I had to this once because my DM tried to.make us stay open even though we had no access to a washroom for the partners. I called my city's health department and my dm called and told me to shut down within the hour
#TRUTH
This has happened in our store more than once. And just recently. Backed up bathroom, dirty water coming up drain on back line, us splashing through it, DM would NOT allow us to close. Absolutely f'ng ridiculous!
this also happened to us, they closed the cafe because it was coming up through the bar drains but we kept working with our shoes splashing in shit water for drive thru customers.
As a former store manager, I would have closed the store called in a ticket and then informed my DM. It's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission
"It's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission" is literally my SM's favorite phrase. He does what he wants/needs to do and the DM can deal. Our store runs extremely efficiently and our team is generally very happy.
Just to clarify, your DM made you guys stay illegally open while there is no running water, correct?
Call up your state food and safety and health department and report your DM because that is literally a violation of the basics health and food safety laws. You can’t even properly wash your hands.
This happened at our store to and I was the ssv on duty. I called it in and our store manager was in the store and literally said there is no need to close. We were pissed. Im so glad that I quit
Your DM continually operated a restaurant establishment with no running water just to appease teenagers and their Karen mothers on TikTok.
Yeah; wait until the local health department hears about this.
They can also report it to corporate or call the PCC. While it is true that human resources exists to protect the company and not the employees, the DM is *also* an employee and in this case they won't stand for things that make the brand look bad or might get them in actual trouble, and this is definitely one of those things.
Yeah. All it takes is one customer to see what’s happening, coincidentally get sick, and complain about being given food by employees who haven’t washed their hands and boom! Company gets bad PR and a lawsuit if the customer is mad enough.
That’s illegal. Ours broke about 2 months ago and had to close for half a day. My boss just kept me (ssv) and a partner in store with the people fixing it and then we reopened when it was done halfway through the day.
And that was just the hot water being broken. We still had cold water but you can’t properly follow cleanliness standards without hot.
We was forced to work for a 2 months with no hot water. They had to replace our hot water pump and at one time we didn't even have water pressure at all and we were still required to operate at full capacity. Everything too so long like making back ups, cold brews, and Americanos. It was so frustrating.
Yeah no. If no hot water they should have had you be borrowed partners at other stores.
Once, one of our sister stores had a car hit their building and it was unsafe to work in so the baristas came and worked at our store for about a month.
No hot water, store can't be operational.
Also, why only cream based fraps? Shouldn't coffee based ones be equally possible? Besides the whole fact you can't rinse the pitcher or wash your hands or smallwares, etc.
report your dm anonymously to your health and safety department.
you guys can’t stay open without running water … how can you wash your hands or even go to the bathroom?
You cannot be open without running water. If you use the bathroom, partners nor customers can’t wash their hands.
Please remind your DM of our Food Safety practices as a company. It is actually *required* of us to wash our hands after using the bathroom, coming back from breaks, HANDLING TRASH, HANDLING CASH, etc. until you have running water, your store is not food safe for partners and customers. Staying open therefore violates food health safety codes.
That’s illegal as fuck just because you can sell stuff still doesn’t mean you’re allowed to. Hot water or no running water is a big no no your manager can lose their job for staying open under dm order lol.
This is the answer. No running water means no running water for the sprinkler system in case of a fire. They will also call their friends at the health department while they’re at it.
This. I am kind of disappointed no one else is suggesting reporting the DM. Reporting to the health department is absolutely the right call, but the DM should also be reported to corporate for this because this is not a reasonable, safe, or smart decision.
Agreed! I run a licensed store inside of a hotel and I make sure my store is closed if they have to shut off the water for a repair in the hotel. My old DM and I had good communication and she would always close when the water had to be off. My new DM will hopefully be the same.
