It takes about three minutes on average for a Starbucks customer to get a drink

That's down about 30 seconds from when the company started measuring five years ago. (Waiting times in busy urban outlets at peak hours can be considerably longer than the average, of course.) Times for drink preparation range widely, from less than 20 seconds for a Tall black coffee to about 90 seconds for the Venti Double Chocolate Chip Frappuccino Blended Creme. (Wall Street Journal)

Comments

[A.Lee]

I have traveled the US for 4 years. I have gone to Starbucks 80% of time. But Starbucks has issues in Seattle.

(1) Pioneer Square (PS) Starbucks locations discriminate against the homeless.

(2) In all of PS and Downtown Seattle, WA there is only 1 black employee. What's wrong with this picture?

(3) If you pre-purchase a tea bag, you aren't entitled to use condiments when returning? They called the police of me for using sugar, in my cup of tea (which I purchased from them).

(4) And Starbucks corporation, complaint line, have failed, and do continue to fail, to contact me to follow-up on my complaints.

Next step.... lawsuit? Suggestions? Can you provide support? More info needed? Email me:

ada_adaag@yahoo.com

[shiftee]

a.lee:

for god's sake, get a life!

[Trevor]

What does "pre-purchase" a tea bag even mean? You buy a tea bag and then come back to the store another day to use it?

Discriminate against the homeless? Only one black employee in all of downtown Seattle? Lawsuit?

Wow. Using your complaints to form a picture of you here's what I come up with. You're either homeless, jobless or black (or some combination of all three) and you want to take it out on the hardworking people of this world because you don't like your own life.

Here's a suggestion for you....take a shower and get a job.

[Googie]

It's always nice to read tangential rants from wildeyed weirdos!

My fave is people who get an iced doppio or tripio in a Grande cup, then help themselves to milk -- thus making themselves an iced latte and saving a couple of bucks. Go to Dunkin Donuts, you frikkin cheapskates.

[Coffee Boy]

I doubt that they anyone in ANY business would call the police on you just for using some sugar. Sounds like there may be more to this than just some sugar.

What did the police do? Charge you for Grand-Theft sugar?

As far as 1 black employee ... I have seen more than 1 black employee in Seattle. Plus SBUX doesn't hire based on the color of anyones skin, they hire based upon qualifications. Get a life.

As for homeless. This is an interesting comment. One that should generate some discussion. What SHOULD SBUX do when a homeless person comes in begging?

I mean they have basically 2 choices.

1) Kick them out
2) Give them free coffee

If they did #2, it would be perhaps the nice and PC thing to do. However, if SBUX started giving out free coffee to the homeless, do you know how many homeless would be in begging for coffee?

Do you want to wait in line behind 10 homeless people getting free coffee? Do you want to sit in a comfy chair, after a homeless guy just took a 2 hour nap in it? How about meeting a business client at a SBUX where there are 10 homeless guys hanging out drinking Free coffee begging for change.

While I am sure no SBUX manager would love nothing more than to give away a free coffee here and there - you have to think of the long-term consequences.

What does everyone else think????

And 10 seconds of that is the time it takes to remind me an extra large coffee is really a Venti(TM) drip(not sure but TM anyways)

[Boston Starbucks Rebel]

Remember the Snapshots do rate on quality and speed. My Starbucks has the ability to call an entire line of 20 customers before they arrive at the register and this is without needing a floater. I do agree that sometimes at high volume Starbucks the 3 minute wait is obviously impossible to achieve especially when all the drinks are highly complex in nature. Also, without proper coverage and deployment it is not possible to fill all positions. Thankfully, it is not my responsibility. Remember, the customers actually do decide to get into line seeing that there are 20 customers ahead of them, meaning that each person ahead will have to wait at least 3 minutes. The average wait in a high volume store can go all the way to 10 minutes. If you don't like the wait, you can always contact the district manager and tell them that they should build a Starbucks across the road.

[Typing While Naked]

I've already commented on this subject before, and I know A. Lee's posts probably don't deserve a response, but I work in a downtown San Francisco Sbux and believe me - homeless folks aren't discriminated against, they *earn* their boot out the door, over and over again, several times a day. I swear I have to kick out a homeless person at least twice a day for all manner of reasons: smelling godawful, stealing things, disturbing the customers, the works. Nothing discriminatory about that, especially when you consider that we do serve some homeless folks, the ones who don't reek and are polite and pay for stuff.

[writer_nw]

I don't like homeless people. If I were a paying customer I would expect the homeless person to be kicked out.

