well... Did anyone else notice the short-lived attempt of Starbucksgossip to "moderate" comments? I guess they figured out that the posting would drop off reducing their participation rate. Have a good weekend. We'll see you on Monday for your usual.

Pat Nerr...