Starbucks and Returns at Drive Up

I chuckled as I read this, some stores can barely hire as it is. Let alone getting staffed properly for normal operations for guest facing. Starbucks already get bottom of the barrel in hours. Best I can see them doing is throwing raindrop of hours to even to do this. And the amount of time it takes to train a barista to be proficient. And factoring in the fact that its another area to clean and stay Ecolab(or whatever it is now) compliant. So I don't see Target investing on two separate Starbucks areas.
For the boost in sales that would be expected with this I totally see it being worth it to Target.. obviously since they already announced it
 
I don't know of a single Target (at least in our area) that doesn't have their Starbucks near the entrance.
My store has two entrances but the drive up spots are practically right in the middle.
I'm just wondering who will be taking the drinks out since we seldom have adequate coverage & I can't see pissing off a line full of guests just to run Karen's drink out to her.
Imagine the hit our connection score will take.
 
Oh I didn’t even think about stores set up like that. That is going to be an even bigger disaster than this already is

Don't forget the SuperTargets and (Former) Target Greatlands, which have two sets of doors, in which 99% of them have Starbucks on the other side of the store from Guest Services/Order Pickup. Gonna be a looong trek back and forth.


The only good thing about this is that they are supposedly gonna add In-Store Order Pickup for Starbucks as well, AKA Mobile Orders picked up from Starbucks. Should make 15s and 30s better instead of speaking half of it in the SBUX line.
 
supposedly gonna add In-Store Order Pickup for Starbucks
Ah shiitake mushrooms.
My store already is in the same shopping center as a real Sbux and we get Karens all the time trying to cut the line and bothering the baristas busy making drinks with “excuse me is this the mobile pickup?”

No, K-Dawg, the Starbies is 10150* SW Whatever street, we are 10170*!
It’s fun kicking them out and telling them we don’t do mobile orders. Oh well. :(

** actual address changed but the difference is just one digit in the number and they’ll argue with me about how confusing it is, like I paid the county to number the land parcels that way.
 
Ah shiitake mushrooms.
My store already is in the same shopping center as a real Sbux and we get Karens all the time trying to cut the line and bothering the baristas busy making drinks with “excuse me is this the mobile pickup?”

No, K-Dawg, the Starbies is 10150* SW Whatever street, we are 10170*!
It’s fun kicking them out and telling them we don’t do mobile orders. Oh well. :(

** actual address changed but the difference is just one digit in the number and they’ll argue with me about how confusing it is, like I paid the county to number the land parcels that way.
If they looked at their app, my store says no mobile orders. It still happens because the right starbucks is across the street with your order.
 
More work for Starbucks when corporate stores are raising wages and/or unionizing.


Our store can't keep TMs now.

Good thinking there Target.
 
Last edited:
Ah shiitake mushrooms.
My store already is in the same shopping center as a real Sbux and we get Karens all the time trying to cut the line and bothering the baristas busy making drinks with “excuse me is this the mobile pickup?”

No, K-Dawg, the Starbies is 10150* SW Whatever street, we are 10170*!
It’s fun kicking them out and telling them we don’t do mobile orders. Oh well. :(

** actual address changed but the difference is just one digit in the number and they’ll argue with me about how confusing it is, like I paid the county to number the land parcels that way.

starbucks stores are named by the street name, but target starbucks stores are Target CityName T-XXXX so there will be no confusion. this is already visible in the starbucks app
 
starbucks stores are named by the street name, but target starbucks stores are Target CityName T-XXXX so there will be no confusion. this is already visible in the starbucks app
Not all of them. I’m by a university. There are 2 company operated stores, 1 other licensed store, and my Tarbucks. One of the company operated stores is named “[state] State University Starbucks” and our Target is named “[state] State University Target”.

Also we’re on the same street and 3 of the 4 digits in the street number are the same…
 
I just looked up our store's Starbucks and it states we are open to 9:00 PM.

They stop serving at around 8:00 because they have to shut down.
 
My store already is in the same shopping center as a real Sbux and we get Karens all the time trying to cut the line and bothering the baristas busy making drinks with “excuse me is this the mobile pickup?”

