Passing the ‘bucks

As you can see from this photo (from Joe Clark’s Flickr, via Leslieville.org), my little corner of Leslieville is inches away from having a new Starbucks.

Joe has a great site about this impending event, and my neighbours are torn between being excited about drinking the coffee and being excited about the implications to their property values. Hurray… Leslieville can now overcharge for both!

I’d better brush up on my lingua barista, though. I went to the Starbucks by CBC today, and the woman in front of me ordered the following (and this is verbatim):

One tall no-fat sugar-free vanilla latte extra hot no whipped cream

And the guy behind the counter (I guess he’d be a barista, but wouldn’t the male term be baristo? Or is barista just pretend language?) repeated the order exactly, from memory, to the guy actually pouring the coffee. But that guy had to write furiously on the cup, spiraling around the thing twice.

Which makes me ask, what’s the point of this relay process anyhow? It seems to be particular to Starbucks. You say your order, and the cashier just says it again to someone else, who goes and makes it. Couldn’t I tell him or her directly, or couldn’t the person at the cash go get the coffee?

This seems to be an institutionalized version of the broken telephone game. Except the words are more complicated, and you have to drink the final product.

And overpay for it.

Posted by: Paul Gorbould | 11-20-2006 | 05:11 PM
Posted in: Apocalypse signs