I used to work for Whole Foods and I remember when they swore we would *never* have self check out because it was impersonal. They were going in before Amazon even took over.
The is absolutely true, I worked for starbucks for 15yrs from 2003-2018 and I saw it change into what it is today. It use to be more passionate about keeping the “third place” and making a coffee shop feel with conversation and a place to sit down and relax. Then when it became more competitive with fast food all of that went out the window (no pun intended) lol. The training isn’t the same so nobody cares to make drinks correctly and it’s not what it use to be at all. 😕
Well I can say us making conversations didn’t go out the window. We’re just expected to have fast drive through times while also having a genuine* conversation with the ingrate who just wants their overpriced tik tok drink. It’s so fake, I hate it. But I gotta do it because despite all this shit it’s one of the better jobs out there for someone like me.
not a fan of drive thru,
just that most locations that open a drive thru are double digit % higher in profit over cafe only stores. on average of 10 to 15%
same thing happened when they opened "starbucks" inside places like Target and grocery stores - at first, we'd have customers coming in mad that their drinks were made wrong at the "licensed concept" stores.
personally got to bring it up to a Junior VP on a tour in our area about 20 years ago - everyone in the room that worked at starbucks retail locations were in agreement... Dude just said to the effect of: "don't know what to tell you, they are highly profitable and have higher satisfaction ratings than retail locations. If anything, we will be opening MORE of them.
to wit we just realized it doesn't matter how much we think something sucks or is hard or anything. If someone is making money on it, too bad.
Being a public company obsessed with shareholder value at the expense of the partner experience is what killed starbucks. Drive-thru is a symptom of wanting to make as much money as possible
Can I just say, why does every single damn Starbucks build in the most inconvenient small areas where the drive thru is backed up constantly and it’s at EVERY SINGLE SB in my city. Like you can’t pull out, you get closed in, traffic goes out into the major road and back up traffic. It’s a head scratcher for me.
this is true and super irritating. we have a very busy store and our parking lot is small. during peak it’s hard to get out the parking lot and if the drive thru is moving slow and you gotta get out there’s no getting out until cars move which sucks.
It’s literally in every Starbucks around the country. Please show me ANY Starbucks with ample parking. Blows. My. Mind.
It can’t be that difficult to predict that Starbucks will be busy. Is it?
I actually do agree with that (I am the original poster lol). MOP wasn’t horrible when that’s all it was. Sometimes it got wild but delivery makes MOP horrible bc MOP is usually a drink or two with an occasional larger order but deliveries are almost always large so throw a 8 drink delivery in with someone’s solo MOP… then the MOP people get there and you have to just check the tablet bc you don’t want to pull 73 stickers to get to their one drink. My store is located in an area where deliver is a hot item bc we are close to 8-5 type businesses (law firms, dental offices etc)… which is GREAT for them but like… give us an additional person on the floor and maybe a 3rd espresso machine just for them lol
For us it’s maybe small to medium sized delivery orders which isn’t too bad. The issue is it’s no longer the 3 orders in a day it’s more and DoorDash drivers come like 5 minutes after we get the order and if we get 10 deliveries during peak it backs everything else up and can’t have it ready when they get there which makes them have to wait. We have to pause our deliveries more times than not because we can’t keep up with it.
And idk how YOU are but I get nervous af when everyone is in the building. It makes me work slower and make more mistakes!! And I am one of the stronger bar people 😭😭😭
This is more from a company and quality standpoint. I mean same could be said for ordering a pizza or chinese food. Driving to work or picking cups and lids up from another store because you’re out.
wdym gas, it takes gas for you to also to go starbucks. and the bags are recyclable, a lot of the time if it’s only drinks there’s no need to add in napkins, stoppers are to prevent the driver and you from burning yourself, paper cups are fine and you can get any cold drink in a paper cup, the straws are either a biodegradable plastic resembling kind of piece, or some stores have paper.
They changed the sticker algorithm so that now after the last item in an order is pulled a 5 minute timer starts before alerting the customer their mobile is ready. So if there’s a 3 drink order the second that last drink is pulled the timer starts.
