Is Starbucks punishing walk-in orders?

[Anonymous]

Do drive thru (if applicable), mobile app, and large door dash orders take precedence over just walking up and ordering from a cashier? Feels like the they’re trying to “nudge” (punish) you into being a mobile orderer? Which forces you to deposit money with them too.

[Anonymous]

My experience probably isn’t worth much since I only go to Starbucks maybe twice a year. Well, one of those times was last week and no sooner had a finished placing my order in the store then it was ready.

[Anonymous]

I rarely go to Starbucks. When I do, I walk in, maybe wait in a very short line, order, and quickly get what I order. FWIW though, most of the locations that I tend to frequent don’t have drive-through, so maybe the priorities are different.

[Anonymous]

I think you may be on to something!

In person customers who stay at a coffee shop are the least profitable/most potentially problematic for the store. Everything else is pure profit.

Several years ago, I was talking to a starbucks employee who bemoaned how they are evaluated by their drive-thru times, so they have to focus on that to the detriment of everything else. I can only imagine it's gotten worse with door dash, ubereats, etc.

[Anonymous]

I don’t think you’re being punished; I think that because there’s no transparency about how many orders are ahead of yours, it feels like they’re taking forever to make your order. If you could see all those customers ahead of you in line, you’d have a better idea of how long the wait would be. Somebody walking in behind you might have placed their order 7 minutes before you place yours. They’re not being waited on any faster, they’re just doing some of their waiting elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Drive-thru orders always get priority at any place with a drive-thru, not just Starbucks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do drive thru (if applicable), mobile app, and large door dash orders take precedence over just walking up and ordering from a cashier? Feels like the they’re trying to “nudge” (punish) you into being a mobile orderer? Which forces you to deposit money with them too.

[Anonymous]

I have found that if the same baristas are doing both drive through and in-store, you might as well wait in the drive through line because your order is placed in order of where you ordered in relation to the car orders.

I thought I was being super smart to race inside because I would have been the 5th car and no one was inside. Sure enough, I was the fifth order to come up, right after the car that would have been in front of me.

I now place my order to pick up, and run into the store. It's always sitting right there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have found that if the same baristas are doing both drive through and in-store, you might as well wait in the drive through line because your order is placed in order of where you ordered in relation to the car orders.

I thought I was being super smart to race inside because I would have been the 5th car and no one was inside. Sure enough, I was the fifth order to come up, right after the car that would have been in front of me.

I now place my order to pick up, and run into the store. It's always sitting right there.

Yep. I noticed the way back of a busy drive thru line gets their drink faster than if you walk in and order with a cashier and there is no wait. It makes zero sense. Plus they seem to prioritize all the app orders. I honestly think they are aggressively punishing customers to force the app holdouts onto the app and mobile ordering. The app and gift cards makes Starbucks one of the largest banks in the US. Billions of dollars worth of deposits!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think you may be on to something!

In person customers who stay at a coffee shop are the least profitable/most potentially problematic for the store. Everything else is pure profit.

Several years ago, I was talking to a starbucks employee who bemoaned how they are evaluated by their drive-thru times, so they have to focus on that to the detriment of everything else. I can only imagine it's gotten worse with door dash, ubereats, etc.

It’s been ridiculous past few visits at a few different locations. Legit 20 plus minute wait in a store that appears empty on the inside. At the very least they need to be transparent about the delays. It’s BS to be held hostage for that long because you already paid.

[Anonymous]

I don't think there is any mechanism to stagger online/app orders, so it is very possible for a Starbucks to get slammed at the same time with an unlimited number of app orders (esp on Saturday and Sunday mornings). The app just keeps taking in as many order as people place, leaving someone going in person with no idea where their order is in that line. I absolutely would hate to work there. Whenever I go, their workers are always running around working, it's like they can never catch up.

[Anonymous]

In my town Starbucks gets a lot of grief about causing drive thru backups that block traffic so I an see them moving those through fast.

[Anonymous]

It's not just Starbucks where this happens. I've had it happen at Dunkin Donuts and McDonald's too. I don't go to these places often, but in-person gets shoddier service than drive through every time.

[Anonymous]

Yes. I wait forever when I go in person even when there are very few customers inside. It stinks.

[Anonymous]

Your punishing yourself by going to Starbucks.
7-11 has better coffee