My Chat with a Lovely Barista

Starbucks, July 22, 2008.

Screw “we don’t talk to the press.” I used my valuable insider connections to have barista Sean Glazebrook break that rule. Glazebrook is a buddy of Claes Brondal, the assistant manager and my former co-worker at the Bridgehampton Starbucks.

Glazebrook, a 22-year-old from Sag Harbor who has been working at the Bridgehampton Starbucks for 2 ½ years, is baffled as to why Starbucks has become such a worldwide phenomenon.

“I don’t understand how any coffee place could have grown to what (Starbucks) has become,” he said. Finally, an honest answer and not some regurgitated “money” phrase about why Starbucks coffee is as crucial as water.

Well, as a veteran barista, Glazebrook had to tack on some of that. “Starbucks is called your third place, after home and work,” he said.

Just because the Hamptons is the Hamptons, the Bridgehampton Starbucks is a hotbed for celebrity spottings.

Any yet seen by the barista this summer? “Jodie Foster was in here yesterday,” Glazebrook said nonchalantly. “And last week, we had Jerry O’Connell from the Sliders TV show.” Saturday Night Live actress Amy Poehler has also been seen a few times since the beginning of the summer, Glazebrook noted.

I asked the barista what he thought of the closing of 616 Starbucks nationwide. He noted that the number of stores closing amounts to only 8% of Starbucks stores around the country, and therefore will have little impact on the well-being of the company.

The small impact the cutback might have, however, would be most noticeable in the rural areas, Glazebrook said. “Places like this might suffer more than city stores,” he said, since there are Starbucks stores at nearly every couple of blocks in Manhattan, for example.

“It does affect the 12,000 baristas, though,” the barista said, who will be forced to re-locate to a different store or to find a new job altogether.

A neighboring store, the Southampton Starbucks, is one of the ones that will be closing soon. “Its underperformance is the reason why it’s closing,” said Glazebrook. “It didn’t exceed its standards.”

Glazebrook doesn’t think its closing will affect the Southampton community in any significant way. “It’s in such a bad location, right on Montauk Highway…which is why it wasn’t doing well,” he said. Glazebrook added that Starbucks would like to relocate on Main Street in Southampton in a few years’ time—if they find a preferable location, that is.

Any fear of the Bridgehampton store being closed? “No way,” said the barista. “We’re a high-volume store.”

And what about those new protein shakes? Where did those come from? “It’s a new beverage platform, ‘cause lots of customers and partners alike voiced concerns about healthier options (on the Starbucks menu),” Glazebrook said.

Ahh. So people are getting tired of filling their guts with several-hundred-calorie frappacinos.

Though introduced in the summer to help cool off customers, these new beverages will be offered throughout the year, depending on their success in the other seasons.

The two shakes offered on the East Coast—the orange mango banana vivanno and the banana chocolate vivanno—are doing extremely well so far in the Bridgehampton Starbucks, Glazebrook reported. They’ve been neck and neck since introduced to the menu—“the orange mango banana is doing slightly better, just ‘cause it’s so tasty,” the barista said.

The West Coast Starbucks chains are cutting down on the calories with the sorbettos, a healthy menu item comparable to the vivanno.

Frappacinos have taken their toll on the company in urban areas of the country. In New York, for example, all stores are required to post the ingredients of each item, which surely makes customers think twice about ordering their usual high-calorie beverage.

Glazebrook mentioned that the new city law has also affected the sales of food, especially the bakery items.
Hopefully the coffee chain won’t be swept up so much by the calorie-avoiding hype that it would evolve into one of those anal health food shops that won’t offer one iota of fat-filled snack or beverage. God help us, we have plenty of those places in this paranoid-of-calorie-consumption country.