Can You Get Starbucks Menu Items at Independent Cafés?
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Image by marcopako , CC BY-SA 2.0, and @jorlala/TikTok

‘This is not Starbucks!’: Barista recounts her harrowing experience with customers who kept asking for items not available at her café

A viral video posted by TikTok creator Jordan, known online as @jorlala, has racked up more than 9 million views and nearly 9,300 comments as she details a frustrating back-and-forth with customers who seemed to think every coffee shop is a Starbucks, Daily Dot reported. Jordan’s account of the situation highlights just how confusing it gets when people walk into an independent café with a specific chain menu stuck in their heads.

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The trouble started when a man approached the counter and ordered roasted red pepper egg bites. Jordan had to break the news that her shop doesn’t carry that specific item, as it is a specialty found at Starbucks. Instead, she offered them a choice between an egg-white frittata and a bacon frittata.

The man didn’t seem to get the message and instead called his wife over to the counter. When the woman arrived, she doubled down and asked for the same egg bites. Jordan had to repeat herself, telling her, “Yeah, we don’t have red pepper roasted egg bites. That’s a Starbucks thing.”

Even after that direct explanation, the woman kept pressing for the item

Jordan tried again to offer the frittatas, but the customer remained undecided and clearly unhappy that she couldn’t get exactly what she wanted. The man eventually decided they would just take one of each frittata, and his wife pointed out that there was a Starbucks just a few minutes away if they really wanted their original order. You would think the confusion would end there, but the interaction only got more complicated once they started ordering their drinks.

The man ordered a small caramel macchiato with eight additional espresso shots. When Jordan asked to confirm if he wanted the shots served on the side, he snapped back, “No. I want it separate!” This led to another round of back-and-forth as she tried to clarify how exactly he wanted the drink prepared. Things reached a breaking point when the food was ready.

The man walked up to the counter, took one look at the plates, and insisted that the order was wrong. Jordan had to assure him that the food was correct, but he refused to accept it. She suspects the couple likely expected the frittatas to look exactly like the egg bites they get at Starbucks, and that visual expectation made the whole process much harder than it needed to be.

The comment section on the video turned into a space for other baristas to vent about similar experiences. It turns out this is a universal headache. One person commented, “I HATE when people act like if they keep asking for something they’ll get it. Doesn’t matter if you say it 50 billion ways, the answer is still NO.”

Another barista even mentioned, “As a Barista at Starbucks we have lots of people stare at our menu and still order Dutch Bro drinks or food that is not on our menu. I guess this issue is universal.”


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