While Starbucks most definitely doesn’t have my favorite coffee, I do appreciate them when traveling. They’re consistent, and a cold brew or iced americano does the trick for me just about anywhere in the world.
Continue reading: Changes Are Coming To Airport Starbucks Locations
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
OTG is the worst! Their restaurants are meh and overpriced. The worst part is the tablets which make ordering food so much more cumbersome. Their tablets are also not cleaned regularly, and I always wash my hands after using one.
They were getting railed on by Jim Cramer recently to break up the HMS monopoly that has poorly trained and staffed Starbucks inside airports. Looks like the attention to detail was noticed and they broke that monopoly.
"I do appreciate them when traveling. They’re consistent"
Also good for manufactured spending 😀
Starbucks could be better served by locations in airports that do not take in-person orders; rather they only accept and provide at a window/counter mobile orders. This minimizes costly airport sqf/sqm for queueing while simultaneously lowering branding/advertising costs associated with having an actual storefront. For the customer experience, simply make that location named "Gate 42" or something equally recognizable in an airport and available via the Starbucks app. No queues, minimal waiting, ultimate cost savings across the board. Maintain one or two storefronts for those folks that don't already know what they want and prefer to have face-to-face interaction, and also for brand recognition.
I’m a huge fan of mobile order in general, but I find in crowded locations it’s awful. People are constantly bothering the staff to check on their beverages or “fix them”, strangers constantly handling other people’s items (airports present a unique challenge health wise). These airport stores often have awful staff in terms of customer service. I’d stick to the slower traditional ordering system.
@Ken I agree that OTG is just terrible and over-priced. Everything comes from a central kitchen and is just bland.
Marriott used to own HMS. If I'm not mistaken HMS has its roots in the original Marriott, which started as a root beer stand in Washington, DC.
Presumably this also applies to the Starbucks at highway service centers and rest areas operated by HMS.
Mobile ordering would only exacerbate the problem of long queues unless locations use a separate prep line for mobile orders. Prep lines have a maximum throughput/hour and mobile orders only increase the number of orders per hour.
Lack of mobile ordering is annoying at airport locations. I assume it's primarily to stop people who aren't flying mistakenly selecting that location without realizing it's post-security. But seems worth the risk!
It's always amazed me that Starbucks is willing to concede its brand experience to the customer service provided by HMS. Their employees are nothing like Starbucks corporate. I don't know whether they even attempt to train them to Starbucks service standards, but I doubt it.
The HMS contract and the addition of drive-thrus were the two "tells" to me years ago, even as Howard Schultz was ostensibly trying to recapture the company's original mission, that whatever values Starbucks originally espoused really are utterly subordinate to bottom-line revenue. (Okay, well, also the shift to sugary cold drinks.) The money is just too good for them to care that their core value proposition is being undermined.
Nothing about OTG's operations have ever seemed appealing to me in the slightest, certainly not the compulsory iPads. Ugh.
After my experience at a Starbucks at PHL, I swore off them permanently. I was scolded for ordering black coffee. I was told that I shouldn't refer to it as "black". I was told that I should request "plain" coffee. PHL, end of C concourse. I decided I didn't want coffee after all.
Mobile ordering will only make longer lines. Only so many poorly trained baristas can fit behind the counters, only so many drinks can be made per hour no matter how you order.
OTG sucks. They have overpriced food outlets that take up too much damn physical space away from airport departure gates. I avoid OTG. I know many of my fellow road warriors do too. We all wish that OTG would go away - go very far away. I just do not see anything promising with a Starbucks and OTG mashup. Ugh. Just more wasted departure gate space. No thanks.
I wonder if this change could eventually make it easier to find a Starbucks at JFK. I know it depends on the terminal but when last in Terminal 2, I walked the very long walk from end to end and did not find a Starbucks. Plenty of Dunkin Donuts though, if you're into that.
I agree with you: Starbucks is consistent: same sh!t coffee around the world!
Can’t drink it!
All I want from the airport Starbucks is a "brewed coffee only" line. This would let those of us who just want a cup of coffee get through quickly while everyone who wants food or custom beverages (which naturally take longer) go at the pace of the baristas.
Maybe that's the concept - have a mobile shop which can avoid the customers and therefore no more queuing!
OTG is terrible!!
@FNT Delta Diamond - HMSHost does have its roots in Marriott.
Good god! The Starbucks at MIA are atrocious...the lines are consistently 30 minutes. Who the hell has that much time to wait for a cup of tea??!!! I've always thought that airports should have mobile orders.
"the most premium company"? You gotta be kidding me!!!
No company can be more horrible than OTG.
Especially New York airports (LGA/JFK/EWR) are full of rats running from one restaurant to another restaurant.
Never ever dine in airports in New York!!!
You have no idea how many rats licked your food before you eat!!!