[deusx]

Ada,

For one, I doubt anyone in the world stops and makes certain people have an address before kicking them out. I would bet the reason a homeless person got the boot is because they are obviously homeless. What makes someone obviously homeless? Being dirty, smelling and having no money. Starbucks is a business selling food, all three of those conditions are contrary to the goals of the business.
As for your teabag, I doubt someone called the police on you for using the condiment bar...in fact, the police wouldnt even respond to that call. Judging from your first complaint, and the general oddness of your post, I am betting you made yourself a problem in the store, they asked you to leave and you woudldn't...THEN the police got called.
As for the lack of blacks at the Starbucks in Seattle, you are full of shit, I personally know some that work there. BUT take a look around Seattle, how many black people do you see on a daily basis? According to Monster moving city statistics, there are 200,727 black people in a state of 6 million. Thats like 1 person in 30, so if the average Starbucks has a crew of 6 (i know thats not necessarily true but it makes for easier math) then there would nominally be only one black person per five stores, which would be a perfect representative percentage of the population. But there is more than one black person for every five stores, so statisctically, Starbucks is somehow going out of its way to hire blacks. You should be praising their affirmative action programs(we dont have any, don't need em when you respect diversity) instead of making half lucid posts on the gossip page.

Thanks for playing...good luck with that shower.

[Bev]

My cousin and I meet at Starbucks in Bellevue Square, usually at 9:30 a.m. on a week day. They have about 6 booths and each booth is occupied by ONE person with a computer. They spend hours in the booth - for one cup of coffee. So I do not think there is a time limit.

One time, there was a homeless person actually sleeping in a booth - her feet on the seat - her bags on the table..she was snoring. We asked the Barista about it and she said "oh, it is alright, she comes in here all the time."

Now, I feel badly for the homeless, but we were sitting on a small bench across from her and it was not the "Starbucks experience" that I wanted.

Just letting you know!

[barista boy]

If I am going to start kicking out homeless people for their smell and appearance then i am also going to start kicking out women with bad perfume and tacky outfits. Many of them pay just like everyone else - usually just for a small coffee or tea but then they are customers. If someone asks for a sample i give them a small sample, regardless of the way they look. If you dont want to wait in line behind a homeless person (or use the same restroom as a black person or receive a blood donation from a gay guy) you are a hateful prick and you can shop elsewhere.

[Mike]

There's only one thing I hate the most, people who are in the front of the line but takes freakin 5 minutes to order their damn drinks. Enough with the uhs and ums; get your drinks and get the heck out of there. Know what you want and be ready to freakin order before you reach the front.

[Sajir]

Does anyone have know where to find the statistics on how many shots of espresso are served daily in Seattle?

How many Starbucks' stores open per time throughout the world?

[mike]

Anyone know what the average time is that someone stays in a starbucks? Number of hours per year?

[Boston Starbucks Rebel]

I just viewed a confidential internal document from Starbucks. Based upon Snapshots from last quarter the average time for a Starbucks drink is 3:09. This actually means that over half the drinks take longer than that time to make. I don't know what takes so long because I ALWAYS put any possible Snapshot drinks to the front of line. It is utterly imperative that a possible Snaposhot drink be made first and correctly. Also, Starbucks on average opens 4-5 new stores each day somewhere in the world. It is not clear how long the average customer stays in Starbucks but most customers visit Starbucks around 12-18 times a month.

[Homeless Man]

I'm homeless - should I be kicked out of Starbucks? I've got an engineering degree and a job, but I don't make enough to pay the rent right now due to some financial missteps. So I sleep in my car and swim laps at a public pool in the morning, showering afterwards. MOST homeless people are like me, so before you say you hate homeless people, try to think about the fact that most of them are just like you...and me.

[Faith]

Wait a second, they have a website where you can complain about Starbucks?

[-m]

Homeless Man,
Actually, most homeless people don't have degrees in engineering. Most homeless people don't do laps at the local YMCA. Most homeless people don't post in on-line Starbucks forums.
The majority of homeless people are homeless for a reason. They are unemployable, mentally unstable, under the influence of a cornicopia of non-perscription drugs, smelly and generally un-savory characters.
When I see one in my store I always give him/her to prove me wrong by civily ordering their drink, paying and leaving. This is never the case. The transient in question will ask my customers for money, steal milk and sweateners from my condiment bar and soil the floor of my restrooms. Give me a good reason NOT to ask these people to leave.

[Coffee Addict]

seriously permalink,
you are probably one of those people who think that black people are entitled to everything just because they were enslaved for a few hundred years. you probably also think that poor people should get money because they cant work for themselves. you know what i say? too bad and seriously, get a life.

[Coffee Addict]

correction:
i meant a.lee. it all makes sense to me now. you are oriental, therefore a minority.

[Louise]

I am doing research on Starbucks Coffee for my GCSE's and I was wondering whether anyone knows any averages for:

'Approximately how many customers do Starbucks get each day, either in each store or worldwide'

'The average each customer spends in the coffee shop'

'The average earned each day'

I would be so grateful with any information. THANKS!
XOX