I work right in this area but never go to this Starbucks because the line is so ridiculously long. Went there for the first time today for a meeting. The inside is really nice. The workers do not smile, are unfriendly, and the service is ridiculously slow.
A man came in with a very large bird. I was disturbed by this because he had no way to contain it, it just sat on his shoulder. He proceeded to sit at the table right behind us and I asked him politely if he would mind sitting at the other open table because I was a bit freaked out by the bird. He started yelling at me in the store saying, "nobody has ever said this to me before. I've been coming in here for months and you're the first person that's ever said anything to me." I told him I highly doubted that. He then said, "what do you weigh? 150 pounds? And you're afraid of this bird? It's a service bird! This is what's wrong with people in this country today!" And he continued to walk to the other side of the store saying to other customers, "can you believe this woman!" And ranting on and on about me. Even got on his phone and was telling the person he called how he couldn't believe there was someone that was afraid of his bird.
No one said a word to me. An employee didn't say anything, they just let it all happen. This made for a quite uncomfortable meeting. The person I was meeting with had told me that they were afraid of birds so I was trying to make them more comfortable when he went to sit behind us. I didn't say anything that I wanted to say back to him because you just never know how some people are going to react.
I want to make it very clear that I do not have a problem with service animals, but his bird was not on a leash and was not contained. He set the bird down on the chair behind me and I just asked politely if he would mind moving. Not to mention that birds have all kinds of dander and lose feathers and they poop everywhere. I don't think that this was too much of a request seeing that there were other open tables. I surely didn't ask him to leave Starbucks.
I called after I left to speak to a manager. Her name was Haylee. She said that she had no idea anything had happened because she was on her headset. She said she would speak to her manager so that they could keep an eye out on how he treats other people in the future. I told her I would not be back to that location.