Tag: Starbucks

Jobs

$9,800 a year as a Louisville coffee house barista. But even this dame couldn’t get hired there

time-clockBoulevard reports extensively on executive pay at big local employers. But we also look at what folks make down in the trenches — and behind those huge commercial espresso machines. This is from a recent ad in The Courier-Journal’s help-wanted section for Louisville.

The job: Starbucks barista.

The duties: If you guessed, make “coffee.” Or even, make one of those obnoxious Starbucks orders, like a “venti, half-whole milk, one-quarter 1%, one-quarter non-fat, extra-hot, split-quad shots, no-foam latte, with whip, two packets of Splenda, one sugar-in-the-raw, a touch of vanilla syrup, and three short sprinkles of cinnamon” — well, you’d still be off.

The Seattle-based purveyor of coffee culture says being a barista actually means “contributing to Starbucks success by providing legendary customer service.” Of course, it’s not all that vague. You’ll need to

  • Maintain a calm demeanor during periods of high volume or unusual events to keep the store operating to standard and to set a positive example for the team.

On the other hand, some of it does sound awfully touchy-feely/New Age-y. For example, be prepared to

  • Anticipate customer and store needs by constantly evaluating customers for “cues.” You’ll need to pass along that information to a manager so the team can respond as necessary to create the required “Third Place” environment.

Ditto for

  • Recognizing “alarms,” or changes in co-worker morale and passing that along, too.

Perhaps most surprising to anyone who’s visited a Louisville Starbucks recently, there really is a limit to what you can wear, because the dress code

  • Prohibits displaying tattoos, piercings in excess of two per ear, and unnatural hair colors, such as blue or pink.

What it pays: Maddeningly, the ad doesn’t post this most important information. But employment site Glassdoor reports the nationwide average for Starbucks baristas is $9.42 an hour. Working 20 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, you’d make about $9,800, before taxes.

Related: You say “barista,” we say “baristo” — or do we?

Photo, top: Dame Helen Mirren was briefly tickled pink at the BAFTA Awards ceremony in 2013.

Money in Politics

In U.S. Senate bid, Gray ran on business credentials. His first financial report lays them out

Lexington Mayor Jim Gray won the Democrats’ nomination for U.S. Senate yesterday by campaigning on his experience helping save the family’s Gray Inc. construction company after his father’s death. He’ll now face Republican Sen. Rand Paul in November — a contest he concedes will be tough.

Jim Gray
Gray

“I have no illusions about it being a challenging race,” he told the Lexington Herald-Leader, “but I’ve got the experience and I’ve got the record. That experience is in the private sector, in building a family business.”

In the race to the senate, Gray, 62, joins other well-heeled candidates who’ve run on business bona fides, including Gov. Matt Bevin and White House hopeful Donald Trump. Gray’s first financial disclosure report, filed last month, offers a glimpse at that record.

The April 15 report covers the period extending back to the start of 2015. As with all such reports candidates and office holders must file annually, Gray’s assigns only a range of values for his family’s business, real estate and stock holdings. An individual stock, for example, may be valued at between $15,001 and $50,000 — the value Gray gave to his investment in the biotech giant Amgen. What’s more, it’s a point-in-time view; there’s no way to know the value of any of the assets today, nor whether they’re even still owned.

Still, Gray’s report offers a revealing snapshot of his family’s more big-ticket assets:

  • Gray Inc.: valued between $5 million and $25 million
  • Gray Realty commercial property: $1 million to $5 million
  • Woodford Realty commercial property: $250,000 to $500,000
  • Visual and Antiquity Investments, which consists of contemporary paintings, sculptures, mixed media and rare books: $1 million to $5 million. The report doesn’t say whether this is a private collection or commercial venture

The report also lists stocks and other investment securities, with a combined value between $1.8 million and $4.1 million. The portfolio includes a mix of technology stocks (Apple and Facebook); pharmaceuticals (Bristol-Myers and Merck, in addition to Amgen) and consumer goods (Starbucks and Walt Disney). A partial list:

Gray portfolio medium

Finally, Gray also reported annual wages of $160,000 as mayor, and $125,000 from Gray Inc., where he’s non-executive board chairman.

Related: Watch Gray’s “American Dream” campaign video about saving the family business.

Food and Dining

OMG, these coffee bean write-ups sound exactly like food porn

Boulevard’s favorite coffee for home-brewing is Peet’s, a San Francisco Bay Area company that helped birth Starbucks. But out of the house, you can often find us at Heine Bros., Please and Thank You or Press On Market.

A sampling of premium varieties; weights vary:

PeetsPeet’s, Emeryville, Calif. Kona, $24.95 for 8 oz. The pitch: The region known as Kona on Hawaii’s big island has been synonymous with superb coffee for more than 150 years. Steep volcanic hillsides and a microclimate of sunny mornings and cloudy afternoons create the perfect conditions for cultivating smooth, sweet-flavored beans. The taste is mild and mellow, with a hint of tropical sweetness; it’s like Hawaiian hospitality in a cup.

HeineHeine Bros., Louisville. Kentucky Dream, $15 for 12 oz. The pitch: This blend of Nicaragua and Sumatra has a warm aroma of gooey cinnamon buns. It is sweet with a medium body, and a dry smoky finish. You can feel extra good about purchasing this tasty blend because $5 from the sale of each bag will be donated to the Forecastle Foundation to further their efforts to restore the world’s natural awesome here in Kentucky through their efforts on the Green River with The Nature Conservancy and on Pine Mountain with Kentucky Natural Lands Trust.

StarbucksStarbucks, Seattle. Reserve Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Chelba, $17.50 for 8.8 oz. The pitch: To deliver something truly unique, 700 smallholder farmers near the village of Chelba separated out their finest-quality coffee cherries for natural processing. Those cherries bask gracefully for a period of 20 days, soaking up the rich flavors and juicy body present in this vibrant cup. Driving through this region is magical in itself. The landscape lets you know something special flourishes and evolves here. The air gets lighter and the smell of brick-red top soil is always present—suggesting a light rain was just ahead of you. This is one of the highest altitudes you will find in Ethiopia as well. As you go deeper into the thicket of the coffee trees, soft limestone crumbles with blocky basalt begin to expose themselves on small stream banks. In the distance, sparkling water drops fall off bright red cherries causing you to squint in awe—you’ve finally discovered the treasure!

Good Folks.jpgGood Folks Coffee, Louisville. Columbia Microdot, $19 for 12 oz. The (spare) pitch: A Castillo and Columbia varietal grown by farmer Enodth Paz Mosquera on the Deporcali farm in Columbia’s Cauca region at an elevation of 1,500 meters. The roaster notes the coffee’s hints of floral, banana and white grape.

Related: Gralehaus is more than a Highlands breakfast spot. The Forecastle Foundation’s GuideStar profile.