Good The Starbucks Queue Creative Writing Example

Starbucks is the largest coffee shop chain in the world and has the longest queue of customers waiting for iced drinks too. Starbucks employees and customers endure long queues when the weather is hot and people seek icy Frappuccinos. Starbucks iced drinks require more preparation time than regular hot coffees, the prep time plus the demand on hot days is what causes the long queues. According to a Starbucks spokesperson they did not anticipate that people would be ordering blended icy drinks like Frappuccinos on a regular basis and therefore their cold beverage stations are not large. Besides the delay caused by waits for Frappuccinos, Starbucks has expanded their sale of food to include hot breakfasts items. These items would probably be most in demand during peak hours in the mornings causing still longer queues. In the UK Starbucks plans to start selling more a wider offering of lunch items as well. The addition of a full sandwich menu will undoubtedly increase wait times.
While Starbucks are being built at a rapid rate, there is still no solid plan to expand the cold beverage stations in the existing locations. Such an expansion might require retrofitting the floor plan behind the counter. As far as expanding the cold beverage station, the economics involved would need to take into consideration that iced beverages like Frappuccinos are in demand during warm weather only. Therefore, a cost analysis needs to support the expansion of those capabilities. Breakfast and lunch meals, however could conceivably be in demand all year round. Four minutes is long enough to wait in the queue to order a coffee. There are people who seem to be willing to stand in the queue for a long time. Usually these people are surfing the internet or texting on their iPhones. In addition ladies going out for coffee and lunching seem to have the patience to stand and chat with their friends while they wait. However, for someone who just wants a cup of coffee, four minutes to make it to cashier is long enough because after ordering there is still the wait for the beverage to be prepared. If it is an iced beverage, the wait time adds up. If the time allotted to buy the coffee and then make it to work or class is an issue, four minutes plus prep time can add up to a ten minute stop at the Starbucks. If there is a sandwich to be had, and getting to the next stop is not an issue, a slightly longer than four-minute wait might be acceptable. A change that would help move people along more quickly would be the addition of a host or hostess who canvases the queue to help people with the menu before they get to the cash register. This would prevent the bottleneck caused by customers who ask questions about menu items and wait until they have reached the cashier to discuss and decide what they are going to order. The host/hostess could help people by establishing what size drink they want to order. For example, a Starbucks Tall is really a small, a Grande is medium, and a Venti is large; not your usual drink measurements. Of course, there is always the possibility that Starbucks could change the names of their drink sizes to small, medium, and large. In addition to the host/hostess idea would be a water station with cups provided, at least during peak hours. This would prevent the need for customers interrupt the queue by cutting in at the front to request a cup of water. There is a dilemma concerning the key design principles that govern the service at Starbucks. That is that Starbucks wants to give customers the feel of a coffee house atmosphere where friendly baristas wait on customers as if they know them personally. Therefore, an idea incorporated at many fast food establishments, that of the automated menu, might not blend in well with the ambience. However, for those Starbucks that have a drive-thru an interactive automated menu could be posted outside. People using a drive thru obviously do not care about coffee house ambience. The drive thru system could be touch controlled like iPhones so that people could use it easily. It could display the menu items and prices in multiple languages and with pictures. Moreover, people in the drive thru could pay for their order using an automated credit card system thereby taking the burden off the staff inside who could pay more attention to customers.