Wompus9

Where Starbucks Went Wrong

I've been a barista at Starbucks for over two years and have been there through the changes mentioned. The expediter thing really threw me when it first started. I actually didn't realize it was a company thing until reading this and just thought my supervisors didn't understand customers. I would see marked cups piling up for drinks to be made while a queue began to form at the pick-up. I told my manager that I thought people would be much happier to wait to place their order than wait for the drink they had already paid for and he agreed. The "expediting" continued, however.

What I've seen from Starbucks leadership is a bunch of unfortunately typical business school nonsense applied to a business model despite the obvious detrimental effects. Starbucks is a ship without a captain and without a rudder; the company is reacting to its competitors and has totally lost its edge.

There are still many people who come to my store out of habit but to a person they lament the loss of the experience it used to be. There may be no going back.