It's amazed me for years how painfully slow it is to get served in one of these modern coffee chains. If there are any more than 3 or 4 people in the queue, you are scuppered, especially if someone wants a sandwich toasting.
Yet there always seems to be an army of servers, but the whole process seems painfully inefficient, especially when you are short on time. If I'm waiting for a meeting, I've gone to a supermarket or local cafe rather than wait for Costa Slowbucks.
Well it seems finally the head honcho's at Starbucks have realised there archaic slow mo model is annoying quite a few people.
According to Marketing Week, Starbucks are piloting a new concept in Canary Wharf that aims to half the waiting time. It's quite revolutionary, here is the plan:
"When a customer enters a store, they will be prompted to order. A label will immediately be printed off behind the counter and a barista will start making their drink. As the customer then moves towards the till point to pay, their beverage will be ready for pick-up"
Source: Marketing Week
Genius eh? You do know they will have spent millions on outsourced consulting firms to do extensive research. When all they had to do was just go to any British branch and listen to the tutting and sighing as we all patiently queue waiting for a cup of coffee, while your lunch break ticks away...
Our man Clive had a good idea, why not have 2 coffee machines so they could make 2 at a time? I'm just hoping Clive now doesn't get poached CostaCoffee's R&D department...
I reckon they need a big jar of Nescafe, problem solved.