I was excited about this until I read OTG. I stopped reading at this point and sighed. OTG is the WORST.
Seriously Starbucks??? There’s a reason they’ve failed in many parts of the world - their coffee is shite
mobile orders would increase the chaos, not decrease it, for all the reasons mentioned above.
but you are right about companies promising the moon, instead of focussing on fundamentals.
the biggest fundamental as mentioned above is the training of airport coffee makers (i hesitate to call them baristas). every airport starbucks, and many starbucks in hotels and other offbeat places, have the worst, slowest service relative to a regular starbucks.
Airport management is often so conservative working with mediocre quality brands. At least Dublin airport is starting with 3fe specialty coffee
Since it's an air / hotel etc travel Blog... Most Starbucks espresso machines are broken at Delta Skyclubs. I just went through DTW, CVG, EWR, ATL in a week travel and I couldn't find a working Starbucks espresso machine that functioned 100%. Sign either "this machine is being serviced Now" or instead of milk or milk froth, just water comes out.
I know , I know, it's a first world problem, but that is the only reason I visit a Skyclubs to grab a quick cappuccino and not stand in Starbucks line... but usually I end up at Starbucks. I wrote to delta that it is absurd that of DTW's 3 Skyclubs out of 4 None had working espresso machines. Response : "here are xxxx sky miles, sorry". I don't want sky miles. I want an espresso.
You seem annoyed that Starbucks doesn't allow mobile ordering at its airport locations:
Did you know that Starbucks doesn't actually operate their US airport locations. US airport Starbucks locations aren’t run directly by Starbucks, but rather are in partnership with HMSHost.
(source: above article)
So shouldn't you be annoyed at HMSHost?
I visited Starbucks landside in Concourse E at MIA on Friday before I caught an Aeroflot flight to Moscow, and it was just an awful experience. The wait was 27 minutes (Yes, I timed it). I feel bad for the ONE girl who was working up front by herself. How does that happen? Where was the manager?! It wasn't her fault that things were slow, but I cannot understand how there were not any other employees to be seen, especially since Miami airport was very busy on Friday. This girl was running as fast as she could, and kudos to her for doing her best. Plus, there were no napkins, most of the extras were empty and the place was really dirty. It was a reminder that Starbucks is nowhere near worth what you pay for it. The coffee is sub-par and many times the shops are slow and overcrowded.
I'm always astounded that people will wait in long lines for Starbucks or, worse, Dunkin' Donuts. Especially when there are typically other restaurants nearby in the concourse with serviceable coffee.
I drink coffee every day at my office, mostly as an excuse to stretch my legs. If I never had another cup, I probably wouldn't miss it for long. It's somewhat amusing, really, that caffeine addiction is socially acceptable.
Some Starbucks airport locations will still be run by HMSHost, but Starbucks can also work with other brands.
Doesn't the second Starbucks need to be hmshost? They where prevented from using other then Starbucks whole Starbucks would t want to use another brand.
Starbucks stores run by hmshost are licensed stores, not Starbucks corporate. that's why they don't do mobile order. Licensed (franchise) stores don't have mobile ordering. Do you know if new Starbucks locations will be run by Starbucks corporate?
On one level - this is quite surprising - doesn’t OTG generally just do bad knockoffs because they don’t want to pay for franchises? On the other hand, maybe EWR terminal C will get somewhat drinkable coffee now?
Also will be interesting to see just how badly OTG can screw up the typical airport Starbucks experience.
Rick Blatstein, CEO/Founder of OTG, on CNBC says mobile ordering coming this year.
We'll see how mobile ordering really works, then. Starbucks own mobile order system is pretty good. OTGs, on the other hand, is awful, especially if you want/need to make any modifications to what's on the menu (not so much for coffee, but almost a requirement for us when ordering food, since our family has vegetarians and vegans (latter due to egg allergy, for which an iPad order is useless unless we are experienced with specific dishes due to egg being in a variety of things you might not expect). Doesn't help that the actual humans working at the OTG restaurants mostly seem completely uninterested in interacting with customers face-to-face (at least at EWR).
EWR is awful since OTG is pretty much the only option at Terminal C - at least YYZ and IAH, and hopefully others, there are plenty of non-OTG options to go to.
Lately traveling there are a lot of Starbucks closed in the airports! Why??? Nothing like being stuck in a large terminal at IAD or DFW dying for a cup of hot coffee and Starbucks is closed. Maybe another coffee company needs to come in and take over, what a bummer!
Attention:
1. List airports with machines
2. Where are the machines?
3.What states are they in?
4. How much are they?
Just saw a tweet from the Tampa airport saying that their Starbucks now has mobile ordering. Hoping more do the same soon!
I just order a hot tea..nothing fancy...could you just have a separate line for regular coffee and tea drinks line...call it a nothing fancy drink line..those fancy drinks take at least 5min to order and repeat to get it right..ugh