Starbucks workers say customers got ruder and more abusive during the pandemic because of clashes over mask-wearing, TikTok drinks, and product shortages

Starbucks workers told Insider that customers had got ruder and more abusive during pandemic.

Nixx Photography/AG Baxter/Shutterstock; Rachel Mendelson/Insider

• Starbucks customers got ruder and more abusive in the pandemic, current and former employees said.
• They told Insider that customers had yelled, cursed, and even thrown drinks at those serving them.
• Service and hospitality workers across the US have complained of poor treatment during the pandemic.

Starbucks customers got ruder and more abusive during the pandemic, current and former employees say. One barista even said customers seemed to have "forgotten humanity."

There have been clashes over COVID-19 policies like mask mandates as well as complicated drink orders and product shortages, current and former Starbucks workers in the US and Canada told Insider.

Starbucks is one of the largest employers of service workers in the US but its front-of-house staff certainly aren't the only ones to have clashed with customers in the pandemic. Service and hospitality workers across the country have had to deal with more rude customers since the coronavirus struck. Workers have found themselves at the sharp end of violent incidents after asking customers to wear masks, maintain social distancing, and comply with other COVID-19 policies. Abusive customers are thought to be helping fuel labor shortages.

However, while some sources of customer frustration – like enforced mask-wearing, shuttered dining rooms, and product shortages – weren't unique to Starbucks, others were. Employees highlighted problems with mobile ordering on Starbucks' app, requests for excessive drink modifications, and the complexities of creating exotic, TikTok-inspired beverages.

Further, some employees said Starbucks didn't seem to have their backs when they suffered abuse at the hands of customers.

"COVID-19 has only increased the amount of customer management we baristas have to do, on top of our already-demanding jobs," Kayleigh Schuler, a Starbucks barista who's organizing unionization efforts in Boston, said. Schuler, also a representative for the Workers United labor union, said "many frustrated customers have taken to blaming us for the consequences of a global pandemic."

A Starbucks spokesperson said the company expected "all our customers" to treat Starbucks employees "with dignity and respect."

Insider spoke with 27 current and former Starbucks workers about their treatment by customers during the pandemic. Current Starbucks employees were offered anonymity to protect their jobs.

Some employees heaped praise on regular customers, saying they were a source of comfort – and tips – during the pandemic.

But many said they'd been yelled or cursed at, and some said angry customers had thrown drinks at them. Some said customers occasionally got violent. 

"Everyone got mean during COVID," Madeline Babin, who worked as a barista in Louisiana from 2018 to 2021, said. This included a customer who threw a cappuccino over her, she said.

A shift supervisor in Texas said: "Customers are incredibly rude, and it's worse than I've ever seen it. I don't know how to please people anymore. It's exhausting." Staff get treated "like we're robots," a current barista in New York said.

Carly Krantz, a former Starbucks barista in New York, said workers called the police and closed her store after customers got into a fistfight about drive-thru times, while a former store manager in New York, who asked not to be named because he had family still working at Starbucks, said customers had assaulted baristas at his store.

Employees told Insider their treatment by customers affected their well-being and productivity. "Just a few bad customers a day can stress you out for the whole week," a former barista in Baltimore said.

Mask-wearing became a flash point

Many of the Starbucks workers interviewed by Insider said some customers' frustration stemmed from COVID-19 policies like enforced mask-wearing and dining-room closures.

Multiple current and former baristas said some customers got angry over mask-wearing and some shouted and cursed at the staff.

"I hated telling people to wear masks," Kelly Preston, a former barista in Atlanta, said. "I knew I would get pushed back." Some customers told her that masks "don't work," she said.

Babin said that when she asked some customers to wear masks, "they would just yell and scream and throw a tantrum until we put them outside and gave them their drink."

A barista in British Columbia said she'd been called "stupid," a "fucking bitch," and "brainwashed" by customers whom she'd asked to wear masks, while a barista in Indiana said she was yelled at by customers for wearing a mask herself.

A barista in North Carolina said her store called the police at least twice after customers got angry about its mask-wearing policy. The former New York store manager said he was assaulted by anti-maskers and had hand sanitizer thrown at him twice.

A former barista in British Columbia said that by refusing to wear masks, some customers treated her "like my life doesn't matter."

TikTok drinks and complex modifications caused headaches

The number of customers ordering complex drinks with a list of modifications has boomed during the pandemic, thanks in part to TikTok crazes.

Customers would get angry if workers didn't know how to make off-menu items — including often-bizarre drinks that went viral on TikTok — and would also get annoyed if they weren't made perfectly, baristas said.

"TikTok should burn," the former New York store manager said.

Amanda Beaudouin, a former barista in Indiana, said some customers "don't know what they're ordering" and would then become angry if their drinks didn't look as they expected.

