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‘Me thinking y’all were just being nice’: Starbucks customers divided after baristas expose new policy about writing on cups

‘I thought they just liked me.’

Photo of Mars Ramos

Mars Ramos

Photo of a Starbucks sign; a photo of stacked Starbucks cups with the caption 'requiring us to write on every single cup?? sighh'
@officialkailani/Tiktok; Shutterstock (Licensed)

Starbucks fans can expect that quaint small coffee shop feeling from the company once again in 2025. The company is getting back to a few of its regular practices that stopped in 2020 during the height of the pandemic.

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‘Back to Starbucks’ turn-around plan

Starbucks’s new CEO, Brian Niccol, has initiated a plan called “Back to Starbucks” that features several changes. Amongst those is Starbucks getting back into the practice of writing customers’ names, or a nice phrase, on cups.

Other changes include the company once again accepting customer’s personal cups for making drinks. However, Starbucks is adopting a special container to put those cups in so that employees don’t actually have to touch customers’ cups. They are also re-introducing the condiment bar so that customers can personalize their drinks.

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In another effort to make the place have a neighborhood coffee house feel, Starbucks will give free coffee and tea refills to customers who order their drinks “for here.” These are just some of the changes as reported by CNN. However, the “for here” policy is already causing a stir. The Daily Dot previously reported on the confusion customers are experiencing with the policy and the clean-up trouble it gives employees.

The Back to Starbucks plan was put in motion once the company saw a 6% decrease in sales at the end of its fiscal year in October.

Employees are adjusting

Employees are adjusting to the new writing-on-cups practice in recent videos. In a TikTok video by barista @goddessdivine777, she shares her approach to the new policy.

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“CEO embarks on new policy on writing on cups today,” this Starbucks employee says, “So here’s what I wrote today.”

She then shows a series of cups with witty Gen Z slang phrases like “very demure,” “type sh*t,” and “x1000 aura.” The video resonated with viewers and has almost 2.6 million views as of Saturday.

Customers commenting under @goddessdivine7777 video are also adjusting to the policy. They seem to be having a good time with the “quirkiness” of it all.

“Wait is that why they’ve been writing cute messages :( i thought they just liked me,” one heartbroken viewer commented.

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“My name is Sam. they wrote the green eggs and ham joke on my cup and I almost lost it,” they said. “Felt like I was back in school and i didn’t know it was a rule.”

@goddessdivine7777 #starbucks #writingoncups #starbucksbarista #dto ♬ original sound – 𝖊𝖑𝖎

In a separate video, another Starbucks employee @officialkailani shows a stack of cups with more friendly sayings like “good morning” and “rise and shine.” The sound on the video is of a woman in disbelief saying “what the heck” because let’s face it, this will unfortunately be more work for employees. They caption the video, “The gf’s are going to yell at me noo.” Their video has over 105,000 likes and 666,700 views as of Saturday.

The Daily Dot has reached out to Starbucks for comment via email and to @goddessdivine7777 and @officialkailani via TikTok message and comment.

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