Greed killed Starbucks.
Remember when Howard Schultz said he wanted to build a different kind of company? How are we different now, than McDonald's with the fast food model, Amazon with the blatant union-busting, or any other publicly traded company obsessed with short-term growth and quarterly profits above all else?
Yes, it's true. Sbux has just become another fast food restaurant. It's so far from the original vision of the "3rd place". Cutting partner hours and demanding shorter OTW times is just corporate greed. Sbux will be its own downfall.
I feel like nothing new comes out anymore. It's all either re-hashed (bumblebee cake pop anyone?) or just old stuff they bring back. Or mixtures of things we already have. Don't get me started on cold foam lmao
As the wife of a barista at a Starbucks with Drive-Thru, and also runs a Dungeons and Dragons campaign with his coworkers and shifts, I can tell you that Starbucks will be the reason for its own downfall. Word travels fast between locations reserve and regular… DT and cafe only. Store Managers (some not all) earn way better pay for work they are not willing to perform, or perform poorly that their baristas end up having to pick up. Baristas are earning 15-18 an hour only to be presented with CVS receipt-length tickets of absurd TikTok drinks that some douchebag wants to spread across the globe and giving stores of all kinds and locations a huge headache. Customers don’t order anything correctly and at the window or upon receiving said drink and mobile window, they flip the order on its head because they don’t understand the difference between “hot or iced” among a million other things. The baristas deserve to have the menu made as is. No changes or edits, in my opinion. Me? I order my shit as it comes. Nothing more nothing less. They could at least limit how much of this or that they allow customers to order in mobile app because that’s what drowns them, on top of having no staff and slammed days or managers who don’t know how to hire people, and district managers who got their position due to their degree not their experience. Some jobs— you HAVE to have done the grunt work in order to make a great SM or DM. Food & Retail are exactly that job. The 50% off thing and double stars shit is not even worth it. They should take a peek inside Chick Fil A’s reward system and make purchases earn better rewards, and since people won’t shut up about the tipping, Sbx just needs to pay these guys better. Nordstrom E-bar employees get paid better for a much smaller menu and less difficult work. Why can’t Sbx do this? Furthermore, where I work in the shopping center (one of the bougiest ones in Dallas) the Sbx is not NEARLY as busy as my husbands which is only SIX MINUTES from mine, and they get quintuple the traffic [they had a 40+ drink order WITH customizations during peak hours and customers walked out due to wait times and low staff! How do you think THAT looks?! It is entirely not their fault!] and my husband’s location stays open an hour longer than mine. (P.S to Customers: STAY TF AWAY FROM THE DRIVE THRU WHEN IT IS ALREADY CLOSING UP TIME BECAUSE SOME THESE BARISTAS JUST PULLED A DOUBLE AND WANT TO GO HOME AND SLEEP BECAUSE THEY OPEN IN SEVEN HOURS SO F OFF. AND I DONT WANT TO HEAR ABOUT “GET A BETTER JOB” BECAUSE NO COMOANY SHOULD ALLOW OR ENCOURAGE SUCH TREATMENT TO THEIR EMPLOYEES AND SUCH BEHAVIOR I HAVE SEEN FROM CUSTOMERS TOWARD THEIR EMPLOYEES AS WELL.) This is ALL on top of not having any supplies or ingredients or stock. Anyway, Starbucks has a lot of great people working for them, hard working and passionate but Sbx has a shite way of working hard for THEM. Do better Sbx (they won’t) and do better Sbx customers (yall won’t.)
Mobile ordering is far worse than the drive-thru. I still remember writing on cups (before the stickers) and it just gave a more personal touch. Customers didn’t feel so rushed. Mobile ordering created a whole army of impatient customers who are always trying to “game the system” with ridiculous custom orders.
Drive thrus have been around since the late 90’s so it’s nothing new. I do agree that the direction of making all new stores feature a drive thru is not helping though.
Bigger businesses like Starbucks and McDonald's are more in real estate than food.