Nat El-Hai, who worked as a Starbucks barista in Beverly Hills, California, for nine months in 2020 and 2021, said some customers showed her drink pictures they'd found online that had "clearly" been edited. "And then people got really upset when we can't do that," she said.

Some baristas told Insider customers had asked them to make the so-called tropical refresher, a bright-blue drink that originated online and isn't on the Starbucks menu. A barista in Nebraska said that when he told customers he couldn't make it, they accused him of lying or withholding products.

A barista in Alabama said workers at her store had cried over their treatment by customers, saying it was usually because of impatience over complicated drink orders.

Product shortages added to the tension

Some Starbucks stores have been hit by product shortages linked to the pandemic.

Mary Meisenzahl/Insider

Six current and former baristas told Insider that customers had gotten angry over product shortages, with some yelling at employees.

Some Starbucks stores ran out of key products and ingredients including cups, flavored syrups, and oat milk as the pandemic and labor shortage wreaked havoc on supply chains.

Preston, the former Atlanta barista, said customers "got really annoyed" about the shortages but regulars were more understanding. Beaudouin said she got cursed at by customers over shortages.

Customers would sometimes "lose it" over shortages, the Texas shift supervisor said. They said they asked themself: "How did I become the scapegoat here?"

Starbucks' mobile-ordering app created hassle

Some baristas said Starbucks' mobile app had created a lot of hassle.

Some of this came down to customers having unrealistic expectations about the app and how long it would take for their drinks to be prepared, the baristas said. Some said customers placed their app orders on their way to the store and would get angry if staff hadn't prepared their drinks by the time they arrived.

"Customers think it's instantaneous," the Nebraska barista said.

Some customers had shown up late to collect their mobile orders only to find their drinks had been thrown away, angering them, El-Hai said.

Baristas said a series of in-app glitches allowed customers to order out-of-stock food and drink items. They said that because they couldn't communicate with customers through the app, they couldn't tell them the ingredients weren't available until they came to the store to collect their orders.

Workers say Starbucks didn't have their backs

Some current and former employees said Starbucks didn't take enough action against rude and abusive customers.

"I think with the pandemic, people are angrier," Krantz, the former New York barista, said. "They need someone to take all their frustrations out on. And unfortunately that is all service workers."

Krantz said service workers should expect rude customers but also for "your employers to have your back about it."

"I would say that Starbucks is just not for the employee," she said.

Starbucks workers formed the chain's first US union in Buffalo, New York, in December, and staff members at other stores are pushing to organize. Staff members have voiced concerns over the coffee chain's COVID-19 protocols, the way they're treated by the company and by customers, and understaffing. Starbucks has repeatedly pushed back against the union and said it isn't necessary.

Krantz said Starbucks "never approved" barista complaints that might bar certain customers from locations.

Approving a barista complaint about a customer "was really a hard process to do" and most staff would just "grin and bear it," Gary Ladewig, a former Starbucks barista in Illinois, said. The Texas shift supervisor said managers needed to witness abuse from customers to kick them out and the company had "such a hesitancy to hold customers accountable for their actions."

"Whether it be the mask mandate, inability to sit and eat in our café, or that we're out of their favorite product, many frustrated customers have taken to blaming us for the consequences of a global pandemic," Schuler, the Boston barista, said. "I so wish that I could feel truly supported and empowered enough by corporate to tell someone, who is threatening my health by not wearing a mask, to leave our store."

El-Hai went as far as to say Starbucks had "uniquely horrible" customers that "truly have free rein and can walk all over employees."

"This is something I feel like is unique to Starbucks customers," a former barista in Atlanta said. He said they were the "most entitled group I think in human history, because the company has catered them and made them to be that way."

A Starbucks representative said: "We take pride in creating a warm and welcoming Third Place environment — it's core to who we are as a company. As such, we expect all our customers to treat each other and our partners (employees) with dignity and respect. In the event that a customer does not adhere to these standards, our partners have several resources to support them in navigating the situation responsibly."

Regulars provided comfort — and tips — in tough times

Starbucks workers said some regular customers had been a huge comfort during the pandemic. 

"It's a relief to see them," Jude Snair, a former barista in New York City, said. "They understand what's going on."

"Even if they've been waiting in the drive-thru line for like 20 minutes, when they get to the window, I know I'm not going to hear backlash from them," she said. "It's having that security that I'm not going to get yelled at by those guys. It's nice."

Damien Campbell, a former shift supervisor in Baltimore, said regulars had been "overboard" with tips during the pandemic.

"The littlest things that we get and the littlest appreciation that we get from customers, and mostly regulars, just makes our hearts really full and made me personally want to keep going and want to keep working," Campbell said.

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