Paying cash for that joe? Sorry, 2/29 won't register

BEE STAFF REPORTS

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Customers at a Modesto Starbucks couldn't use their own bucks Friday, thanks to a leap-day computer glitch that wouldn't allow cash registers to open.

The glitch meant that customers had to pay by debit, credit or gift card. Cash, for one day at the Starbucks at Roselle and Floyd avenues, wasn't king.

An employee, who wouldn't give her name, said there was no warning about the malfunction, which seemed limited to Friday, and limited to the Roselle-and-Floyd Starbucks, in Village One Plaza.

The employee said the computers didn't understand the date "02/29," which normally comes around only once every four years. The problem didn't stop many customers from getting their coffee, she said.

Signs posted at the door and the cash register warned customers about the problem, and told them of a nearby Starbucks where they could spend their tangible dollars and cents.

Employees at Starbucks outlets elsewhere in Modesto, Turlock and Ceres said they had not experienced any similar problems Friday with their cash registers.

On Tuesday, almost all Starbucks locations nationwide closed from 5:30 to 9 p.m. for retraining on espresso techniques and customer service. That closure was planned and appeared to be unrelated to the problem Friday at the Starbucks Roselle-and-Floyd outlet.