By: Nick Gambino
As if Starbucks hasn’t pervaded our lives enough, now the coffee chain is striking up a partnership with Uber Eats to bring delivery to 2,000 of its U.S. stores. So now you’ll get your daily caffeine injection without having to expend the energy that you don’t yet have and need the caffeine to give you. Following?
Starbucks Delivers was recently piloted in Tokyo and Miami using Uber Eats to bring drinks and food to the consumer’s destination. That must have been successful as they have decided to stick with Uber Eats with this massive launch that will see about 25% of their stores offering delivery options.
JUST ANNOUNCED: We are bringing Starbucks Delivers to nearly a quarter of our U.S. company-operated stores beginning in 2019. Excited to be partnering with Uber Eats! $SBUX pic.twitter.com/QXxBIIwwna
— Starbucks News (@Starbucksnews) December 13, 2018
In addition to piloting the system with Uber Eats in Miami and Tokyo, Starbucks ran a similar pilot in China with the country’s leading food-delivery platform, Ele.me. In just three months, they set up delivery in some 2,000 stores throughout 30 cities in China. Alibaba’s Ele.me already has 3 million established drivers, making partnering with them a no-brainer. Per The Verge the system included introducing spill-proof lids, containers that keep your drink hot and tamper-proof packaging seals. It was this experience and what they learned in the process that informed the rollout here in the states.
This is quite a boon for Uber as well, as the amount of Starbucks business generated is not insignificant, and anything to make that transaction easier will only drive in more orders. When they introduced mobile orders some time ago, giving me the option to skip the long morning line, I saw an uptick in my own patronage of Starbucks.
I haven’t seen mention of exactly which cities are going to see delivery options first but there’s been mention of seven additional metropolitan cities with Miami most likely keeping the option started in the pilot. Starbucks Delivers will begin sometime in 2019.
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