The Concern Starbucks Employees Showed For A Teen Warmed A Mother's Heart
Most service industry workers likely have some wild stories to tell about customers who were disruptive, rude, or entitled at their establishment. Particularly in spots where customers often linger, like a coffee shop, those service industry employees have a front-row seat to whatever goes on in the place of business — and whatever the customers choose to do, good or bad. While employees may be hesitant to jump into a customer conflict, there are certain situations where they find themselves drawn to step in — and that's exactly what happened at a Corpus Christi Starbucks location, as 3News reported, to the relief of a Texas teen's mother.
The incident arose when an 18-year-old female customer who was spending time at a Starbucks got approached by an unknown man. While the employees on shift could have simply ignored the interaction or assumed that the woman knew the man who was interrupting her, there was something about the exchange that seemingly caught their attention.
The Starbucks employees at the location thought quickly and gave the female customer what they claimed was a hot chocolate that someone had forgotten to pick up. They weren't simply offering her the beverage as a courtesy, though — they were using that hot chocolate as a tool to determine whether or not the woman was truly in trouble.
A secret message and a mother's gratitude
As per 3News, one of the employees at that Corpus Christi Starbucks location delivered the "extra" hot chocolate to the female customer, and though the employee didn't verbally communicate anything, scrawled on the cup was a message that would give the customer a chance to respond without drawing any extra attention to herself: "Are you okay? Do you want us to intervene? If you do, take the lid off the cup."
Brandy Selim Roberson, the mother of the female customer who received the cup, took to Facebook to express her gratitude to the baristas who were looking out for her teenage daughter. She shared a picture of the cup and explained the situation, including the fact that her daughter had been alone at the Starbucks location. She also explained that her daughter didn't feel unsafe and left the lid in place. However, the teen noticed that the employees were "watching over her the rest of the time she was there."
The post sharing this simple yet heartwarming moment racked up over 1,400 comments and 34,000 shares as of this writing — although responses were mixed. Some expressed that they felt the employees had overreacted to the situation, whereas others praised their thoughtfulness and ingenuity, with one woman even suggesting that "someone should tell corporate so they get a raise."