Reactionary

I hate when places I frequent start going bad. Take my once-favorite coffee shop half a block from the park. It used to be a great place to get a coffee drink, a bagel in the morning and a salad or sandwich in the afternoon. During the past few months or so, I noticed that my favorite baristas and cashiers had gone and new people were in their place. I understand that places like coffee shops aren’t often where people seek to work for the rest of their lives so staff turns over frequently. But in this regard, all the people who used to work there were knowledgeable, friendly, and got you what you’d ordered. No more.

This new bunch is surly, rude, speechless to customers, and incapable of filling an order accurately and quickly. The Arctic Mocha I ordered today encapsulates the whole thing. The cashier didn’t credit me a coffee on my frequent buyer card and looked like he was having one of many bad days. The barista girl took forever to get my order probably because she forgot about it and left it sitting there on the back counter until I reminded her, plusly, the mocha was a size too small and she crammed the glass so full, it was running out of the top and sides. I didn’t even correct her on the wrong size thing. I left and had it in the park even if it sucked because there wasn’t enough ice crushed into it. It’s a nice spring day and I celebrated a wake for the demise of my once-favorite coffee shop. I’ll never go there again. I’d rather go to the Starbucks or the other branch of the local chain that’s farther away.

It’s sad, really. I spent many mornings and afternoons there on days off reading or working when I was in my creative phase. Urchins 1-4 came to be there. No more. A moment of silence, please.

Posted on May 7th, 2007 under Life •  Print •  Email • RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback