Through the years, we have seen young employees creating and posting videos on the job, including McDonald’s, Target, Starbucks, and more. Now an employee gag video is confusing the public.
In a clip with 7.5 million views, a Starbucks customer was “angry” when her cold foam came out to “$1,478.40.”
“Omg since when did Starbucks get so cheap??” TikTok user @aka.cricket asks in the text overlay. In the viral video, she sits in the Starbucks drive-thru, placing an order at the speaker. “Can I actually get more cold foam?” she inquires. Then, her $16.80 total skyrockets to $1,293.60.
“There you go!” the barista chirps happily as the order balloons on the drive-thru screen.
“Yeah, just little more. That’s not expensive enough,” @aka.cricket laughs. All of a sudden, the total again jumps. “That’s actually perfect,” the content creator says.
When @aka.cricket pulls up to the window, she asks the barista, “What’s my total?”
“It will actually be $1,478.40,” the barista responds, pulling out the card reader.
“That’s too much! That’s not what I wanted,” she replies as the barista taps the reader. “I’m recording you! This total is unacceptable.”
Afterward, the barista slowly closes the window on the content creator’s face with her calling out. The whole setup is almost surely staged.
“LMAO DO YALL NOT REALIZE THEYRE FRIENDS,” one comment on the TikTok reads.
The Daily Dot reached out to @aka.cricket via TikTok comment and direct message as well as Starbucks via press email.
‘I was like damn until she got to the register’
Most played along and joined in on the joke.
“THATS INSANELY CHEAP! I usually get mine for like $6,536.56,” one viewer joked.
“Me crafting my birthday drink,” a second quipped.
“Me and my coworkers playing Karen,” another jested.
However, others warned about any possible repercussions.
“starbucks saw this and fired her,” one user remarked.
“[Your] friend gonna get yelled at for voiding all those items, heads up!” a second warned.
In the comments section, @aka.cricket responded, “this was months ago, plus there was no product waste, plus we do this exact same thing for training on the register, so i think she’s safe.”
Turns out the “customer” in the video, @aka.cricket, is a Starbucks worker herself too.
Can Starbucks fire baristas for making TikToks?
Starbucks has terminated employees for this before. In 2021, one barista was let go over a 1-year-old video where he complained about demanding customers. The following year, a skit where a customer didn’t know which drink was theirs led to the termination of another barista. According to Business Insider, most companies are afraid of anything that can damage their brand on the internet, which can include posting certain TikTok videos, especially if it violates company social media policies.
So what was in the $1,400 order?
The customizations on this Starbucks order were wild. Coconut milk, soy milk, 2% milk, whole milk, nonfat milk, no whip cream, vanilla sweet cream, caramel drizzle, mocha drizzle, frapp chips, strawberry puree, vanilla bean powder, match powder, apple drizzle, raw sugar, Stevia, sugar, agave, caramel sauce, caramel and mocha lining, and more. This did not equal anywhere close to $1,000, that number was inflated manually by the barista.
What is the most expensive Starbucks drink at Starbucks?
You can get up to $40 pretty quickly with customizations on the app. The record according to Google Gemini is $54, a Sexagintuple Vanilla Bean Mocha Frap made with 60 shots of espresso.
@aka.cricket barista was rude but $1478.40 wasn’t too bad for what i ordered
♬ original sound – ★cricket★
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