--- title: Starbucks Employee Fired After Ranting Against Customer description: A Starbucks employee was fired after a viral cell phone video showed her berating a customer in Queens, New York. canonical: https://time.com/3882349/starbucks-employee-rant-fired/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-05-18T12:05:25.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:02:11.891Z og:title: Starbucks Employee Fired After Ranting at Customer og:description: The customer said she has since been given a $100 Starbucks gift card og:url: https://time.com/3882349/starbucks-employee-rant-fired/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Starbucks Employee Fired After Ranting at Customer twitter:description: The customer said she has since been given a $100 Starbucks gift card twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Starbucks Employee Fired After Ranting at Customer > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=94ffac34-fb48-4fb1-b8e7-41d4745dda2d&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: The 50 Pound Cup of Coffee [Watch (HLS stream): The 50 Pound Cup of Coffee](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/5AkCMa26.m3u8) (2:01)  _Published 2008-04-21. Perceived wisdom has it that we're entering a worldwide recession. So, how can a London department store get away with selling a cup of Joe at this kind of price?_  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson May 18, 2015 12:05 PM UTC  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson May 18, 2015 12:05 PM UTC A Starbucks employee was [fired](http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Starbucks-Supervisor-Fired-After-Yelling-at-Customers-Store-New-York-City-303947011.html) after a viral cell phone video showed her berating a customer in New York. Ruby Chen said the Starbucks employee accused her of trying to steal a cookie straw and starting yelling at her to get out of the store, [NBC reports](http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Starbucks-Supervisor-Fired-After-Yelling-at-Customers-Store-New-York-City-303947011.html). “Get out,” the employee says in the video, which Chen had posted on Facebook. “You’re not going to be served here. Period. Bye. Bye. Bye.” A spokesperson for Starbucks told NBC the employee was fired. “This customer’s experience is not reflective of the service our partners provide to customers every day,” the spokesperson said. “Our leadership team is reaching out to the customer to apologize and make this right.” \[[_NBC_](http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Starbucks-Supervisor-Fired-After-Yelling-at-Customers-Store-New-York-City-303947011.html)\] ### Go Inside Starbucks' Wild New 'Willy Wonka Factory of Coffee'  On Dec. 5, founder Howard Schultz debuted part of his new strategy for Starbucks: his first flagship “Roastery,” a 15,000 square foot space that is both a coffee roasting facility, and a consumer retail outlet. The place is to coffee what FAO Schwartz is to toys or Dover Street Market is to fashion—retail theatre. Ian Allen for TIME  Ian Allen for TIME  Ian Allen for TIME  Ian Allen for TIME  Ian Allen for TIME  Ian Allen for TIME  Ian Allen for TIME  Ian Allen for TIME ## Transcript >> This is Glen Levy with time. com. Recently on the sites, our office coffee aficionado, James Poniewozik, sampled Starbucks' new Pike Place Roast. But as the saying doesn't exactly go: " Anything New York can do, London can do ." Well, more expensively. Want proof? How about the Caffé Raro Beans sold at the Peter Jones Department Store in Chelsea. >> It is what we believe is the rarest coffee, able to be available worldwide. It's a blend >> of two of the most exclusive coffee beans and Jamaican Blue Mountain and the Kopi Luwak bean found in Indonesia. A cup is £ 50 and this reflects how much it actually does cost for us to get hold of the beans. Every £ 50 from each cup sold goes directly to Macmillan Cancer Support and so our customers don't seem to found, sort of the price, a problem. They say it's amazingly smooth, absolutely no bitterness >> and really earthy. Seems to be sort of a recurring theme. I understand we've sold, I think it's approaching 40 now. I don't know if Starbucks have faced by this, I mean, I think it probably is, sort of, a one of a missed occasion but you know, we decide to roll it out again and who knows, it may well become a nationwide trend. >> Crucially then, what does it actually taste like? It's certainly the smoothest cup of coffee I've ever drunk. But frankly, for £ 50 I'd be expecting the greatest taste sensation known to man which is going leave me feeling elated for the rest of the year. What we're left with-- and I'm not making this up-- is the world's most expensive coffee bean which gets digested by a Palm cat resulting in a process that gives this espresso its unique flavor. I don't think it's likely to give Starbucks too much cause for concern. 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