Well hey! Maybe they'll actually know how to make a proper cup of coffee now! lol While they're at it, perhaps they can stop taking preexisting drink names and using them for completely different things.

A hopeless cause!

The world will grind to a halt! LOL!

That is weird. Starbucks is SO weird!

I hope they start adding more espresso to their drinks w/out the charge...compared to other places, they are stingy with my beloved espresso!

Couldn't they just rotate the employees and have them train at different times and keep the shop open?

I don't get this. I mean, I get re-training, but being a barista at Starbucks is nothing like actually being a barista anymore. All they really do is warm the milk up (they lost the art of steaming and getting good foam a LOOOOONG time ago!) and press a button for how many shots they want. They don't press the grounds and pull a shot anymore, so what is there to train on?

I'm a big Starbucks fan, but they sure need to get back to basics. And they need more than 3 hours of retraining to get back what they've lost. The lattes are incredibly inconsistent, lots of burned coffee to go around, and the chocolate powder is scarcer than the antiboiotics were for Anthrax.

Starbucks has grown way too much and has lost its whole original concept in the process. The comfy seating with lowlights is gone, only to be replaced by flourescent lighting and sleek uncomfortable seating - I guess to get us to leave sooner.

I also love the way their whole business is based on giving us beverages, yet the bathrooms in many of them are beyond vile. I don't know what people are doing in there, but the people cleaning aren't doing too good a job. NO one ever thinks of cleaning the back of the door, which is steel and looks just disgusting.

I probably won't notice, but my friend will be in withdrawal!

"sleek uncomfortable seating - I guess to get us to leave sooner."

Well sure, that *is* basic fast-food restaurant decor, it comes as no surprise.

a) If you can't live without Starbucks for 3 hours you're either Britney Spears or you've got a problem. Or, erm....both.

b) If you find yourself in need of a coffee shop during that time period, go visit a local one! I promise the prices will be slightly cheaper and the coffee and ambiance will probably be better!

Maybe in that three hours they can learn to make a good two-pump, no whip, nonfat mocha.

I swear, for the $3.50 I spend each time, maybe 60% are good ones.

bethany,

Couldn't agree with you more about both points! As for local shops, they are so much more enjoyable. One of my favorites is a no-frills woman-owned business in Minneapolis. They have an old, ratty couch smack dab in the middle of the place, and the rest of the decor is mix-and-match. But the staff is always wonderfully friendly, they have WUNNERFUL joe, and they have a good-sized corkboard where customers can tack up pictures of their spoiled-rotten pets!

Not a fan of the Starbucks since they built a store right in front of my friends coffee shop!! They have done this tatic in many cities and they even forced out some small business owners from stip malls as they thought they were going to be compition.
The lady sold donuts in the AM for like 4 hours, NO compition!!

Plus they have those Target stores and they put them in a local chain of grocery stores. They don't know wha their doing most of the time and I hear lots of negative feed back about those shops.
Maybe they need to spend some time training those people too..

SUPPORT your local coffee shops! Maybe this will help some peole try something new?

IaBlMeanie - When Starbucks opens next to a local store, the majority of the time the local store's business increases. Very few of the local stores actually close, but they are well publicized.
http://www.slate.com/id/2180301

I hate Starbucks.

I hope the barrista at the Washington DC Union Station Starbucks get extra training.

aukward

Haha! Whatever shall we do with ourselves for coffee??!

personally the only time i ever go into a starbucks if i'm with a friend who needs their coffee fix and i buy a milk when i'm there lol.

i also don't really drink coffee so this 'crisis' will not bother me in the least.

It seems like Starbucks expanded too quickly, and is now floundering. Now they're trying to do all sorts of things to keep their business, like increasing wi-fi service, selling liquor, and these high profile re-trainings (you're right, RosaDilia, there's more efficient ways to do trainings... this is clearly for publicity).

Starbucks is selling booze???

I agree, it's definitely a publicity event to remind to customers about high company standards and how the drinks are made the same nationwide.

Maybe they'll learn what a macchiato is. I always have to explain it.

Ahhh thankfully I stay far from le Starbucks! If I must have a frothy beverage, I hit one of the local coffee/chocolate shops - Chocology or Maison Blanc - and get a perfect cup every time!

anyone know if this is going to happen just in the U.S. stores or in canada too?

i drink Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf
so no worries for me!

i'm so happy to hear that i'm not the only one who can't stand starbucks.
the only reason people tolerate the mediocrity of starbucks coffee (and service) is because it's on every freaking corner or any city you go to.

oops, i meant OF every city...

Count me in the SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL COFFEE SHOP crowd. I work at a university, and we have a fabulous local coffee shop on the "main drag" a couple of blocks from my office. They opened a Starbucks right next door, and my favorite little coffee shop is doing even better than ever.

There is just a world of difference between a real, pulled shot of espresso and milk steamed properly and the push-button methods at some Starbucks. (Although I am very glad to see Starbucks getting sugar-free mocha syrup.)

If they weren't trying to draw attention to themselves, they would do this training some other way. So, I agree - it is a publicity stunt. Take the 3 hours and go look for a local coffee shop...They have better coffee, they usually know what they're doing, actually MAKE the drinks, and they need your support! I am a barista and also a manager at a local shop. Starbucks is seen as this huge coffee God, but in reality they don't know what they're doing or what the drinks even are.

BetseyRae,

Very true! My sister works at a coffee shop. One time this lady came in and asked for some drink and my sister made it and gave it to her and the lady complained that it wasn't like Starbucks! And my sister said, Well, this is how the drink is supposed to be made. But the lady kept complaining and so my sister had to add more milk and other stuff to it to make the lady happy! It was crazy (I was right there when it happened).