This isn’t what “the customer is always right” is supposed to mean. It means that the customer is always right when it comes to matters of taste, for their own subjunctive experience. If some guy wants to buy a puke green car, don’t tell him it’s ugly. Just sell it to him. On the other hand, if the customer is convinced that cars don’t need brakes and is insisting you remove them before he’ll buy it, tell him to go away.
“This macchiato is terrible!”
“I’m sorry. No charge. Can I get you something else?”
“This isn’t a macchiato.”
“It’s the only kind we have.”
Macchiato is a special case though. A traditional Italian macchiato is a very specific thing. It looks like this:
It’s a shot of espresso with a little bit of steamed milk added.
On the other hand, Starbucks has popularized a completely different drink that they call a macchiato:
Which is basically a large cup of frothy steamed milk with a shot of espresso poured into it.
Depending on what they’re used to, people will vastly prefer one over the other. This is usually determined by where they’re from (America or Europe). “The customer is always right in matters of taste” should definitely apply to which one they prefer!
I’ve sadly had arguments with baristas over this, even when I specify “espresso macchiato” over “latte macchiato”. Anyway hai colto nel segno, I bet this is what the problem was.
No, it’s just 2 different drinks.
Top is an espresso macchiatto, bottom is a latte macchiatto.
But Latte Macchiatto is a lot more popular, so if you just order a “macchiatto” in the Us and expect an espresso, you’re just being an ass.
It’s unfortunate Starbucks pulled the same thing with macchiatos that Taco Bell did with gorditas. Why couldn’t they just use a different Italian sounding word?
Even Starbucks doesn’t really call that just a macchiato. It’s a latte macchiato. If it had Carmel on top and vanilla in the milk it would be a caramel macchiato. It both cases, to any fool that cared to pay attention, macchiato simply means marked. If you point that out to someone and you that rather than being right about what it’s called, it quickly becomes clear if they are just rightly confused and ignorant or looking to start some drama. Some people get VERY aggressive when they sense any slight on their pride. Some people have some very outsized feelings about how Starbucks makes and names their products.
Same deal with the short, tall, grande, venti, trente vs. small, medium, large, 20oz, 30oz. confusion. That one was tricky because Karen’s would misinterpret the calling of the drinks to the bar as a correction. Those people were generally miserable and hopeless.
Diplomatically negotiating these kinds of conversations is a special kind of hell, but the lessons can be valuable. Unfortunately, it’s a skill that most people don’t get paid enough for.
On the one hand, you have a multi billion dollar Seattle-based coffee corporation that uses Italian sounding names on many of its products as part of a deliberate marketing strategy to seem refined, sophisticated, and upper-class (relative to “working class” coffee from Dunkin Donuts or McDonald’s).
On the other hand you have Italian culture and cuisine, with a lot of very strong reactions to these sorts of marketing strategies and appropriations.
tracks with my experiance, in a hardware store you get all these chuckleheads that come in and want “a good ol’ bang-a-long” and your like “sir… what is a bang-a-long?” and they throw a ten pound hissy fit and go “how in the gul durn heck of a cats pussy do you not know whahat a fucking bang-along-a-bang-bang is, I’ll kill you” and once they’re done being a stupid asshole to you they huff off and come back with a hammer and show you what their granddaddy told them is called a “bang-a-dang-a-ding-a-dong-dong” and they can’t grasp that the people who make and sell said hammer didn’t get that message from Pee-Paa. Then the next lead poisoning victim comes in and asks for an O-ring, and you have the GALL to ask them what they are using it for, and throw their ten pound hissy fit, because they haven’t been punched in the mouth enough as an adult I guess, and run off to find one, then come back and show you because you not being able to identify with only “and O-ring” to go off of which one of the 10,000 different size and material O-rings you carry they specifically meant means you have never heard of an O-ring. Then an unfrozen caveman comes in and ask for a telephone installation, which… you don’t mind helping him put minutes on his phone with a card, but he actually expects you to install phone lines from the city services to his home, you know, that thing the guy at the key cutting desk is KNOWN to do. traditionally.
one lady stumped two of us one time when she started throwing her hands up exasperated and yelling about how the fuck couldn’t we know what a half inch drill was and her husband sent her to get this one thing
we were standing in front of the drills, including some with half inch chucks. we had asked her if she wanted the hand tool or a drill bit, and I thinks she’d responded neither or something, because we couldn’t figure out what she wanted and what we offered wasn’t right, apparently
like ok lady idk wtf you want then, but there are the drill bits over there, and the drills are right behind you. peruse at your pleasure.
and oh god the number of times someone came in for a plumbing item and assumed everything was the same size…
This isn’t what “the customer is always right” is supposed to mean. It means that the customer is always right when it comes to matters of taste, for their own subjunctive experience. If some guy wants to buy a puke green car, don’t tell him it’s ugly. Just sell it to him. On the other hand, if the customer is convinced that cars don’t need brakes and is insisting you remove them before he’ll buy it, tell him to go away.
“This macchiato is terrible!” “I’m sorry. No charge. Can I get you something else?”
“This isn’t a macchiato.” “It’s the only kind we have.”
