Starbucks is reportedly spending billions of dollars to cut the wait time for your caffeine fix by a few precious seconds.
The Seattle-based coffee giant is focused on streamlining operations by giving baristas better tools to reduce wait times of five minutes or more for popular drinks. According to Bloomberg News.
The biggest change is the introduction of so-called “bar” installations at all of the chain’s 9,500 U.S. locations. siren systemall the items you need to make cold drinks are within reach.
The system is still in testing stages, but instead of having to constantly reach into the freezer, baristas can dispense milk, ice, or pump syrup with the push of a button.
According to Bloomberg, the company also plans to replace its coffee urns with Clover Vertica, a high-tech French press that can grind coffee beans and brew a cup of java in 30 seconds. The process begins with the push of a button. news.
Clover Vertica plans to eventually phase out its old system of preparing coffee using urns, where baristas brew coffee every 30 minutes.
Under the old system, any coffee that wasn’t sold within 30 minutes was thrown away, according to Bloomberg News.
According to Bloomberg News, Starbucks plans to have Clover Vertica in two-fifths of its stores by next month.
Small adjustments included replacing the countertop blender with a portable cold foamer to froth the milk. Baristas would bump into each other if they tried to move toward a stationary blender, but now they can use a handheld device to make foam.
Starbucks also hopes to use data collected from its stores and display it in its app to provide customers with up-to-date information about wait times, according to Bloomberg News.
The shakeup was spearheaded by company founder Howard Schultz, who temporarily returned to the chief executive role in place of Kevin Johnson, who abruptly resigned last year.
Schultz resigned again in March and was replaced by Laxman Narasimhan, former head of Reckitt Benckiser Group, the consumer products conglomerate behind popular brands such as Lysol, Woolite and Mucinex.
The company told Bloomberg News that customer feedback has been positive, but employees have said they are understaffed and experiencing long wait times.
“It’s like, ‘Oh, you have to be more personable, more of this, more of that,'” Zoe Castor, a Manhattan-based Starbucks barista, told Bloomberg News.
“Well, we’re already straining ourselves because we don’t have enough people.”
The Post has reached out to Starbucks for comment.