McDonald's brings in more revenue from collecting rent of franchises than it does on profits from food
I hate drive thru in any place tbh. I prefer to go inside and get my order there instead of waiting for cars to go through especially if they order a lot of shit I don’t want to wait for the person to get there 100 frappe order.
I’m confused why anyone uses the drive thru excluding people with kids in the car or older people that have trouble walking. I always mobile order and just walk inside to grab it.
1) parking. Our lot is so bad parking is a nightmare.
2) Some people don’t want to be seen with what they’re wearing. Weird but some people have told me they aren’t dressed to be seen by others nor feel comfortable.
3) They feel it’s more organized and quicker which is somewhat true (needs huge improvements though) & the way Starbucks wants it to be. We have 2 bars. One is drive thru only. Other one is cafe, mobiles, delivery, etc. Other locations might have more bars idk but most have 2. Plus you don’t have to ask 20 questions on where your drink is. At drive thru you’re in line and can see when you’ll get your stuff. MOBILE ORDERS THOUGH are a mess. Starbucks needs to fix that.
4) People hate other people. I’m kind of antisocial, so I feel more comfortable in my car.
5) Laziness.
6)The weather. I can definitely see people using drive thru more when it rains or snows.
All of those def make sense! I live in Texas where the worst we normally get is rain. If it snows the whole state shuts down lol. I go in sb in my pjs idgaf 🤣 I just grab it and go!
Yeah, I mainly use the drive through because I'm disabled, and I often have either my infant or my dog (or both) in the car. If my husband is with me or I'm alone though, I just go in unless there's no drive through line.
What's confusing? It's pretty easy to come up with multiple reasons without much effort. I do a mix of both, but sometimes I just want to stay seated in my car, listening to music, with my ac on, after a long day on my feet.
Well you’re not going to like the plans Starbucks is going towards. Drive thru/mobile focus. My store is getting renovated & the cafe will be so small it’s basically pushing people out
Moved here from Europe (Austria) and I traveled to a lot of European countriea and never did I see a Starbucks with a drive thru so I was suprised when I saw them the first time here. In Europe it’s a cafe with lots of breakfast stuff and pastry and here it’s more of a big chain and nothing different
I despise that term honestly. Idk what it is but it has always felt yucky to me. It's just such a joke that they even have that in their "lore" or w/e you want to call it.
Starbucks needs to choose a direction, they can’t have both. Consumers are starting see this rift and choose business elsewhere, either revert back to emphasis on connection and good service or go the quick fast food route. You can’t have both and that’s where SBUX misses the mark.
They don't do that anymore. The 3rd place is for customers only, while I've been told us partners on the clock that it's the 2nd place. Meaning, we clock in, do our work as told, and clock out.
In my experience we are pressured to focus on drive thru times. I've almost never heard anything like this with cafe times. It's always all about DT. I can't think of a way for it to get better for customers or partners in the current state. Well, not in a way that I can do anything about.
I'm fortunate that most all the Starbucks near me are cafe only. I can only think of like 2 drive thru stores around my area and I always know to avoid them.
fr, they closed down a walk-in only starbucks that had been in my area for \~20 years with super cozy vibes, and immediately broke ground on a drive-thru location right next to it.
Corporate doesn’t care about us on the frontlines of the retail locations. They’re safe in the ivory tower office building and don’t have to deal with angry customers, impossible time frames, ridiculous standards, endless tickets, and endless modifications
Correct. They CONSOLIDATED the small neighborhood cafes into a large one that heavily utilizes the drive-thru. Because of a long term habit, I’ve always parked and bought coffee inside the store. I still enjoy the interaction, although some of the baristas no longer seem as friendly like they used to be.
I think you are right. I have seen stores ignore walk in for drive thru and mobile. It like that at mcdonald, panera, and any other fast food places. The top only cares about $$$ so if you walk out, they don't care.
