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The reason why they call your name is because Schultz, inspired by the "bar" in Milan in the early 1980's, wanted people to believe they had a barista friend. Note that "bar" in Italy has roughly the same meaning as "cafe" in the US. In Italy, then and now, most bars have regular customers, and they get to know each other's name.

When I moved to Singapore a few years ago, I started drinking my coffee at a local "Segafredo", and had to teach to the baristas to call me by name whenever I entered. For a few months, they would say "Buongiorno Mr. Simone" to me only. I also had to teach them how to do a proper espresso. They were clueless. (I was a barista in my twenties). One day I hear "Buongiorno Mr. Giovanni", and I immediately knew it was another Italian. He also did the same, had to teach them to call him by name, and how to do a proper espresso. Funny.

2 comments

The practice doesn't translate well (culturally) everywhere: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17356957

I suspect that's because a lot of Brits (and the commonwealth, certainly here in NZ) don't take well to commercial friendships. We don't want a random barista knowing our name.

However, if we've seen the same barista every day for a year it's different. So the Italian situation is fine, but asking up front and pretending is not.

I make up a different name every time I go into a Starbucks. I could be Marty one day, Siegfried another, and Rupert the next.

Do they usually know how to spell Siegfried?

No, but that adds to the fun of it.

Here's my story, for what it is worth.

I'm an American. I don't normally go into places like Starbucks. I recently went to a "juice bar" and was one of only two customers there. I paid with cash as I always do nowadays because of Visa/MC/etc data-mining. The one and only person behind the counter asked for my name. It really got my hackles up, I involuntarily scowled and I said I pay cash so I won't have to tell you my name. The poor girl said they only ask for names so orders won't get mixed up - which makes sense from a rote point of view, but was ridiculous given that there were only two customers in the entire place.

I guess if I were used to places asking for my name, I would have simply just made one up on the spot and things would have gone smoothly -- although I dislike being 'forced' to lie on a casual basis like that, if I have a choice I simply won't frequent a business that puts me in that position. I haven't been back to that juice bar since, despite it being only a few blocks from my house.

It seems the "marketing types" really don't get me - walmart greeters disturb me, makes me feel bad for them rather than "welcome" by reminding me how much better off I am than the person who has to take such a dreary and unproductive job. Bathroom attendants totally creep me out with pervo vibes rather than make me feel like I'm in a high-class establishment. My gym forces the people at the front-desk to say goodbye when you leave, which makes me feel like I have to choose between being an asshole and ignoring them or being fake and responding to their corporate-enforced fakeness.

I would really like to know what percentages of the population actually likes this stuff versus simply tolerates it or like myself feels put on the spot by it.

Do you honestly believe that by giving your first name when making an order that data mining will ensue?

Who knows? Some little mom-and-pop juice-bar, probably not. Megalocorp like Starbucks with millions to spend on such a project, quite possibly.

After all, birth-date + gender + zip-code is enough uniquely identify 87% of the population - what's the chance that I've inadvertently let slip some information in addition to my name? Maybe gender, plus first name plus zip-code of the point-of-purchase is similarly revealing? The thing about privacy is once you've lost control of it, you can never get that control back so staying vigilant is important.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/adamtanner/2013/07/22/how-just-a...

Nice story, but my Starbucks barista often gets my name wrong. If being friendly was their intention, rather than matching orders and drinks, they certainly haven't gotten the memo.

What's the error rate, though? For those of us who either find it awkward or just plain incorrect, how many Emily and Johns are there feeling happy that they had a touch of "personal" service?

With an accent, and a short name, giving my name is the part of ordering at Starbucks that I dislike the most, though (presumably due to iterating on the delivery on my part) the retries have become fewer of late. It's especially weird since I pay with the mobile app. No reason my name couldn't be on-screen there for me to point to; some of the smoothest ordering experiences have been while wearing a conference badge, and the cashier wrote my name without asking.

On the other hand, I don't hang out at a specific Starbucks location daily, but I have seen folks who apparently do, and who the staff genuinely do know by name. When my local coffee shop (Red Rock) took my drink order without asking my name I definitely felt pretty special.

Of course, none of this ruins the twinge of embarrassment (is it embarrassment? I'm not sure) I feel whenever a barista loudly yells "LATTE FOR JEN" over the din of an espresso machine.

I give a different name. My problem isn't so much that no one knows how to say mine; it's that no one knows how to spell it, and since someone else reads it, they generally fumble the totally weird series of letters the other barista wrote down. So I started to think of it as less about providing my name -- I don't care about fake familiarity -- and more about providing a uniquish identifier. So I optimize for that: pick a name that everyone knows but few people have. "Art" works pretty well.

Not Ford Prefect? ;-) (I suppose Art Dent is close enough...)

My name is Simone. Try to guess how often my name is pronounced in the wrong way. (hint: it's probably more than 99%). :)

Often wildly wrong.