I always say, the magic of the Starbucks experience is in the stores. Tonight, I had a Twitter conversation with partner Nicholas as he wanted to share with me: “This is what is means to be a partner to me.”
Without any more delay, here’s Nicholas Hladuniw’s story, in his own words from his partner experience tonight, September 8, 2014:
Today at the bux was a special day. A customer brought me to tears. Well not balling but welled up for sure.
It was the end of the night and there was a lot of pastries to be gotten rid of. So I asked her if she has any kids at home who would like a cake pop, no charge since I was going to toss em. Which she said sure and I gave her three, one for each kid. She thanked me and proceed to leave.
However, she stops and turns around and comes back and she said the following: I just really want to thank you for doing that. I just came from the hospital visiting my mom who is dying from terminal cancer. I haven’t really seen my children much these days and this will just make their day. So thank you for making today a little bit better it means a lot.
I once again said it was my pleasure and glad that a seemingly small thing could mean so much.
After she left I had to take a moment in the back to collect myself.
It’s things like this that make me love working at Starbucks.
5 Comments
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Socialize
Thank you for sharing my story. I am a proud barista and love that stories like mine show just how much more Starbucks is. We truly do care about inspiring and nuturing the human sprit, one cup, one person, one neighbourhood at a time.
So sad that she is losing her mother cancer. So thankful that a partner was able to create an inspired moment in the midst of it all.
Nicholas thank you for bringing a smile to a customer’s face.
I have been a proud partner of Starbucks for 11 years. In this time I have been privileged to work with some of the most amazing people and have formed great relationships with our customers. I have rejoiced as people have gotten engaged and married, started families or increased families. I have also attended funerals and mourned the loss of several of our very closest customer friends. We have worked with Relay for Life, Paws for a Cause, Greyhound Rescue, our local book sale for charity, and a county food bank. Such great things that bring so much more meaning than just caffeinating the masses. How it makes me proud when a parent says to their child or tween “maybe someday you could work here”. That’s a future.
What a nice remember that simple gestures can bring such sunshine to a person’s day. Well done Nicholas, and thank you and Melody for sharing.