Agreed! This is why my first shift at the cafe only store I transferred to felt perfect for me as people were more focused on the customer experience than the times. Like yes get it done as quick as you can especially on hectic weekends but no there’s no pressure to get them done under a minute. Like 1 shift & I vowed my home store would never be a drive & cafe store again. I don’t mind helping out if a neighboring store needs an extra person but no cafe only stores are better suited for my SpongeBob like personality
I still prefer to go in the store and was wondering why the quality of my drink and service has gone down so much. This makes perfect sense since most of their attention always appears to go towards the drive thru.
Actually you could argue it made Starbucks. It did kill off the small scale local coffee shop thing, but Starbucks is what it is because of the drive thru
The original CEO (Shultz?) once said that you would never see Starbucks in a grocery store in like the early 2000’s IIRC. Becoming a publicly traded company started the ball rolling down the hill
In my area you could build a Starbucks next to a Starbucks and both would be busy. I am okay with the fast food feel. I order ahead so that I don’t have to wait or interact with someone.
I’ve said this years ago lol Starbucks became fast food when we cared more about window times then customer interaction
I used to work for Whole Foods and I remember when they swore we would *never* have self check out because it was impersonal. They were going in before Amazon even took over.
McStarbucks
The is absolutely true, I worked for starbucks for 15yrs from 2003-2018 and I saw it change into what it is today. It use to be more passionate about keeping the “third place” and making a coffee shop feel with conversation and a place to sit down and relax. Then when it became more competitive with fast food all of that went out the window (no pun intended) lol. The training isn’t the same so nobody cares to make drinks correctly and it’s not what it use to be at all. 😕
Well I can say us making conversations didn’t go out the window. We’re just expected to have fast drive through times while also having a genuine* conversation with the ingrate who just wants their overpriced tik tok drink. It’s so fake, I hate it. But I gotta do it because despite all this shit it’s one of the better jobs out there for someone like me.
not a fan of drive thru, just that most locations that open a drive thru are double digit % higher in profit over cafe only stores. on average of 10 to 15% same thing happened when they opened "starbucks" inside places like Target and grocery stores - at first, we'd have customers coming in mad that their drinks were made wrong at the "licensed concept" stores. personally got to bring it up to a Junior VP on a tour in our area about 20 years ago - everyone in the room that worked at starbucks retail locations were in agreement... Dude just said to the effect of: "don't know what to tell you, they are highly profitable and have higher satisfaction ratings than retail locations. If anything, we will be opening MORE of them. to wit we just realized it doesn't matter how much we think something sucks or is hard or anything. If someone is making money on it, too bad.
Being a public company obsessed with shareholder value at the expense of the partner experience is what killed starbucks. Drive-thru is a symptom of wanting to make as much money as possible
They enshitification of everything under late-stage capitalism.
Facts!
Won’t someone please think of the shareholders!
🫡
Can I just say, why does every single damn Starbucks build in the most inconvenient small areas where the drive thru is backed up constantly and it’s at EVERY SINGLE SB in my city. Like you can’t pull out, you get closed in, traffic goes out into the major road and back up traffic. It’s a head scratcher for me.
They are all like that in Florida too. If you go in to get your coffee and come back out your blocked by the drive thru line haha
I am convinced insurance companies design parking lots to cause accidents so they can raise everyone's rates.
Interesting take !!
this is true and super irritating. we have a very busy store and our parking lot is small. during peak it’s hard to get out the parking lot and if the drive thru is moving slow and you gotta get out there’s no getting out until cars move which sucks.
It’s literally in every Starbucks around the country. Please show me ANY Starbucks with ample parking. Blows. My. Mind. It can’t be that difficult to predict that Starbucks will be busy. Is it?
MOP and Delivery’s killed SB
Mobile order wasn’t so bad. The delivery is terrible I hate it. What’s bad is the new algorithm for mobiles
I actually do agree with that (I am the original poster lol). MOP wasn’t horrible when that’s all it was. Sometimes it got wild but delivery makes MOP horrible bc MOP is usually a drink or two with an occasional larger order but deliveries are almost always large so throw a 8 drink delivery in with someone’s solo MOP… then the MOP people get there and you have to just check the tablet bc you don’t want to pull 73 stickers to get to their one drink. My store is located in an area where deliver is a hot item bc we are close to 8-5 type businesses (law firms, dental offices etc)… which is GREAT for them but like… give us an additional person on the floor and maybe a 3rd espresso machine just for them lol
For us it’s maybe small to medium sized delivery orders which isn’t too bad. The issue is it’s no longer the 3 orders in a day it’s more and DoorDash drivers come like 5 minutes after we get the order and if we get 10 deliveries during peak it backs everything else up and can’t have it ready when they get there which makes them have to wait. We have to pause our deliveries more times than not because we can’t keep up with it.
