A barista says she explained 18 different times that her shop wasn’t Starbucks. But the customer still wouldn’t budge on her order

A barista who works at an independent coffee shop shared a story online about a customer who kept insisting on ordering an item that only Starbucks sells. The video was posted by a creator using the handle @jorlala, known online as bhadbharista. It has been viewed 6.3 million times and has more than 1.2 million likes.

In the TikTok video, the barista sits in her car and talks about a customer interaction that left her frustrated. Text on the screen reads, “customer upset our food isn’t the same as starbucks.” She opens the video by saying, “I’ve said this a million times, not every coffee shop is the same at Starbucks, okay?”

She then explains that a man approached the counter and said his wife wanted the “roasted red pepper egg bites,” an item sold at Starbucks. The barista told him her shop does not carry that item, though they do sell frittatas.

The customer’s wife also insisted on the item despite being told it wasn’t available

According to the barista, the man kept repeating that his wife wanted the roasted red pepper egg bites, even after she explained the shop only had frittatas, including an egg white version and a bacon version. He then signaled to his wife, who was sitting at a table, to come to the counter.

The wife came up and repeated the same request. The barista told her again that the shop did not sell roasted red pepper egg bites and offered the frittata options instead. The wife responded, “no, no, no, no, no, these, they have, it’s the roasted red pepper egg bites.”

The barista said she reached a breaking point at this moment. She said, “And at this point I’m ready to reach across the counter and choke this one. Are you listening to anything that I’m f–king saying right now? We don’t have that. I have something similar.” Customer service can push workers to their limits, as when ice cream shop owners confronted a customer in a bizarre parking lot confrontation. 

The wife said she was unsure which item she wanted, saying, “I don’t really know. I don’t know which one I want. I don’t know. I really want the red pepper ones.” Her husband then suggested ordering one of each frittata option. The wife continued to hesitate, saying she was no longer sure she wanted anything, before the husband told her, “let’s just get this.”

The barista said she thought to herself during the exchange, “oh my God, I don’t have time for your little f–king fit. Like, literally there’s a Starbucks 2 minutes that way. If you want the egg bites so bad, go f–king get them.” The couple eventually settled on one of each frittata.

The husband then ordered a small caramel macchiato with eight extra shots. When the barista asked if he wanted the shots on the side, he said he wanted them “separate.” She said, “That’s literally what I just f–king said.”

When the order was ready, the husband came to pick it up and looked at the food. He said, “I think I stole someone’s order because this isn’t mine.” The barista told him it was his order, but he disagreed, saying, “no it’s not, we got the egg bites.” Order mix-ups can lead to tense interactions, as when a Starbucks customer stuttered while placing his order and then claimed the barista mocked his speech. 

She explained again that the shop had made frittatas, not the egg bites sold at Starbucks, telling him, “they’re not… they’re not like egg bites like Starbucks. They’re not 2 egg bites like Starbucks, like we talked about 18 different times when you were ordering. These are different. This is a frittata, a little bit bigger, one of each.” 

The husband looked at the food again and said, “I don’t think this is right, but okay.” The barista said she thought to herself, “I don’t think you have a brain, but okay.”

The video, which has drawn more than 7,200 comments, shows viewers reacting to the story. One commenter wrote, “Americans are so funny because why tf would you ever think Starbucks was a universal cafe menu.” 

Another commenter, who said they work as a barista at Starbucks, wrote, “As a Barista at Starbucks we have lots of people stare at our menu and still order Dutch Bro drinks or food that is not on our menu. I guess this issue is universal.”

Other viewers questioned parts of the story or the customers’ behavior. One wrote, “It’s genuinely so concerning how dumb people are,” while another commented, “This has to be a skit.” 

A separate comment read, “I swear people act as if it’s their first day on earth.” One commenter asked why the barista did not simply point the customers toward the nearby Starbucks, writing, “I don’t understand, why did you not direct them to a Starbucks? That’s literally what they want.”