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Why Starbucks Needs To Bring Back Humanity · OneLegUpAlex Media

• 0:01
  Here's your host, Alex Garrett. Is Starbucks relying too much on AI.
• 0:11
  That is my episode today because as we are awaiting the conclusion of deliberations in
• 0:18
  the Trump trial, as we see what's happening across the sea, with the
• 0:24
  unfortunate killing of civilians in Rafa, and in dealing with my own health crises,
• 0:32
  I just thought this headline from Starbucks in the New York Post was so
• 0:39
  elitist until you're into a deeper listen to this headline in today's New York Post
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  Starbucks customers outraged over forty minute waits for coffee amid staff and cuts unacceptable.
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  That headline alone boiled me. I said, of all the things to be
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  pissed off about and to be riled up about, and to be really calling
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  unacceptable, that's what we're talking about today, the unacceptability of a Starbucks coffee
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  weight. That is a first world problem, because to me, coffee and
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  waiting for coffee shouldn't be as big of a thing a storyline as everything going
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  else on. We've got a president on trial, We've got Israel making what
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  Natnau is calling a tragic accident in Rafa, where they still need to wipe
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  out Hamas, by the way, and then I've got my own stuff where
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  you know, it's been ongoing even since the release of the Hospital. Yet
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  here we are in twenty twenty four reading about how bad the weight at Starbucks
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  is. Is that not elitist enough for you? The headline the story goes,
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  Starbucks customers are being forced to wait up to forty minutes for coffee,
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  with barista's claiming that staffing cuts have left them overworked and I'm unable to juggle
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  the barrage of orders that came through mobile apps, in store and drive through.
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  Now there have been job cuts at Starbucks, according to Ariel Zilber,
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  which has left Starbucks customers waiting longer than their peers at rivals such as Duncan
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  and Caribou. According to Bloomberg News, in the last court alone, eight
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  percent of Starbucks customers weighed between fifteen and thirty minutes for their order. For
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  you, is waiting a big deal? Is waiting a big deal? Or
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  you just let it roll you off your back? Okay, well, I
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  gotta wait a little bit to get my coffee. Forty minutes. Maybe that's
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  a lot, but thank got him alive to be here to wait. That's
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  kind of how how I would view it. Or just go back to work
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  and come back later or something. I don't know. What I did not
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  know with Starbucks was laying off twenty nine thousand instore workers in the year spending
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  October twenty two through the same month last year, while expanding its footprint in
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  the US by three hundred and sixty three hundred and eighty stores. There's twelve
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  hours per work week and all this other stuff. And there are things in
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  here more hours, less manpower, which does advocate for unionizing? Doesn't it
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  so that Starbucks doesn't run you over while cutting your own colleagues out of the
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  picture. According to Chris Mills, who told Bloomberg News, when he went
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  to the Shelton, Connecticut store on Mother's Day, he waited forty minutes.
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  He was pained by watching six baristas trying to fulfill all these orders. But
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  here's the part that gets me. The algorithm which they rolled out is supposed
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  to design allocation of labor and manpower computing data such as order forecasts and product
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  availability. They do not take into account. And this is where AI doesn't
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  adapt well. When there are promotions or other things that customers can take advantage
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  of. This algorithm doesn't know what it's doing. They're not factored in by
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  the algorithm when determining how much manpower is needed. So it could be like
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  twelve promotions one day or whatever, and and not many staffers to feel them.
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  Starbucks has needed such a rebrand I guess they needed a reinvention officer.
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  And that's Frank Britt who called all of this unacceptable. But if they're relying
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  on AI, which is leading to forty minute weights, then that's what I
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  need to know all I need to know about trusting AI to the full extent.