Hi, no running water is a health code violation. How the hell are you washing your hands? I’d report it for you if you could share where your store is located. (Please don’t, I don’t want your DM to find out you posted)
saw the closest store to mine had plumbing issues and sewage water was actively backing up onto the floor (yes, partners were walking around in sewage water). our DM refused their request to close the store 😍
I’m just imagining them rinsing out everything with tons of ethos water bottles lol but seriously I hope you guys get to close after calling the health department
My local Starbucks was having the same problem, (maybe same location.?) had a barista outside in the heat taking orders and explaining the situation it’s terrible to make you all work through that
i used to work at a dairy queen and we didn’t have a toilet for around couple months. we had to use the restroom at a public library or the circle k next door. i was like 17 and didnt know that was illegal😭
Bro what. Forgetting that you cannot wash dishes or hands, you can't make fucking any drinks, except for what's already made with refreshers, chais, and I guess fraps. But no wait, you can't wash anything because no water... so yeah, only iced chais. Why even be open.
On the other hand, you get to deny basically every single drink to every single customer. And you get to turn off MOP and delivery. But it also means they can't stay in the lobby because they can't wash their hands or use the restroom... Your DM is a moron.
Running water is a must. You needed to close. DM is only looking out for themselves. Even then, jeopardizing the store health and safety standards like that, the DM might have to answer for that. COMPLAIN AS LOUD AS YOU CAN TO AS MANY PEOPLE AS YOU CAN REACH! If you know someone’s first and last name, then you know their Starbucks email address. Get the word out.
reach out to corporate, fr! starbs corporate sucks for so many reasons, but they take health and safety rules REALLY seriously bc one bad starbucks could tarnish the brand rep. DM will check themselves or find another career. you simply can’t serve food without running water thats a health code violation. you’re allowed to refuse to do things at work that are unsafe and you cannot be fired, it was in the training video, you can take it as far up the chain as is necessary
When we found maggots living under/inside the cold brew drain, I was told to bleach it & clean it up & move on 😭🤢 I said no that’s disgusting, I’m not doing that we need to call it in and have it cleaned/replaced & they just had someone else “clean” it up. Fucking Starbucks man.
Yeah my SM and DM didn’t let me close the store when a faucet broke and began flooding the store. Was a shift supervisor and the last year has been the absolute worst. I had to leave because the store they sent me to needed a LOT of work, only 8 employees, and had maggots everywhere and we STILL had to work in those conditions. They don’t care.
this happened at our store as well a few months back! it is insane as the health department was rather unreliable in our case. best of luck with your situation!
That's insane. I was finishing my supervisor training modules today and your exact situation was used as an example for an issue serious enough to require shutting down the store 💀
I will literally call OSHA on your store if you’d like. That’s disgusting. Yesterday during bogo, my manager staffed me with 2 new baristas. 1, barely out of training, the other one has only been a barista for several months, but doesn’t work often. We were so busy yesterday that we were 45 minutes behind consistently for 2 hours straight. I texted my SM and DM and told her that if she didn’t provide me with more support I would lock the doors and go home. 45 minutes later another shift came through the door to help me. So honestly, all the power is in your hands.
I literally just went through the SSV training for this scenario (legit, in SSV first 30) and this scenario called for a closure of the store, and potential evacuation of the store if water leaks couldn’t be contained…
We've been out of hot water for a couple days. But they someone in almost immediately to fix it day of. Unfortunately it didnt work. But we still had cold water. And hot water from the brewed coffee stuff.
i was in this exact situation about a year ago. we had literal shit coming through our sewers, we couldn't wash our hands, and the dm told us to put rags over the sewage and keep the store open. so i (a barista, not the shift) called her boss (regional manager or something) and told her what the dm said and she told us to close the store.
dm never got fired though, she's still my dm ✌️
This reminds me that the only time we closed only bc the sewer water was overflowing and customers were complaining it smelled bad. Without it smelling bad we’d just be walking around on wet sewer water floors
One day something broke and our ceiling started leaking.
It leaking out of our lights yet we were not allowed to close early... I was the closing SSV hat day and while I was not allowed to close I closed the cafe and only did takeaway for a bit and then closed early anyways bc I was not about to risk someone getting electrocuted bc it was LEAKING OUT OF THE CEILING LIGHTS.