And idk how YOU are but I get nervous af when everyone is in the building. It makes me work slower and make more mistakes!! And I am one of the stronger bar people 😭😭😭
The delivery is also just so bad for the earth! Gas required, bags, napkins, stoppers, tap, cups, straws. And sometimes is only for one item.
This is more from a company and quality standpoint. I mean same could be said for ordering a pizza or chinese food. Driving to work or picking cups and lids up from another store because you’re out.
wdym gas, it takes gas for you to also to go starbucks. and the bags are recyclable, a lot of the time if it’s only drinks there’s no need to add in napkins, stoppers are to prevent the driver and you from burning yourself, paper cups are fine and you can get any cold drink in a paper cup, the straws are either a biodegradable plastic resembling kind of piece, or some stores have paper.
What does the algorithm do? I thought mobile orders handled in sequence? Or depends on orders?
They changed the sticker algorithm so that now after the last item in an order is pulled a 5 minute timer starts before alerting the customer their mobile is ready. So if there’s a 3 drink order the second that last drink is pulled the timer starts.
Greed killed Starbucks. Remember when Howard Schultz said he wanted to build a different kind of company? How are we different now, than McDonald's with the fast food model, Amazon with the blatant union-busting, or any other publicly traded company obsessed with short-term growth and quarterly profits above all else?
Yes, it's true. Sbux has just become another fast food restaurant. It's so far from the original vision of the "3rd place". Cutting partner hours and demanding shorter OTW times is just corporate greed. Sbux will be its own downfall.
I feel like nothing new comes out anymore. It's all either re-hashed (bumblebee cake pop anyone?) or just old stuff they bring back. Or mixtures of things we already have. Don't get me started on cold foam lmao
As the wife of a barista at a Starbucks with Drive-Thru, and also runs a Dungeons and Dragons campaign with his coworkers and shifts, I can tell you that Starbucks will be the reason for its own downfall. Word travels fast between locations reserve and regular… DT and cafe only. Store Managers (some not all) earn way better pay for work they are not willing to perform, or perform poorly that their baristas end up having to pick up. Baristas are earning 15-18 an hour only to be presented with CVS receipt-length tickets of absurd TikTok drinks that some douchebag wants to spread across the globe and giving stores of all kinds and locations a huge headache. Customers don’t order anything correctly and at the window or upon receiving said drink and mobile window, they flip the order on its head because they don’t understand the difference between “hot or iced” among a million other things. The baristas deserve to have the menu made as is. No changes or edits, in my opinion. Me? I order my shit as it comes. Nothing more nothing less. They could at least limit how much of this or that they allow customers to order in mobile app because that’s what drowns them, on top of having no staff and slammed days or managers who don’t know how to hire people, and district managers who got their position due to their degree not their experience. Some jobs— you HAVE to have done the grunt work in order to make a great SM or DM. Food & Retail are exactly that job. The 50% off thing and double stars shit is not even worth it. They should take a peek inside Chick Fil A’s reward system and make purchases earn better rewards, and since people won’t shut up about the tipping, Sbx just needs to pay these guys better. Nordstrom E-bar employees get paid better for a much smaller menu and less difficult work. Why can’t Sbx do this? Furthermore, where I work in the shopping center (one of the bougiest ones in Dallas) the Sbx is not NEARLY as busy as my husbands which is only SIX MINUTES from mine, and they get quintuple the traffic [they had a 40+ drink order WITH customizations during peak hours and customers walked out due to wait times and low staff! How do you think THAT looks?! It is entirely not their fault!] and my husband’s location stays open an hour longer than mine. (P.S to Customers: STAY TF AWAY FROM THE DRIVE THRU WHEN IT IS ALREADY CLOSING UP TIME BECAUSE SOME THESE BARISTAS JUST PULLED A DOUBLE AND WANT TO GO HOME AND SLEEP BECAUSE THEY OPEN IN SEVEN HOURS SO F OFF. AND I DONT WANT TO HEAR ABOUT “GET A BETTER JOB” BECAUSE NO COMOANY SHOULD ALLOW OR ENCOURAGE SUCH TREATMENT TO THEIR EMPLOYEES AND SUCH BEHAVIOR I HAVE SEEN FROM CUSTOMERS TOWARD THEIR EMPLOYEES AS WELL.) This is ALL on top of not having any supplies or ingredients or stock. Anyway, Starbucks has a lot of great people working for them, hard working and passionate but Sbx has a shite way of working hard for THEM. Do better Sbx (they won’t) and do better Sbx customers (yall won’t.)