No, K-Dawg, the Starbies is 10150* SW Whatever street, we are 10170*!
It’s fun kicking them out and telling them we don’t do mobile orders. Oh well. :(
This.
I've had basic white girls come up to the pick-up saying they have a mobile order. I just shake my head & say "Not here, you don't. We don't HAVE mobile order but there IS a company store down the street."
THEN they say "Well, can't you just *make* my order here then?" & I have to tell them only if they cancel their order & pay HERE.
They don't like that & usually leave.
 
The DU returns.... My head is about to explode. It is a good idea from a business standpoint, but the hell us TMs will go through. There will be a new round/type/batch of scammers, but at least this way we might get a license plate. AP better have a PTZ on DU. There will be ticket switching to make returns go through. I hope all these DU returns have like a 2 week time limit.
 
Problems I see
  • Guests could threaten with a weapon to make the return go through
  • Guests could assume they just have to wait in their car for a TM to come out
  • ID/Receipt/Card returns self-explanatory
  • Where do the items go for the current time being when there are many DUs?
  • Does DU now have to have a flat for large items?
  • Does the guest have to say what they are returning through the app?
  • What about white and yellow labels
  • What if we can't accept the item?
  • Do they want cash?
 
Last edited:
so i work at a two story target store with drive up and starbucks on two separate levels on opposite sides of the store. we’ve had drive up starbucks since november.

it hasn’t been AWFUL awful, BUT it has been pretty rough. we’re responsible for running downstairs and across the stores for our orders. lots of times we walkie for someone to please bring it up, but it’s mostly ignored. there’s some weekends and busy days where starbucks doesn’t even start making the order until many minutes after the guest has already arrived. during the holidays, we had guests waiting 20+ minutes for Starbucks orders because either we were too busy to run down or Starbucks didn’t have it ready. a lot of guests learned not to do it because of that, but with the holiday craziness over they’ve started again. our Starbucks guests still wait much longer than regular drive ups.

another major issue is no warning starbucks orders. i swear almost all of our orders are 3 minutes or less for starbucks OR some ridiculous no location order that is sitting for 20+ minutes made only to drop off. we have had multiple guests shop in the store and leave out the OPU entrance and immediately do a no warning starbucks drive up, which we assume was because the actual Starbucks line was long.

the bags for starbucks orders are a little flimsy as well, which i don’t imagine being a problem for stores with OPU and Starbucks close to each other, but since we have to run down the escalator and across the entire store, we’ve had quite a few spills and remade drinks. it’s also hard to take out big grocery/ OPU orders with Starbucks without spilling the drink a little (… we usually give it out anyway lol)

starbucks also complains that they don’t always hear the starbucks alert, so i wish something would pop on the register to alert them rather than solely relying on the device. when guests complain about drinks, we’re told to send them down to starbucks, but obviously most guests aren’t happy to hear that, so we have had issues where we’re running between drive up and starbucks because guests want their drinks remade, which is so frustrating for in a rush.

sorry for the long post. i just have so many thoughts and feelings about starbucks drive ups especially knowing returns are right around the corner at my location as well.
 
We've had issues with not hearing the chime go off despite being logged in, volume cranked up & tapping the screen frequently to check for orders. Then, during the few times we DON'T check, a DUTM comes over to the pick-up area looking at us questioningly in the middle of a rush. We tap the screen, low & behold, there's a damn order :mad:
 
We've had issues with not hearing the chime go off despite being logged in, volume cranked up & tapping the screen frequently to check for orders. Then, during the few times we DON'T check, a DUTM comes over to the pick-up area looking at us questioningly in the middle of a rush. We tap the screen, low & behold, there's a damn order :mad:
We’ve also dealt with the opposite of this a few times! We will hear the chime and the Starbucks order will show on their part of the app, but the order won’t drop into “in hold” for us. Starbucks has called us a few times like “we have your order ready” and we won’t even see it, but searching the name will show their OPU and Starbucks order and show on the way.

Mostly we just think we’re going crazy because it’s like a phantom Starbucks chime. Honestly most Starbucks chimes go off like a minute or two before we see the order. I don’t understand the delay.
 
Back
Top