Six Minutes. Today’s Starbucks Mobile Order

My first experience with Starbucks Mobile Order & Pay resulted in a minute-long visit to Starbucks. Today’s experience showed the inconsistency of this experience. Six minutes. That was my time in and out of the same Starbucks.

I placed my order before filling up gas at Sam’s Club. The app said 3-7 minute wait with a one-minute drive. After filling up, I drove around to the Starbucks parking. I went straight to the pickup area, thanking that I could bypass this line.

But at the pickup area were others waiting for their pickup, either mobile ordering or in-store ordering. There was also one patron whose drink supposedly got lost and getting the re-order was tough with language problems. Frappuccino or cappuccino? Even I could tell what she was saying. So as that was being sorted out, the clock kept on ticking. The baristas were shuttling back and forth getting food and drinks ready as I waited and watched.

Then my drink (a grande Cold Brew) was called. Sadly, it was sitting in the back of the pickup area all this time. It was on a tray with other drinks so I thought it was part of a bigger order. But nope, I was waiting while my drink was waiting. The store was busy this morning, and that’s something the Mobile Order and Pay can’t account for. Busy workers are busy and can’t be expected to track everything perfectly. So anyways, my drink was ready in the stated timeframe, but I didn’t receive it until six minutes after walking in.