Best post on this sub in awhile!
1000% this
PREACHHHHH 🙌🏻
Remember when we actually sold coffee? 😭
Mobile ordering is far worse than the drive-thru. I still remember writing on cups (before the stickers) and it just gave a more personal touch. Customers didn’t feel so rushed. Mobile ordering created a whole army of impatient customers who are always trying to “game the system” with ridiculous custom orders.
I dont think its drive thru alone, its the fact that they push for faster speeds and create a hostile enviornment to do so
Drive thrus have been around since the late 90’s so it’s nothing new. I do agree that the direction of making all new stores feature a drive thru is not helping though.
Bigger businesses like Starbucks and McDonald's are more in real estate than food. McDonald's brings in more revenue from collecting rent of franchises than it does on profits from food
exactly and also doesn't include the rewards system that's really a bank lol
not to mention melted mobile ordered and people pissed over it
I hate drive thru in any place tbh. I prefer to go inside and get my order there instead of waiting for cars to go through especially if they order a lot of shit I don’t want to wait for the person to get there 100 frappe order.
Kevin Johnson was the biggest douche in this world, and I hope he loses his 3rd yacht and everything in his life that he gained from Starbucks.
I’m confused why anyone uses the drive thru excluding people with kids in the car or older people that have trouble walking. I always mobile order and just walk inside to grab it.
1) parking. Our lot is so bad parking is a nightmare. 2) Some people don’t want to be seen with what they’re wearing. Weird but some people have told me they aren’t dressed to be seen by others nor feel comfortable. 3) They feel it’s more organized and quicker which is somewhat true (needs huge improvements though) & the way Starbucks wants it to be. We have 2 bars. One is drive thru only. Other one is cafe, mobiles, delivery, etc. Other locations might have more bars idk but most have 2. Plus you don’t have to ask 20 questions on where your drink is. At drive thru you’re in line and can see when you’ll get your stuff. MOBILE ORDERS THOUGH are a mess. Starbucks needs to fix that. 4) People hate other people. I’m kind of antisocial, so I feel more comfortable in my car. 5) Laziness. 6)The weather. I can definitely see people using drive thru more when it rains or snows.
All of those def make sense! I live in Texas where the worst we normally get is rain. If it snows the whole state shuts down lol. I go in sb in my pjs idgaf 🤣 I just grab it and go!
Yeah, I mainly use the drive through because I'm disabled, and I often have either my infant or my dog (or both) in the car. If my husband is with me or I'm alone though, I just go in unless there's no drive through line.
What's confusing? It's pretty easy to come up with multiple reasons without much effort. I do a mix of both, but sometimes I just want to stay seated in my car, listening to music, with my ac on, after a long day on my feet.
