What’s happening in this picture is bugging the hell out of me.

Probably looks like nothing and you’ll probably think it is nothing.

I’m in Starbucks – the one on St Marys Parsonage in Manchester. The barista has two of her friends propped up against the drinks bar so she can chit chat while she churns out latte’s, mocha chocachinos and deep fried mars bars. Trouble is it means that the humble paying customer can’t get to the bar without asking them to move to pick up their drink.

Yeah, yeah, I know it’s something and nothing, so why is it bugging me? Easy. She shouldn’t be doing it. It doesn’t appear to be affecting her doing her job, other than she’s not interacting at all with any of the paying customers (though I assume she has given them freebies, I’m not sure) and is providing one of the worst forms of customer service possible – customer ignorance. I fecking hate ignorant staff in shops…I’ve only ever worked in retail as a teenager (at Blackpool Pleasure Beach and in a newsagents in Lytham), but I would never stand and chat with mates whilst customers were there…in fact I didn’t do it at all.

It’s rude. Do your job properly Barista lady. The manager at this Starbuck’s should have told her friends to clear off. I would’ve.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who is irritated by this. It’s a sure sign that I’m once again honing my long forgotten Victor Meldrew tendencies…and I’m not entirely convinced that’s a bad thing.

Proper irritated me that.

Laters.

-vm. -pc.