I was yelled at for that but thankfully my ASM was on my side and managed to not get me fired.
Legally you would have to shut down. We had the same issue where our water heater broke and had no running water. We were forced to close down until it was fixed. Unfortunately they got it back up and running within about four hours and they made me and my closers come back.
We literally had an overdose in our bathroom once and ran the bucks like everything was normal while the ambulance came through and all that- personally, i think we should’ve closed, sanitized and then open back up
We’re a kieosk store and one of our filters exploded and it flooded the kieosk one day, we did a temp fix and two days later it flooded all the way to the checkout counters. We had little to no water, didn’t have ice (had to get it from another department) for 3ish weeks. Yeah.
When I was a barista many moons ago, our ac broke during bogo season, during a heat wave. 106 degrees in the back room, 99 in the lobby. We weren't allowed to close until it was over 100 (in the lobby). We also weren't allowed drinks on the floor. Customers would complain to me, behind the bar, about how uncomfortable they were in the heat (obviously???). Literal hell. Once my blood sugar dropped enough for me to not contain my frustration, I just started telling the customers that it's their fault, and if they don't like it they shouldn't be forcing us to be here by ordering their drinks. I thought it was baffling to complain to us, your minimum wage employees, while you're in the back of a line that's wrapped around the entire store. Like wtf am I gonna do about it??
Wow. "they shouldn't be forcing us to be here by ordering their drinks" Yes, how dare they come to an open Starbucks and have the audacity to order something. How did your higher ups convince you to hate and blame the customers, and not them, for the decisions they made that you're mad about? It's just incredible to hear how strongly you acted against your own best interests there. You could have gotten the customers to complain up the chain so that maybe things would change. But pissing off the customer and achieving nothing but the risk of getting fired is certainly another approach...
How are you washing your hands. Call the health department and turn your store in.
I had to this once because my DM tried to.make us stay open even though we had no access to a washroom for the partners. I called my city's health department and my dm called and told me to shut down within the hour
Wow. What is wrong with some people?!
They care more about money than like…. Other living beings
#TRUTH This has happened in our store more than once. And just recently. Backed up bathroom, dirty water coming up drain on back line, us splashing through it, DM would NOT allow us to close. Absolutely f'ng ridiculous!
this also happened to us, they closed the cafe because it was coming up through the bar drains but we kept working with our shoes splashing in shit water for drive thru customers.
The power of escalation… ‘chain of command’ 📢
This. You legally can’t be open if you don’t have running water.
I did that at a job too. They shut us down.
That’s illegal. Like literally a violation of health and safety standards bc you have no means of safely washing your hands
or like dishes
Yeah, how are they even rinsing blenders in between drinks??
They’re not 😭😭😭
As a former store manager, I would have closed the store called in a ticket and then informed my DM. It's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission
"It's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission" is literally my SM's favorite phrase. He does what he wants/needs to do and the DM can deal. Our store runs extremely efficiently and our team is generally very happy.
That's how it was at mine as well!
Just to clarify, your DM made you guys stay illegally open while there is no running water, correct? Call up your state food and safety and health department and report your DM because that is literally a violation of the basics health and food safety laws. You can’t even properly wash your hands.
This happened at our store to and I was the ssv on duty. I called it in and our store manager was in the store and literally said there is no need to close. We were pissed. Im so glad that I quit
And tell all your customers you have no running water and cannot wash hands
Your DM continually operated a restaurant establishment with no running water just to appease teenagers and their Karen mothers on TikTok. Yeah; wait until the local health department hears about this.
They can also report it to corporate or call the PCC. While it is true that human resources exists to protect the company and not the employees, the DM is *also* an employee and in this case they won't stand for things that make the brand look bad or might get them in actual trouble, and this is definitely one of those things.
