30 COMMENTS

  1. Gee whiz, these NSDs are effortlessly making money hand over fist [pause for hysterical laughter] and they’ve got to cheat Starbucks out of a few dollars on top of it?

    It’s not just illegal and immoral, it’s… tacky.

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  2. It’s not “stealing” if Starbucks voluntarily fulfilled her request.
    I’m a Starbucks shareholder and even I have to say it’s Starbuck’s own fault for allowing people like Chelsea get away with this. She technically didn’t do anything wrong. All she did was submit a request. Starbucks had the option to NOT fulfill her unreasonable request, but for some reason they still did.
    As one of the company owners, I’m more pissed at Starbucks than at Chelsea tbh. She didn’t break in and snatch the stuff. THEY were dumb enough to hand her more than what she paid for. They’re actively mismanaging resources and therefore wasting us company owners’ money. I wouldn’t be surprised if thousands or millions of people try this hack. I mean… if it works, it works. Starbucks needs to get their ish together.

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    • Technically you may be right. But Chelsea’s whole intent is to cheat them out of money. And it works, even if they’re the ones who ultimately do undercut the price. And Starbucks may have a policy of not making waves with customers.

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      • Actually, the $3.50 she paid with this “hack” is most likely the REAL retail price that Starbucks expects for that big drink anyways. The “hack” only makes customers believe they’ve found a way to “beat the system” and “save money”. OMG I’m only paying $3.5 instead of $7!!! So cool!!!
        Then excitedly blast it all over social media, and boom! thousands of followers want to try out the secret hack for themselves = more orders for Starbucks.

        Chelsea isn’t “cheating” Starbucks. She’s playing Starbuck’s game without knowing it. If anything, she’s ordering more often now, because she thinks she gets a better deal AND she’s is doing free marketing for Starbucks by sharing this “trick”.

        This is no different than MK reps’ “50% profit hack” (paying only half of retail price and potentially selling it for full retail price!!). They smugly think they get a great deal but they’re not. The price MK reps pay is the real price that MK Corp expects. They aren’t getting anything “cheaper”.

        So all of the holier-than-thou saints that insist on doing “the right thing” by paying “full price” to Starbucks are only gifting Starbucks extra $$$ on top of what they originally intending to make. Wouldn’t surprise me if Starbucks came up with these “hacks” and spreaded them themselves. This is genius marketing.

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    • As far as I can make out the time on her receipt is 7:46 AM – prime time for people stopping at SB for their morning coffee before work. Especially on a day when there’s a 50% off iced drinks sale, the place is going to be bedlam. Some minimum-wage counter drone just trying to keep the line moving is going to see “venti”, grab a venti cup, and fill it up without bothering to read the rest.

      She’s deliberately exploiting the system to get more than what she paid for, and that’s 1000% on her being greedy. I worked in retail for 10 years and she’s exactly like the fast-talkers who try to distract you into giving them more change than they should get back, or the ones who swap price tags on an expensive item for a cheap one, move sale signs around, or abuse the returns policy. Or the ones you see at McDonald’s who order a free cup of water, then dump it out and fill it up with soda instead. Theft is theft even when it’s just a dollar.

      And it all contributes to what in retail is called shrinkage, loss of merchandise due to theft, damages, etc. And shrinkage cuts into a store’s profits, and you can be dang sure that the company isn’t just going to eat the losses. They pass the increased prices on to the consumers.

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      • IIRC, Chelsea orders on the mobile app and collects via drive-thru. High pressure, high speed part of the operation. And you just know she’s going to scream blue murder if/when the poor barista gives her a grande as ordered.

        I imagine she also believes “The customer is always right” when she is the customer. But not when Chelsea is the “tippy top” “business leader”.

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    • This has been a well known thing for over a decade. I worked for Starbucks for many years, no one gives a shit.

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    • I don’t think it’s so much the money as it is that she gets a thrill from pulling a fast one.

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      • I had a co-worker like that. Always trying to “get something extra” or “pull one over.” No matter how small. Then, if it worked, he’d be sooo pleased with himself. It was a “win.”

        I wouldn’t be able to look at myself in the mirror.

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    • And yet she sold her “tippy top” of the line counter top coffee maker because “she rarely drinks coffee”.

