The New Store

My store is finally opening this weekend! For those of you who don't know, I was hired to work at a brand new Starbucks, though there were some problems with the electricity and some permits, so the opening date was pushed back several weeks. In the meantime, I did my training and have since worked most of my shifts at the downtown West Palm store---as have most other baristas hired for the new store. Last we heard, it would possibly open on the 24th, but yesterday the city called my manager and told her the permits had gone through and the store was ready to open anytime. So she immediately called in for the shipments of all supplies and gathered the troops. We worked all day yesterday and today unpacking boxes, unloading supplies, putting things in their new homes, prepping the entire store... It's going on all week, until we open Saturday.

Yesterday I set up the espresso bar and the frappuccino area. Today I did the display shelves throughout the cafe. Tomorrow we're going to sanitize every single thing behind the counter. And Friday we'll receive the first shipment of milk and pastries, which means we'll be a fully functioning Starbucks!

It's been like putting together a huge 3-dimensional puzzle, because the supplies we got--including the display material--were all sent from Seattle of course, with strict guidelines about where everything goes and how it can be displayed. But everything comes scattered, disassembled, and not clearly labeled. So first we unpacked everything, then we checked the guidelines to determine what each little piece is and where it belongs (often it's a guess or process of elimination), then we assembled individual things that needed to be assembled, and finally we pulled it all together.

It's fun to know that long after I've moved on from that store, I will always be one of the few people who helped put it together and get it running.

Oh and seriously about every 10 minutes, some clueless looking person would wander in and go stand at the register and wait to order a drink and then look surprised and a little personally hurt when we told them we don't actually open til this weekend. (We had to keep the door unlocked for some construction people who were still wandering in and out occasionally.)

We are all so excited about the grand opening, because I think everyone is anxious to be in our own store, rather than trying to wedge ourselves in with people at the other store. They are awesome and I wish I could still work with some of them, but they all showed amazing patience and remained cool when they trained us while surrounded by about a million customers.

Oh I am so tired though, and I have another early morning tomorrow. Thank god for the fact that once we open, I can go back to my afternoon/night shift and sleep in later.