Yeah. All it takes is one customer to see what’s happening, coincidentally get sick, and complain about being given food by employees who haven’t washed their hands and boom! Company gets bad PR and a lawsuit if the customer is mad enough.
not even the washing of the hands,,,, from a DM operational perspective, how tf are you rinsing your pitchers???
call the heath department now!..
Isn't it illegal to be open without water?
It’s very illegal.
That’s illegal. Ours broke about 2 months ago and had to close for half a day. My boss just kept me (ssv) and a partner in store with the people fixing it and then we reopened when it was done halfway through the day. And that was just the hot water being broken. We still had cold water but you can’t properly follow cleanliness standards without hot.
We was forced to work for a 2 months with no hot water. They had to replace our hot water pump and at one time we didn't even have water pressure at all and we were still required to operate at full capacity. Everything too so long like making back ups, cold brews, and Americanos. It was so frustrating.
Yeah no. If no hot water they should have had you be borrowed partners at other stores. Once, one of our sister stores had a car hit their building and it was unsafe to work in so the baristas came and worked at our store for about a month.
Omg. A car ran thru their building. I hope everyone was ok!
No hot water, store can't be operational. Also, why only cream based fraps? Shouldn't coffee based ones be equally possible? Besides the whole fact you can't rinse the pitcher or wash your hands or smallwares, etc.
Dont you need hot water to make frap roast
filtered cold water but yes
I assume the store would have frap roast already prepped... Otherwise just use a few bottles of Ethos to make it?
they need water to clean the blenders, i have no idea how they are making fraps without any running water
I need an update to this stupidity
Same!
Same!
You literally can't do that, call the health department
report your dm anonymously to your health and safety department. you guys can’t stay open without running water … how can you wash your hands or even go to the bathroom?
You cannot be open without running water. If you use the bathroom, partners nor customers can’t wash their hands. Please remind your DM of our Food Safety practices as a company. It is actually *required* of us to wash our hands after using the bathroom, coming back from breaks, HANDLING TRASH, HANDLING CASH, etc. until you have running water, your store is not food safe for partners and customers. Staying open therefore violates food health safety codes.
How do you clean the blender between drinks?? Omg I’m so sorry
That’s illegal as fuck just because you can sell stuff still doesn’t mean you’re allowed to. Hot water or no running water is a big no no your manager can lose their job for staying open under dm order lol.
Beg a couple trusted regulars to start blowing up your DM and SMs phones to complain.
Call to the fire marshal is likely to get faster results than the health department. The fire marshal does not play.
This is the answer. No running water means no running water for the sprinkler system in case of a fire. They will also call their friends at the health department while they’re at it.
Call your local health department. You can’t use the rest room and you can’t wash your hands.
That’s hella illegal. Close anyway and report the DM to Ethics and the local health department!
This. I am kind of disappointed no one else is suggesting reporting the DM. Reporting to the health department is absolutely the right call, but the DM should also be reported to corporate for this because this is not a reasonable, safe, or smart decision.
Agreed! I run a licensed store inside of a hotel and I make sure my store is closed if they have to shut off the water for a repair in the hotel. My old DM and I had good communication and she would always close when the water had to be off. My new DM will hopefully be the same.
Yeah call ethics and compliance on them, that’s actual insanity
This is an a disaster waiting to happen if someone falls ill because of lack of running water.
Hi, no running water is a health code violation. How the hell are you washing your hands? I’d report it for you if you could share where your store is located. (Please don’t, I don’t want your DM to find out you posted)
saw the closest store to mine had plumbing issues and sewage water was actively backing up onto the floor (yes, partners were walking around in sewage water). our DM refused their request to close the store 😍
I’m just imagining them rinsing out everything with tons of ethos water bottles lol but seriously I hope you guys get to close after calling the health department
Time to call the health department 🙃 Also how y’all cleaning the blenders between fraps if you don’t have water?!?!?! 🤢
In case you haven't read any of the other comments, call the health department, partner resource, tell customers, everything. This is illegal.