  3. Okay, I’m going to sound like an idiot here, but I don’t go into Starbucks very often so I don’t recall how their stores operate and am rather naive about how this works. How exactly does this hack/stealing/whatever work? Does she order a grande size drink at the register but says she wants it in a venti cup and then counts on whomever actually makes the drink to fill up the entire cup? If I don’t have it right, somebody please explain, thanks.

    Starbucks is moronic for allowing this to happen but they wouldn’t be the only large corporation where things like this happen, whether it’s actually stealing or not is something people have to decide for themselves, but in any case, Ms. Adkins, supposedly a “Cadillac Sales Director” at Mary Kay, doesn’t look very wealthy or classy doing this sort of thing and bragging about it.

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    • That seems to be exactly what she’s doing.

      If it happens once, it’s a happy accident, but as far as I can make out the time on her receipt is 7 something AM – prime time for people stopping at SB for their morning coffee regardless of day. Especially when there’s a 50% off sale

  4. Thank you for calling it theft because that is what it is, and shows how this type of person is out on the “take” of people and businesses period. She doesn’t deserve to be in MK , never mind she actually does, it fits corporate image.

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  5. I worked in the Cafe in a B&N and they pretty much use SB’s training book to train the cafe workers. The machines & espresso tins are set up based on the size of drink you order. The length of pull of the espresso from the machine is supposed to be timed by the barista to match the size of drink on the order. So I am guessing this works because the baristas aren’t reading the order and just figure it’s the larger drink based on the cup they are filling. It are that the person who took your order is the same one making the drink especially during peak business hours.

    I don’t care for SB as I drank way too much of it when I worked at the B&N & I like most of the locally owned coffee places in my area much better, plus they have more flavoured syrups than the SB has.

    • I worked at a fast food place when I was a teenager. We charged for the cup size; if you wanted something in a large cup, you paid for a large cup. None of this “medium drink in a large cup” crap.

  6. Starbucks is always giving me a bigger drink than I ordered. But I also not brag about it on social media..

  7. First, let me say I am NOT a fan of anything to do with MK. I think it is a horrible company with a toxic business model that fails women at every level. That being said, although I love certain drinks at Starbucks, I too ask for a grande in a venti cup. WHY? I can afford the larger drink (although I don’t make those big MK $$ LOL). There is always a ton of beverage left in the blender that gets dumped down the sink. That is so wasteful. So instead of it being wasted, I ask the barista to put it in the bigger cup. Another problem with Starbucks and their being wasteful is the food they sell. Every night instead of offering what they have leftover at a discount in the last hour, they just throw away whatever was left in the case!! It makes me shudder. So although this director is a cheapskate and probably lies about how much money she makes in MK, I do think keeping a drink in hand is better than it going down the sink.

      • I always say, let your conscience be your guide. For you it is theft, for me it is preventing waste. Have a great day and thanks for sharing!!

        • Honest question: if Starbucks’ wasteful practices bother you so much, why go there? Why not find a different coffee shop where they discount or donate their unsold food and are more careful with their ingredients?

          • One forensic audit in a venti cup, please. (Nah, I’d never steal money from someone. I’d have to report it on my Schedule 1 and that would just make my life so much more complicated.)

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  8. It’s Chelsea’s gleefulness at deception – order a smaller size and manipulate into a larger size – THAT is what makes me ill. This alleged successful “leader” of women and a sales team and omg who knows what else, she finds a way to exploit a little loophole and is sufficiently thrilled enough about it to be sure to tell her audience about it, over and over. I am all for frugality and wise spending but that is not Chelsea’s motivation. She is crowing over getting something for nothing and it is distasteful as it is so ridiculous.

    It is NOT the end of the world, this is not going to put Starbucks under, but it is the ongoing proof of Chelsea’s complete inappropriateness for positions of leadership that is irritating as hell. And not just her of course! Look at all the begging Chelsea does that I wouldn’t think a SUCCESSFUL sales professional would have to do, and you can just cookie-cutter her behavior across the whole of mk.

    Integrity, empathy, concern, compassion – I didn’t see those greatly on display in her birthday posts about the $300 shot of liquor, or when she is discounting and pumping up any orders possible. She should be a role model for overcoming obstacles and for keeping your sales and spirits up but instead she is demonstrating ME, ME, ME, FIRST!!!! over and over.

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    • Or how Chelsea and Jaime were begging their down-lines to Venmo the money for drinks at Chelsea’s post legal ceremony pre-weddingpalozza stag-ette week-end.

  9. It’s funny Chelsea gets more attention from her Starbucks habit than she does for her product sales.

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