Typical Starbucks

Today, I find myself at the nearby airport ready to travel to Texas. I have arrived extremely early for my flight, and have been sitting by a busy Starbucks drinking a typical Chai Tea Latte. Immediately, I take interest in the woman working behind the counter. She looks to be about sixty-five years of age, and she is wearing a black button-down shirt and black pants with a Starbucks apron over her. When I spoke with her to order my drink, I tried to talk to her in a chipper voice because she had a mean look on her face. Her voice sounded tired and strained, probably from having to get up so early to make coffee everyday. Looking at her face, I noticed something particularly odd. She had a pretty thick mustache growing around her mouth for a woman. I wondered why that was there and why she was capable of growing so much facial hair. And I knew she was a woman because of her high-pitched voice, and her stature. When she put the cup on the counter, I made sure to wish her a good day, but she did not say anything back. She just turned around and started to wash the dishes without even looking at me in the eye. I pondered what it would be like to have to work at a busy Starbucks every day. Getting up extremely early and probably not making much more than minimum wage. I picked a seat near the Starbucks so I could continue studying her. Because it was so early in the morning, business seemed slow. Even though there was not much business at first, the woman clearly still had jobs to do. She washed dishes including blenders, and metal measuring cups. I was surprised to see she was the only person working, probably because the morning shift must be the slowest shift. A few costumers did stop by here and there, mostly women ordering fancy coffee drinks. Each time, the woman was not personal with the customers and she looked very unhappy to be there.

I noticed that she was very good at her job besides dealing with the customers. She made the drinks with ease. She never had tor refer to recipe or a guide at all, and she was very good at using all of the machines. By ten o’clock, a second worker came and joined her as more and more customers came through. I saw a lot of mothers order drinks with small children by their side. These were the ones that would order tall skinny lattes. While men tended to order larger drinks such as a grande Americano. I saw one person order the legendary Venti drink; it should be illegal to drink that much coffee. He was a tall teenage boy with dark brown hair, wearing tan pants and a button down flannel. When he walked away with the largest cup of coffee that I have ever seen, he looked extremely pleased with himself. I knew that there was no way he could finish all of that coffee, and that he was going to have a very uncomfortable plane ride.