After serving customer Salumeh Hashemi on her morning commute daily for over five months, the employees of the Temple St. Starbucks were disturbed to discover her real name is not actually ‘Sally’.
Barista Riley Frye says, “I heard some of her friends calling her over when they secured a table, saying, ‘Salumeh, Salumeh.’ At first I thought they were talking to someone else, but when she went over it became clear—she’s been lying to us the whole time.”
The shock of Salumeh’s mistaken identity has taken quite an emotional toll on Starbucks’ staff members. Natalie Bowers explains: “It just hurts to have this kind of false relationship, you know? I thought we’d developed a bond.”
“I mean, I served her first sugar-free Caramel Macchiato.”
After the incident, Salumeh attempted to work with the Starbucks team to spell her newly discovered name correctly. But wounded employees, insisted upon writing “Sally?” on her cup and calling her Ma’am without looking her in the eye.
Salumeh responds, “I figured ‘Sally’ was just easier for them to spell and pronounce. I didn’t think it would ever go this far.”
