Picking on Starbucks for its gimmicky and sometimes confusing ordering system is a time-honored tradition, and can be annoying or funny depending on who’s doing the picking. Customers did it back when I served a brief stint as a barista in my younger days, and Paul Rudd’s character did it to great effect in Role Models .
But a New York woman took such complaints to new heights on Sunday. According to the New York Post , Lynne Rosenthal ordered a “toasted multigrain bagel” and was outraged that a barista had the nerve to ask her “butter or cheese?” “I refused to say ‘without butter or cheese.’ When you go to Burger King, you don’t have to list the six things you don’t want.”
Actually, Ms. Rosenthal, Burger King might invite you to “have it your way,” but if you don’t want pickles or lettuce or mayo on your Whopper, you have to let them know.
Rosenthal also told the post that she prefers to order her coffee “small” or “large” and not “tall” or “venti” as Starbucks indicates on its menu. Which raises the obvious question: Why go to Starbucks? Surely, in New York of all places, one can find a place that serves delicious bagels and understands what “large” means.
Rosenthal is an English professor and insists that she is a “stickler for correct English.” Two points: There is correct English and there is PRECISE English. She placed a perfectly “correct” order for a bagel, but her barista wanted to be “precise” and followed up with a question, for which she could have given the correct answer of “Neither, please.” (Starbucks can’t read its customers minds and presumably has a lot of customers who order a bagel without requesting butter or cheese but who DO want a spread.) Secondly, you don’t have to have a Ph.D. to learn courtesy. That’s something that is usually covered in kindergarten.
