In response to Starbucks in-app offers of four drinks for $20, TikTok user @goofeechiwahh uploaded a skit showing how he thinks the coffee company’s frequent deals stress out employees. He also speculates the company promotes these deals due to profit losses.
In the video, the TikTok user portrays a frustrated Starbucks barista as ample customers order Frappuccinos using the four for $20 deal.
“Are you serious? I can’t do it bro,” he says. “I can’t do it with these deals.”
The creator speculates that Starbucks is promoting deals such as the four for $20 because of recent sales hits. The caption reads, “How Starbucks loves torturing their Baristas when [they’re] losing money.”
In April 2024, Starbucks announced that its sales had decreased by 4% globally over the last quarter. In North America, sales had decreased by 3%.
Both union and Palestine supporters have been boycotting Starbucks.
In October, the coffee company sued the Starbucks Workers United union for trademark infringement, claiming that the union shared a pro-Palestine post on X amid the Israel-Hamas conflicts.
According to AP News, the union removed the post in less than an hour, but Starbucks claimed to have received over 1,000 complaints about the post’s expression of Palestine solidarity.
The company did not want the union to continue to use its name and logo, and officials expressed that Starbucks does not have an official stance regarding Palestine and Israel.
Regardless, Palestine supporters started to boycott the popular coffee shop.
In a deleted Reddit post from eight months ago, a Palestine supporter wrote, “Starbucks is in the process of suing its Union Stores for speaking in support of the Palestinian liberation. If their horrendous business practices aren’t enough to deter you from spending your money, then let the SUPPORT OF GENOCIDE be enough.”
The poster is also referring to Starbucks employees suing the company for union-busting, as reported by USA Today.
In another deleted Reddit post from seven months ago, user @ghostymost2 pointed out that Starbucks was not on the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions boycott list.
“Starbucks doesn’t support Israel,” the user wrote. “Starbucks doesn’t even have stores in Israel. Calling people that drink starbucks ‘genocide supporters’ isn’t activism. There are legitimate reasons to dislike starbucks but it’s really baffling to make this your issue.”
Starbucks house rules under fire
In the comment section of @goofeechiwahh’s TikTok, Starbucks is also catching flack for some of its policies.
The TikTok shows an upset shift lead telling his employee to not “double-blend” or “batch” the Frappuccinos.
The Wall Street Journal confirmed that Starbucks baristas cannot make more than one drink at a time in 2010—even if they’re the same flavor.
Many commenters expressed confusion over Starbucks’ no batching policy.
“Starbucks says it takes away from the quality,” one commenter explained.
“I don’t double blend,” a Starbucks employee wrote. “Idgaf if I’m being rushed. There’s a taste difference.”
“Double blending/batching is the only thing that gets me through it,” another employee commented.
While the video portrayed a shift lead sticking to the store policies, other employees shared their differing experiences.
“Had a manager tell me she’d write us up for batching fraps,” one Starbucks employee said. “My next manager during BOGO was like, ‘What are you doing? Blend them together!!!’”
“If my shift lead came for me for batching some flavor fraps I’d literally walk off the floor and make her do it,” another shared.
As for the deals, Starbucks employees shared similar frustrations to the barista in the TikTok.
“It’s worse than BOGO,” one Starbucks employee said about the four for $20 deal.
“The four for 20 trying to do solo bar was hell,” another commented. “You cannot catch up.”
At the end of the TikTok, the barista quits.
@goofeechiwahh 4 for 20? Lmfaoo they desperate #fyp #foryou #foryoupage #viral #comedy #funny #actor #acting #goofychiwah #antwanthebarista #customer #relatable #barista #starbucksbarista #starbucks #mexes #losangeles #disney #disneyland #fypシ゚viral #xzybca #makemefamous ♬ original sound – Antwandabarista
“I literally just quit my Starbucks after two weeks,” a former employee wrote. “Too stressful, wasn’t worth the anxiety!”
Starbucks and TikTok user @goofeechiwahh did not immediately respond to the Daily Dot’s requests for comments.