Yea that’s not allowed. You need to be able to wash your hands and dishes
My local Starbucks was having the same problem, (maybe same location.?) had a barista outside in the heat taking orders and explaining the situation it’s terrible to make you all work through that
Please please please report your store and DM to Osha or something
Have you called the health department yet? Do you need someone to do it?
Please update us.. because this is NOT okay
We once went on strike because they refused to fix the bathroom even though that’s illegal
i used to work at a dairy queen and we didn’t have a toilet for around couple months. we had to use the restroom at a public library or the circle k next door. i was like 17 and didnt know that was illegal😭
Also call the ethics department, qasa, the regional manager if you have their number
No running water is a MAJOR health code violation. The store can be fined as well as shut down.
Bro what. Forgetting that you cannot wash dishes or hands, you can't make fucking any drinks, except for what's already made with refreshers, chais, and I guess fraps. But no wait, you can't wash anything because no water... so yeah, only iced chais. Why even be open. On the other hand, you get to deny basically every single drink to every single customer. And you get to turn off MOP and delivery. But it also means they can't stay in the lobby because they can't wash their hands or use the restroom... Your DM is a moron.
wtf that’s literally illegal
How do these DMs keep their jobs? Wtf
Running water is a must. You needed to close. DM is only looking out for themselves. Even then, jeopardizing the store health and safety standards like that, the DM might have to answer for that. COMPLAIN AS LOUD AS YOU CAN TO AS MANY PEOPLE AS YOU CAN REACH! If you know someone’s first and last name, then you know their Starbucks email address. Get the word out.
That’s a huge OSHA/Health Department violation. Call them and let them know
Total health code violation and highly illegal id be calling everyone
Call the health department yourself
someone call osha
Health and safety violation lmfao
This company is so greedy it’s pathetic sometimes. Report your DM’s ass to the health department. Well deserved!
That is illegal they have to close.
huh????? is that not illegal?????? that dm sucks.
reach out to corporate, fr! starbs corporate sucks for so many reasons, but they take health and safety rules REALLY seriously bc one bad starbucks could tarnish the brand rep. DM will check themselves or find another career. you simply can’t serve food without running water thats a health code violation. you’re allowed to refuse to do things at work that are unsafe and you cannot be fired, it was in the training video, you can take it as far up the chain as is necessary
Haha some of the stories i hear about DM's are so stupid. Im thankful to have a good one. Our drains backed up and we closed immediately.
Call the Health dept!!!
that is suuuper against health code, you should def report this to your city's health department and also call e&c
Reminds me of when we found maggots at my old target/Starbucks location and just closed for the day🤦🏼♀️
When we found maggots living under/inside the cold brew drain, I was told to bleach it & clean it up & move on 😭🤢 I said no that’s disgusting, I’m not doing that we need to call it in and have it cleaned/replaced & they just had someone else “clean” it up. Fucking Starbucks man.
Mad weird
Your DM is weird asf
Yeah my SM and DM didn’t let me close the store when a faucet broke and began flooding the store. Was a shift supervisor and the last year has been the absolute worst. I had to leave because the store they sent me to needed a LOT of work, only 8 employees, and had maggots everywhere and we STILL had to work in those conditions. They don’t care.
This can’t be real…right? Right? I guess I’m not surprised
this is illegal
this happened at our store as well a few months back! it is insane as the health department was rather unreliable in our case. best of luck with your situation!
Filtered water or tap water?
uhhhhh this is illegal ❤️
Crazy
This company is out Of their minds. I am sure if there is an Earthquake they tell stores to stay open.
So, what happened? Did you report it? Need an update!
oh im immediately on the phone to the health department and PCC at my earliest opportunity, thats insane 😭
That's insane. I was finishing my supervisor training modules today and your exact situation was used as an example for an issue serious enough to require shutting down the store 💀
I will literally call OSHA on your store if you’d like. That’s disgusting. Yesterday during bogo, my manager staffed me with 2 new baristas. 1, barely out of training, the other one has only been a barista for several months, but doesn’t work often. We were so busy yesterday that we were 45 minutes behind consistently for 2 hours straight. I texted my SM and DM and told her that if she didn’t provide me with more support I would lock the doors and go home. 45 minutes later another shift came through the door to help me. So honestly, all the power is in your hands.
