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October 02, 2006
How's the warm breakfast sandwiches debut going in NYC?
Any reports from New York baristas and customers? Here's Starbucks' press release on the introduction of four different types of warm sandwiches in "select New York metro area stores."
October 2, 2006 | Permalink
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This probably a silly question, but also how long, from beginning to end, does the product take to warm and serve? I live near Atlanta, and the people who come in my store to pick up their coffee order it, grab it, and go. I was wondering how much this would slow their routine if they ordered one.
Posted by: ihcuids | Oct 2, 2006 10:19:57 AM
The reason I asked was because Atlanta has been named the city with the worst commute in the nation, and believe me, I've tried it. Trying to get the jump on it is one of the few things that works, and even that doesn't work very well...
Posted by: ihcuids | Oct 2, 2006 10:27:28 AM
one minute and 10 seconds
Posted by: Ronnie | Oct 2, 2006 2:35:59 PM
i was at one of the locations earlier today. they were giving them out for FREE with a drink order!
not bad. not bad.
Posted by: misty roes | Oct 2, 2006 2:43:49 PM
I was the warming partner for my store this morning's open. Slow shift actually, on the upper west side, it being a Jewish holiday - and it was a good thing.
Generally we are pretty quick in our store, and this made things demonstrably slower. It really makes you realize how fast we get the drinks out when you see the customers sitting there with their drinks for 'two whole minutes' and all the other people who were on line behind them have already left the store before you can get the food to them.
Also, the fact that we will warm 'anything' can make things crazy. It's one thing to get into the groove of the warming sandwiches, but then when everysingle person wants their bagel warmed, or someone asks for 6 croisannts warmed, and the next one wants you to cut their muffins and scones and warm them....
There's a point where it is not enough to have another body on the floor to handle it - because the floater is spending half their time dealing with it as well, which pulls them away from their usual flow of brewed coffee and qjuick pastry hand-offs - and makes it impossible for them to do iced coffees and teas.
Not saying it's a bad thing, or a good thing really - just how our shift went. and we are the 'big store' in our district, where the open house always is for hiring fair...
Posted by: nycbearista | Oct 2, 2006 6:01:50 PM
yeah, this warming thing be mutate into something Starbucks didnt intend.
it sounds like you're going to have a person dedecated to just Warming stuff.
so cost of labor just went up. or if you dont add a person, then everything else slows down.
Either way, whatever additional profits from breakfast will be canceled out by the additional labor or poorer customer service.
Posted by: Bad IDea | Oct 2, 2006 9:38:16 PM
I left my RIDICULOUSLY BUSY store in the Upper West Side for a much cozier, low-volume store on the Lower East Side just in time. The partners love the new sandwiches and the ability to warm our chocolate chunk cookies (amazing, btw). I can only imagine things getting really hectic the more popular this new option becomes.
Posted by: C.P. | Oct 2, 2006 10:15:48 PM
I am not excited about warming items. Some of our customers are amazingly high maintenance, I can't even imagine what ya'll who have the sandwiches go through..."its not warm enough" "its too hot" "cut this" "do this do that" Starbucks is going a little crazy with the whole diversifying issue...
Posted by: Aloha | Oct 3, 2006 12:59:26 AM
We've had warming in the dc area for a long time now and it's extremely popular. I first started in a Bethesda store and they already ready had it for a while so they were already in their groove and its quick, you can heat up more than 1 sandwich at a time to make things easier. I'm in a new store in Gaithersburg ( well we've been here a little over a year) and we just our warming station installed last night and start selling Oct 16. All of our customers are super excited and are ready to eat! It's hard to get used to at first but once you get the hang of it, it's like make a latte, it'll come naturally.
Posted by: Brenda | Oct 5, 2006 6:48:06 PM
I hope we never get that in our store. We dont know what nice people are like. So this would just send us futher into the firey pits of hell.
Posted by: | Dec 12, 2006 8:06:30 PM
