Starbucks: No Longer The 3rd Place?

On a recent driving trip, I stopped at a Starbucks on my way home on Saturday morning because it was right next to the freeway exit. I went inside and stood in line for what seemed like a long time even though there were only 3 people ahead of me. There was only one person at the register with the line getting longer with several people that came in behind me. No one was asking ahead if they could get my drink order so I patiently waited.

By the time my drink order was placed, I had been there 10 minutes. My breakfast sandwich was handed to me within a few minutes but no latte. The older woman in front of me was equally frustrated still waiting for her drink order.

And we waited. We observed the staff furiously making drinks, one right after the other. The drive-thru was jamming with cars passing through with those customers being served their drinks. And we watched. And waited. Then people who had placed mobile orders came in and out, picking up their drinks right away, in front of us. One man even adjusted his order talking to the barista as to what he wanted.

And we watched. And waited some more. I finally said something as to whether we could get our drinks. "The orders are right here," the barista reassured. But she also said she had to complete the mobile orders. I told the barista that you still have to deliver a good experience in the store and that clearly I should have used the mobile app. I was standing right in front of her with a line of other customers that were now behind me.

Finally, the older woman in front of me had received her drink and went on her way. She had waited more than 20 minutes. Earlier, she had mistakenly thought that the drink on the tray holding other people's mobile orders might have been hers. Instead of checking the label, she grabbed the drink, took off the cap, looked at it and smelled it. Realizing it wasn't hers, she put the cap back on and placed it back on the tray. The barista told her those were mobile orders. This one in particular was for someone named Greg, who never did come in to the store to pick up his order - at least not while I was there. I had eaten my breakfast sandwich while waiting for my drink because it was getting cold. But I still did not have my latte. More drinks were flying out the drive-thru window and being handed to mobile order customers coming in behind me. I'm still waiting, and watching.

It was like I and the others in the store were invisible. No apologies for the wait time. Nothing.

Finally, I received my latte. The same one I get all the time - grande decaf skinny vanilla. I could tell as soon as I picked it up that it was light, meaning it was all foam. My immediate thought was, "is there anything in it?" While it didn't taste that different from what I was used to, after one sip I could tell it wasn't the best latte I've had from Starbucks. The barista was rushing too much. All of them were rushing too much. I let the barista know that the drink wasn't right. Then another barista came by and asked, "what did you have?" That was it, just asking what kind of drink I had. After waiting for now 30 minutes, I let them know that I'd be complaining on this level of service, and left. So much for my quick stop at the Starbucks right next to the freeway. The only reason why I went inside the store versus using the drive-thru was because I was on the road and used their restroom.

Lesson learned: use the restroom and then get back in the car and get my order through the drive-through. Or use the mobile app to order before I use the restroom. I could have been in and on my way in a jiffy.

The mobile order for Greg still sat there on the tray - 30 minutes later. One guy who wasn't Greg picked it up and started out the store. Then came back, put it all back up on the tray, and said it wasn't his. I wondered if he had taken a sip of the drink which had to have been cold at this point. Or ate some of what was in the bag.

From the looks of it, I'm sure this Starbucks does a great business and has high sales volume - the baristas are all working very fast and somewhat efficient, although they seemed to be tripping over each other a bit. There were at least 5 people making drinks and a few others getting food orders. I didn't count them but there was a flurry of people behind the counter - at least 8 or more. Yet I had to wait 1/2 hour to get my grande decaf skinny vanilla latte with too much foam. So much foam that, unfortunately, the drink didn't last me for much of my road trip. Oh well.

Now on my way down I-85 North, I thought about the customer experience, especially being that I was returning from an all-day course on UX Essentials. "Every product delivers a user experience," the instructor Peter Hughes taught. I also thought about how Howard Shultz, the former Starbucks CEO, had written about how they wanted Starbucks to be people's "third place" beyond home and work - in his first book, "Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time."

But with the speed of a drive-thru and mobile orders, I also had wondered...

• if the idea of a third place was now a distant memory that no one remembers, including the baristas and that retail store management who seemed to completely ignore the in-store experience and the people standing right in front of them
• if Starbucks will eventually abandon the in-store experience altogether and be more like a fast-food chain with a drive-thru and maybe a bar for mobile orders only (maybe they'll rename it Starbucks Fast as ironic as that is to me at the moment)
• where else a customer experience can be terrific in one way and so poor in another right in front of everyone's eyes with no empathy for those customers whatsoever?