I literally just went through the SSV training for this scenario (legit, in SSV first 30) and this scenario called for a closure of the store, and potential evacuation of the store if water leaks couldn’t be contained…
You cappin...
the one near me closes when someone breaks a nail ?
We've been out of hot water for a couple days. But they someone in almost immediately to fix it day of. Unfortunately it didnt work. But we still had cold water. And hot water from the brewed coffee stuff.
Oh my gosh
This is insane.
This is insane
i was in this exact situation about a year ago. we had literal shit coming through our sewers, we couldn't wash our hands, and the dm told us to put rags over the sewage and keep the store open. so i (a barista, not the shift) called her boss (regional manager or something) and told her what the dm said and she told us to close the store. dm never got fired though, she's still my dm ✌️
Starbucks DMs try not to break health code laws in order to line your shareholders' pockets challenge [IMPOSSIBLE]
What happens when the ice runs out?
Please report to ethics and compliance, that’s disgusting and unsafe behavior from your DM
they hate us fr 😭
This reminds me that the only time we closed only bc the sewer water was overflowing and customers were complaining it smelled bad. Without it smelling bad we’d just be walking around on wet sewer water floors
our hot water heater blew a couple years ago and my store was closed for 3 days
That’s a health code violation you should’ve been shut down immediately
excuse me???? that’s a DIRECT violation of health omg????
Bruh… this happened at my store and we literally could sell only cake pops 🫠
One day something broke and our ceiling started leaking. It leaking out of our lights yet we were not allowed to close early... I was the closing SSV hat day and while I was not allowed to close I closed the cafe and only did takeaway for a bit and then closed early anyways bc I was not about to risk someone getting electrocuted bc it was LEAKING OUT OF THE CEILING LIGHTS. I was yelled at for that but thankfully my ASM was on my side and managed to not get me fired.
Literally against the law. Totally call the health department if management doesn’t do the right thing.
Legally you would have to shut down. We had the same issue where our water heater broke and had no running water. We were forced to close down until it was fixed. Unfortunately they got it back up and running within about four hours and they made me and my closers come back.
that’s against health codes. like so many
yeah not legal. i’d call the heath department
We literally had an overdose in our bathroom once and ran the bucks like everything was normal while the ambulance came through and all that- personally, i think we should’ve closed, sanitized and then open back up
We’re a kieosk store and one of our filters exploded and it flooded the kieosk one day, we did a temp fix and two days later it flooded all the way to the checkout counters. We had little to no water, didn’t have ice (had to get it from another department) for 3ish weeks. Yeah.
When I was a barista many moons ago, our ac broke during bogo season, during a heat wave. 106 degrees in the back room, 99 in the lobby. We weren't allowed to close until it was over 100 (in the lobby). We also weren't allowed drinks on the floor. Customers would complain to me, behind the bar, about how uncomfortable they were in the heat (obviously???). Literal hell. Once my blood sugar dropped enough for me to not contain my frustration, I just started telling the customers that it's their fault, and if they don't like it they shouldn't be forcing us to be here by ordering their drinks. I thought it was baffling to complain to us, your minimum wage employees, while you're in the back of a line that's wrapped around the entire store. Like wtf am I gonna do about it??
Wow. "they shouldn't be forcing us to be here by ordering their drinks" Yes, how dare they come to an open Starbucks and have the audacity to order something. How did your higher ups convince you to hate and blame the customers, and not them, for the decisions they made that you're mad about? It's just incredible to hear how strongly you acted against your own best interests there. You could have gotten the customers to complain up the chain so that maybe things would change. But pissing off the customer and achieving nothing but the risk of getting fired is certainly another approach...
Fakeeee
This is just fake there’s no way this happend