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  AI may work, Texas, speech may work, Chat GPT may have
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  its pros, but it doesn't for forecast or factor in spontaneous, spur of
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  the moment things. So there are two fronts I am coming to you with
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  this on this podcast. Do we really need to complain about a forty minute
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  wait? Do you feel like that's two first world problems for a simple Starbucks
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  coffee or are you passion enough to where you need that coffee now and you
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  need it you can't wait any longer. And now I'll knock down people in
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  front of me type of attitude to get my coffee type of thing, or
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  you want more bother that AI is calling the shots right now with these algorithms
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  that seemingly are failing. They're not taking into the humanity of all this,
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  And I think that's the whole theme of this, the humanity of all of
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  it, the humanity of waiting forty minutes, while on the other hand,
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  airstrikes are killing civilians in Ralpha and they can't wait. They have to evacuate
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  as best as possible. And of course I will always want Israel to wipe
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  out a mess, that is no doubt. But amidst this tragic accent,
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  amidst a president trial, there's so much humanity's news going on that this Starbucks
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  inconvenience doesn't doesn't trump anything else going on. If you're waiting forty minutes for
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  coffee, so be it. But it just shows how society is freaking out
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  over the most inane things while not speaking up about the most inhumane things.
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  And then the trust of AI is is a very very uh tricky thing.
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  And I think this algorithm that they've rolled out in Starbucks is showing how we
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  can't get away from the humane factors either we can't just block out humanity through
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  AI, or block out human factors and try to expedite things through AI.
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  Human factors happen, humanity happens. So yes, pardon me, as I'm
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  recovering from five days in the hospital and see someone complaining about forty minutes waiting
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  for a Starbucks, We'll think about the many people waiting for healthcare, both
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  in America and around the world. Think about that before we complain about waiting
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  one minute for an elitist Starbucks cup of coffee. Now, I love Starbucks.
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  May not be the best for my health, but I do enjoy it.
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  But I don't really care how long it takes, just as long as
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  I get to enjoy it. I think this article is showing that nobody really
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  has a bone of humanity or even grace in circumstances like this in first world
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  problems, or they should actually channel that in patience towards doing something good.
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  Like if you're unhappy with how long you're waiting for Starbucks, apply to be
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  a barista then and make your own coffee. Don't complain about the six baristas
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  that are working their asses off trying to get your cup of coffee. They're
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  not at fault here. It's at the top that's at fault. So instead
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  of complaining to the New York Post about it or the Bloomberg News about it,
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  hey, put on an apron, become a barista and make your own
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  coffee. The rolling up our sleeves is being torn away. That's not part
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  of humanity. The rolling up our sleeves. We'd rather complain about it,
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  We'd rather video its instead of take action. And I think in these five
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  days that I spent, I mean that, you know, take action with
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  my family and I to to get the best healthcare that has rubbed off on
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  me. So don't just sit there and wait forty minutes or complain my waiting
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  forty minutes. Ask if they need help. Put on an apron to your
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  local community. Starbucks, if you're seeing that much of a weight, and
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  please think of the humanity of the baristas that are just humans trying to work
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  at this day after day, and maybe some of them are going to college
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  pay for by Starbucks. Also, as far as Starbucks goes twelve hour work
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  days, that is why unionization and humanity humanization needs to take place at these
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  corporate workplaces. Human capital, human loss. Human reliance need to be on
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  the forefront, not stupid AI and the need to wipe away human interaction.
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  Why do these local managers rely on that to schedule instead of calling up their
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  employ employee, Hey can you work today? So and so is called out.
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  Can you do it? That's the best way to go about it,
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  Starbucks, to think about the human and how they are so much more valuable
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  than the machine when it comes to these type of things. Scheduling errors are
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  much better handled by people than by machines. Once you agree, so,
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  I know there's the old phrase, oh the humanity, but in this case,
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  can we just calm down about waiting forty minutes for Starbucks? It's not
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  that big a deal. Come back to everything else going on around us right
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  now, and it's a it's a good piece by Ariel Zober to exemplify how
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  first world problems people think, but they didn't take those energies of what's going
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  on in their day lives. And then I'm putting them out word to bigger
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  and better causes. Not just complain to the Bloomberg News because it's not that
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  big of a deal if you wait forty minutes for your Starbucks Thank God you
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  have the human capability to wait it out and you're not struggling for life or
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  every waiting to be seen in a doctor dog. I'm Alex gartt humanity,
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  humanity through a very inhumane time, I guess you would say, going on
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  in rapha and inhumane way of thinking when AI dominates even how people are scheduled.
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  Bring back humanity, Starbucks, Bring back humanity.