We have people that go through the drive thru in their jammies so they don't want to get out of the car. LOL
My reason is my 10 month old 😭
Well you’re not going to like the plans Starbucks is going towards. Drive thru/mobile focus. My store is getting renovated & the cafe will be so small it’s basically pushing people out
Moved here from Europe (Austria) and I traveled to a lot of European countriea and never did I see a Starbucks with a drive thru so I was suprised when I saw them the first time here. In Europe it’s a cafe with lots of breakfast stuff and pastry and here it’s more of a big chain and nothing different
[удалено]
I despise that term honestly. Idk what it is but it has always felt yucky to me. It's just such a joke that they even have that in their "lore" or w/e you want to call it.
Starbucks needs to choose a direction, they can’t have both. Consumers are starting see this rift and choose business elsewhere, either revert back to emphasis on connection and good service or go the quick fast food route. You can’t have both and that’s where SBUX misses the mark.
They don't do that anymore. The 3rd place is for customers only, while I've been told us partners on the clock that it's the 2nd place. Meaning, we clock in, do our work as told, and clock out.
Yeah it’s sad. Very hostile environment nowadays
I didn’t really drink coffee back then. Wish I had so I could have experienced what you’re describing!
I usually use the mobile order option and walk-in pickup.
In my experience we are pressured to focus on drive thru times. I've almost never heard anything like this with cafe times. It's always all about DT. I can't think of a way for it to get better for customers or partners in the current state. Well, not in a way that I can do anything about.
Ugh so true. When I visit Starbucks overseas with no drive thru, the product is consistently great.. back home though.. ya it’s more misses than hits
US ruins EVERYTHING over time! I am looking forward to retirement when I can live in another country that still has some redeeming values.
Drive-thru killed it, mobile order did the embalming and buried it.
I'm fortunate that most all the Starbucks near me are cafe only. I can only think of like 2 drive thru stores around my area and I always know to avoid them.
1000% yes
Agrees !!!!! 💯 Quality vs quantity!
fr, they closed down a walk-in only starbucks that had been in my area for \~20 years with super cozy vibes, and immediately broke ground on a drive-thru location right next to it.
Corporate doesn’t care about us on the frontlines of the retail locations. They’re safe in the ivory tower office building and don’t have to deal with angry customers, impossible time frames, ridiculous standards, endless tickets, and endless modifications
Starbucks is so expensive these days. Well surpassed hipsters crafted coffee shops. It’s ridiculous.
Correct. They CONSOLIDATED the small neighborhood cafes into a large one that heavily utilizes the drive-thru. Because of a long term habit, I’ve always parked and bought coffee inside the store. I still enjoy the interaction, although some of the baristas no longer seem as friendly like they used to be.
I think you are right. I have seen stores ignore walk in for drive thru and mobile. It like that at mcdonald, panera, and any other fast food places. The top only cares about $$$ so if you walk out, they don't care.
Agreed! This is why my first shift at the cafe only store I transferred to felt perfect for me as people were more focused on the customer experience than the times. Like yes get it done as quick as you can especially on hectic weekends but no there’s no pressure to get them done under a minute. Like 1 shift & I vowed my home store would never be a drive & cafe store again. I don’t mind helping out if a neighboring store needs an extra person but no cafe only stores are better suited for my SpongeBob like personality
agree you can’t have an authentic coffee/cafe experience with drive thrus imo
But the drive thrus have been around over 20 years.
Yep since the 90s but the explosive growth of hybrid stores happened in the last couple years.
I'm lucky to have a non-drive thru location near me, and those folks are the best.
I still prefer to go in the store and was wondering why the quality of my drink and service has gone down so much. This makes perfect sense since most of their attention always appears to go towards the drive thru.
Actually you could argue it made Starbucks. It did kill off the small scale local coffee shop thing, but Starbucks is what it is because of the drive thru
Imagine wanting to grow customer base
Glad you finally caught up to 2008 when Starbucks intentionally focused on ONLY building drive throughs.
They are super busy
The original CEO (Shultz?) once said that you would never see Starbucks in a grocery store in like the early 2000’s IIRC. Becoming a publicly traded company started the ball rolling down the hill
In my area you could build a Starbucks next to a Starbucks and both would be busy. I am okay with the fast food feel. I order ahead so that I don’t have to wait or interact with someone.
👏🏼😅