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Powderhorn@beehaw.org

Starbucks bets on robots to brew a turnaround and win customers (www.bbc.com)

submitted 1 week ago by Powderhorn@beehaw.org to c/usnews@beehaw.org

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Americans pulling into a Starbucks drive‑thru may be greeted by a friendly staff member. But at some locations, it is actually an AI robot entering the orders.

Behind the counter inside the store, baristas can lean on a virtual personal assistant to recall recipes or manage schedules.

In the back of the shop, a scanning tool has taken on the painstaking process of counting the inventory, relieving staff of one of retail's most tedious chores, in a bid to fix the out-of-stock gaps that have frustrated the firm.

The new technology is part of the hundreds of millions of dollars the 55-year-old coffee giant has been investing as it tries to win back customers after several years of struggling sales.

And there are signs that the effort is working.

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[–] Powderhorn@beehaw.org 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

In college, I'd head down to the (then only) U-Village location almost daily. Friendly, welcoming staff who eventually started my order before I even got to the counter. Wi-Fi wasn't yet a thing, so I'd bring my manual typewriter on nice days and sit outside. If, as Seattle is wont to be for much of the year, drinking al fresco was unpleasant, I'd bring a book and plant my ass in a plush arm chair.

The only food available was pastries. And they were quite busy without branching out elsewhere and devaluing the core product. One of my favourite perks (pun not intended) was the free pound of coffee each week. However, back then, they still had Arabian Mocha Sanani, which was only a half-pound allowance because of the price difference, and that was some damn good coffee. Throw it in a French press, drink it black. Sublime.

Now it's just overpriced commodity coffee delivered in a hurry in an environment that has a bafflingly complex menu and wants you to leave. Much like McDonald's.

[–] Quexotic@beehaw.org 1 points 6 days ago

Sounds like the typical enshittification. Driven by beating last quarter's numbers, they push to drive more and more sales until they've optimized the employees and customers to death at which point they cease to be viable and hopefully are bought and sold for parts by private equity, making room for actual good coffee shops with cushions.