Coffee Club Culture
There is a chain coffee store in my workplace, a Moose Coffee. It looks like a regular Moose with the usual prices and products--it's just tucked away inside a large sunny space on the fourth floor of the main building. The coffee shop is, in fact, the most successful store in the Moose chain.
There are several things you notice when you visit the Moose. First, the people that work there are really friendly. Really, really friendly. They know the names of a bunch of the customers and know their drinks. In fact, this Moose just recently won the first "really, really friendly" award from the chain. The manager, a woman who has worked her way from serious illness to this success, regularly engages anyone who will make eye contact with her in conversation on her subject of the day (we've talked about her grandchild, and cappucinos with too much milk).
Second, there are really a lot of people working there, most of them young women. In the morning when it's busy there are people at three registers, two people making drinks, and one or two people walking up and down the line of up to twenty people at a time taking orders for coffee or "fancy drinks."
There are people (okay, mostly guys) that have learned the names of all the young women and like to hang around the Moose just a little longer than necessary, loudly telling (really funny?) stories that are received with a big smile. There are also a few women who hang around trading family news with the Moose crew. That clogs up the small waiting space during coffee rush hour for those of us that are just passing through.
I do pay attention to who is working. By now I've figured out who can make a dry cappucino and who can't, so I take a look and don't even order if I see someone on the machine that's going to make me a latte (yuk!).
No one at the Moose knows my name (unless they see my security badge) or my usual drink. I don't know whether to be depressed about that or not. Maybe when my projects launch in 2008 I'll have time to hang around and really be part of the culture.
There are several things you notice when you visit the Moose. First, the people that work there are really friendly. Really, really friendly. They know the names of a bunch of the customers and know their drinks. In fact, this Moose just recently won the first "really, really friendly" award from the chain. The manager, a woman who has worked her way from serious illness to this success, regularly engages anyone who will make eye contact with her in conversation on her subject of the day (we've talked about her grandchild, and cappucinos with too much milk).
Second, there are really a lot of people working there, most of them young women. In the morning when it's busy there are people at three registers, two people making drinks, and one or two people walking up and down the line of up to twenty people at a time taking orders for coffee or "fancy drinks."
There are people (okay, mostly guys) that have learned the names of all the young women and like to hang around the Moose just a little longer than necessary, loudly telling (really funny?) stories that are received with a big smile. There are also a few women who hang around trading family news with the Moose crew. That clogs up the small waiting space during coffee rush hour for those of us that are just passing through.
I do pay attention to who is working. By now I've figured out who can make a dry cappucino and who can't, so I take a look and don't even order if I see someone on the machine that's going to make me a latte (yuk!).
No one at the Moose knows my name (unless they see my security badge) or my usual drink. I don't know whether to be depressed about that or not. Maybe when my projects launch in 2008 I'll have time to hang around and really be part of the culture.
posted by changingagain at 7:20 PM
1 Comments:
The guy at my local Moose knows my drink, but not name. I hardly go there anymore (swithced to tea mostly) but when I do I order cappacinos now!
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