Ms. Kaminska seems to have hit a nerve with this post and the comments are indicative of the explosive nature of combining the type-A/finance crowd with the dark caffeinated nectar of the Gods.
"Let's talk about something important. Put. That coffee. Down. Coffee's for closers only. You think I'm fucking with you? I am not fucking with you. I'm here from downtown. I'm here from Mitch and Murray. And I'm here on a mission of mercy. Your name's Levine? You call yourself a salesman you son of a bitch?"
-Glengarry Glen Ross
From FT Alphaville:.How pre-ordering coffee has turned into a nightmare
Pre-ordering coffee with a mobile app at Starbucks was supposed to make life easier for both the customer and the retailer.Do read the comments if time permits.
But, as Business Insider reports, the growing popularity of the option is causing untold chaos at branches all across Manhattan.
From BI:
Mobile ordering, which allows customers to order and pay on a smartphone before entering the store, has caused bottlenecks during busy hours at some of Starbucks’ most popular locations. The crowds of customers waiting for their lattes and Frappucinos has even started to discourage walk-in customers from entering stores.This, sadly, was predictable. Pre-ordering coffee at scale is and always was a bad idea.
What’s strange is that at some point someone with a PowerPoint thought otherwise, and that he/she successfully convinced senior Starbucks executives of the case too.
The pitch no doubt argued that providing customers with pre-ordering functionality would help differentiate the coffee chain in the market by making it more efficient and customer focused while also allowing it to be more responsive to market fluctuations. With technology, they probably argued, every customer could benefit from the special treatment and favouritism shown to habitual or repeat customers in small town coffee shops. But this time at scale....MORE
