If you’re the kind of person who would rather fall asleep at your desk than venture inside a Starbucks during rush hour, avoiding the crush inside the store could change everything about your morning routine. To that end, the Seattle-based chain is testing curbside pickup.
Because not every Starbucks location includes a drive-thru lane, the company is testing the new system at one store in Snoqualmie, WA, Business Insider reports, citing a recent research note from Nomura analyst Mark Kalinowoski.
“Customers using the Starbucks mobile app to order and pay (apparently for this store only) can choose to have their order delivered to them curbside by a barista, so that they don’t even have to get out of their car to get their order,” he writes.
It’s unclear at this point whether Starbucks is, or will be, testing the curbside pickup option at any other locations. We’ve reached out to Starbucks for more information, and will update this post when we hear back.
“We’ll be curious to see how this one-store test fares and if other non-drive-thru Starbucks stores test out curbside pickup,” adds Kalinowski.
Other retailers have been trying out curbside pickup these days, with varying levels of success: in June, Target said it would be putting the kibosh on its pilot program.
Starbucks is testing an entirely new way to bring you your iced latte [Business Insider]
by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist