Starbucks report your barista for spelling errors

I got to enjoy a cup of coffee with a friend this weekend. It was nice. What was less nice, however, was that they spelled my name “Sourin”. Now, I like to think my name, while being unique, is not hard to spell.

It’s not a big deal to me that they didn’t spell my name right. 99% of the time, they spell it correctly. However, my wife pointed out I have a bad habit of spelling out my name often when placing orders. This probably annoys food service professionals everywhere. I apologize.

This is nothing compared with my friend Eugene. Eugene’s parents are first-generation Japanese immigrants. One would think Eugene is pretty easy to spell, but because he’s Japanese baristas have spelled it in some wild ways. It’s now a tradition that he will send a photo of his Starbucks cup with spellings such as, but not limited to “Yujin”, “Youjeen”, and my personal favorite “Eg”.

This got me thinking… what if there was an option to report these incidents in the Starbucks app? If you were paying close attention while you ordered, you could even call out the specific employee who made the mistake.

This problem is solved with online ordering, but it persists with in-person transactions. I feel like this is a problem we could solve, and I sincerely hope we do.

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