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Credit: marynewton.typepad.com and carryonamerica.com
Starbucks coffee shop is a popular establishment which serves as a meeting place, hangout spot, office space, reading room and other uses. In the high traffic Starbucks in areas like Union Square, the store serves about 2,000 customers a day. With such a high volume of customers, baristas don’t have the time to look out for crime, which has become a problem. “We’re supposed to be keeping an eye out for suspicious activity, but we have a lot of customers,” said Tomer Malchi, who works at the Union Square East Starbucks.
The Starbucks’s toilets in Union Square and in other areas of the city are often in decrepit conditions since they are open to public. Malchi said that they often find needles in the bathroom and suspects that people do drugs there.
Along with the crappy toilets are the low wages. Malchi believes that this all the CEO cares about – keeping wages low. Malchi belongs to the Starbucks Union, an organization fighting for better wages and working conditions for Starbucks employees.
This is the same thing that happens at my job. I work for Victoria’s Secret and we constantly get robbed. Managers want us to play security guards and assist clients, but it becomes a real challenge to do both. I can agree with these employees because you are getting paid a low wage and you have to do two jobs at once.
If these locations want security guards they need to hire them.
I agree with both Keri-Ann and Matty. I had work at a Victoria’s Secret, in Queens Center Mall and as a salesgirl in a beauty supply stores. It seems as though store owners expect you to play multiple roles for just about minimium wage. These salespeople are expected to be personal shoppers, greeters, cashiers, babysitters, security guards just to name a few. If managers expect sales clerks to perform more duties then their wages need to reflect that. Also, stores should provide security to protect not only merchandise of the stores and possessions of customers but also to protect the welfare of employees. There is only so much understaffed businesses can handle as is.