Target workers fired over Stanley cups say the crackdown leaves some of the stores' Starbucks cafés understaffed
Feb 9, 2024, 16:58 IST
- Target fired dozens of workers over Stanley cup purchases, many of them in-store Starbucks baristas.
- Former Starbucks team leaders say their departures leave cafés short-handed.
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Target's swift and severe crackdown on workers who bought one of the trendy Stanley x Starbucks cups last month could lead to another headache — keeping its Starbucks cafés staffed up.Of the 11 recently fired Target employees who have discussed their situations in detail with Business Insider, six worked in their stores' Starbucks cafés, which operate under a license agreement with the coffee company.Five of those workers were Starbucks Team Leads (STLs) who oversaw the daily operation of their cafés, including the training and scheduling of baristas and coordinating with the Starbucks district manager in their area. Starbucks considers those in these roles to be a "Brand Standards Leader" on par with a store manager, according to documentation obtained by BI.Neither Target nor Starbucks responded to BI's request for comment ahead of publication.Target's careers website showed 300 openings for baristas and more than 60 listings for STLs across the US as of Thursday, though there is no indication of when these jobs were posted. STLs also told BI that stores are shuffling workers between stores, as they have in the past, to help with coverage.Still, it takes time to get new hires and transfers up to speed.Target's in-store Starbucks positions require additional training — 40 hours for baristas, 80 hours for STLs, including food-safety certifications — and salaried managers are generally not qualified to cover STL duties, the workers said."To have my job, you had to be food safety certified on a managerial level, not just a regular food safety, and you have to meet with a district manager every month," former STL Nickole Smith told BI. "You have so much paperwork, you have to do so much training, you have to do everything a normal Target Team Lead does, plus all your Starbucks stuff."In an internal email obtained by BI, one store director noted that "a lot" of Target Starbucks employees had run afoul of the company's purchasing guidelines and that "some" had been fired as a result.Regardless of how well they knew of Target's so-called 15-minute rule for employee purchases, STLs told BI that workers routinely purchased special-edition cups for years without incident.Several STLs told BI that one or more of their baristas were also terminated, while some of those who weren't fired have quit their jobs in solidarity with their colleagues.Barista Jessie Gage told BI she and five coworkers were fired, cutting her store's Starbucks team by half.Dozens of people claiming to either work for Target, or to have been recently fired by the company, have reached out to BI and mentioned the heavy impact the last month's firings have had on the Starbucks teams, though BI has not verified each of their identities or details.Now, the sharp and sudden cuts are leading to more operational headaches in stores that were already grappling with inadequate staffing levels, according to the STLs whose identities are known to BI.They said that without enough baristas, stores run the risk of having to shorten café hours, assign untrained store employees to the café, and limit beverage options due to staff who aren't trained to operate the equipment.Former STL Christina Tavares told BI that while using untrained workers lends the appearance of ordinary operation, customers can be in for a surprise: "They'd tell people the only thing they are serving is hot and iced coffee, because they were not trained and they did not know what they're doing to make handcrafted beverages."