I hate Starbucks.
I recently went to Starbucks to pick up some orders for some friends. It was awful.
My mission was simple: enter the Starbucks, order the order (a medium oat milk latte, a medium vanilla bean frappe, and a chocolate chip cookie), wait for the people to prep the drinks, take the items and then leave the Starbucks.
What went wrong?
I entered the Starbucks and immediately faced my first dilemma: Where to stand in line?
The café was arranged in a confusing manner, with doors on both sides of the storefront and people and tables throughout. It was impossible to tell where I should stand while waiting to order just by the locations of the counters or the customers.
Somehow, in the time that it took me to figure out where to stand, the lineup to order had ended (if you can even call it a line; all those people scattered randomly). The person behind the counter called out over the music: "I can help whoever's next in line." She was looking at me, so I went up and ordered. I'm happy to declare that this was a fairly typical experience, nothing wrong with that step at least.
Something worth noting here: I don't know what a "frappe" is, nor do I know how one goes about collecting milk from an oat; This is just because I don't drink coffee, but throughout the whole endeavor I was pondering these things deeply.
Next in the 'Starbucks story' was the wait for the items ordered. I once again had difficulty finding a place to stand as I waited, I had to remain comfortably far from each person in the store without being in the way of the major traffic lines and without being too for from the counter that I can't hear my name being called when the order is ready. Also, by this point the difficulties and irritations of the café had left me with a particularly low amount of spoons, this made the overpowering smell of coffee and the loud music overhead even more bothersome.
I heard my name being called out by the person at the drink-making station, but I couldn't tell exactly what they had said so I went closer to inquire. It turns out she was just announcing that she'd started preparing the order, the drinks weren't actually ready yet. I'm not a particularly impatient person, it didn't matter that the order was taking time; But, if it's not ready then WHY would one need to know if the order is being prepared?
The issues mentioned in this story are not my only qualms with Starbucks, but they are the only important ones, so I won't bother you with the remainder of this story. But when I left the establishment, I knew I needed to tell the world what went wrong that day, and more importantly, I need to tell the world:
What can be done to fix this?
These problems are small and simple. It shouldn't pose much inconvenience to solve them and make Starbucks a less awful place for everybody.
Problem one: Traffic flow
I think that a lot of benefit came from those stickers that were placed on the floor during the pandemic, the ones that would indicate where to stand while waiting in line. If we as a society continued to use those everywhere, then we would save ourselves from a lot of confusion.
Also, a small café like this one should not have two front doors, unless one is specifically for entering and the other is for exit.
Problem two: Communication
There were multiple instances during my time at Starbucks when my name was called but I couldn't hear what else was being said and they weren't even ready with the order yet anyway. To improve communication, an employee policy should be established that suggests order names only be called out when needed.
Problem three: Sensory stuff
The most straightforward solutions here are to reduce (or remove) the music and to improve the ventilation, so as to make the bean stench less overpowering.
These detailed solutions are both uncomplicated and unchallenging.
Mr. Starbuck, if you are reading this, please do the smart thing and implement a few small changes to your franchise.
That's all for now, and that's the last time I go to Starbucks.
Goodbye from Sam.