“I’m sorry sir, we’re all out of macchiato juice tonight. Can I interest you in our house speciality?”
Boom, problem solved.
Macchiato is a special case though. A traditional Italian macchiato is a very specific thing. It looks like this:
It’s a shot of espresso with a little bit of steamed milk added.
On the other hand, Starbucks has popularized a completely different drink that they call a macchiato:
Which is basically a large cup of frothy steamed milk with a shot of espresso poured into it.
Depending on what they’re used to, people will vastly prefer one over the other. This is usually determined by where they’re from (America or Europe). “The customer is always right in matters of taste” should definitely apply to which one they prefer!
Stanno due bevande con il nome “macchiato”. Sta espresso macchiato come puoi visto nella premia foto, è latte macchiato come puoi visto nella seconda.
Macchiato means “marked” or “dirtied”. One is coffee dirtied with a little foam, and the other is milk dirtied with a little coffee.
I’ve sadly had arguments with baristas over this, even when I specify “espresso macchiato” over “latte macchiato”. Anyway hai colto nel segno, I bet this is what the problem was.
Starbucks has to make it that way because their espresso and coffee taste like shit.
No, it’s just 2 different drinks.
Top is an espresso macchiatto, bottom is a latte macchiatto.
But Latte Macchiatto is a lot more popular, so if you just order a “macchiatto” in the Us and expect an espresso, you’re just being an ass.
It’s unfortunate Starbucks pulled the same thing with macchiatos that Taco Bell did with gorditas. Why couldn’t they just use a different Italian sounding word?
Even Starbucks doesn’t really call that just a macchiato. It’s a latte macchiato. If it had Carmel on top and vanilla in the milk it would be a caramel macchiato. It both cases, to any fool that cared to pay attention, macchiato simply means marked. If you point that out to someone and you that rather than being right about what it’s called, it quickly becomes clear if they are just rightly confused and ignorant or looking to start some drama. Some people get VERY aggressive when they sense any slight on their pride. Some people have some very outsized feelings about how Starbucks makes and names their products.
Same deal with the short, tall, grande, venti, trente vs. small, medium, large, 20oz, 30oz. confusion. That one was tricky because Karen’s would misinterpret the calling of the drinks to the bar as a correction. Those people were generally miserable and hopeless.
Diplomatically negotiating these kinds of conversations is a special kind of hell, but the lessons can be valuable. Unfortunately, it’s a skill that most people don’t get paid enough for.
On the one hand, you have a multi billion dollar Seattle-based coffee corporation that uses Italian sounding names on many of its products as part of a deliberate marketing strategy to seem refined, sophisticated, and upper-class (relative to “working class” coffee from Dunkin Donuts or McDonald’s).
On the other hand you have Italian culture and cuisine, with a lot of very strong reactions to these sorts of marketing strategies and appropriations.
No need to be a troll
Get over yourself. Starbucks makes billions selling sugary milk and ice with a splash of coffee. They don’t need you to defend them!
tracks with my experiance, in a hardware store you get all these chuckleheads that come in and want “a good ol’ bang-a-long” and your like “sir… what is a bang-a-long?” and they throw a ten pound hissy fit and go “how in the gul durn heck of a cats pussy do you not know whahat a fucking bang-along-a-bang-bang is, I’ll kill you” and once they’re done being a stupid asshole to you they huff off and come back with a hammer and show you what their granddaddy told them is called a “bang-a-dang-a-ding-a-dong-dong” and they can’t grasp that the people who make and sell said hammer didn’t get that message from Pee-Paa. Then the next lead poisoning victim comes in and asks for an O-ring, and you have the GALL to ask them what they are using it for, and throw their ten pound hissy fit, because they haven’t been punched in the mouth enough as an adult I guess, and run off to find one, then come back and show you because you not being able to identify with only “and O-ring” to go off of which one of the 10,000 different size and material O-rings you carry they specifically meant means you have never heard of an O-ring. Then an unfrozen caveman comes in and ask for a telephone installation, which… you don’t mind helping him put minutes on his phone with a card, but he actually expects you to install phone lines from the city services to his home, you know, that thing the guy at the key cutting desk is KNOWN to do. traditionally.
I don’t miss working in tools & hardware
one lady stumped two of us one time when she started throwing her hands up exasperated and yelling about how the fuck couldn’t we know what a half inch drill was and her husband sent her to get this one thing
we were standing in front of the drills, including some with half inch chucks. we had asked her if she wanted the hand tool or a drill bit, and I thinks she’d responded neither or something, because we couldn’t figure out what she wanted and what we offered wasn’t right, apparently
like ok lady idk wtf you want then, but there are the drill bits over there, and the drills are right behind you. peruse at your pleasure.
and oh god the number of times someone came in for a plumbing item and assumed everything was the same size…
I had to ding a ding dang my dang a long ling long
That isn’t what the phrase means, that’s a better phrase, but it is a recent invention that was pulled out of someones ass.
Right. The “matters of taste” thing sounds good, but it’s been debunked.
Oh that’s interesting. Well, it’s what it should mean anyhow
That’s what it used to mean